I just realized the I never posted Cooper's birth story. THIS is why I am becoming a doula and ultimately a CPM!!! Here it is -
New additions are in red. (red stuff was added on July 20, 2008)
On Friday, March 7th I lost part of my mucus plug in the shower. I thought it was the whole thing, but wasn’t sure because I didn’t know how big it was supposed to be. I had my midwife appointment that morning so I figured she would check me to see if I was dilated any. At the appointment I told her that I thought I lost my mucus plug and of course she wanted to check me. Come to find out I was 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced (thinned). She told me that she thought I would have the baby that weekend. Thinking about this now I believe she scraped my cervix. How else could she tell me (literally without a doubt) that I would have the baby that weekend? Altho she did assure me she did no such thing...
I went home from my appointment a little freaked out by the thought of having the baby within a couple days. It was the moment I had been waiting for forever, or so it seemed, and here it was so close and I was freaking out. But I worked through it and knew that in the end it would be worth it and the baby would be here perfect as can be.
So I did some last minute shopping, not knowing when I would go into labor, I didn’t want to leave the cupboards empty, and when I got home I did some cleaning.
Friday night Paul and I went to a friend’s house to see her new baby and hung out there until almost midnight. The whole time we were there I was having slight contractions, nothing painful – just tightening and uncomfortable a little. When we got in the car to go home I started having painful contractions. Of course I started timing them and noticed they were about five minutes apart and lasting a minute long. Now I realize these contrax weren't painful at all compared to what was coming
When we got home we decided that we should try to get some sleep in case this was it. However, Paul couldn’t settle down. He was totally freaking out on me and started cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming, etc. It was so funny to see him so nervous and not know what to do.
Finally we went to bed around one a.m. I was still having painful contractions every five minutes lasting about 45 seconds. Paul kept telling me to call the midwife and doula to see what they thought. So I called Jenny first. She of course told me to call the midwife and then call her back. So I did. Carol was on call Friday night and told me to drink a lot of water, lie on my side for 15 minutes, and take a relaxing bath. Since it was so early in the morning she was trying to help me become more comfortable and possibly stop the contractions long enough for us to get some sleep.
I drank two bottles of water and lay on my left side for 15 minutes, and that didn’t help the contractions at all. Then I decided to take a bath. The bath helped slow my contractions to seven minutes but they were still about 45 seconds long. I was begging baby not to come that night because I didn't want Carol to deliver I had a bad feeling about her and should have followed my instincts when I first met her. My midwives office had 4 midwives and it was a who,ever was on call is who you got. Carol was the only one I was nervous about.
We of course called Jenny back and she recommended the same things the midwife did. She told me that when I was ready for her to come she would, and to call her back every thirty minutes to keep her updated.
Since my contractions slowed down and became less intense I decided to get out of the bath tub. When I got into bed though they became five minutes apart again. I called the midwife back and told her this, of course she said I could come to the hospital anytime I wanted, but to try to get some rest and relax a little. I called Jenny told her that we were going to try to get some sleep.
We were finally able to fall asleep around 3:30 a.m. We didn’t even realize we had fallen asleep until we woke up at 5:30 a.m. and realized that my contractions had stopped. I got out of bed, very cautiously, to go to the bathroom. I was so afraid that my contractions would come back if I got up, but they didn’t… Until I got into bed! Then I had two more contractions and fell back asleep. We slept until almost 9:30 a.m.
When we woke up we called Jenny to let her know that the contractions had stopped. Of course she figured this when she didn’t hear back from us after 3:30 and didn’t want to call us in case we had fallen asleep. The midwife called at 10 a.m. to see how I was doing. I told her what had happened and she was happy that we were able to sleep and the contractions had stopped. Now Kathy was on call and she was the one that called. I started begging baby to come that day so Kathy would be the one on call. Kathy also told me that Carol would be on call Sat. night, Sun morning. I told baby it was now or never.
I was terrified to get out of bed! I was so afraid that the second I got up my contractions would come back. But eventually I had to get up to pee, so I slowly got out of bed and trekked my way to the bathroom. The contractions were gone, so I slowly ventured down stairs. After a while I concluded that they were gone for good, and started to feel more relaxed.
Paul and I spent our last Saturday alone cleaning the house – doing some laundry, cleaned out the fish tank, relaxed together, etc. We wanted to make sure we enjoyed our day. It was a wonderful day, doing nothing in particular, but accomplishing stuff at the same time. I was trying so hard to get labor started again. I was doing deep squats in the kitchen, braced on the counter. I even shoveled the snow off the drive way! Walked up and down the stairs, etc. Nothing was working to bring the contrx back.
