Preterm Delivery, Healthy Baby!

This was our first pregnancy. My husband and I were so excited and thankful! I have a connective tissue disorder and we were nervous about how things might go with pregnancy and delivery. We had longed to start our family, but had to wait until now due to a major surgery I had a couple of years earlier. We thank God for this healthy chapter in our lives, a healthy pregnancy, and a healthy boy.

Our amazing friend and doula, Aimee, was an invaluable part of our team and helped us to know the questions we needed to ask, as well as the possible scenarios to discuss with our doctors. She also researched my condition thoroughly, and asked us questions to understand it better. Aimee was very thorough in learning about my specific risks in childbirth. She also asked us how we were doing physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. She was a great listener and we never felt like a question was too silly to ask her. She is very smart, caring, and compassionate, as are others we have met through Gentle Childbirth Services. They have a rich knowledge of childbirth to help counsel and guide clients through the journey of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.

There were two main risks we were told we had with labor and delivery due to my condition. These were rapid labor and premature birth. I started having contractions at 32 weeks. We went to the hospital and were able to get things slowed down. They gave me the steroid shots for our baby and I was sent home on bed rest. The next evening, my water broke and we headed to the hospital knowing this was it. The next time we came home, we would be parents! We had called our doctor and Aimee and she headed to the hospital to meet us. Things progressed quickly, especially since I was 2 cm dilated and 90 % effaced when I was sent home on bed rest. They progressed so quickly that we thought we might not make it into a delivery room before our baby was born.

Our team consisted of Jon and I, my mother, Aimee, and the medical staff. Aimee brought a sense of calmness to our lives during such a new, scary, and exciting time. This was even more evident on this night, the night our son would be born. As soon as Aimee walked/ran into the delivery room, I felt a calmness invade the room. My body was already pushing due to the rapid labor and I had no idea I had already progressed so far. I was wondering how much harder it was going to get, thinking I was much earlier in labor than I was, until I realized my body was pushing already. We knew we were having a natural birth unless there was an emergency, so seeing Aimee come in was so reassuring. She spoke with my mom and husband and rushed to my side. Our wonderful nurse and doula communicated perfectly and helped me so much! Since I was 32 weeks and 5 days along there was a lot of people in the room. Mostly, I remember just a few voices. The doctor, nurse, Aimee, and Jon are the voices I remember the most. I especially remember Aimee’s calm and encouraging voice, as well as her telling me that I was about to meet my baby when he was being born. That helped me focus on Eli and the task at hand.

When Eli was born, we all rejoiced and the doctor led a prayer. Since Eli was healthy for a preemie, I got to hold him a few minutes before the NICU team took him to get him checked out. Aimee stayed with my mom and I while Jon went with our son Eli.

Parenthood is amazing! It is the hardest and most wonderful job ever and we thank God that we have friends like Aimee to guide us as we started this journey!

First baby, Unexpected Induction

My birth story was nothing like I expected but everything I prayed for: compassionate nurses that are natural birth friendly, wisdom in every decision made, encouraging labor atmosphere/ no fear, energy for labor, husband and doula (Aimee), effective communication between us and staff, and baby delivered successfully vaginally.

My water started to slowly break Sunday afternoon and I expected to be in active labor that night. My body did seem to start labor that night with contractions 2.5 to 3.5 minutes apart but surprisingly stopped abruptly. When labor had not started Monday afternoon, I started different techniques: nipple stimulation, husband activities, walking, and swinging. When nothing worked, I started to have extreme anxiety about my baby getting an infection. After speaking multiple times with my doula, the nurse, and husband, we decided the best thing to do for me personally was to go to the hospital.  My anxiety was high, I could not rest and while I now realize my baby would have been ok, at the time, I needed to put my mind at rest and get checked.

