Many thanks for Jackie for sharing her birth story with us!

The shortened version of my birth history:
-First section was an emergency and I believe it was necessary. They tested the blood in his cord and it had not been circulating.
-2nd section was after a trial of labor and ended up being ‘Failure to Progress’, or as we know it “Failure for Doctor to be patient”. I wish I could go back in time to change this decision…
-3rd and 4th sections were scheduled. I went in to my first pre-natal appt when pregnant with my third all ready to try a VBAC and basically got laughed at. I wish I had done then all the research/soul-searching I’ve done this time.

This pregnancy and leading up to it:

So, after 4 children, we thought we were done….my hubby b/c he was just done and me b/c I didn’t think I could deal with any more c-sections. After the last section, I kept saying, “I can’t do this anymore….” But, in my heart, I knew that I was not done having children…there were more ‘out there’ for me. I began looking into adoption and fostering, but didn’t have hubby’s total support there, either. Finally, after a long while….(all of our children are about 2 years apart, but this baby comes almost 4 years after our youngest)….we let go of it all and put it in God’s hands. We would let Him give us more children. And then, if He gave us the child, then He could deliver this child the way He made me to….vaginally. Believe me, its been one long walk of faith!!

We got pregnant right away after that decision, but that started the turmoil for me. I so wanted to gestate in peace, but that really didn’t happen. I immediately contacted several midwives in my area, only to be turned down by all of them. One was really nice and spent a ton of time with me on the phone and gave me lots of advice. But, she said even though she believed I could VBAC, she didn’t want her fears to affect me. So, I was ’stuck’ with my OB. (About halfway through my pregnancy, I ‘met’ online a traveling midwife who was willing to attend me. Well, after all this, my hubby tells me he’s adamately opposed to spending that much money on a midwife. [and we really didn't have the money- It would have meant taking out a loan.] Nice he should tell me that then. We fought about that for much of the rest of the pregnancy. Our insurance doesn’t cover midwives, but totally covers OB/hospital births. So, “Thank you” to that midwife- you know who you are- she was very helpful, as well. Next pregnancy, I’m saving up for a midwife!)

I continued with OB care, being a “good little patient”, pretending that I was having a 5th section. My plan for most of the pregnancy was to stay home as long as possible in labor and show up ready to push and refuse a section. Or if things were feeling comfortable, to stay home and deliver baby.

Of course, they scheduled my section for a week before my due date….I stated that I wanted to go into labor on my own and then show up for the surgery….we had several confrontations about scheduling with my doc and the surgery scheduler. I couldn’t deal with the stress anymore and just wanted to quit going to the doc for the last few weeks. Well, my hubby, being the honest person that he is, wanted to tell my OB the truth about our plans. I knew very well what his reaction would be, but that was what we did. At 38 weeks, we told my OB (of 12 years) that we were planning to VBAC and not planning on having another section. He flipped, of course. I basically got yelled at for 15 minutes…called selfish, stupid, irresponsible…told I could die, baby could die, I had a 15% chance of rupture (which is not at all true)…on and on. I hate confrontation, had been sick to my stomach for days, dreading this encounter….but it was done. He dropped me from his care…although, he knew he had to care for me for 30 days.

I had been given the name of a doctor at the beginning of my pregnancy, who I was told was supportive of VBACs. Well, I hadn’t called him earlier b/c he’s further away, and connected to a much smaller hospital and I figured he’d be supportive of a VBAC after 1 section, but no way after 4 sections. Well, now I had nothing to lose, so I gave him a call. I had to fight my way around the receptionist and his nurse, who both said I was too far along for him to take me. I begged them to just run it by him, have him call me, talk to him directly. They did and he agreed to see me on his day off, no less! He says, “I figure you’re an adult and can make this decision (to VBAC).” I’m thinkin’ “Yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” So, he agreed to attend me (at the big hospital nearer to me where he has priveleges). We got along great, but at our 2nd appt had a few disagreements. We agreed on: he doesn’t like to break womens bag of waters, he rarely does episiotomies, and he told me several times to stay home in labor as long as possible-that he didn’t want to see me until I was at least dilated to 5 and I’m liking him alot. But, then, he says that Pitocin is safe for VBAC- yikes! and he is all for epidurals….hmmph….well, I guess he can’t be perfect, huh?

The labor and birth of Josephine Ellyn (finally, I know, I know….thanks for reading this far):
I had weeks of contractions every night, wondering if they were for real….but then finally on Monday, Oct 16, they started for real. (I was a week overdue.) I had a NST in the morning, which I really didn’t want to go to, but was trying to cooperate with the Dr., since he was working with me. She reamed on my tummy to wake up baby 3 times and I wonder if that’s what made my water break just a couple hours later. I went to the bathroom that afternoon and had some bloody show and then I started leaking amniotic fluid everytime I changed positions. Yay! I was finally going to start something! Contractions started that afternoon, but sporadic. I called hubby to pick up something for supper b/c I didn’t feel like cooking. Contractions continued all night, but not super close together. I called several people to have them pray. (Note to self: don’t call people when you think you’re in labor. LOL ) But–the ctx were just close enough to keep me awake all night.

