Dianne’s Birth Story
To begin, I want to share that I both loved and hated my pregnancy. Just like everything else in life, there were good times and bad. Once I overcame that first trimester nausea, I felt pretty amazing. I was working 6 days a week as a nurse and exercising regularly, until third trimester came and I developed pelvic and sciatic pain which slowed me down. I had also developed swelling all over my body including pretty impressive pitting edema to my legs and feet. While at my routine OB appointment at 38 weeks and 3 days, they found my blood pressure to be elevated and I was sent to the hospital for further assessment. While in hospital, they were able to rule out pre-eclampsia, however my blood pressure continued to elevate and the best course of action at that time was to be induced. The doctor told me I was 2cm dilated, she performed a membrane sweep, and shortly after I was allowed to go home and wait for a bed to open up in the L&D unit.
Around 4:30pm, my husband and I anxiously made our way back to the hospital and I was officially admitted to the unit. By 6:29pm, the doctor had broken my water, the nurse started me on Oxytocin to get things started.
For most of the evening I was uncomfortable with cramps, but with deep breathing and relaxation, dare I say, the discomfort was tolerable. Fortunately, my nurse had warned me that there was only 1 anesthetist available in the entire hospital and that I could be waiting quite some time to have an epidural inserted, so I should notify her when my pain worsens. At around 10pm my cramping began to intensify (I was only 4-5 cm at this time). While I was still able to breathe through the pain, knowing that there could potentially be a long wait, I asked to have the anesthetist notified. To my surprise, she arrived a few minutes later. Due to my swelling, the nurses had a difficult time doing my blood work and inserting my IV, so yes, what I had feared actually happened- the doctor had an incredibly difficult time inserting my epidural. While this procedure should only take 10-15 minutes, the anesthetist took about an hour and multiple attempts until she was finally able to successfully place it in the correct spot. My cramps had worsened so I can’t even explain how happy I was that she was finally able to do it. I started to feel relief pretty quickly (I could still feel pressure but the pain itself was improving). I was able to relax for only short period of time until I felt super intense pressure 'down below’; a very different sensation to what I had felt before. The time was 11:30pm (maybe only 15 min after the epidural insertion), when I called my nurse and whispered to her “I feel like my vagina is about to explode”. She did a cervical check and sure enough i was at 9.5cm. All i can say is, thank God that epidural went in when it did.
I started pushing at 1:55am with 2 nurses at the end of my bed, and my husband at my side. The environment was very calm and happy, which is the exact opposite of what I had imagined for the last 9 months. We even had The Office playing on the TV and the 4 of us would giggle together in between my contractions. The nurse and I agreed to lower my epidural dose so that I can increase my feeling down below as this will apparently help with pushing the baby out. She said it would help with when and where to target my pushing. When it came close to welcoming my baby to the world, the doctor (along with the OB fellow & medical student), and anesthetist came back into my room to finish off the delivery.
My beautiful baby girl was born at 2:37am. It was a difficult, uncomfortable but also incredible 42 minutes. I felt an immediate release and relief as soon as I pushed her out, and I think shock came over me because I truly cannot remember what happened for the first few minutes after that (i.e. I don’t remember my husband cutting the cord, or who passed me my baby post-delivery). I always dreamt I would be drenched in happy tears once I got to hold her but instead, I didn’t cry at all. I believe it was truly a state of shock and disbelief of what I just did. I looked over at my husband, and he had the exact same look of disbelief. Our lives forever changed.