I’ve decided to write about my birth experience and emergency c-section because I read negative things every day about c-sections, especially on Twitter. I spend a lot of time on Twitter. My love of Twitter grew right after Jackson was born. I joined twitter before I was pregnant and turned to the site for support during my pregnancy and met a wonderful group of ladies who were all due around the same time as me. I had planned to tweet my labor/delivery and everything! That is, until things didn’t go according to my “plan.”
My pregnancy was pretty much by the book. I never had any morning sickness and I felt great the entire time; the only hiccup was at our 18 week ultrasound when our baby (we didn’t want to know the gender) was diagnosed with a Choroid Plexus Cyst. After a couple days of panicking and consulting Dr Google, we had a Level II ultrasound with a Fetal Maternal Specialist who reassured us the cyst was nothing to be concerned with and we had a perfectly physically healthy baby. His exact words were “I don’t want you to even think about this cyst any more.” After that appointment, the cyst rarely crossed my mind for the next 5 months.
Greg and I attended the hospital childbirth class when I was 35 weeks and I’ll be honest, I thought it was a complete waste of my time. I had learned more from Twitter and lurking at TheBump.com’s message boards than the 4 weekly classes. Or so I thought. The class was very basic but definitely beneficial for the mother’s partners who had no idea that a baby had to come out of an orifice that starts out the size of a cheerio. That was a REAL eye opener for Greg. There was also a brief section on cesarean sections. I barely paid attention because I though: “oh it will never happen to ME, I’m so healthy, etc.” I did hear her talk about how c-sections worked in the hospital and how many people would be in the OR. I also heard the instructor when she said if you start bleeding when you are laboring to get to the hospital. She actually said “Do not pass go, go directly to the hospital because that could be a sign of a placental abruption.”
Fast forward two weeks after the class ended and I went into labor. It started with contractions in the middle of the night and progressed throughout the day until I was 7-8 minutes apart at around 9 pm. For some reason it felt better for me to sit down when I had contractions and at one point in the early evening I sat on the toilet and noticed I passed a giant bloody plug (sorry to be so graphic). After that came out, the flood gates of blood opened up and I called Greg over. We decided it would be best to call my Dr and head to the hospital. Of course, no one from my OB’s group was on call but the covering physician reassured me it was probably just my bloody show but to come on down anyways.
The 15 minute drive to the hospital was the longest 15 minutes of my life, complete with me sticking my head out the window and panting like a dog during contractions. We got to triage, checked in and my blood pressure was sky high. Mind you, I always have super low blood pressure, even throughout my pregnancy, so this was new for me. The nurses checked my urine for proteins and seemed like everything was fine and had me go sit in the waiting room while waiting for a room to open up.
In the waiting room, there were about 4-5 other very pregnant women with much larger bellies than me sitting around. Apparently I was the only one in labor though because they all looked at me like I had a third eye when I stood up and tried not to cry during contractions. I tried not to be irritated by them all looking at me like I was crazy and I kept running to the bathroom to fill the toilet bowl with blood. I kept walking to the nurses’ station and telling them about the blood and they assured me it was just my bloody show. I remember thinking to myself “this is no bloody show!”
After a 45 minute wait, my name was called and we got a room. My biggest concern at the time was not being dilated enough to stay, I just couldn’t imagine being sent back home at this point. When they checked me for the first time I was so relieved to hear that I was 5 centimeters dilated. Then I knew something was going wrong when they couldn’t find the baby well on the monitors and kept having me switch the side I was laying on. I really knew I was in trouble when the nurse left and came back with 5 other doctors, residents and nurses. I remember telling the nurse and my husband to get the baby out ASAP and that I didn’t care what it took. It was approximately 11:30 at night now and my good friend, a L & D nurse had come in on her day off to check me in to the hospital. I was positive something was wrong when she greeted me in the hall as I was being wheeled to L & D and had a look of concern on her face as she told me she was going to go upstairs with us. Even though something was clearly wrong, I felt a calm sense of relief and knew I was in good hands.
The next 30 minutes were a blur. My Mom arrived from from Florida and was able to meet Greg & I upstairs. I met the covering OB, a young woman who was probably around 35. She mentioned it seemed the baby was either sleeping or having trouble and she was going to do a few tests and also mentioned the possibility of a c-section for the first time. I remember a calmness in the room and completely trusting this woman with our lives. After using some sort of probe and trying to physically shake the baby awake, she broke my water to find meconium. She confidently called the c-section and calmly let me know the baby was in distress. She also told me they were not going to let the baby cry without cleaning him or her up first because of the meconium. Greg wasn’t in the room at the time because he had gone to the car to get our cord donation box and was chatting with his Mom and almost missed Jackson’s birth. He came up and a nurse threw scrubs to him as I was being wheeled into the OR.
