Birth: Putting Things Into Perspective

Becky's Story of a Hospital Induced Birth

I was due on Monday, October 26th, 2009. I had an appointment that morning for my weekly check. I went in and I was 90% effaced and barely dilated to a 1. My doctor gave me the choice of being induced Wednesday night or Sunday night. With Saturday being Halloween and not wanting a baby to have to share a birthday with a big holiday, I decided to go for Wednesday.

I was already on leave, so I made sure to finish everything up. On Wednesday we had to be at the hospital at 7, so we went out to Lazlo’s and I ate a huge meal! We got checked in and started the Cytotec. I walked around and rested uncomfortably.

I had an amazing nurse who understood my fear of needles; she was so nice they drew my blood from my IV line. My second dose of Cytotec couldn’t happen because contractions were too close together and too strong, so they held off. My doctor came in early morning and broke my water and started me on my pitocin. This is where I made my big mistake-instead of walking more and letting the pitocin do its job, I freaked about the epidural (I knew I wanted one, but was terrified of it) and wanted my amazing nurse to walk me through it.)

The morning went well, I progressed slowly but surely until about 2:00 and I just stopped. I was about 5 ½ inches for 3 ½ hours. The problem was that I’m extremely short waisted and the baby was 21 ¾ inches long. She had nowhere to go but sideways. My new nurse Lois massaged my stomach and had me moving into different positions every 15-30 minutes.

When we finally got her into the birth canal, I literally had to push and hold her there for over an hour. It was really hard from about 3:00 to 7:00 (24 hours later!) My epidural had started to wear off and I was exhausted. At about 7:30 they checked me again and I was finally at 9-½ cm. So they got me ready to start pushing.

I pushed and pushed and pushed. They used every trick in the book. They got the papers ready for me to have a C-Section. I pushed through it. I was NOT going to have a C-Section. I pushed with everything I had! At about 10:00, they gave me the mirror and I could see the hair. They told me to stop pushing and by God, I needed to push. The flurry of activity was amazing! When it was all ready, I pushed a few more times and she was out. Kinzie Lynn Ditmer was born on October 29th, 2009 at 10:21 pm.

I was bawling as they laid her on my chest. Nick got to cut her umbilical cord and we bonded together as a family. After meeting her grandparents, breast-feeding, a first bath and settling into our post-partum room, I finally got to sleep after almost 48 hours of being awake with a few short catnaps throughout labor.

I didn’t think I would have been in labor that long; almost 28 hours, thought I would go into labor on my own and wouldn’t have needed pitocin for so long.

My hopes for my next labor and delivery would be to go into labor on my own, walk more to shorten labor and wait a little longer for epidural. I know none of that may happen, but as long as I have a safe delivery I will be happy.

**Please let me know if you would like to share your birth experience and be apart of my blog series, "Birth: Putting Things Into Perspective" Feel free to contact me via email at 3menandalady06@gmail.com. This will not only give someone the opportunity to have a voice, but to educate someone on their options as a woman and mother.**