On our way to the ER Monday night, my contractions immediately started and I knew then that fear had stopped my labor and just the peace of going to get checked had allowed the contractions to begin again. We arrived at the ER and test results were positive for amniotic fluid, so I was sent to labor and delivery. Atmosphere was very important for me and having this nurse (who I learned had natural birth herself!) helped me to relax and have confidence that I would be taken care of until Aimee got there. When the physician arrived, he was not happy with my progress. Being worried about infection, he wanted to start Pitocin. After giving me an hour to make progress and failing, we agreed on a slow Pitocin drip to mimic natural labor. This was the part I had not expected, but I thanked the Lord for every contraction at this point because I knew the alternative was full Pitocin. I was so grateful for the effective communication, and that the physician met us in the middle with a slow Pitocin drip.

The Pitocin started my labor nicely, but also caused me to have one contraction from Pitocin followed immediately by my own body’s natural contraction and then a rest. Contractions at first were really easy for me to relax through because they were similar to my extreme menstrual cramps. Once the contractions started getting past that point, counter pressure (that Aimee showed my husband) and the peanut ball were the most helpful. There was a point where the peanut ball no longer helped and I no longer wanted cervix checked in fear of discouragement from no progress. I started different positions: leaning over bed, hands and knees, squatting, birthing ball and deep “oh” sounds. Some positions worked for me but caused my baby’s heart rate to drop, so we did what worked for baby. My husband still applied counter pressure which was still helpful and continued through each contraction until I started pushing. Aimee helped me get up to go the bathroom frequently, and during one restroom break I felt the urge to push. At this point, Aimee encouraged me to get checked and I had indeed made progress (although I honestly can’t remember my measurement). Pushing is when my deep “oh” sounds turned to screaming. Screaming was getting me nowhere and Aimee suggested I turn all my screaming energy towards pushing. Once I did that, major progress started and my husband could soon see my son’s head! I loved pushing because it took away the pain from the contraction. I felt my son’s head of hair and was encouraged to keep going and push harder. The doctor eventually asked if I wanted to grab my baby. I found his arms and lifted him into my arms! All the pain was worth it, seeing my healthy baby staring at me.

There were many times I wanted to quit but only two times that I said it out loud. If it was not for Aimee who I looked to during these times for her facial expressions, I would not have been able to complete natural birth successfully. Seeing her remain calm helped me know that everything was ok and I could continue even though I didn’t feel like I could. 

Second VBA2C - with TWINS!

VBA2C with TWINS? Everyone I talked to asked me crazy questions like "why not just have a repeat section with twins?" and "are you going to try to have them natural?" Well, I had my last baby naturally as a VBA2C so why not? See, I'm a great candidate - at least that's what I was told. With 2 vaginal deliveries before my 2 c-sections, I was told I was a great candidate to VBA2C baby #5 and I did -- all natural with the help of an awesome husband, fabulous nurse and a wonderful doula, Fredia Nelms. So, when I found out I was pregnant with my 6th child, I had no doubt I would VBA2C again. Then the ultrasound technician said twins and my heart sank. Would I find a doctor who would LET me VBA2C twins? So I went out searching for that healthcare provider who would let me birth these twins the way I wanted to. After consulting with one that I was happy with but not happy with the hospital, I discussed it with my husband, Ricky, and decided I felt it was best to return to my previous practice and ask the doctors there how they felt about it. After all, they had allowed me to VBA2C once so maybe they would again.

At my first visit with Dr. Ross, he brought up the discussion about VBA2C the twins and said he saw no reason I couldn't do it. I was beyond excited! Obviously he would need to discuss it with his partners to make sure everyone was ok with it, but I had hope! At my next visit, I was informed that all partners were on board with me attempting a TOL (trial of labor) with these twins!! I knew then that God had answered my prayers and all would be ok. My pregnancy progressed well and without complications. I had what the doctors considered a "textbook" twin pregnancy. No complications, worked up until I went into labor and really didn't feel too uncomfortable until about a week before delivery.

