one year ago
One year ago I was in hour three of lying flat on my back with my head slightly lower than my pelvis (positioned so that L. would stay off his cord and keep his heart rate high enough for us to continue the vaginal birth), was fully dilated, and had one more hour to go before L. had turned properly and had descended far enough for me to start pushing. In just under three hours my baby will be one year old.
I cannot believe how this year has flown and I have no words for how happy we all are.
And, I just re-read my doula's notes and discovered something I had missed before about one of the fascinating interventions my midwife performed. As I was attempting a VBAC and L. had a low baseline heart rate with a number of significant but not life-threatening decels, it was key that I progress at a decent rate to both keep the hospital happy and to keep him safe. At around 11pm the night before I delivered I had made it to about 6-7cm. My midwife wanted to help me get further and she did so by reaching up inside me, having me push, and while I was pushing she stretched my cervix around L.'s head. This got me to 9cm. That was a bit more extreme than I had thought it was originally and holy hell, I am really glad I had the epidural at that point. (Also, that epidural probably saved me from another c-section, but more on that later). That is some serious, hard core, down and dirty midwifery right there.
As you were.
I cannot believe how this year has flown and I have no words for how happy we all are.
And, I just re-read my doula's notes and discovered something I had missed before about one of the fascinating interventions my midwife performed. As I was attempting a VBAC and L. had a low baseline heart rate with a number of significant but not life-threatening decels, it was key that I progress at a decent rate to both keep the hospital happy and to keep him safe. At around 11pm the night before I delivered I had made it to about 6-7cm. My midwife wanted to help me get further and she did so by reaching up inside me, having me push, and while I was pushing she stretched my cervix around L.'s head. This got me to 9cm. That was a bit more extreme than I had thought it was originally and holy hell, I am really glad I had the epidural at that point. (Also, that epidural probably saved me from another c-section, but more on that later). That is some serious, hard core, down and dirty midwifery right there.
As you were.