We decided to go to bed around midnight Saturday night (technically Sunday morning). We slept really well until I woke up at 3:37 Sunday morning with the worse contraction ever. I had one, and laid there for a couple minutes waiting to see if I would have more, but I didn’t. So I got up to go to the bathroom.Ever contraction made me feel like I had to pee sooooo bad. For me that was the worst part, feeling like I had to pee but not being able to.
While on the toilet I felt a little pressure down below and thought “hmmm what was that?” When I wiped I saw this huge dark brown (old blood) ball of mucus. I was like “Oh my god, that’s my mucus plug!” I started freaking out. I screamed for Paul and of course it scared the crap out of him. He came running into the bathroom with this horrified look on his face and I showed him my mucus plug. Of course he didn’t know what to think. I suggested that we should get in bed and try to get some sleep because the baby was going to be here soon. Little did I know that “soon” was less than three hours!!! Paul thought my water had broken and was terrified. I wanted to keep my mucus plug, but Paul made me flush it
As soon as we got into bed and all comfy I started having extremely intense contractions every minute lasting a minute. I was screaming in pain and constantly felt like I had to pee. I’m not going to lie, those contractions freaking hurt! I kept trying to breath through them like Jenny had taught us, but I it seemed impossible to do. All I was doing was screaming and sitting on the toilet trying to pee. Paul was freaking out. I told him that I wanted to get into the tub and he should call Jenny and the midwife. So he ran me a bath while I was still screaming (thinking back I was grunting more then screaming) every minute on the toilet. Lol! As I was taking my gown off to get into the tub Paul came into the bathroom and said we were going to the hospital. The midwife had told him to bring me in right away and Jenny was already on her way to the hospital to meet us there.
So between contractions we made our way out to the car. It took us about 15 minutes to make our way to the car and leave because Paul had to put our bags in the car, make sure the pets were okay, etc.
On Friday, March 7th I lost part of my mucus plug in the shower. I thought it was the whole thing, but wasn’t sure because I didn’t know how big it was supposed to be. I had my midwife appointment that morning so I figured she would check me to see if I was dilated any. At the appointment I told her that I thought I lost my mucus plug and of course she wanted to check me. Come to find out I was 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced (thinned). She told me that she thought I would have the baby that weekend. Thinking about this now I believe she scraped my cervix. How else could she tell me (literally without a doubt) that I would have the baby that weekend? Altho she did assure me she did no such thing...
I went home from my appointment a little freaked out by the thought of having the baby within a couple days. It was the moment I had been waiting for forever, or so it seemed, and here it was so close and I was freaking out. But I worked through it and knew that in the end it would be worth it and the baby would be here perfect as can be.
So I did some last minute shopping, not knowing when I would go into labor, I didn’t want to leave the cupboards empty, and when I got home I did some cleaning.
Friday night Paul and I went to a friend’s house to see her new baby and hung out there until almost midnight. The whole time we were there I was having slight contractions, nothing painful – just tightening and uncomfortable a little. When we got in the car to go home I started having painful contractions. Of course I started timing them and noticed they were about five minutes apart and lasting a minute long. Now I realize these contrax weren't painful at all compared to what was coming
When we got home we decided that we should try to get some sleep in case this was it. However, Paul couldn’t settle down. He was totally freaking out on me and started cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming, etc. It was so funny to see him so nervous and not know what to do.
Finally we went to bed around one a.m. I was still having painful contractions every five minutes lasting about 45 seconds. Paul kept telling me to call the midwife and doula to see what they thought. So I called Jenny first. She of course told me to call the midwife and then call her back. So I did. Carol was on call Friday night and told me to drink a lot of water, lie on my side for 15 minutes, and take a relaxing bath. Since it was so early in the morning she was trying to help me become more comfortable and possibly stop the contractions long enough for us to get some sleep.
I drank two bottles of water and lay on my left side for 15 minutes, and that didn’t help the contractions at all. Then I decided to take a bath. The bath helped slow my contractions to seven minutes but they were still about 45 seconds long. I was begging baby not to come that night because I didn't want Carol to deliver I had a bad feeling about her and should have followed my instincts when I first met her. My midwives office had 4 midwives and it was a who,ever was on call is who you got. Carol was the only one I was nervous about.
We of course called Jenny back and she recommended the same things the midwife did. She told me that when I was ready for her to come she would, and to call her back every thirty minutes to keep her updated.
