The Birth Story - Part 3

The pushing continued through the morning and afternoon. I pushed on my back, on all fours, and standing. My contractions slowed and I dozed periodically. They were coming every 7 - 8 minutes. I could no longer tell I was having a contraction. I would look at the monitor and ask the group surrounding me if I was having one. More time passed like this. Still no baby and the contractions were not unbearable. I called on God even though I'm not religious. I wanted this baby out but I had no idea how to make it happen and no one seemed to be helping me. I needed divine intervention.

When the midwife returned she suggested Pitocin to get the contractions up again. Not what I wanted. I just saw my natural birth experience tanking. I did not protest because I just wanted the baby out by any means necessary. Too tired. Too hungry.

More time passed and the Pitocin kicked in gradually. I was still too out of it to figure out if I was having a contraction and relied on the monitors and people to tell me where the "peak" was to push. Amazingly enough my body finally started to really push. It was like vomiting when you can't stop your body from lurching. I believe that happened for about an hour when I felt her crowning. I pushed through it not caring about the pain because I just wanted her out and finally..she came out. The midwife told me to stop pushing and to look down. I saw her little head. She was looking at the light above. I had a sunny side up baby. Her cord was wrapped around her neck 2 times. The midwife freed her and placed her on my chest. 

She was squirmy and wet. I was afraid of dropping her. The cord was cut. We tried her first breastfeeding and she took to it like a champ. She sucked away as my 2nd degree tear was being stitched. 

All in all, this was approximately a 29 hour process from start to finish. I pushed for 10 hours! I knew it was long but I didn't know it was that long. The midwife said posterior babies normally do take longer. The midwife who I thought would be at my birth but wasn't on call that day said she had a posterior baby and normally there is no urge to push. That explains a lot. I knew it would take some time since it was my first but I felt the 10 hrs of pushing was way to long. I'm glad the midwife was able to stop me from having a c-section but really all of the pushing was unnecessary. It wasn't until the final hour that I had the "urge". If I was to do it again, I would stay at home longer and have an experienced doula there to advocate for me.

The beginning.....