Birth Story

Birth Story Part One: Welcoming The Unexpected

Welcome to my birth story. You’re in for a wild ride! Keep reading and subscribe to follow my birth story, NICU journey, and new mom life during a pandemic. It’s filled with indescribable emotions, frightening scenarios, and moments that were heartfelt. Ending as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life despite the pain that accompanies it.

Years before I was ever thinking of getting pregnant, I always wondered what it would be like for me. Would I be brave enough to go unmedicated? Would I have a long and stubborn labor or a quick and easy one? What other kinds of things would be a part of my experience?

Birth is one thing women fear most when it comes to pregnancy, and I agree! It has so many unknown variables. For those who like to control situations, well, there’s no room for that in the delivery room.

Society shows us the ugly side of birth… the screaming, the pain, the agony… but what it doesn’t show us enough of is the beauty, the strength, and the love. In my opinion, there’s a lack of education on labor as a whole.

When I found out I was pregnant, I promised myself to get as educated as possible so I could go into labor feeling confident and ready. I wanted an experience I would remember forever and share with my baby as something we could bond over.

Understanding that we can never dictate or predict how labor will actually go, I also promised myself to keep an open mind. Albite all the horror stories you try to avoid hearing, I worked hard to set myself up with positive mental goals. I was excited and looking forward to my birthing experience.

I felt great about it and knew I could do it, knowing that women have done this for centuries with less medical resources than we have now encouraged me. My body was meant for this, and I am strong! I kept telling everyone that I was looking forward to it – almost no one expected to hear that!

At one of my appointments, I talked with my nurse about my “birth plan.” Remember, though, when I mentioned that any type of “control” or “plan” just doesn’t belong in the delivery room? You can have a wish list or goals of what you would like to happen, how it will happen, and when it will happen, but of course, there’s no guarantee or promise because the health of mom and baby comes first!

I told my nurse that I knew my birthing hopes were only wishes but that I had some essential hopes. She listened as I told her I would like to go without an epidural, immediate skin to skin, aka the golden hour, and no birthing on my back. If you’re not sure why the third one, I recommend looking it up – especially if you’re having a baby soon. It blew my mind but made so much sense! I encourage women experiencing pregnancy for the first time or even as their second or more times to get educated!

Since I’m here right now to share my birth story, I’ll talk about my pregnancy later. Still, I wanted to preface this by saying that, generally speaking, I had a healthy pregnancy.

The only thing of any concern was a somewhat elevated blood pressure at a few appointments. Even before pregnancy, I had slightly higher blood pressure numbers. It wasn’t as big of a red flag to me. However, we did expect to have the baby a week or maybe two early to prevent any issues that could arise by staying pregnant longer.

I was okay with this because I knew that the baby and I would be fine. We also knew we had to be prepared, so we created a To-Do list. However, I had no idea that the most significant part of this whole journey, and one I was excited to experience, wouldn’t even be an option for me.

On February 25th, 2020, my husband and I woke up, had breakfast, and got ready for the day. I made a list of things I wanted to start and get done, including those related to the baby. I was 33 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and we had a routine 34-week ultrasound appointment that day.

Upon arrival at the appointment, my vitals were checked. My blood pressure was significantly elevated. The nurse said she would recheck it at the end of the meeting, thinking it was high because we just walked in from the car or maybe a misread from the machine. When she checked again, the numbers were still too high for her, so she wanted to mention them to the doctor. Honestly, I didn’t think anything of it and was sure it was due to the cuff being placed wrong or just a fluke reading.

We went to the room next door and sat with the doctor. She spoke to us about my blood pressure and what it could mean. Again we discussed delivering the baby one or two weeks early to minimize the risk of pre-eclampsia. She wanted to make sure everything was healthy and good with Baby S, so she sent us to labor and delivery for an NST scan.

On our way there, I developed a sudden headache. However, I didn’t give it much thought, seeing as I probably just hadn’t had enough water. The nurse set me up to the monitor, and we could listen to Baby S’s heartbeat. It was a nice and comforting sound which I relaxed to for about an hour.

This was right before they hooked me up to the NST for the first time

Because of my headache and the elevated blood pressure, they wanted to take a few more tests, so they drew blood and started a urine catch order for 24 hours. They had all intentions to send me home until they asked about my headache. It hadn’t gone away, and my blood pressure also hadn’t gone down, so I was administered a covid test and admitted to staying for 24 hours.

I spent most of that time hanging out in a small L&D room while I was waiting for a bed somewhere. Finally, I was moved to a surgical ward with four other patients. I can confidently say that it was awkward for me, the nurses, and probably the other patients. I mean, what was a 7.5-month pregnant woman doing just occupying a bed in the surgical ward?!

Just hanging out in my little corner in the surgical ward.

My blood pressure was being checked every four hours throughout the day and night, and I was collecting all my urine each trip to the bathroom. My doctor also decided to give me the first of a 2 dose steroid shot called Antenatal Betamethasone. This medication was used to help speed up the lung development of Baby S, just in case we had to deliver early. I came to find out that it’s miraculous what the shot can do!

The next day I completed my 24hr urine catch, and we were just waiting on the results. This would actually determine either a diagnosis or allow us to go home. I was feeling really hopeful and good at this point. Maybe it was because I didn’t even FEEL sick at all or if it was because I just wanted to go home.

