Why A C-Section?

A number of people have asked what happened- why did I have to have a c-section? Especially since the baby was head down and in position for what felt like forever. Well two days before Emme arrived I believed that my water had broken. Of course I wasn't sure and I didn't even want to think that I was just peeing on myself repeatedly so I called the doctor. She said to meet her at the hospital in the morning and she would check. (I opted to stay home since I was not contracting) I arrived at the hospital and they were not sure if my water had broken either. The test they did turned the litmus paper blue but when they looked under the microscope it was unclear. So they did an ultrasound and it showed there was much less fluid than the minimum required. Since I didn't want pitocin they allowed me to have cervidil which is like a little strip of meds that they put next to the cervix to help it along since I was only dilated to 1cm. After 12 hours I could have another one if labor hadn't started. So this was Sunday morning. Well around 3pm they tell me to go use the bathroom and on my way the cervidil fell out along with some more amniotic fluid. So yes my water had broken the day before and I WAS NOT peeing on myself!

The doctor returned to the hospital examined me and said I had improved a bit and was now 2cm so she gave me another cervidil and joked because usually people don't lose the cervidil. Well I must be one in a million because by 11pm the new cervidil had fallen out with a gush of amniotic fluid. Great. The doctor did not return until the next morning and said it didn't matter anyway because the second cervidil had done nothing. I was still at 2cm and I had to have the pitocin because the baby's head was "molding" which meant it was trying to squeeze through 2cm and creating a cone shape. So on with the pitocin at 7:45am. By 3pm I was examined again since I was not having "good enough" contractions for the doctor. I was only now 3cm so they jacked up the pitocin. I tried walking, bouncing on the birthing ball, sitting in the tub and by 5:30pm I was in agony. I had resisted all pain meds but enough was enough. I asked for the narcotic Stateol and instead of it taking the edge off it slowed the contractions so they had to turn up the pitocin some more. The Stateol became ineffective and the pain was so bad I became very mean to Paul and the nurse. I demanded an epidural but the doctor could not get back until 6:30 when they finally gave it to me. I felt defeated but at least the pain was gone. Or so I thought.

By 8pm I was feeling every contraction again. The pain meds had not done their job. I am one of those people that pain meds don't work effectively for. The doctor examined me again and found that I was now 5cm and she was certain she could get me to 10cm but was very concerned about the molding of the baby's head and since the baby was measuring very large and my body was not cooperating there might be a good reason why my body wasn't naturally going into labor and nothing else was working. She was also concerned that she would not be able to deliver the baby that it might get stuck and that would be very dangerous or even fatal. Once I heard that I said I would go for the C-section. So the pitocin was turned off and I was able to relax somewhat until I delivered Emme at 10:12 pm. So for the record it was the exact opposite of what I hoped for in a birthing experience but at least I now know every other option and the effects. It was said that women who use pain meds especially narcotics in labor have babies who are less alert and somewhat groggy at birth. Now of course I had almost everything under the sun and Emme came out screaming, continued to scream and even was awake enough to nurse an hour later.