Since my contractions slowed down and became less intense I decided to get out of the bath tub. When I got into bed though they became five minutes apart again. I called the midwife back and told her this, of course she said I could come to the hospital anytime I wanted, but to try to get some rest and relax a little. I called Jenny told her that we were going to try to get some sleep.
We were finally able to fall asleep around 3:30 a.m. We didn’t even realize we had fallen asleep until we woke up at 5:30 a.m. and realized that my contractions had stopped. I got out of bed, very cautiously, to go to the bathroom. I was so afraid that my contractions would come back if I got up, but they didn’t… Until I got into bed! Then I had two more contractions and fell back asleep. We slept until almost 9:30 a.m.
When we woke up we called Jenny to let her know that the contractions had stopped. Of course she figured this when she didn’t hear back from us after 3:30 and didn’t want to call us in case we had fallen asleep. The midwife called at 10 a.m. to see how I was doing. I told her what had happened and she was happy that we were able to sleep and the contractions had stopped. Now Kathy was on call and she was the one that called. I started begging baby to come that day so Kathy would be the one on call. Kathy also told me that Carol would be on call Sat. night, Sun morning. I told baby it was now or never.
I was terrified to get out of bed! I was so afraid that the second I got up my contractions would come back. But eventually I had to get up to pee, so I slowly got out of bed and trekked my way to the bathroom. The contractions were gone, so I slowly ventured down stairs. After a while I concluded that they were gone for good, and started to feel more relaxed.
Paul and I spent our last Saturday alone cleaning the house – doing some laundry, cleaned out the fish tank, relaxed together, etc. We wanted to make sure we enjoyed our day. It was a wonderful day, doing nothing in particular, but accomplishing stuff at the same time. I was trying so hard to get labor started again. I was doing deep squats in the kitchen, braced on the counter. I even shoveled the snow off the drive way! Walked up and down the stairs, etc. Nothing was working to bring the contrx back.
We decided to go to bed around midnight Saturday night (technically Sunday morning). We slept really well until I woke up at 3:37 Sunday morning with the worse contraction ever. I had one, and laid there for a couple minutes waiting to see if I would have more, but I didn’t. So I got up to go to the bathroom.Ever contraction made me feel like I had to pee sooooo bad. For me that was the worst part, feeling like I had to pee but not being able to.
While on the toilet I felt a little pressure down below and thought “hmmm what was that?” When I wiped I saw this huge dark brown (old blood) ball of mucus. I was like “Oh my god, that’s my mucus plug!” I started freaking out. I screamed for Paul and of course it scared the crap out of him. He came running into the bathroom with this horrified look on his face and I showed him my mucus plug. Of course he didn’t know what to think. I suggested that we should get in bed and try to get some sleep because the baby was going to be here soon. Little did I know that “soon” was less than three hours!!! Paul thought my water had broken and was terrified. I wanted to keep my mucus plug, but Paul made me flush it
As soon as we got into bed and all comfy I started having extremely intense contractions every minute lasting a minute. I was screaming in pain and constantly felt like I had to pee. I’m not going to lie, those contractions freaking hurt! I kept trying to breath through them like Jenny had taught us, but I it seemed impossible to do. All I was doing was screaming and sitting on the toilet trying to pee. Paul was freaking out. I told him that I wanted to get into the tub and he should call Jenny and the midwife. So he ran me a bath while I was still screaming (thinking back I was grunting more then screaming) every minute on the toilet. Lol! As I was taking my gown off to get into the tub Paul came into the bathroom and said we were going to the hospital. The midwife had told him to bring me in right away and Jenny was already on her way to the hospital to meet us there.
So between contractions we made our way out to the car. It took us about 15 minutes to make our way to the car and leave because Paul had to put our bags in the car, make sure the pets were okay, etc.
It felt like the drive took forever. In reality it really was about 40 minutes, but it felt like hours. There was snow on the roads, so of course Paul was taking it really slow. I kept telling him to drive faster between screaming during my contractions. LOL! Of course he drove carefully. As we were going over the railroad tracks (Groesbeck and Hall) he suggested turning on the radio and having me concentrate on the music. I remember hearing “Lonesome Loser” by Little River Band. I don’t know why, but that is the only song I remember hearing. I should remember more songs because that song played while we were still 20 minutes away from the hospital, but I don’t.
We arrived at the hospital around 4:30 a.m. on March 9th; I don’t remember the exact time. We walked right into Triage and they checked me to see how dilated I was and asked for a urine sample. I couldn’t pee, so they never got their urine sample. When the nurse checked me she found that I was 7 centimeters dilated and fully effaced!!! As soon as she was done checking me Jenny arrived. I was so happy to see her. After she checked me, they put me in a wheel chair and wheeled me down to labor and delivery. That was the bumpiest wheel chair ride ever!!! Seriously, once Jenny arrived I was able to breath easier... just seeing her helped me relax.