The doctor came to see me and gave me the diagnosis. I had pre-eclampsia. They wanted to keep me for another 48 hours for monitoring and bring my blood pressure numbers down to go home and rest. I felt a little defeated.

Finally, I was moved from the surgical ward to the mother/baby unit in a small room. I was connected to the blood pressure machine, which would take my measurements every two hours as I slept that night.

The following day, on February 27th, 2021, my nurse came to check on me. She asked if I had felt the baby move at all during the night, and I told her only very little. I thought this was because I was lying on my right side all night (due to the monitor being hooked up to my left side), whereas I would lay on my left at home. To be sure, she brought me back to L&D for another NST to check on the baby. Another red flag was my blood pressure numbers overnight. Even while sleeping, my blood pressure reached measures in the “severe” range. For those who understand the numbers it was as high as 160/101.

Second NST scan done and this was while I was waiting for the doctor

Cold grape juice to wake Baby S, and a quick NST test later, I was waiting to hear from the doctor. I tried to relax in that tiny room while sipping cold drinks to keep Baby S active. I remember talking to my belly about everything going on. I reassured us that everything was fine and then closed my eyes to rest. It was tough to process what was happening. I didn’t feel or look sick. I felt great, actually. I was starting to love being pregnant and enjoy every moment of it. Yet, here we were being poked with needles, hooked up to monitors, and slowly, but also very quickly, my pregnancy journey just seemed to fade away.

After a while, the doctor came in. She sat down in front of me and confirmed my pre-eclampsia diagnosis and then unexpectedly continued to explain they had rediagnosed me with pre-eclampsia severe with hypertension. She then told me that typically, with pre-eclampsia, they induce at 38 weeks. However, with my pre-eclampsia so intense, they wanted to induce at 34 weeks. We were 34 weeks pregnant to the day. My heart sank and broke, I felt scared and like a failure, and I thought the worst.

I reminded myself that I prepared for labor. I was looking forward to it, just not this soon. I called my husband to tell him that he needed to return to the hospital sooner rather than later.

I was moved from the small exam room to an oversized delivery room, put in a gown, and connected to an IV. By then, my husband showed up, and we were getting ready to start the induction process. Thinking positively, we talked about how our April baby might be a February baby instead. It made us nervous but excited to meet our little one and finally find out if we have a son or daughter!

These socks were a hit with the nurses and doctors and everyone loved the fact that we didn’t know the gender!

The first step of the induction was starting the magnesium through my IV. This was to relax my muscles to help prevent any seizures or a stroke during labor. It didn’t take long at all, and I could feel the effects of it. Like that feeling you get when you know you’re on the drink that’s going to do you in that night… your vision seems to be catching up with every head turn and you can hear yourself sluggishly mumbling the words you’re trying to speak. From then on, I wasn’t allowed to get up on my own, or really at all, unless I used my bedside potty. Which I’ll share more on later (don’t worry – not the going potty part).

Shortly after, I received the first dose of Cytotec directly to my cervix to hopefully start some dilating. A few hours passed, and each cervical check worse than before, mainly because there was no dilation sign. I then received the second dose of Cytotec and on to a third dose.

The second dose of Cytotec didn’t move things along much further, so I got one more half dose. By my fourth cervical check, it was 4 am on February 28th. It had been over 12 hours since starting the induction, and I only progressed to 1cm dilated. We decided to try the next method, which was the Foley Bulb.

I was given some pain management before getting the Foley Bulb to help with the discomfort, and I don’t want to scare anyone, but by discomfort I’ll admit it was quite painful. It was inserted, then inflated and meant to stretch my cervix by the pressure it causes. My Uterus was still pretty high, so the cervical checks and inserting the bulb came with a bit (a lot) of extra pressure. After that, we waited, and I did my best to get some sleep. However, a laboring bed is not exactly comfortable nor flat, so finding the right way to lay was a full-time mission on top of everything else.

Later that afternoon, around 2pm, they started the Pitocin, and it was just more waiting to see if things would move along This also meant a liquid diet from then on. Around 5pm (13 hours after getting it inserted), the Foley bulb was removed, and I was 3cm dilated. I drank some Coca-Cola to wake Baby, hoping that Baby’s head would move and push against my cervix to help with more dilation. The doctor’s goal was to break my water later that night. A little while later, they upped the Pitocin. 

At this point I was covered in bruises, one even as big as the size of a potato and almost as dark as the night sky, all over my arms from IVs and attempts at getting blood. I was even poked in the foot in hopes of a good vein. From the medications my veins rolled and it wasn’t easy for the nurses although they were all very skilled and the best we could have asked for in this situation.

I think I’ll end part 1 there as the really hectic part happens next so make sure to come back to find out how labor progressed, or rather didn’t?

This photo was taken a couple hours into the induction.

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2 Comments

  • Jessica

    Wow! Those are some high numbers! Definitely scary! But I’m glad everything turns out okay. So much we can’t plan for, but it’s hard. Pretty sure most of us have an idea of ehat we want even if we know it may not happen, it can be difficult 😞

    • tamara.vukomanovich

      Yes, our visions of how we want our birth are hardly that. Keeping an open mind is important but you can still advocate for what you want.

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