My name is Amy Potter, Portland Oregon, and my baby is 18 months old.
We were planning a home birth, taking prenatal classes with a number of other women and partners whom were also planning home births with the same midwives. I was in labor for 2 days, contractions 4 minutes apart, never dilating more than 4 cm. So I was pretty exhausted at this point, and went to St Vincent's in Portland. Overall, I was actually much happier with my experince there than I expected. But that's because my midwives stayed with us the whole time. I ended up getting a epidural and pitocin.
When pushing, I asked the hospital staff to lower the epidural to almost nothing so that I could squat on the bar. They didn't think that would be possible with an epidural (Ha!). After three hours of pushing, the OB came in and said, "After three hours of pushing on an epidural, it's protocol to start talking about a c section." I looked at my midwife and said, "So would a vacuum birth be a better alternative at this pioint?" She said, "We can talk about that." And the OB was astonished and backed out of the room muttering something about how we'd have to do an ultrasound to see if the baby was in the right position.
I could feel my baby's head and his heart rate was fine when I was told to start thinking baout a c-section. I was NOT going to have a c-section based on "protocol." I would have had a c-section in a second if it were something that I felt truly required such a procedure.
My baby was born in a half squat position, naturally (aside from the pitocin) with my husband holding me up, 20 minutes after the protocol statement.
Interestingly, half the women in my prenatal class who were planning homebirths in my class ended up with c-sections. (WE really did a number on our midwives' previously great statistics).
I also believe that had I been more patient during labor, had I truly rested more, that I would not have ended up in the hospital at all. As soon as the labor started, I took a four mile walk, made blueberry pancakes, and I really thought I'd have an "easy" labor. Every time I laid down to take a nap the labor pains went away. Because I didn;t want them to go away, I kept moving. Big mistake. I tired myself out and I think I forced the labor when I should have honored the labor. I'm glad I went to the hospital when I did, but I do wish I had taken it a bit more easy at the begining of the process.
AND, I also believe that had my midwife not been present with me, that I would have had an unnecessary c-section.
By Amy (not verified) at Tue, 10/23/2007 - 4:59pm |
Hi there,
Hi there,
My name is Amy Potter, Portland Oregon, and my baby is 18 months old.
We were planning a home birth, taking prenatal classes with a number of other women and partners whom were also planning home births with the same midwives. I was in labor for 2 days, contractions 4 minutes apart, never dilating more than 4 cm. So I was pretty exhausted at this point, and went to St Vincent's in Portland. Overall, I was actually much happier with my experince there than I expected. But that's because my midwives stayed with us the whole time. I ended up getting a epidural and pitocin.
When pushing, I asked the hospital staff to lower the epidural to almost nothing so that I could squat on the bar. They didn't think that would be possible with an epidural (Ha!). After three hours of pushing, the OB came in and said, "After three hours of pushing on an epidural, it's protocol to start talking about a c section." I looked at my midwife and said, "So would a vacuum birth be a better alternative at this pioint?" She said, "We can talk about that." And the OB was astonished and backed out of the room muttering something about how we'd have to do an ultrasound to see if the baby was in the right position.
I could feel my baby's head and his heart rate was fine when I was told to start thinking baout a c-section. I was NOT going to have a c-section based on "protocol." I would have had a c-section in a second if it were something that I felt truly required such a procedure.
My baby was born in a half squat position, naturally (aside from the pitocin) with my husband holding me up, 20 minutes after the protocol statement.
Interestingly, half the women in my prenatal class who were planning homebirths in my class ended up with c-sections. (WE really did a number on our midwives' previously great statistics).
I also believe that had I been more patient during labor, had I truly rested more, that I would not have ended up in the hospital at all. As soon as the labor started, I took a four mile walk, made blueberry pancakes, and I really thought I'd have an "easy" labor. Every time I laid down to take a nap the labor pains went away. Because I didn;t want them to go away, I kept moving. Big mistake. I tired myself out and I think I forced the labor when I should have honored the labor. I'm glad I went to the hospital when I did, but I do wish I had taken it a bit more easy at the begining of the process.
AND, I also believe that had my midwife not been present with me, that I would have had an unnecessary c-section.