Sunday, September 20, 2009

D's Birth Story

D and her husband called me earlier in the night around 9pm. Her husband wanted to let me know what was going on. It sounded like D was in labor with her first baby!

I had met this couple initially in the office and seen them a couple times throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. D had initially expressed an interest in having an epidural for her labor. When I saw her again towards the end of the pregnancy, she told me that she wanted to wait awhile but then would get an epidural unless I would convince her to do otherwise. I didn't - I told her that she was the only one that could make that decision. I didn't see her again until she came in for labor.

When her husband called me, he said she was contracting regularly but could talk when she was having them and they were about every 5-6 minutes. It sounded like they could stay home for awhile still. She had been 2/80/-2 in the office that day when seeing Lylaine. I asked him about her plans for pain management and was she still planning an epidural. He told me not necessarily. Cool :)

I got the call from L&D about 1:30am that D and her family had arrived. She was 8-9/100/-1 and didn't want anything for pain. I got myself out of bed and headed in to the hospital as quickly as I could. When I arrived, she was coping beautifully with her contractions. Her husband was at her side for support as well as her parents. D tried the tub for a bit but then wanted to get out and lay down for awhile. She laid on her side, while I rubbed her back. Eventually her water broke - with a very loud pop and a tidal wave all over the bed! We got dry linens on the bed while D began to feel like she needed to push. I checked her to discover she was 10/100/+1 - and told D that she could push whenever she felt ready too. We were checking the baby's heartbeat intermittently and baby was doing wonderful.

D stayed in a side-lying position to push. After pushing for just over an hour she delivered a beautiful little girl over an intact perineum, weighing in at 6 pounds 14 ounces. Her control during crowning was amazing. Her and her husband did a fantastic job with natural childbirth!

Congrats guys!

(posted with D's permission)

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