Vancouver Island Doulas

This a great place to share your birth stories with other Mom and/or Dad's. 

The birth of my daughter did NOT go as I had planned, at all.  I had all these ideas of what it would be like, and how it would go. No drugs, quiet, peaceful and powerful.  But childbirth proved to be a tricky thing for my daughter and I.  I was due on the 28th of December 2007, I had a midwife appt in Duncan on the 27th at around 1pm.  The evening of the 26th I had some mild contractions, about 15 mins apart while watching a movie, but nothing major.  So I asked the midwife to do a "sweep" just to get things going a bit. I am only 5 feet tall so being so pregnant with a pinched sciatic nerve was very uncomfortable.  While the midwife was doing the sweep she was also checking the position of the baby and so on.  I was about 1cm dilated but what she thought was the head, kinda felt like a bum...so to be sure, we would make a date to meet at the hospital at 430 when her work day was done, to do an ultrasound, just to be sure.  So, that afternoon, I spent the day walking around with my mom and shopping, sightseeing, whatever..the contractions got a bit stronger after the sweep, so I was thankful when we got to the hospital and I could lie down.  They hooked me up to the monitors and watched my progress.  When the midwife got there, she looked at my chart and said "looks like that sweep is working".  as in, I was starting to have major contractions.  She ran the ultrasound, only to find out what she had suspected. My baby was stuck, bum down in my pelvis, and I was going into early labour.  she called in a specialist, to help out with the situation.  For about an hour (or what felt like an eternity) they had me on the bed, upside down, trying to push the baby out of my pelvis (from the outside) and turn her, so that she would be head down.  But every time they got her there, she turned back when they let go.  So I was left with my only option, C-section, my biggest fear of my beautiful pregnancy. 

After I shed a few tears, I was ready to meet my girl, 20 mins later I had her in my arms! It turned out that her cord was wrapped like a purse on her arm, therefore, not allowing her to turn and stay turned.  I joke now and say she wanted to come out mooning the world! Recovery was hard and it took a long time to get over the feeling of being "ripped off" of a powerful and connected labour.  But I would not change it for ANYTHING in the world. 

Well, neither of my births went as planned... I'll share my 11 month old daughter's birth. 

She was a scheduled C-Section that was supposed to take place on May 15th/09. (Due to my 1st child being an emergency C-Sec, figured it would just be easier to have another) The morning of the 14th something felt funny. Just not right. I went to work as usual and started my day. Then I got very crampy and thought I must be in labor! I told my boss that I should go to the doctor just in case. He nearly called me an ambulance thinking the baby was coming right away...lol. Men :p. So off to my maternity Dr I went. She 'checked' me and I was 1cm dilated and yes, in labor. But she's not supposed to come till tomorrow! Will I make it to tomorrow?? She cant come today! Its not the 15th! The Dr sent me home and told me to go to the hospital when the contractions were 3 minutes apart for 1 hour. So home I went. I was originally scheduled to get admitted to the hospital at 8pm that evening to prep for the c-sec the next morning. I made it till 6pm. I go to the emerg where I was supposed to get admitted and the lady there told me I was early and to go home. "Ummm, im in labor NOW!" Oh, then she turned nice.. funny how that works. So I go to LDR and labor. The checked me again and I was still at 1cm but contractions were strong and close. The nurse I had was trying to convince me to give birth and not have the c-sec. I would have LOVED to do so but my 1st child was 68hrs of labor including 4hrs of pushing just to have a c-sec anyways. So I wasnt to sure if I wanted to try that again. But she was VERY persistent! SO I thought about it.... and thought, and swayed both ways several times. "Ok, ill do it" ... "No, I want the c-sec" .. Nope, im gonna try natural child birth" ... "Maybe I should just have the section"  All of this lasted till about 1:30am. Then MY doctor came. She was like a ray of light at the end of my tunnel! I was SO happy to see her! She checked me again and I was STILL only 1cm with contraction 2-3 minutes apart. She said if I decide to give birth its going to be a long labor... Okay! that did it! C-Section it is!! lol!! 30 minutes later I was in the operating room holding my beautiful daughter! Born at 2:19am May 15th (Yes, she did hold out till her scheduled birthday) Aliyah Janae, 6lbs 9oz. And boy was she worth all the trouble <3 

I was induced for the birth of both of my sons, for different reasons.

With Ben, I went into my doctor’s office for my 38 week check-up saying that I was feeling a little achy and itchy. She checked my blood pressure which was a little elevated so she had me pack my bags (just in case) and go see the Obstetrician on call, Dr. Cox. Once I got to the hospital, I had a quick exam and was sent straight up to Labour and Delivery to start my induction. They started inducting me at 6 p.m. with one dose of Cervidil, after an hour or less my uterus was being hyper-stimulated so they removed the Cervidil and let me rest for a bit, or so they thought… My body responded very well to the induction and within a few hours a sweet little baby Ben was born. ~ 2003/10/23

* I was the first one any of my close friends to have a baby and my only baby reading source was a ragged old version of What To Expect When You're Expecting so I was not feeling very well prepared for what could have come with the induction. I didn't know my choices or even that I had choices. I had preeclampsia, in the early stages however but an intervention was inevitable. 

With Matthew, I went into my doctor’s office for my 39 week check-up, things were going swimmingly but I was ready to get the show on the road. I asked her to perform a membrane sweep to see if we could help things get started. I went home with a few minor cramps and relaxed in the baby pool with my toddler for the remainder of the day. The next morning, I headed to the hospital for a NST and had casually mentioned to the nurse that I was leaking a little fluid, not really thinking much of it. She checked me and sure enough it was amniotic fluid. With me being positive for Group B Strep she sent me up to Labour and Delivery to begin a round of antibiotics and then they sent me home for the night to relax, hoping that I'd go into labour in the night. I did start to contract every 5 or so minutes but had to go back into to the hospital in the morning for another round of antibiotics and to start being induced, being that it had been 18 hours since my water first starting leaking and the rules (at that time) of us Group B Strep gals is that the baby must be out in 24 hours. So in I went, got my glamorous hospital gown, labour room assigned and IV pole and waited for the Oxytocin to take effect. I was nervous because of my last inducing experience but felt quite confident and strong. After only a small amount of the hormones, my contractions started getting STRONGER and within 4 hours I had a sweet little baby Matthew in my arms. ~ 2006/08/24