BIRTH STORIES
34 weeks, 6 days. Hospital: Magee Dr. Constantine. I suffer from high blood pressure and had developed preeclampsia with my first pregnancy, so when my blood pressure was 172/114 they told me to go to triage. On the way down, I kept telling my mom I was having a weird pain and that the baby wouldn’t get out of my ribs. My husband left work and met us there, after hooking up to the monitor it was declared I was having contractions and once a cervical check happened, we found out I was 3cm and in active labor. We obviously didn’t have a choice at this point, so to labor and delivery we went. Unfortunately, my blood pressure would spike so high that they had to give me medicine to lower it and they ended up giving me too much so then they would have to raise it. This vicious cycle went on for about 13 hours and I was so incoherent I thought I was telling my husband they were trying to kill me, but there were no words coming out. 27 hours later, I had been stuck at 9 1/2 centimeters for 2 hours and they told me I had 30 minutes to get to 10 or they had to preform a c section. I laid there with my mom, dad and husband in the room and thankfully in the last 10 minutes I was ready to go. 5 pushes and out the baby came and his dad yelled “it’s a boy!” And they placed him on my chest. I was so happy it was over, until he was very quickly taken from me and put into the NICU for the next 10 days. He is now a very healthy and chunky 18lb baby who loves his momma. I would do it all over if it meant getting him ❤️ First birth story of a mom of two. They’re both special, but his was more entertaining lol.
I’ll start at my last drs appointment. I came in at nearly 41 weeks and baby girl was not arriving on her own. My dr (dr jozwiak) called the hospital to book me an induction. This was kind of scary because I wanted her to come on her own but at 41 weeks I was ready. On November 30th we drove to Wexford AHN to get induced at 8am. I got changed got as comfy as I could and they gave me pitocin to get the ball rolling. After a few hours and feeling contractions I was ready for the epidural lol. That wasn’t too bad I squeezed my husbands hand pretty hard he winced. After that it was a waiting game. They broke my water too as that didn’t happen on its own. Finally around 9pm I was nearly at 10cm. Then it was time to push. During this time I had trouble pushing and had to catch my breath. It got so intense I started feeling sick and threw up everywhere. (Not to be graphic but pretty sure I pooped on the table but the drs and nurses didn’t say anything lol) After I felt better and got back to pushing. Finally after 75 minutes of pushing baby girl arrived! They put her on my chest and she was so warm and cuddly! She also pooped all over me lol. She was 8 pounds 2 ounces and healthy! I had trouble after birth though I couldn’t pee and was so sore after the epidural wore off. They had to give me another catheter it was horrible. After though I felt better. We were in the hospital a couple days then took baby girl home!
I had a ruptured pubis symphysis. It was ruptured in pregnancy, but I am not sure when exactly I was in so much pain toward the end that I was suicidal. I called my OB at 36 weeks pregnant and said I absolutely cannot do this anymore. I’m in so much pain I want to un alive And so she had me come into the hospital the next day While waiting in the hospital, they asked me if I wanted to be induced I said yes I would do anything to get this kid out of me and so they did an ultrasound to make sure he has head down and he was head down But then the high risk OB said “oh my goodness you are ruptured you’re getting a C-section“ and that was the most validating thing that happened so far because no one had believe me how much pain I had been in. So the Nicu doctors came in to talk to me about the risks of delivering at 36 weeks and I said I understood the risks that I’m in so much pain. I have to take that risk so they took me in for a C-section and it was really positive. It was magical. It was redeeming the anesthesiologist I had was an absolute angel. She held my hand the entire time when I felt the surgery she pushed more anesthesia. The most magical moment was when they when the doctorheld my baby up above the sheet he was so beautiful. It was the most magical experience of my life when they put my baby on my chest.
I found out at my 21 week anatomy scan that I was having mo/di girls, because they shared a placenta i was informed a c-section would most likely be needed. I was told I could try a vaginal delivery because my baby A was head down but because baby B was breech there was a chance I would birth A vaginally and then end up needing an emergency c-section for baby B anyways. I opted for the scheduled c-section to avoid the chance of having to heal from 2 births. My birth plan was to make it to at least 35 weeks, hold baby A while baby B was being born, have my mom be able to cut both umbilical cords, and do delayed cord clamping. I was also hopeful for skin to skin a long as my babies were healthy enough. At my 33+4 appointment my maternal fetal medicine doctor stated I would be delivering at 34+0 due to "her not being comfortable with delivering mo/di twins any later than 32-34 weeks gestation. As a first time mom i let them scare me into delivering when they wanted. Thankfully my girls were born very healthy, they were small, 3lbs 11oz and 4lbs 0oz, but they never needed any medical interventions. They breathed on their own and ate on their own from day 1. When I delivered both babies were immediately taken away, I never even got to see either of them before they took them to the NICU. They allowed 30 seconds of delayed cord clamping for baby B but none for baby A. I was not allowed to do skin to skin for the first 48 hours nor was I able to have them latch to breastfeed even though they latched perfectly fine on bottles. My mom also was not able to cut either of my girls umbilical cords. Both girls were born within 30 seconds of each other and I laid on the operating table begging for them to tell me what was going on and for them to let me see them. They went to the NICU and I went to recovery. I wasn't allowed to go see them in the NICU until I could move my legs. 2 hours went by and I was finally allowed to go and see them. My mom was suppose to stay with them every second but she was not allowed. She had to stay with me. I was discharged on day 4 and they stayed 7 nights 8 days. Those next 3 days I spent 18+ hours a day in the NICU at their bedsides. I would get there at 5am to feed them and would not leave the hospital until after the 1am feed. Only reason I left at all was because I wasn't allowed to fall asleep there. If I dozed off at all I had to leave, so I needed 3 hours a night to make it through. That really took a toll on my breastfeeding journey as I wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating, and wasn't really drinking either. All of those things involved leaving the NICU and I wasn't leaving them for a second if I could help it. Unfortunately there wasn't 1 part of my original birth plan that worked out the way I wanted it too, but I'm learning to accept that. There is a lot I hope will be different for any future pregnancies. West Penn, Dr. Hunkele.
