JKH birth story
In honor of Joseph’s first 6 months, I am posting his birth story.
There is nothing like birthing to bring a woman into full embodiment of herself…
Enjoy!
Joseph Kilen Houser
Birth Story
August 9, 2009
11:32pm
7lbs 10oz 20 inches
As we prepared for the birth of our son, we had lots of hopes and fears about what birth would be like. Right from the beginning of my pregnancy, I had to accept the fact that the birthing wouldn’t be the at-home-water-birth-attended-by- a-midwife that I imagined. At our first appointment with the midwife, we were quickly labeled high-risk, thanks to a previous surgery to remove an extra ureter and high blood pressure history. We found the OBs at MAHEC thanks to a referral from a friend, and they were an awesome combination of medical with Asheville-mindedness.
One thing I was sure of… I welcomed the experience of laboring. I have witnessed several women in my circle completely transform after their experience of laboring into motherhood. I wanted that ritual, that feeling of breaking down the old Heidi to prepare the ground for mama Heidi, working with my husband by my side to bring our dream into the world. I wanted to cross over to the other side and be able to say “I birthed!” ~ no matter what the birthing looked like. I wanted to know I was that strong.
To prepare for childbirth, Kelly and I had taken the Bradley Method childbirth classes with Susan Mooney in Fairview. These classes were fun and very informational. They gave us the information we needed to confidently navigate all of the decision points along the birth process; the first decision being whether or not to be induced. This decision was tricky because at 32 weeks, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I had made the appropriate changes to my pregnancy diet, was taking a small dose of glyburide daily and was having weekly non-stress tests to monitor the growth and well-being of the baby. Because of this diagnosis, the doctor was concerned about letting us go too far past Joseph’s due date of August 1st. We had learned in the Bradley class that the average first pregnancy lasts 41 weeks and 1 day, and that inducing labor before the baby was ready to come into the world often led down a slippery slope that could end in a c-section. For this reason, when our OB started recommending induction, we continued to ask her for a little more time.
We tried all of the recommended natural induction techniques… lots of walking, swimming at our friends’ Patrick and Sandi’s pool, spicy food, sex and of course, castor oil. On Monday, August 3rd, we had an appointment with our OB, Dr. Currens, and she hesitantly let us leave without taking her induction recommendation. She stated that medically she would strongly recommend us to go in for an induction, but she understood from our birth plan our desire to have labor start naturally, and was honoring this choice. We returned on Thursday, August 6th, our 4th anniversary, and the OB noted that my blood pressure had been creeping up. She was concerned about possible development of preclampsia, and again strongly recommended induction. She agreed to give us over the weekend, IF we would do a non-stress test, an ultrasound and a 24 hour urine test to check for signs of preclampsia. We “passed” the non-stress test and the ultrasound, and left with the gallon jug for urine collection. That night we went out to eat for our anniversary at Pomodoro’s with Kelly’s parents. Kelly was born on his parent’s anniversary, so we thought this might be good encouragement for the baby to come that night, but no luck.
On Friday, August 7th, we went in to drop off the jug-o-pee. They sprang another blood pressure check and non-stress test on us and stated they would call us with the results of the 24 hour urine test. It was obvious that the pressure was on, so that night I attempted the grand castor oil cocktail induction recommendation we had from Susan Mooney. This procedure involved taking a concoction of 2 ounces of castor oil, 2 ounces of vodka and 2 ounces of orange juice. After shooting this down, I was to take a hot shower, and then repeat this process every hour for 2 more times. Susan said if it didn’t work after the 3rd time, it was a sign my body was still not ready for labor. I will spare the details about the effects of the castor oil… but despite this grand effort, I did not go into labor that night.
The next morning the 24 hour urine test came back that I had developed preclampsia, and all of a sudden it was urgent for us to get the baby into the world. Kelly and I packed our bags, had brunch at the Sugarbeet Café (our last meal out without a baby in tow), then headed to the hospital. We made the highly anticipated call to my older sister, Katie, who was our doula, and to our excitedly a-waiting families in Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Knoxville. Katie arrived to the hospital just a little after we did, and we sent her to Greenlife to get us some contraband snacks.