When we arrived at labor and delivery they checked me again to see how dilated I was. Now remember, it had been less then 5 minutes since the last time I had been check, but I was already at 9 centimeters. The midwife (Carol O'Neil) came in and said she wanted to break my water. I wasn’t happy about this, but was so out of it from the contractions that I let her do it. I remember saying "No" when she said she wanted to break my water, but she gave me some "it'll help things so smoother/quicker" crap line so I relented.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but when the midwife broke my water she inserted an internal fetal monitor. I thought I felt a cord taped to my leg later on, but wasn’t sure. And Jenny saw her insert the IFM. I am not happy about this at all. I was never told they were going to do this procedure, and still haven’t been told. There was no “Informed Consent” involved in this decision because I was never told about it.
I don’t really remember a whole lot after she broke my water. The next thing I knew there was a man standing at the foot of the bed. He never introduced himself, never told anyone who he was, or anything like that. And the midwife was standing on my left side next to my head. I found out in the end that the man was Dr. McBride, brought in by the midwife to deliver Cooper with a vacuum extraction.
I remember them saying they were going to do a vacuum extraction. Paul asked a question about the procedure and Dr. McBride was pretty rude with him when he answered. I don’t remember what the question was, let alone the answer, but I do remember that Dr. McBride was very rude with his answer.
I also remember Jenny asking if we could try the squatting position to bring the baby down and Dr. McBride was very rude and condescending with her in his answer as well.
I remember the midwife telling Paul and Jenny to be quiet at one point. Paul was trying to get me to calm down and was calmly talking to me, so was Jenny. Carol literally told them to hush up because too many people were trying to talk to me and she was going to be the only one to coach me through the delivery. Now I would think if anyone could calm me down when I was fearful or upset it would be my husband, and a midwife should know this.
The next thing I knew they were telling me to push for ten seconds 3 times a contraction. Now there are a couple things wrong with this. First, that pushing like that is causing me to hold my breath for 30 seconds per contraction, which means Cooper was being deprived of oxygen. Second, that was just plain difficult (impossible) to do. I remember counting to ten in my head and ready to release my push and Dr. McBride still counting 6-7-8, I was so pissed every time I heard him doing this.
I remember that between pushes/contractions I was so relaxed and so exhausted that I was literally falling asleep. I thought it was only about 20 seconds between pushes and I was just resting my eyes, but Jenny and Paul assure me that it was about 2 minutes between pushes. So I must have been dozing off between pushes.
I remember at one point groping for Paul (he was at my right shoulder). When I grabbed him I pulled him close and gave him a kiss and told him that I loved him. I remember Jenny saying "aww how sweet" and Dr. McBride and Carol looking pissed.
I remember them telling me to stop pushing with my face and to stop grunting so much. I paid the price for pushing with my face though, in the end I burst a lot of blood vessels in my face and therefore had red spots all over my face for about 24 hours. And as for the grunting, I did have a sore throat for a few hours after Cooper was born. Carol pissed me off when she told me to be quiet. She literally said "be quiet. the grunting and noises aren't helping"...
I remember Dr. McBride finally talking to me. He told me they were going to do a vacuum extraction to help the baby come out. That I could push for an hour and have the baby or they could do the vacuum and the baby would be here in five minutes. I remember saying I wanted to push, of course this was completely ignored by him and everyone else in the room except Jenny and Paul.
At one point Dr. McBride asked for an IV to be placed in my arm. I said I didn’t want and IV but they did it anyways. (without me even realizing it) I’m sure this was in preparation for an “emergency” C-Section… Emergency my ass! He also asked for some Lidocaine to numb my perineum for the episiotomy he was about to perform. Again, we all told him that I did NOT want an episiotomy, but were completely ignored. Literally, every time we said we didn’t want something he didn’t even acknowledge that we had spoken. Such an ass! Sometimes he would just glare at Jenny, Paul, and I when we would protest, but for the most part we were just ignored.
I can remember him trying to stretch me in preparation for the vacuum placement. He placed the vacuum without needing to perform the episiotomy, and I thought this meant that he wasn’t going to do one. But when the babies head started to crown he snipped me, which was completely unnecessary.