Labor started and stopped several times in the last week of my pregnancy however, at 38 weeks I thought the real deal was here. I was already dilated to 3cm at my last checkup and when the contractions started coming, they started coming hard and fast. I labored at home for hours and finally decided to head to Brookwood on Friday evening. When we got there, I was only dilated to 4cm but it was progress and I had hopes it would continue - and quickly since I was so uncomfortable. Boy was I wrong! I labored all night Friday night with Fredia helping me to get in different positions to encourage baby A to come down more, but by Saturday morning, things had fizzled out and it was time to decide what to do. So I walked, and walked, and walked the halls of L&D at Brookwood. By Saturday afternoon, I was 5cm and almost completely effaced. Since things were continuing to progress, Dr. Adcock was willing to discuss some "induction" options. Ricky and I discussed our options and decided to try to break my water and start some pitocin. Mind you it would be a tiny dose of pitocin but maybe that would be all I needed to kickstart my body and get things moving along again.

Around 9pm on Saturday evening, Dr. Adcock broke my water and started pitocin at the lowest rate possible. At this point, I was about 5.5cm and almost fully effaced. Labor wasn't nearly as unbearable as it was the last time. Maybe it's because I was better prepared and knew what to expect, I don't know. I progressed well and stayed pretty relaxed - even joking with Fredia, Ricky and Kelly (another doula who had come to help). Both Fredia and Kelly attempted many different positions to help the process and kept the mood light. Of course, that's until I got to around 8cm -- then it started to hurt! Dr. Adcock had been insistent on placing an epidural catheter to have in place in case an emergency arised and I needed an emergency c-section. See, by having the catheter in place, it would be easy for the anesthesiologist to just "turn the pump on" and boost me with numbing meds so I could be awake for the birth of my babies. This made sense and I was fine with that but really wasn't thrilled about the "test dose" they would have to do to ensure the catheter was in the right place. But by 8cm, when the pain was getting unbearable again, I decided we could do the epidural test dose and then turn the machine off. That might help my body relax enough to get my cervix complete and bring my babies faster. Around 1:30am on Sunday morning, the anesthesiologist came in and placed my epidural catheter. After he gave me the test dose, my blood pressure bottomed out and I blacked out. Once I was conscience again, I noticed the epidural was still running and asked it be turned off. My lower half was numb so I decided to try to take a little nap to get the energy I needed to finish what I had started. Fredia got me the "peanut" ball and put it between my legs and I took about a 30 minute snooze.

I woke up to feeling pressure and realized baby A was going to make his entrance very soon. Thankfully, I couldn't feel pain because of the epidural test dose but I could move my legs so I was pretty happy about that. I told the nurse I felt baby A was coming soon and she checked. Sure enough, I was complete and baby A was +2 or +3 station --- he was coming really soon. The nurse started getting things ready to move me to the OR. She was taking her time getting stuff done though and I told her then we weren't going to make it there. He was coming now! In the end, we emergently moved to the OR with the nurse riding the bed with me holding baby A's head in so he would not be born in the hall.

Dr. Adcock came in the OR. The room was packed with plenty of nurses, the anesthesiologist, my two wonderful doulas and Ricky right by my side. With very little pushing, obviously, baby A was born at 2:55am. At my last doctor's appointment, an ultrasound had revealed baby B had flipped and was breech. This wasn't a huge concern since she was baby B but Dr. Adcock was prepared for this. However, after baby A was out, he started feeling around in my uterus and found that baby B was vertex. She had flipped herself around again! Dr. Adcock broke my water and I started pushing. Once she crowned, he let me feel her head before I continued to push. Then, once her head was out, he unwrapped the cord from around her neck and let me pull her out. It was the most awesome experience ever!!! I pulled her to my chest and it was so surreal. She was born at 3:03am and once she came out, I realized that I DID IT! I had successfully delivered VBA2C TWINS! My birth experience could not have been more perfect.

My twins are now 8 weeks old and sometimes I still can't believe I did it. People ask me everywhere I go, "did you have a c-section?" I love the look on their face when I tell them that I did not have a c-section, that I went into labor and had them vaginally AFTER 2 previous c-sections. My husband tells me I am an example for others and it's amazing what I did. I guess I don't see it as amazing but merely that I achieved what I wanted! And knowing that these two little blessings have completed my family -- I feel good knowing I finished birthing my babies the way I wanted to do it! I'm beyond thankful to Fredia and Kelly for believing in me and helping me accomplish my goal.