Nova's Birth Story Part Two: Hospital
The end of my last post
left off with us having delivered our sweet girl Nova Lucia. The first
and second stages of labor went more smoothly than I had imagined. The
problem came with third stage of labor, the waiting and delivery of the
placenta. I had wanted to get out of the pool to deliver it, so after 20
minutes of staying in the water with our girl, I was helped out and
into bed. 10 minutes later, still nothing was happening... any
encouragement (massaging the uterus) from my midwife was just causing
more bleeding, but the placenta just did not want to come.
At this point my midwife made a judgement call, and I will always love her for it. She could have continued working on it and things probably would have gone ok - but because my iron levels had been on the low end of things, she wanted to play it very safe, and decided I should get transferred to the hospital. I was in quite a bit of pain from the pitocin shot that was not helping budge the placenta at all... Before I knew it, my bedroom was FULL of men. Firemen and EMTs all trying to figure out what was going on and how they were going to get me out avoiding our front steps... they decided on the back door which meant the first and worst part of the ambulance ride was bumping and jostling down our alley...
The pain was steadily increasing and my coping methods slipping away. It took all my strength not to curse out the EMTs who kept attempting small talk. Seriously?! Finally we got up to the delivery floor. What followed is a blur of pain, tears and drugs. My doula who had just finished at another birth had arrived at our house right when the ambulance had and followed us to the hospital. This could not have been timed more perfectly. Rhodric was there but he was taking care of Nova ( I don't think she was even wearing clothes yet!), so having my doula, Ciara there to step in was a saving grace because any ounce of peace and inner calm was gone. She held my hand and prayed into my ear as I cried and they finally got the placenta out, thankfully in one piece, with forceps. Some IV drug kicked in eventually and I was able to breath and open my eyes again. I was so full of relief that it was over and I was able to hold my girl again. My midwife was there by a that point and we were able to finally get Nova weighed and measured. She was our littlest baby at 8lbs 4oz, with a beautiful head of auburn hair.
This second half of our birth story was terrible and rather traumatizing. Looking back though, I wouldn't have changed anything. If I had delivered in the hospital, my placenta still would have gotten stuck and I would have had the same horrible experience and I think the terrible second half would have tainted the first. But because the home part was so wonderful and there was the transfer in between, I have been able to separate the experiences in my mind and savor the memory of the smooth and beautiful home delivery.
Ciara snagged some great shots of us after all the drama at the hospital. Her site is here.
At this point my midwife made a judgement call, and I will always love her for it. She could have continued working on it and things probably would have gone ok - but because my iron levels had been on the low end of things, she wanted to play it very safe, and decided I should get transferred to the hospital. I was in quite a bit of pain from the pitocin shot that was not helping budge the placenta at all... Before I knew it, my bedroom was FULL of men. Firemen and EMTs all trying to figure out what was going on and how they were going to get me out avoiding our front steps... they decided on the back door which meant the first and worst part of the ambulance ride was bumping and jostling down our alley...
The pain was steadily increasing and my coping methods slipping away. It took all my strength not to curse out the EMTs who kept attempting small talk. Seriously?! Finally we got up to the delivery floor. What followed is a blur of pain, tears and drugs. My doula who had just finished at another birth had arrived at our house right when the ambulance had and followed us to the hospital. This could not have been timed more perfectly. Rhodric was there but he was taking care of Nova ( I don't think she was even wearing clothes yet!), so having my doula, Ciara there to step in was a saving grace because any ounce of peace and inner calm was gone. She held my hand and prayed into my ear as I cried and they finally got the placenta out, thankfully in one piece, with forceps. Some IV drug kicked in eventually and I was able to breath and open my eyes again. I was so full of relief that it was over and I was able to hold my girl again. My midwife was there by a that point and we were able to finally get Nova weighed and measured. She was our littlest baby at 8lbs 4oz, with a beautiful head of auburn hair.
This second half of our birth story was terrible and rather traumatizing. Looking back though, I wouldn't have changed anything. If I had delivered in the hospital, my placenta still would have gotten stuck and I would have had the same horrible experience and I think the terrible second half would have tainted the first. But because the home part was so wonderful and there was the transfer in between, I have been able to separate the experiences in my mind and savor the memory of the smooth and beautiful home delivery.
Ciara snagged some great shots of us after all the drama at the hospital. Her site is here.
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