So lets recap – My birth plan has been thrown completely out the window! I now have an IV in my arm, an episiotomy has been performed, they are using a vacuum to SUCK my baby out of me, we can’t try any pushing positions except flat on my back, the midwife is no longer me, there is an OBGYN in the room (not to mention about 20 other people just standing around), and my water has been artificially ruptured. Yea, I would say my birth plan was thrown out the window. I honestly believe that NO ONE in that room ever even read my birth plan, including the Carol O’Neil, and she should have been the one that had it memorized. There really were over 20 people standing around the room... doing nothing, just watching. I remember one girl sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed watching, and Paul said there was a guy leaning on the door frame YAWNING while I was delivering Cooper. looking back I know they were on call for an emergency c.
Moving on - the babies head is crowing, and yes it burned like hell! Jenny told me that the babies head was out and to reach down and touch it. Dr. McBride did not look happy when I reached down and touched Coopers head, but honestly I don’t give a shit what he thinks! It was the most amazing thing to feel Coopers head, to know that was my baby, and in a matter of minutes he would be laying on my tummy.
The next thing I knew Cooper was here. I don’t remember any sensations or feelings when his body was delivered, don’t remember any pain. I just remember them placing Cooper on my stomach and hearing Paul cry out “It’s a boy. Coopers here, he made it! We have our little boy! Coopers here.” Paul was actually crying, I don’t remember seeing the tears because honestly I didn’t look at him for a while; I was staring at my baby for the longest time! But I remember hearing the tears in his voice. It was a great feeling to hear the happiness in his voice and hear the excitement.
Cooper had a little bit of blood on him, but that was from the episiotomy Dr. McBride performed. It was such a great feeling to look down and see Cooper, to feel his body in my arms after feeling him in my belly for all those months. I remember Jenny taking some pictures – thank god she remembered her camera because we totally forgot ours! Paul was standing next to my head and we were admiring Cooper so much. He latched on to my breast almost immediately. It was great!
I remember Paul cutting the cord – again this was done BEFORE it stopped pulsing. It was plainly written in my birth plan that we wanted to wait until the cord stopped pulsing before it was cut. But I was in such bliss and admiration that I didn’t think anything of it at the time.
The next thing I knew they were taking Cooper. I totally put up a fight on this though! I kept yelling for them to bring my baby back. Paul went over to the table with Cooper while they were doing whatever the hell they thought was so damn important that it couldn’t wait. I remember yelling for Cooper to come back to me. I remember hearing the nurse say they had to finish what they were doing and that Cooper’s Apgar scores were 8 and 9 (10 in the best). With his Apgars being so high there was NO reason for them to not bring him back to me. I was ready to get up and go get my baby, still bleeding or not, I didn’t care, I just wanted my baby brought back to me. I told Paul to just pick him up and bring him to me (what were they going to do about it?! Lol) when I said that they finally brought him back to me. I guess they realized I meant what I was saying.
I later found out that they deep suctioned him… Again no one told me about this procedure being done, and still haven’t. I believe this is the reason he has not latched on very well since his initial latch. He tried to latch on when they finally brought him back to me and his throat was sore he couldn’t do it. They also put the anitbiotics in Cooper's eyes, again this was something that was clearly stated in my birth plan that we did not want to happen. I immediately wiped it off, which of course made me get very nasty looks from the nurses and sternly told them I did NOT want it.
In the meantime, Dr. McBride was pushing on my tummy trying to deliver the placenta. He was getting frustrated that it wasn’t coming out on his time schedule. In reality, if they would have left Cooper with me to nurse the placenta would have been delivered much sooner… Breast feeding causes the uterus to contract and has been medically proven to deliver the placenta in a shorter amount of time… Stupid doctor. (As you can tell, I have absolutely no respect for the doctor OR the midwife that was on call when I gave birth to Cooper.)
Finally Cooper was brought back to me. We tried breast feeding but he wasn’t happy about it because of the deep suction. I remember when they first took him away from me he was so calm, but as soon as the nurse picked him up he started screaming and he screamed the whole time he was away from me. As soon as he was laid back on my chest he stopped crying! It was amazing. He knew who his mommy was and knew that he wanted to be with me! Truly amazing.
After about 20 minutes my placenta came out. I didn’t really care for the feeling of it being delivered. It didn’t hurt because the placenta is soft and mushy; it was more like a big plop, like taking a big poop out of your vagina. And Dr. McBride finally left, not even saying that he was leaving, he was just gone. He never did introduce himself though. Some doctor huh? Paul says that he did shake his hand and say "congratulations" but he never spoke, let alone looked, at me.
