Baby #3: My Birth Story
Dr. Alexis here! In this blog post I’m going to be sharing my personal birth story. I do want to preface this post with a bit of a disclaimer.
This is simply my personal story.
I am sharing my story because a few folks asked, and because I am comfortable sharing. I do work with prenatal patients in my practice, and also have an online prenatal prep program that I sell. My goal with patients and my program is to educate expecting moms on all of their options, how to best prepare for labor and delivery, how to prepare when plans shift or your birth plan doesn’t go exactly to plan (because birth is unpredictable!), and how to support your body through early postpartum recovery.
I am not promising any specific outcome for your birth. There are way too many folks on social media saying “I did this and that, and this is how my birth went! Work with me so you can have the same experience”. That’s not how birth works and I highly recommend avoiding any programs or providers that promise these types of specific outcomes.
Ok, off my soap box!
A little background, and what I hoped for during this pregnancy
As stated in the title, this was my third pregnancy and delivery. However, this one was much different than my first two! For those who don’t know me, my husband and I struggled with unexplained infertility for years. My boys were both conceived through IVF. There is some evidence that IVF (especially frozen embryo transfers) may contribute to an increased risk in elevated blood pressure during pregnancy. I was induced with both boys due to elevated BP, my first at 39 weeks and my second at 37.5 weeks (my second was a frozen transfer).
After all we went through to have our first two kids, we were shocked when we found out I was pregnant in July and that we had conceived naturally. I was almost as shocked when I found out we were having a girl this time, as I had accepted life as a boy mom!
My biggest concern with this pregnancy was wanting to keep my blood pressure managed. I really wanted to go into labor on my own this time, and if possible I wanted to try to deliver without an epidural (though I had epidurals with my first 2 and was open to it this time. Absolutely no shame or judgement when it comes to epidurals!).
I had a great experience with the OB I saw for my second, and decided I wanted to see her for this pregnancy as well. I also wanted to hire a doula for additional support. My OB and I discussed options to help keep my blood pressure in check, and my doula helped me write out all of my birth preferences (which I then went over with my OB as well).
The other thing about my first two deliveries is that although I was induced, once labor started things progressed very quickly. So my husband and I were both aware that if I did go into labor on my own, there was a good chance it would go quickly.
My birth story
On Wednesday March 27th, I started to get a gut feeling that the baby was coming in the next few days. I was having a lot of pressure in my pelvis, and I had been doing a lot of walking and trying to get things moving. I also realized that night that it was almost Easter weekend, and our local friends and neighbors that were going to help with our older kids might be busy or traveling. After checking in with them it seemed like we would have some gaps in care if I delivered that weekend, so we called our parents in hopes that someone would be able to come spend Easter weekend with us “just in case”.
Luckily my dad and step mom were able to come down, but they couldn’t leave until the afternoon the next day. It’s a little over 10 hours for them to get to our house, so they planned to stop half way and get to our house Friday around lunch time. We knew we had help available at least until Friday morning, so we figured that would work out just fine. “I’ll tell her to stay put until at least tomorrow afternoon” I told my Dad when I talked to him Thursday morning.
Thursday was a busy day, as both my boys had Easter parties at school. I went to my 4 year old’s school at 10 am and watched him do his Easter egg hunt and enjoy treats with his friends. I left him at school and went home for a bit. At 2:30 pm I went to my 2 year old’s school and watched his Easter egg hunt, followed by a sweet little ice cream party with friends. I was having some very mild contractions around that time, but nothing too concerning. I took him with me and we ran some errands, then picked up my 4 year old to head home.
When I was driving to pick up my 4 year old, I noticed my contractions were getting closer together so I figured it was time to start tracking them just in case. Between 4-5 pm, my contractions were about 15 minutes apart. Between 5-6pm they jumped to being 5-8 minutes apart. My husband got home a little after 5 and I told him we were probably going to need to head to the hospital soon. I took a shower and ate some dinner while my husband and I coordinated care for the boys.
We were incredibly blessed to have friends and neighbors who were able to watch the boys until my dad and step mom could get to our house (they nixed their plan of stopping and drove straight through!). The lesson here if you have older kids and don’t have family local: solidify your plans and have back up plans!
