Birth Story 2(Jenna & KP)

As you all know, today is LABOR DAY and this is the start of "Empowered Birth Awareness Week". So, in honor of that, we present "BIRTH STORY WEEK" here at The Mom: Informed.  Remember, some of these are happy, some are sad, some are typical and some are intense. Please use tact when commenting. 




This post is from Jenna and the birth of KP. Enjoy!!

A story of how everything that could go wrong, did...and why I ended up seeking out a different path for #2, when he or she arrives...

KP’s Birth Story

On August 2, 2010, I went to the OB for my regular biophysical profile and weekly appointment. They were running really late with the ultrasound tech, and ended up taking me back for my OB appointment before the BPP. The nurse practitioner, C, came in and checked me out…I was 0 cm, and 0% effaced, so we were set for another week. I got dressed, and DH and I went out to check out for the OB, and let them know I was ready to go in for the BPP.

While we were waiting to check out, it all of a sudden felt like I had peed myself. I just felt a huge gush between my legs. I reached down, and when I looked at my hand, it was covered in blood. I gasped, and DH looked and ran to find someone. I was right across from the exam room I had been in, so they took me straight back in. They asked me to get undressed again so they could check me out. I did so, and started crying, because I was holding a sheet between my legs, just holding it to catch all the blood gushing out of me. C came back in, used the speculum, and said that while she could usually stop the bleeding with some gauze, mine was too much, so I needed to go over to OB triage. She then said they would transport me, to get dressed and she’d have someone take me over with a wheelchair.

Within a couple of minutes, they were transporting me. DH was double stepping to keep up with the woman who was taking me, she was moving so fast. We got to triage, they checked me in, and took me right back into the room. By that time, I had slowed with the bleeding, but was throwing clots in the toilet. I changed into a gown, and the resident came in. She checked me out with another internal, which started the bleeding again. Apparently my cervix was really hard, and she couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on, so she had the attending come in to check me out. He came in, did another internal (more bleeding), and said I was a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced. They decided to call the OB from my personal practice that was on call to make a final decision on what to do with me. That OB (Dr. P) decided to have me admitted overnight to L&D for observation.

I moved upstairs to L&D around 6:30 on Monday night, 3 hours after this all began. Things had kind of calmed down by this point, and we were just waiting. In the meantime, a friend came up with our hospital bags and other assorted paraphernalia, “just in case.” My OB came in and checked me once again. By this point, I was up to 1 cm dilated and about 70% effaced. While she was “in there,” she also started pulling clots off my cervix. I found out later it was because my cervix was so covered in blood, they couldn’t even see it. Since I had come in to triage, I had also been contracting (not really strongly) about every 2-3 minutes, pretty regularly. At that point, the OB said she wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but it was still possible she could discharge me home at some point that night. We also started discussing that even if I did go home, there was a high likelihood of me being on bedrest from that point on. However, she said that I was full term, so they weren’t going to stop things if they kept going.

In the interim, I asked for my IV to be replaced, as initially when I came into triage, they had just looked for a place, any place, to put it, and it ended up pretty much just above the crook of my left arm, so every time I bent my arm, it set off the alarm, and the fluids ended up largely staying in my arm…when they pulled it, my arm was 3-4 times its normal size, and I couldn’t bend it.

Around 9:30, the OB came back in, and checked me again. By this point, I was still 1 cm, but had moved to about 85% effacement. With that, she said I was in early labor, and would be going home with a baby on the outside. Originally she had said she’d be going home overnight, but actually decided to stay in the on call room overnight, which was a bit scary, as I knew it was because of my situation. I called my parents to let them know they could come down; Dad wanted to take a nap, as he was anticipating it would be a long haul, so they got down to the hospital around 3:30. The doctor started a low dose pitocin drip overnight, as my cervix wasn’t favorable for induction, and they wanted to just soften it up a bit to start the actual induction in the morning. I slept as best I could…in a hospital room, freaking out that I hadn’t finished all the last minute stuff I wanted to, and thinking about all the work stuff I wanted to get done.

Dr. P went off duty at 7 AM, and Dr. L came in to see me around 9. We discussed options, and she went forward with breaking my water, and starting the pitocin induction. She turned it up, and the contractions, which were still happening every 2-3 minutes, started coming on stronger. From that point, we were pretty much just going with the flow. They minimized my internals, first, because of the bleeding, and second, because my water had been broken, but I went to 100% effacement, but was dilating slow as all get out.

Around 1:15 or so, the contractions were enough that I decided to go for the epidural. It was kind of the strength, but more so the frequency of them that made me decide to go for it…I was contracting for a minute, with a minute of recovery, before it all started again.

The anesthesiologist was right outside, and came in with someone else…we’re not sure if she was a nurse anesthetist or resident, but he let her place the epidural. Everyone except DH and my nurse cleared out. It took about 15 minutes (WAY too long), and two doses of the local in order for her to place it. Once it went in, they put in the dose…and only my left side got numb, so I was numb on one side, and feeling everything on the other. They gave me a second huge dose, and it still didn’t work, so the attending decided to pull the initial and redo the epidural. That one worked.

And then things started happening. I became seriously hypotensive (BP was around 80/50), and went largely unconscious. The nurse was talking to me, but I couldn’t really respond. At the same time, the fetal heart rate dropped into the double digits. Someone came in and said that I needed to get up on all fours…sure, an easy task with a fresh epidural! DH ended up working with the nurse to literally pick me up and flip me over, and pull up my legs. At that point they also pulled off all external monitors and put the internal monitors on me and the baby. They also started tickling her on the head to try to get her moving and get her heart rate up.

Then the “maternity mafia” (DH's term for them) descended on the room…around 10 people flooded in at once and started working on the both of us. My nurse was excellent…she could tell I was starting to panic, and DH was still holding me up, so she leaned up right next to me and started talking to me, then having me do deep breaths with her. It took about an hour (I think), but they finally got us both stabilized and set. They decided they didn’t want me on my back, I needed to be on a side, so I was propped at that point. Dr. L did another internal, and I was at 4 cm. She said at that point that she would give me an hour, but that I needed to start making some significant progress. They put the pitocin drip back up (it was turned off completely while the crisis was ongoing).

And…baby was no longer tolerating the induction. She was having major decels during every contraction, so Dr. L was back in within 15 minutes, and said I needed to have a c-section. I started crying, and she was nice, she sat on the bed with me, and rubbed my leg and just talked me down a bit.

The decision was made for the c-section at 4…she left around 4:10 to get an OR…they had me prepped and IN the OR at 4:30…opened me at 4:44…and KP made her debut into the world at 4:49 PM on August 3, 2010.