Finally everyone was gone from my delivery room and we were left alone, just Jenny, Paul, Cooper and I, and a nurse was typing on a computer in there. Carol came back in about an hour after the delivery to talk to me (I had her remove my IV immediately, it was not necessary to begin with). I feel that everything she said was a load of crap. She even told Jenny that she wasn’t a good Doula! I still can’t believe she was so rude to everyone. If she had an issue with Jenny she should have talked to her in private, not in front of the clients (we were clients of Carol AND Jenny). That was completely inappropriate. I don’t really remember everything she said – it was something like this “Cooper is here and healthy, we did what we had to do.” It has never been explained to me why Dr. McBride was brought in, why a vacuum extraction was needed (especially for a 5 lb baby!), why an episiotomy was done (again, for a 5 lb baby!), etc.
Jenny believes that they were embarrassed by all the procedures they did on myself and Cooper when they saw how small Cooper was. And I agree. That would be embarrassing to do a vacuum extraction, episiotomy, IV, etc when I had only been in labor for a couple of hours and my baby turned out to only weigh 5 pounds and was 18 inches long. Very embarrassing for them. Maybe they need some more training – wait, God no, that’s the last thing they need! Maybe they need to lose their license because they obviously lack bedside manor, Informed Consent knowledge, etc.
So that is my birth story. Scary huh? And here I thought changing from an OBGYN to a Certified Nurse Midwife would allow us to have the birth we wanted, boy was I wrong. I can make one promise right now; our next baby will be born at a water home birth! Our Doula, Jenny, is now starting her journey to become a home-birth midwife; we will definitely be using her for the delivery of our next child! I am never stepping foot in a hospital again. And after my 6 week check up I doubt I’ll be returning to the midwives office, which is a shame because I really liked the other 4 midwives that work there, but I am not giving that practice anymore of our money!
While I believe I received exceptional prenatal care, I believe our birth was a total sham. We were disrespected, ignored, and belittled throughout the whole process. I will never again be made to feel that way. Fortunately, I am a strong woman and will not let them bring me down! I am not letting this experience depress me; instead I am using it as a learning experience. Jenny tried to warn us against a hospital birth and we wouldn’t listen (well Paul wouldn’t, I was on board for a home birth from the beginning).
We arrived at the hospital around 4:30 a.m. on March 9th; I don’t remember the exact time. We walked right into Triage and they checked me to see how dilated I was and asked for a urine sample. I couldn’t pee, so they never got their urine sample. When the nurse checked me she found that I was 7 centimeters dilated and fully effaced!!! As soon as she was done checking me Jenny arrived. I was so happy to see her. After she checked me, they put me in a wheel chair and wheeled me down to labor and delivery. That was the bumpiest wheel chair ride ever!!! Seriously, once Jenny arrived I was able to breath easier... just seeing her helped me relax.
When we arrived at labor and delivery they checked me again to see how dilated I was. Now remember, it had been less then 5 minutes since the last time I had been check, but I was already at 9 centimeters. The midwife (Carol O'Neil) came in and said she wanted to break my water. I wasn’t happy about this, but was so out of it from the contractions that I let her do it. I remember saying "No" when she said she wanted to break my water, but she gave me some "it'll help things so smoother/quicker" crap line so I relented.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but when the midwife broke my water she inserted an internal fetal monitor. I thought I felt a cord taped to my leg later on, but wasn’t sure. And Jenny saw her insert the IFM. I am not happy about this at all. I was never told they were going to do this procedure, and still haven’t been told. There was no “Informed Consent” involved in this decision because I was never told about it.
I don’t really remember a whole lot after she broke my water. The next thing I knew there was a man standing at the foot of the bed. He never introduced himself, never told anyone who he was, or anything like that. And the midwife was standing on my left side next to my head. I found out in the end that the man was Dr. McBride, brought in by the midwife to deliver Cooper with a vacuum extraction.
I remember them saying they were going to do a vacuum extraction. Paul asked a question about the procedure and Dr. McBride was pretty rude with him when he answered. I don’t remember what the question was, let alone the answer, but I do remember that Dr. McBride was very rude with his answer.
I also remember Jenny asking if we could try the squatting position to bring the baby down and Dr. McBride was very rude and condescending with her in his answer as well.
I remember the midwife telling Paul and Jenny to be quiet at one point. Paul was trying to get me to calm down and was calmly talking to me, so was Jenny. Carol literally told them to hush up because too many people were trying to talk to me and she was going to be the only one to coach me through the delivery. Now I would think if anyone could calm me down when I was fearful or upset it would be my husband, and a midwife should know this.