Tuesday morning, we decided to have hubby stay home from work b/c I was having to breathe thru the ctx and they were hurting. We got the kids all ‘farmed out’ that afternoon. From noon until about 7:30, the ctx were 3-5 minutes apart and quite intense. Greg filled the birth pool and I got in it around 5:00. Well, after eating a huge piece of pizza LOL and being in the pool for a couple hours, the ctx petered out again. Argghh! (We had called the doc earlier in the afternoon just to let him know we were in labor, but were going to stay home awhile.) The ctx were sporadic the rest of the evening, but just enough to keep me awake most of the night. I would lay in bed, but while laying down, the ctx were excruciating, so when I would have one, I would roll out of bed into a kneeling position, breathe through it, then get up to go to the bathroom and then back to bed…all night long, about every 15 minutes. Ugh…..

Wednesday morning, we got up around 5:00 a.m. b/c we were sick of not being able to sleep and wanted to get things going….so I tried walking around the house for awhile and doing nipple stimulation…this would keep the ctx coming. The doctor called around 7:30 a.m. and says, “How ya doin’?” ha ha ha… He wanted me to come to his office to see if it really was my water that broke and not other discharge and to check my progress. He was really hoping that it wasn’t my water b/c he truly wanted to leave me alone. I liked the idea of going to his office better than going to the hospital, which my hubby was pushing by this point. So, we went to his office. Yes, it was my water that had broke (which I was quite certain of) and I was only dilated to 2….ugh…. He sent us back home and said, “lets meet at the hospital at 10:00 tonight, if things don’t pick up by then” to get me started on anti-biotics. I had tested positive for Group B Strep, also and the dangers of infection rise when the water breaks. I wanted to refuse the anti-biotics, but found out the hospital would test/treat my baby as if infected if I refused. And the doc was being pretty cool considering my water had been broken for more than 48 hours by that night. After leaving his office, I contracted quite regularly for several hours and was excited that it might really be happening….but once again, the ctx petered out. I was able to rest a little Wednesday afternoon between ctx. I found that standing during them was the most comfortable. For some reason, ctx were excruciating when laying on my side and a little better if I was kneeling. I had my hubby start squeezing my hips during them.

And, can I just say how annoying it was to have a washcloth/towel between my legs for 3 days b/c my water was leaking….ugh…..

Finally, Wed night arrived and we went to the hospital to meet my doc and get my anti-biotics going. We were sent to OB triage. The first nurse there that I had was the only one to give me a hard time about VBACing. She was quite surprised that any doctor would ‘let’ me VBAC. But, from then on out, all my nurses were super supportive and no one gave me a hard time about VBACing. I don’t know if my doc had told everyone to leave me alone or what, but I was pretty much left alone.

Upon arriving at the hospital, my doctor recommended starting on a low dose of Pitocin. (Because of my water being broken for so long and laboring for so long.) I didn’t want it to come to this….my doctor and I had had the Pit discussion in his office. He believes that the smallest dose would not increase the risk of rupture. (His belief is that cervical gels are much more dangerous than Pit) He said at that point the risk of infection in baby was much greater than my risk of rupture. Group B Strep added to the water breaking risk. I asked for a few minutes to talk with my hubby to make a decision. I broke down and cried…I didn’t want any interventions….but we decided to start a Pitocin drip. He started it very very low- 1 unit (whatever measure they use- I don’t know.). I have a friend that was a L & D nurse there with me later in labor and she was very happy to see how low he kept the Pit….she said she would be closely watching my IV b/c there were “Pitocin Monsters”, posing as nurses and doctors, out there. She said some women get all the way up to 30 units of pitocin. I was never given more than 2 units.

The ctx started up immediately…my body was very ready, obviously. I labored from 11:00 p.m. til 7:00 a.m. with the Pit only increased to 1.5. When they increased it to 2, the ctx were too close together, giving me and my uterus no time to rest, so they lowered it. I was handling the ctx o.k. My mom was there, along with this friend and my hubby. Around 4:00 a.m., my SIL came. They all took turns holding my hips during ctx. I was hooked up to the monitors the whole time, but I had agreed to that, so long as I could be in any position I chose. My friend was so surprised that the monitors were picking up the heartrate with all the moving I was doing. God was answering my prayers, that was for sure. My hubby even asked if we could walk the halls for awhile and the nurse said “Sure, after I get 20 minutes”. I was so surprised. Ends up, I didn’t feel like walking b/c the ctx were intense enough. We did unhook the monitors quite often to use the bathroom. The baby’s heartrate was doing splendidly during ctx….we were all so glad to see she was tolerating labor so well.

The hardest part was that I was only comfortable standing. I had so much pressure in my bottom that I couldn’t sit. (Tried the birth ball, stool and couch) And it still was horribly painful to be laying down. I would try to lay down between ctx to rest, but then by the time I got to a standing position during a ctx, I would somehow be ‘behind’ on working with the ctx, so it seemed much worse. So…for 8 hours, I stood on that hard hospital floor. We had the bed raised way up, so I could lean my upper body on it during ctx. Between ctx, I swayed, walked, peed, etc. They finally made a pile of bed pads to cushion my feet.