We arrived at the hospital around 7pm. My big concern was getting checked in and started on antibiotics, as I was GBS positive and the doctors like you to have 4 hours of antibiotics before delivering. After going through the check in process, we were put in a room at 8pm. At the time my contractions were pretty close together but not terribly painful, and I was between 3-4 cm dilated.
I wanted to try to get some sleep, so my doula left and my husband turned on a March Madness game. One of the OB residents came in with a copy of my birth plan and sat down to talk with me. She asked me if I went over the plan with my own doctor and I said yes, and she said that was great. She said everything on it looked good and they would do everything they could to support me.
I laid down to sleep and pretty quickly realized my contractions were starting to get much more uncomfortable. I had my husband help me hook up a TENS unit on my lower back to manage the pain. As things ramped up, my nurse offered Stadol to help me relax and rest a little. I agreed to it and hoped I could get some rest.
I was able to fall asleep for a few minutes from the medication, but then my contractions again got much more uncomfortable. I was still feeling a bit dizzy from the medication and didn’t feel like I could stand up or sit on an exercise ball safely, but I did feel an urge to move. My husband let my doula know that things were moving quickly so she could head back to the hospital. I had my nurse and husband help me get onto my hands and knees on the bed. During contractions I had my husband put pressure on my pelvis, and between contractions I shifted from side to side and forward and backward on my hands and knees.
After laboring in this position for awhile, things ramped up even more. The pressure on my pelvis no longer provided relief and I told my husband I wasn’t sure if I could go much longer without an epidural. My nurse offered a cervical check, and I was already past 9 cm. At that point I knew I was close and was going to go without the epidural. She contacted the OB and residents on call and they all arrived quickly, as well as my doula.
At this point I was lying shifted slightly onto my left side, with my husband on one side and doula on the other. I told them all I felt like I had to push on the next contraction. Part of my birth plan was that I wanted a natural water rupture, and my water had not broken yet. The OB let me know that they could break my water, but that she would likely be delivered right away if they did that. I told her it was fine and to go ahead. They confirmed with me multiple times, then broke my water. Sure enough a few pushes later and our sweet girl arrived.
Lainey Nicole was born at 10:52 pm on March 28th, weighing 6 lbs 11 oz and 19.5 inches long. Although not everything about her birth went as I planned, and we had quite a panic in the 24 hours leading up to it about childcare for our older two, it was still such a special moment. I was grateful I was able to go into labor on my own, and that my blood pressure stayed well managed throughout my pregnancy.
I was also incredibly grateful for the staff we worked with at the hospital. I think nowadays hospital births get a very bad reputation, especially on social media. There are many women who DO have negative experiences during hospital births – their birth plan is ignored, they feel that things are forced on them, and there are sometimes hospital policies that get in the way of them having the birth experience they want. I have worked with patients who have had those experiences – their disappointment (and sometimes anger) is valid.
However, there are also many women who have empowering and positive experiences in their hospital births like I did. I think it is important to share this side of things as well. If you are expecting, I encourage you to explore all of your options and decide what is best for you.
Some of the things that I believe helped me have a positive hospital birth experience were:
1) The OB I chose to see during my pregnancy was very supportive and we were on the same page (although she wasn’t there the day of, her colleagues respected the plan she had gone over with me). We discussed each part of my birth plan and talked about hospital policies before I was even in my third trimester. She also took the time to answer my questions at each prenatal appointment and I never felt rushed, which was important to me.
2) I had a written copy of my birth plan that I could discuss with the staff when I got to the hospital.
3) I had both my doula and husband there to advocate and support me.
Regardless of where you decide to give birth, I recommend considering all of these things. I also recommend taking classes and getting as much education as possible prior to labor and delivery!
If you made it this far, thank you for reading my birth story! This was my last pregnancy (and labor and delivery), so being able to write this out and share it is special for me.
For anyone local and who is interested, the providers I worked with throughout my pregnancy were:
OBGYN: Dr. Alicia Wright, MOGA
Doula: Holly Hamby, Beholding Birth
Chiropractor: Dr. Nick Slavens, Chiropractic Memphis
Blog post written by Dr. Alexis Hutchison, PT, DPT, OCS