The next thing I knew they were telling me to push for ten seconds 3 times a contraction. Now there are a couple things wrong with this. First, that pushing like that is causing me to hold my breath for 30 seconds per contraction, which means Cooper was being deprived of oxygen. Second, that was just plain difficult (impossible) to do. I remember counting to ten in my head and ready to release my push and Dr. McBride still counting 6-7-8, I was so pissed every time I heard him doing this.
I remember that between pushes/contractions I was so relaxed and so exhausted that I was literally falling asleep. I thought it was only about 20 seconds between pushes and I was just resting my eyes, but Jenny and Paul assure me that it was about 2 minutes between pushes. So I must have been dozing off between pushes.
I remember at one point groping for Paul (he was at my right shoulder). When I grabbed him I pulled him close and gave him a kiss and told him that I loved him. I remember Jenny saying "aww how sweet" and Dr. McBride and Carol looking pissed.
I remember them telling me to stop pushing with my face and to stop grunting so much. I paid the price for pushing with my face though, in the end I burst a lot of blood vessels in my face and therefore had red spots all over my face for about 24 hours. And as for the grunting, I did have a sore throat for a few hours after Cooper was born. Carol pissed me off when she told me to be quiet. She literally said "be quiet. the grunting and noises aren't helping"...
I remember Dr. McBride finally talking to me. He told me they were going to do a vacuum extraction to help the baby come out. That I could push for an hour and have the baby or they could do the vacuum and the baby would be here in five minutes. I remember saying I wanted to push, of course this was completely ignored by him and everyone else in the room except Jenny and Paul.
At one point Dr. McBride asked for an IV to be placed in my arm. I said I didn’t want and IV but they did it anyways. (without me even realizing it) I’m sure this was in preparation for an “emergency” C-Section… Emergency my ass! He also asked for some Lidocaine to numb my perineum for the episiotomy he was about to perform. Again, we all told him that I did NOT want an episiotomy, but were completely ignored. Literally, every time we said we didn’t want something he didn’t even acknowledge that we had spoken. Such an ass! Sometimes he would just glare at Jenny, Paul, and I when we would protest, but for the most part we were just ignored.
I can remember him trying to stretch me in preparation for the vacuum placement. He placed the vacuum without needing to perform the episiotomy, and I thought this meant that he wasn’t going to do one. But when the babies head started to crown he snipped me, which was completely unnecessary.
So lets recap – My birth plan has been thrown completely out the window! I now have an IV in my arm, an episiotomy has been performed, they are using a vacuum to SUCK my baby out of me, we can’t try any pushing positions except flat on my back, the midwife is no longer me, there is an OBGYN in the room (not to mention about 20 other people just standing around), and my water has been artificially ruptured. Yea, I would say my birth plan was thrown out the window. I honestly believe that NO ONE in that room ever even read my birth plan, including the Carol O’Neil, and she should have been the one that had it memorized. There really were over 20 people standing around the room... doing nothing, just watching. I remember one girl sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed watching, and Paul said there was a guy leaning on the door frame YAWNING while I was delivering Cooper. looking back I know they were on call for an emergency c.
Moving on - the babies head is crowing, and yes it burned like hell! Jenny told me that the babies head was out and to reach down and touch it. Dr. McBride did not look happy when I reached down and touched Coopers head, but honestly I don’t give a shit what he thinks! It was the most amazing thing to feel Coopers head, to know that was my baby, and in a matter of minutes he would be laying on my tummy.
The next thing I knew Cooper was here. I don’t remember any sensations or feelings when his body was delivered, don’t remember any pain. I just remember them placing Cooper on my stomach and hearing Paul cry out “It’s a boy. Coopers here, he made it! We have our little boy! Coopers here.” Paul was actually crying, I don’t remember seeing the tears because honestly I didn’t look at him for a while; I was staring at my baby for the longest time! But I remember hearing the tears in his voice. It was a great feeling to hear the happiness in his voice and hear the excitement.
Cooper had a little bit of blood on him, but that was from the episiotomy Dr. McBride performed. It was such a great feeling to look down and see Cooper, to feel his body in my arms after feeling him in my belly for all those months. I remember Jenny taking some pictures – thank god she remembered her camera because we totally forgot ours! Paul was standing next to my head and we were admiring Cooper so much. He latched on to my breast almost immediately. It was great!
I remember Paul cutting the cord – again this was done BEFORE it stopped pulsing. It was plainly written in my birth plan that we wanted to wait until the cord stopped pulsing before it was cut. But I was in such bliss and admiration that I didn’t think anything of it at the time.