At this point, I finally decided to get checked. (No one had pressured me to be checked up to that point) I hated that decision….its like you want to know if its good news, but don’t want to know if its bad news. So, after 8 hours of very good ctx, she checked me and I was only dilated to 4. Oh my, I was so upset. I thought for sure I was in transition b/c I had begun shaking and saying “I can’t do this!!” and I felt like I had a bowling ball between my legs!! I starting balling. That is that point where I decided to get an epidural, even though I hadn’t wanted one. (I was trying to do everything to be as safe as possible for my scarred uterus. And I knew by getting an epidural, I’d no longer be able to feel if anything was wrong.) But, I was SO tired. I hadn’t slept since Sunday night and it was now Thursday morning. I know I could have kept going if I wasn’t so tired. And I was physically tired from standing for so long- I just wanted to lay down.

So, the epidural was put in..I was able to rest! Awhile later, maybe 9:00 ish, her heartrate started dropping to the 60s and 70s during ctx. You know how doctors usually just come in at the end to catch baby, well my doc came into our room (he was in the hospital the whole time I was laboring b/c he is from further away) and hung out with us for several hours, watching the baby/monitor. He says, “We need to get her out quite soon” He knew how badly I wanted a VBAC and he worked with us. Any other doc would have sectioned me b/c of the decels, the water broken for so long, etc. He kept checking me, saying I needed to be complete soon, so he could get her out. He told me it would be a forceps delivery. We were able to talk about it for a bit…how experienced he is with forceps, etc. He only mentioned surgery once….but I knew it was always on his mind and ours. (The decels were a major flashback to our first labor/section) Once I was dilated to 8, he basically stayed at my bottom to ‘encourage’ me to dilate….I think he was manually dilating me. He then said that he wanted me to try pushing on the next ctx. I think I was dilated to 8, but hubby thinks I was 9. Anyways, around 10:00, I started pushing. The doctor was trying to turn her also, because she was posterior. Ugh…just one more thing ‘against’ me. She was not descending that was the major problem he kept saying. He couldn’t use the forceps until she was lower and she just wasn’t dropping. I volunteered to get on my knees, but he didn’t think that would help. I couldn’t do anything else b/c of the epidural. I asked about letting the epi wear off, so I could get up, to get her to drop, but he said “You don’t want me doing the forceps without the epi”. She finally was low enough and he had turned her enough to get her out with forceps. Just before she was born, I hemmoraged a ton- I lost alot of blood. (My hemoglobin was 6.3 the next day, which is dangerously low.) He was worried that it was my uterus rupturing or the placenta abrupting. (Found out later that my placenta had partially abrupted.) It was pretty intense and scary for those few hours. Hubby and doc were worried about me (I didn’t know I was bleeding out) and I was worried about baby. I kept saying “come on baby, come on baby” between pushing…that’s all I could think. My friend was right at my head, praying for me and quoting Scripture verses. Well, finally, at 12:35 p.m. on Thursday, Oct 19, after years, months, days and hours of fighting, our beautiful daughter was born vaginally!! She was 8 pounds, 11 ounces, 20 inches.

And she came out screaming- praise the Lord! (The cord was up by her head, getting squeezed during the ctx. That’s why the heartrate decels.) For the first time in 5 births, my baby was placed up on my chest immediately after birth- what an awesome thing!!

I then starting feeling faint after she was out. I spent the next hour or so on oxygen and flat on my back and/or side. I was so weak from losing the blood. I was able to nurse her and hold her for just a bit. And hubby cut the cord. But, the first hours weren’t ideal b/c of my faintness.

I ended up only having 2nd degree tear(s), which I was quite pleased with after all the trauma. And he didn’t have to do an episiotomy.

She was born 10 days after my ‘due date’ and 17 days after the original scheduled c-section. (She would have been a tiny baby, maybe with breathing problems.)

I hesitate to give an OB so much credit, but my doctor really made my VBAC successful. Any other doc would have sectioned me several times over in those few hours. He worked with us b/c he knew how much it meant to us. (But, of course, I know it was because of the power of my great God!) I was able to joke after the epidural was in, for someone to take a picture of me hooked up to every known intervention that I didn’t want! LOL Unfortunately, with all the events that took place, the interventions happened…..water breaking 3 days earlier, GBS+, labor stalling, cord up by her head, posterior position, no sleep for 3 nights, etc, etc. But, none of that was b/c of being a VBAC, so I’m encouraged for the next time.

I am very glad we went for the VBAC- I don’t regret it. I’m encouraged that my uterus stayed intact and that I now have a ‘proven’ pelvis. I think this will open up my options for a midwife and homebirth next time. And hopefully, all the things that happened this time won’t happen the next time around. (I want to know how to have like a 6 hour labor, with 2 pushes and baby’s out! LOL)

Love, from Jackie and baby Josie, who will know someday how special her birth was