Breathing her baby down: Brittany’s birth story
At a routine 39 week appointment, Brittany’s doctor noticed that her
blood pressure was creeping a bit high and that her baby was a little
lethargic on his ultrasound. These two things together sent Brittany
to hospital admissions straight away, for a scheduled induction the
next morning. Although this wasn’t Brittany’s plan for natural
spontaneous labor, she was a good candidate for induction being 3-4cm
dilated.
Brittany had her water broken around 7am. She decided that she and
her husband Tim would master the early labor on their own by walking
the halls, lunging, and frequent position changes. By 10am when I
checked in with them, Brittany was already 6cm. It was time for me to
join her! I met them there shortly afterwards and found Brittany
smiling and in good spirits coming back from a walk around the
hospital. Contractions were increasing in intensity, and Tim was
providing counterpressure during a contraction while Brittany leaned
on the bed. I tag-teamed in and took over counterpressure so that he
could spend time at Brittany’s head providing emotional support (and
give his thumbs a break from the massage he had been doing all
morning).
Brittany thought that she would like laboring in a squatting position,
but she found it uncomfortable, and opted to labor on hands and knees
on the bed while I or Tim did a double hip squeeze. She switched it
up every 30 minutes or so back to a standing position (often leaning
on a stack of pillows with the bed on the highest setting). During
one contraction she felt a lot of pressure, something had changed, so
she requested an internal exam. She was now 7cm; probably not as far
as she would have liked to be with the intensity of the contractions,
but progress nonetheless.
For a change of scenery Brittany moved over to the shower. She sat on
the birth ball in the shower leaning forward, and I stood behind her
with the showerhead in hand and made hot water circles on her back for
quite a while. The contractions were less intense, and less frequent.
That wasn’t a bad thing, it gave Brittany a chance for some rest
before she went back to her preferred hands and knees position, a
position that turned the contractions back up. Brittany was having
the urge to push with contractions, but no urge between contractions.
Another exam had her still at 7cm, but the baby was lower, and the
cervix was completely effaced, so progress. Baby’s head was low,
which was giving her that pushing feeling when a contraction came on,
but cervix wasn’t quite ready to push. She hopped back in the shower
for 30 minutes, and the pushing feeling was getting even more intense.
Dr. Oliver checked her again, and she was a 9cm – almost there!
Brittany moved to the toilet to take some contractions there. A great
place to finish off dilation – the position naturally opens your hips
when you straddle the toilet, and the body is conditioned to relax the
pelvic floor when you sit in that place. It wasn’t long until
Brittany was feeling the overwhelming urge to push. But the nurses
wanted to hold off for a full hour since her last cervical check –
they didn’t want to disappoint her if the progress wasn’t what she was
hoping for. So we just hung out on the toilet for another thirty
minutes. The way Brittany was breathing, it seemed as she was already
pushing. She was trying not to push, but sometimes the body just does
what the body does. When her hour between exams was up, her internal
check revealed she was 10cm, and a +2 station – baby had worked his
way down on his own while Brittany breathed through contractions on
the toilet.
She moved up to the bed and found squatting with the support of a
squat bar the most natural position for her to push in. With one push
the nurse saw baby’s head, and frantically called for the return of
Dr. Oliver. Brittany had to “not push” again – probably the hardest
thing for a mom to do when your baby is that low and your body wants
you to push. Baby kept coming down, and luckily a winded Dr. Oliver
arrived in a few minutes from her office across the street. Brittany
pushed for 5 minutes (that’s the official time it took from the call
to the doctor to baby’s arrival) and baby Jacob arrived.
He was put up on mamas chest immediately, started crying and nuzzling
mama’s breast and then was calm, quiet and alert with skin-to-skin
time the entire time mom was delivering her placenta and repairs were
being made. After a quick weight and height check, he as back with
mom rooting and latching and exploring breastfeeding.
Brittany was a “birthing warrior” (I think she laughed when I chose
that affirmation during transition). I had a hard time believing she
ever was in transition – she smiled and engaged in conversation
between each contraction, and during contractions the most foul word
from her mouth was “yikes”. Her breathing was perfect – calm during
early labor, and perfect panting/hee-heeing during transition. Tim
was her rock from start to finish. If he wasn’t behind her squeezing
her hips, applying counterpessure, heat compresses, or giving her a
back massage, he was at her face holding her hand, providing a
shoulder for her to rest her head on, whispering encouragement and
sneaking in kisses every now and again. Congratulations family Gast
on a beautiful day and a beautiful family. AS.