The next thing I knew they were taking Cooper. I totally put up a fight on this though! I kept yelling for them to bring my baby back. Paul went over to the table with Cooper while they were doing whatever the hell they thought was so damn important that it couldn’t wait. I remember yelling for Cooper to come back to me. I remember hearing the nurse say they had to finish what they were doing and that Cooper’s Apgar scores were 8 and 9 (10 in the best). With his Apgars being so high there was NO reason for them to not bring him back to me. I was ready to get up and go get my baby, still bleeding or not, I didn’t care, I just wanted my baby brought back to me. I told Paul to just pick him up and bring him to me (what were they going to do about it?! Lol) when I said that they finally brought him back to me. I guess they realized I meant what I was saying.
I later found out that they deep suctioned him… Again no one told me about this procedure being done, and still haven’t. I believe this is the reason he has not latched on very well since his initial latch. He tried to latch on when they finally brought him back to me and his throat was sore he couldn’t do it. They also put the anitbiotics in Cooper's eyes, again this was something that was clearly stated in my birth plan that we did not want to happen. I immediately wiped it off, which of course made me get very nasty looks from the nurses and sternly told them I did NOT want it.
In the meantime, Dr. McBride was pushing on my tummy trying to deliver the placenta. He was getting frustrated that it wasn’t coming out on his time schedule. In reality, if they would have left Cooper with me to nurse the placenta would have been delivered much sooner… Breast feeding causes the uterus to contract and has been medically proven to deliver the placenta in a shorter amount of time… Stupid doctor. (As you can tell, I have absolutely no respect for the doctor OR the midwife that was on call when I gave birth to Cooper.)
Finally Cooper was brought back to me. We tried breast feeding but he wasn’t happy about it because of the deep suction. I remember when they first took him away from me he was so calm, but as soon as the nurse picked him up he started screaming and he screamed the whole time he was away from me. As soon as he was laid back on my chest he stopped crying! It was amazing. He knew who his mommy was and knew that he wanted to be with me! Truly amazing.
After about 20 minutes my placenta came out. I didn’t really care for the feeling of it being delivered. It didn’t hurt because the placenta is soft and mushy; it was more like a big plop, like taking a big poop out of your vagina. And Dr. McBride finally left, not even saying that he was leaving, he was just gone. He never did introduce himself though. Some doctor huh? Paul says that he did shake his hand and say "congratulations" but he never spoke, let alone looked, at me.
Finally everyone was gone from my delivery room and we were left alone, just Jenny, Paul, Cooper and I, and a nurse was typing on a computer in there. Carol came back in about an hour after the delivery to talk to me (I had her remove my IV immediately, it was not necessary to begin with). I feel that everything she said was a load of crap. She even told Jenny that she wasn’t a good Doula! I still can’t believe she was so rude to everyone. If she had an issue with Jenny she should have talked to her in private, not in front of the clients (we were clients of Carol AND Jenny). That was completely inappropriate. I don’t really remember everything she said – it was something like this “Cooper is here and healthy, we did what we had to do.” It has never been explained to me why Dr. McBride was brought in, why a vacuum extraction was needed (especially for a 5 lb baby!), why an episiotomy was done (again, for a 5 lb baby!), etc.
Jenny believes that they were embarrassed by all the procedures they did on myself and Cooper when they saw how small Cooper was. And I agree. That would be embarrassing to do a vacuum extraction, episiotomy, IV, etc when I had only been in labor for a couple of hours and my baby turned out to only weigh 5 pounds and was 18 inches long. Very embarrassing for them. Maybe they need some more training – wait, God no, that’s the last thing they need! Maybe they need to lose their license because they obviously lack bedside manor, Informed Consent knowledge, etc.
So that is my birth story. Scary huh? And here I thought changing from an OBGYN to a Certified Nurse Midwife would allow us to have the birth we wanted, boy was I wrong. I can make one promise right now; our next baby will be born at a water home birth! Our Doula, Jenny, is now starting her journey to become a home-birth midwife; we will definitely be using her for the delivery of our next child! I am never stepping foot in a hospital again. And after my 6 week check up I doubt I’ll be returning to the midwives office, which is a shame because I really liked the other 4 midwives that work there, but I am not giving that practice anymore of our money!
While I believe I received exceptional prenatal care, I believe our birth was a total sham. We were disrespected, ignored, and belittled throughout the whole process. I will never again be made to feel that way. Fortunately, I am a strong woman and will not let them bring me down! I am not letting this experience depress me; instead I am using it as a learning experience. Jenny tried to warn us against a hospital birth and we wouldn’t listen (well Paul wouldn’t, I was on board for a home birth from the beginning).
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