We were induced with pitocin on Saturday August 8th at 2:30PM. During this beginning stage, Kelly and I made lots of rounds walking the hospital. We were excited, joking around, and even convinced our first nurse, Liz, that we were going to name our baby Turd Ferguson (from a Best of Mike Myers SNL skit we watched the night before). It took awhile for the contractions to get going. When the pitocin finally kicked in and the contractions started, not much movement happened. Upon checking my cervix, I had only dilated 1 cm. It was discovered that I had cervical scar tissue that was preventing me from dilating. Our night nurse, Amy, went to search out a Foley bulb, which is a device used to manually expand the cervix. At this point, the contractions started to become pretty painful. Around 5am, I got to go into the birthing tub for about 1 1/2 hours. That was one of the best parts of laboring because the pain was much more manageable in the tub and I was able to really go with the rhythm of the contractions. I closed my eyes when the contractions came and just let them wash over me. I could have stayed in the tub the whole labor if they had let me.
But being in the hot water shot my pressure up even more, and the baby’s too. At this point, which was about 7am in the morning Sunday August 9th, I still had only dilated 1 cm. The doctor put me on magnesium for my blood pressure, which I was very resistant to because I knew it would make me feel even worse. The doctor explained that she didn’t feel comfortable letting us labor too much longer, but I knew that my body was just not ready to open up. We told her we were afraid that if we did an epidural too early, it could stall the already slow labor and lead to a c-section. We felt it was a timing issue. She explained that due to the blood pressure issues, we were already on limited time until a c-section would be necessary.
She left to let us continue laboring and contemplate our choices. At this point I was having back labor, which was crazy painful. This part of the labor was the most challenging for me. Every time a contraction came, I leaned over and moaned “this is not what I wanted” while Katie and Kelly put pressure on my back. Our nurse during this time, Rachel, was a god send. I felt like she came to us right from the pages of Anita Diamant’s novel “The Red Tent.” Having her and Katie by my side helped me cope with the pain and accept the direction the labor was going.
This was the pivotal moment because I felt like we had the information we needed that prevented us from having a c-section. I continued to measure only 1 cm of dilation. We thought an epidural at this time would help my body relax and hopefully help the laboring more effectively open my cervix. Despite our hopes and preparation for having a natural childbirth, choosing to have an epidural at that moment was the right decision for us.
We summoned the Nurse Anesthetist for the epidural. Despite the pain, I was with it enough to recognize that the Nurse Anesthetist was a hottie, and wondered if I could set him up with my sister, Katie, before I noticed his wedding ring. Katie was asking him a lot of detailed questions about the procedure, which was making me cringe. I had to ask them to stop being so specific about what was going on in my back. The epidural relaxed me so they could go in and break-up the scar tissue. After that procedure, I was able to get a little sleep. From there I dilated pretty smoothly and was able to start pushing around 8:30pm.
During the pushing stage I felt strong and very in tune with my body. The physical structure of the pushing sensation felt just like doing cat/cow in yoga, curling my tailbone around the push. Because I had the epidural, I didn’t have much sensation in my legs, so Kelly had one leg and Katie had the other. Kelly was a rock star during this part of the labor. He was so supportive; encouraging me and cheering me on. Our nurse at this point, Brandy, sat at the end of the table like a catcher in a softball game. She was very experienced, maybe a little too complacent in her role. She kept taking cell phone calls from her kids and at one point I told Katie to ask her to take her phone calls outside of the hospital room. She left the room and came back in, checked our progress and said there didn’t seem to be enough movement for how long we had been pushing and that she was going to tell the doctor.
She left to find a doctor, and I was glad she was gone. I felt confident that this baby was coming out though the birth canal, and in my mind there was no room in that hospital room for anyone who doubted me. In spite of a lifetime of self-doubt, in this moment, after all we had been through in the labor, I felt so confident in my body and in my self. And I felt unstoppable with my kick ass support team of my husband and my sister at my side.
A doctor eventually came in, one of the MAHEC residents, and she was able to guide us through the final stage. The excitement built as the baby’s head made small movements with each push ~ 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Kelly started getting really excited when he saw the crown of the head, and he helped me reach my hand down so that I could feel the head as it peeked out. This action helped encourage me to keep up the intensity of the pushing. I felt fortunate that I could still experience the sensations of the baby coming through the birth canal despite the epidural. Joseph finally made his appearance Sunday night, August 9th, at 11:32pm. Kelly got to cut the cord and I got to hold my sweet baby right away (after he was cleared by the neonatal nurses). Overall the labor was 33 hours.
Those first few moments holding our beautiful baby boy in my arms was an indescribable feeling.
Love. Amazement. Exhaustion. Happiness.