Birth one! Scheduled c section due to placenta previa. Section at 38 weeks though I was able to select my preferred day. Section scheduled for the morning so no breakfast or even water which was a little frustrating, all went well in pre-op. They start the process without your support person but they brought my mom in relatively quickly so I wasn't alone. Baby was out pretty fast and screaming which was a relief however I didn't get to see him as he was whisked off to the NICU for a collapsed lung. Once baby was out and taken away I started really struggling, I was bleeding a lot (they did not tell me) the spinal was making me feel really sick and I began to throw up. My very excellent nurse kept telling me I was ok (I was not) eventually I blacked out completely and came to hours later in the ICU completely out of it and determined to find my baby I attempted to get up which set off all the alarms and had my nurse running in to push pain meds which subdued me again. I have no idea when I woke up again but I was finally able to speak to a nurse and find out what the heck happened. I was reassured I was fine and would be fine I had just lost a good amount of blood and they had some trouble getting my uterus to contract back down to slow the bleeding. They told me that baby had some trouble breathing and was in the NICU on a CPAP but was also doing well. My surgery was around 8am and it wasn't until after 7pm that they wheeled me down to see my baby. I wasn't able to hold him only place my hand through the isolet window. I ended up staying 4 days in the hospital and he stayed 5.
Baby 4. Last baby! After three c sections I knew I wouldn't be allowed a trial of labor, I did ask anyway but was told the hospital itself wouldn't allow it. They originally pushed for me to come at 38 weeks fory section but I refused and asked to be scheduled on my due date. My doctor (love him) saw no problem with that and arranged it with the hospital. So on my official due date we walked in bright and early in the morning, got out pre-op done where my doctor pointed out I was having small but noticeable contractions, he told me it was a reassuring sign baby was ready to come. Surgery went great completely easy and no problems. Baby number four was huge at 9 pounds 11 ounces and absolute chunk! They again did a see through drape so I could see him the second he was out and again they laid him skin to skin after getting height and weight. He again stayed with me through them closing me up and wheeling me into recovery. I had my husband stay with me most of that day and then sent him home to be with our other kids. Family was not allowed to visit as this was August 2020 and covid restrictions were still in place in the hospital for any visitors. I was alone in my room with baby that evening. About 2 am my nurse asked if I had slept and I had not so she took baby to the nursery and brought him back when he was ready to nurse. I stayed at the hospital one more full day and left the morning of day 3. My husband was allowed to visit each day but only once, once he came and left one time he was not allowed to return for a sector third visit due to COVID restrictions. He would usually come in the afternoon to let me get a nap or some food.
Baby 2 Decided to go for a vbac as I really had nothing on my chart that said I couldn't. When my due date came and went my doctor scheduled a stress test and we passed with flying colors so he asked if I'd like to go ahead with an induction at 41 weeks! I went for it cause I was so over being pregnant. The induction did almost nothing, I wasn't in pain, I wasn't dilating, nothing was happening and I was exhausted and also not allowed food though I was allowed water. After about 12 hours (maybe more time doesn't exist in labor) my doctor asked if I'd like to either break my waters and try anything to get this show on the road, or go home, eat, rest, and try this again in a week if I did not go into labor. I chose to go home. I ate my feelings, cried like a baby, and then did every single labor inducing technique I could find on the Internet. One week later and baby was still in there refusing to budge so off we went for induction two. I was 42 weeks and was told one way or another we would be birthing a baby. This induction hit hard and fast, agonizing back to back contractions, hours in I was still only a 6 and the intensity of the contractions was causing baby's heart rate to drop, my doctor came in and said, it's not an emergency right now, we can try to wait, but I do think we need to do a c section. At this point I was exhausted and in extreme pain so I said ok let's do it at least with it not being an emergency I could prepare. I got my epidural, had a big cry, and was wheeled off to surgery. They had my husband there almost immediately which was great, my nurse kept telling me I had done a great job which helped me a lot, my doctor had a see through drape and he opened the window so I could see baby the second she was out. She was a screamer so no worries, they quickly got her weight and immediately laid her skin to skin on my chest. She stayed on me while they closed me up, she stayed on me while they wheeled me to recovery. I only passed her off to my husband so I could eat and drink something before nursing her again. We were in hospital for 2 days and I asked to go home, my doctor made sure I had support at home and signed off and I left!