| No pain medication. 27-hour labor. Doula and midwife assisted. Part 1 - Labor: www.youtube.com Part 3 - Reflections: www.youtube.com After part one, I labored for another half hour and then filled the tub. My midwife talked about rupturing the water sac if I wanted to speed things up, but I declined. In the tub, I popped the sac naturally (YEAH!) and started to get the urge to push. My midwife checked me and said she could feel the baby's head. So I went for it. I was on all fours and pushing my guts out. I had intense 4-push-urge contractions and everyone thought this baby would be out by 9 pm Then things started to slow. Eventually, I got out of the tub. I was wiped out and my uterus was beyond exhausted. By 9 pm I was delirious with fatigue and dread. I honestly didn't know how I could get the strength to move forward and push the baby out. I asked if I could go to sleep and deliver in the morning. Ha! It didn't help that I hadn't eaten in 12 hours and I couldn't imagine trying. The baby was stuck in the same position for nearly 2 hours but thankfully he showed no signs of distress. The midwife and nurse wanted to kick start my uterus again, so began talking about pitocin and nipple stimulation. We tried nipple stimulation with wet rags and then breast pumps to activate stronger contractions. Cynthia was bombarded with pages that night and had to leave the room often. Once the pump's affect set in, I did have more intense contractions but, with the midwife gone, we ... |