Fifteen minutes later, Jackson was born with the cord wrapped his neck four times and was completely silent and white. His first APGAR he scored a 1. My Dr also discovered my placenta had abrupted, found a softball sized clot in my uterus and I hemorrhaged almost 2 liters in the OR.
There is a lot of talk about c-sections on Twitter; people who are angry about theirs and others who are pissed that there are too many in general. While I respect everyone’s feelings about them, I am extremely grateful for mine. I am so happy to hold a healthy 8 month old in my arms and I can’t imagine the alternative if I had not gotten the c-section when I did. If my Dr hadn’t called the c-section so soon, Jackson could have suffered from a number of disabilities or even died, not to mention I could have bled out as well. I am thankful for modern medicine and forever grateful to the physician who saved my son’s life (and possibly mine).
I felt compelled to write this to get a positive story about c-sections out there. In my opinion, c-sections save a lot of lives. Even if Jackson had been born via c-section and had no issues with the cord or placenta and scored a 10 on his APGAR, I would have viewed my experience as a positive one. I wouldn’t want to find out the hard way that a c-section was truly “necessary”- I’d rather be safe than sorry. If a baby appears to be in trouble and the OB feels safest way for he or she to be born is via c-section, I trust the physician. My scar will heal eventually and is the last thing on my mind at night when I rock my sweet son to bed. I’d never forgive myself if I had refused my c-section or decided to “wait” and my son had to live with disabilities or possibly not have even made it.
Amen! I couldn't have said it better – c-sections aren't evil. And I'm thankful for mine. After 32hrs of labor, all I wanted was my baby in my arms.
He's here, healthy, and amazing.
I am also thankful for my c-section. While our situation was not as serious as yours, both my daughter and I were showing signs of distress at 38 weeks 5 days and my doctor told us it was in our best interest to deliver her via c-section as soon as I hit week 39 due to distress and her breech position. We had a flawless delivery, a crappy recovery, but I have a perfectly healthy 19 month old who is the light of my life. I wouldn't change a thing about it.
Thanks guys, I'm glad you are thankful for your c-sections too. Life is short and we are blessed to have healthy babies!
i'm so happy that you shared this today. although i didn't have a c-section, my first labor and delivery was similar to yours in that there was fetal distress, decreased fetal heart rate, meconium, amnio-infusion and the cord being wrapped around her neck 3 times. i also experienced that moment of 5-7 nurses and doctors entering my delivery room and the doctor telling me that if she couldn't get averi out within 2 minutes, we'd be going to a C-section. and i was COMPLETELY FINE with that. i just wanted a healthy baby in my arms as well, and i would be forever grateful to whatever process brought her to me. they used the vacuum suction and luckily i was able to deliver her within minutes, while the cord was released from her neck simultaneously and the meconium was suctioned out. had i been bleeding like you or my BP elevated, i know for sure they wouldn't have even tried anything other than a C-section. i trusted my doctor as well.
too many people are hung up on what other moms do- from childbirth to feeding to clothing to tv-watching to snacking to schooling to WHATEVER. although we all have our own thoughts and opinions, what's the point in being negative or judgmental to others? there's no support in that. we all make our own choices and it's our own business as to what goes on. we do our best as parents and even if that means someone else doesn't agree, or we don't agree with someone else's ways, we still hope to find support from each other as we all go through the same trials and tribulations. i just wish everyone would recognize that! (esp on twitter!)
i'm glad you could shed some positive light on something that is positive for many, many people! well-said!
This is the most awesome post I've read all week. Although C-sections aren't ideal, they are invasive, and there are risks, they aren't the worst case scenario either….having a baby or mother not survive is. I also ended up with an emergency c-section, Low fluid, induction, decreased fetal heart rate, meconium, baby in distress, cord wrapped 3 times – c-section. I'm thankful every day that we both left the hospital healthy.
I now refer to my delivery as "the modern way" to have a baby, as more and more of my friends are electing c-sections for their 2nd births because their first vaginal birth experiences were horrific.
I think Jen hit it on the head…to each his own, and as long as you have a healthy baby to show for it, it doesn't really matter if they enter the world the modern way or the traditional way.
Thank you for showing everyone the upside to a c-section.
Good for you for posting about your experience! I agree with Jen as well: to each her own. We are hard enough on ourselves as mothers, instead of judging each others' experiences we should celebrate the fact that having a baby – no matter how that tiny person arrived – is truly a miracle.