Joanna 's Birth Story

The best-laid plans...

We were so looking forward to a beautiful homebirth. But Monday afternoon we had a 41-week ultrasound which showed an amniotic fluid level of 2.5 cm - far below the level recommended for a homebirth and low enough that the perinatologist had doubts that Joanna would be strong enough to make it through labor. She recommended that we get a non-stress test, basically to determine whether to induce or to go straight to a c-section. You can imagine my panic and disorientation, having planned for the most non-medical birth possible, and having had a worry-free pregnancy!

The non-stress test wasn't reassuring - there were no decels, but no accelerations either, so the perinatologist said we should definitely induce right away and see how Joanna did. She wasn't too excited about how pitocin would affect Joanna, but when she learned that breaking the waters was all it took with Blake, she thought that was a good idea. Our midwife, Cosette, and her back-up OB were more reassuring, saying we'd break the water, see how labor went, and let Joanna tell us if she was doing ok or if she needed help.

So we packed a bag, said good-bye to Blake (I got pretty emotional at this point, never having left him overnight before) and took off for Broadlawns, where Cosette could continue to manage our case as long as things were going well. Our friend, Jennie, met us there also, to be extra emotional support and to take photos. Cosette broke the water as soon as we got to our room, and the fluid was clear - yay! This was a major emotional boost for me, as the perinatologist had prepared us for a likelihood of meconium. Contractions (sorry, surges) started within 5 minutes, nothing unbearable, but reassuring that my body was going to get the idea very quickly. They had me sit on the bed to get a 30 minute monitor strip of her heart rate, and she was doing great! I felt like she was telling me everything was going to be fine. We walked the hospital halls just briefly, and I had a couple good surges causing me to stop and lean on Dave's shoulder.

When we got back to the room (a little after 9:00) they monitored again for about 10 minutes - again she was strong, no problems. So they filled the tub they have available for labor - yay again - I got to labor in the water, even though we had to leave our big beautiful soft whirlpool at home! I got in there and started my hypnobirthing CD.

Surges picked up in intensity, length, and speed pretty rapidly. Cosette listened to Joanna with a doppler during them - again, still strong, no signs of distress at all. Dave, Jennie, and Cosette were all gathered around, soothing and encouraging me all the way. I was concentrating so hard on relaxing deeply to let my muscles work together to bring her out. I felt as if I was just barely able to keep the surges from overwhelming me, but they said I seemed very calm and serene. Some of them were so powerful, I could very clearly feel my cervix being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d through them - pretty intense. About 10:15 (?) I decided I needed to get out of the tub to go to the bathroom. More intense surges in there, so I decided not to get back in the tub, but to kneel on the bed to try to ease the strong pressure I was feeling. They were trying to strap the monitor back on me when I told them to stop for a minute so I could lay down on my side and try to relax - all of a sudden I figured out that the reason I couldn't relax was my body was telling me to push! And then it felt like Joanna was torpedoing down the birth canal, completely out of my control!

At this point I think I must have let out quite a roar, because Cosette, who was at my head, said, "Is she pushing??? Quick, get a birth kit!" And by the time she got around to the end of the bed, she had me reach down and feel the baby's head. That calmed me down enough to just breathe and wait for the next surge. I think her head came out with the next one, then there was a quiet (almost eerie) calm like the eye of the hurricane while we all caught our breath and waited for the next surge, and out she came! The cord was pretty short, so Cosette could only put her on my stomach, but that was enough for me to see and feel that she was beautiful and perfect. Her color was great, head beautifully round - just amazing. She was in great shape, didn't need any oxygen or anything. Once they cut the cord I was able to pull her up to snuggle on my chest.

The nurses were so wonderful. They had asked ahead of time if we had any preferences about what they did, since we hadn't written a formal birth plan. We just said we'd like to keep her with us and keep everything as low key as possible, and they did! They let us just relax and bond. (Well, as much as I could relax with Cosette stitching me up.) After about 45 minutes they brought the scale in and put her on it. I couldn't believe it - only 6 lbs 6.9 oz? Blake was 8 lb 10 oz! No wonder she came out so fast! Other than that, they just let me have her, and anything that needed to be done they did with her on me. She must have come out hungry, because she nursed pretty much straight from 11:15 or so until about 4:00 a.m. She'd fall asleep for about 3 minutes, then wake up and want to latch on again! No wonder my milk came in after less than 36 hours!

Dave brought Blake up in the morning, and he thought the baby was pretty cool, until he saw her nursing. Then his territory had been infringed upon! So he crawled up and latched onto the other side - then it was tolerable. So there we were! By 2:00 in the afternoon we "checked out" to go home and sleep in our own beds. We're so delighted and blessed that everything went so well.