Elina Helen Freidenfelt- Born February 12th, 2013
I
woke up at 1AM on Monday, February 11th with contractions. They weren’t painful, but they were enough to
keep me from going back to sleep. I went
downstairs, curled up on the couch, and started timing them. They seemed to be pretty regular, so I woke
Alex up around 3AM. They continued through
the morning, so I decided it was best not to go into school that day. I wasn’t sure if labor had actually started,
but these contractions were different than the intermittent ones I had been
experiencing, so I thought I should stay home.
Around 7AM, I called our midwife, Chris, and she said it sounded like
the real thing and to keep her posted.
At this point, Alex was timing my contractions using an app on the
iPad. I was still pretty comfortable,
and our goal was to rest as much as possible.
Little did we know how long it would be from this point.
Throughout
the day, I labored well. We moved all
around the house, staying active, and changing positions (like we had learned
in our childbirth classes). I made sure
to eat and drink regularly to keep my energy up. We went for a nice walk on the trails near
our house. At this point, contractions
were strong enough to make me stop when I was having one. Alex supported me through each one. We continued for a few more hours, and then
Alex called our doula to come over.
Kristin arrived around 3:00 Monday afternoon.
Having
Kristin arrive was reassuring. It was
nice to know that everything was normally progressing as contractions picked up
in strength and duration. I still
wouldn’t describe them as painful. I
could still breathe through them, and I was feeling really good about what my
body was doing. Kristin and Alex were
amazing coaches. They were there through
every contraction, offering massage on my hips and lower back, which was a
great help. I found it comforting to
have my arms around Alex during contractions.
Towards the late hours of the evening, Kristin was in communication with
Chris, our midwife. Chris listened to a
few of my contractions over the phone.
They started getting stronger and longer, and Chris asked us to come
into the Birth Center shortly after midnight.
At this point, I had been in labor for about 24 hours.
The
drive to the Birth Center felt ceremonial.
I remember driving down Sahalee Way with Alex, tearing up realizing how
close we were to meeting our baby girl.
I had about 5 contractions on the drive.
Alex held my hand and helped me breathe through each one. I remember repeating the words, “Open, open,
open” to remind myself what I was feeling in my body. We made it to the birth center around
12:30. Chris checked me upon arrival,
and we were ecstatic when she said we were already 8-9 centimeters. Knowing I was already in transition made me
feel on top of the world, like I was totally able to handle everything naturally.
I
happily got into the tub after being checked.
It felt like such a relief; I understand why they call it “nature’s
epidural.” My mom and my sister arrived
shortly thereafter. Megan put on some
nice music and helped light candles around the tub. The atmosphere was very serene and peaceful-
exactly what I had imagined.
Contractions were continuing to get stronger. I remember needed silence from everyone
during contractions. I later found out
that I was really cute about always using “please and thank you” with each
request. In our classes, we learned that
formalities often go out the window at this stage of labor. I must’ve been trying to break that pattern.
Chris
checked me in the tub, and she discovered a swollen cervical lip. She tried to push it out of the way while I
pushed, but that didn’t work. At this
point, she had me get out of the tub because the heat would make it worse. Our birth experience drastically transformed
from this moment on.
The
next few hours were spent trying to push back my cervical lip using a
combination of different techniques. I
labored in several different positions: hands and knees, side lying, leaning
over a birthing ball, trying the birthing stool, etc. They gave me Arnica to help with the
swelling. As time went on, the
contractions reached a level of being excruciatingly painful. The urge to push kicked in, but I wasn’t at
10 cm. yet, so my body wasn’t technically ready to push. Around 3:30, I was checked again, and the
swelling had really increased. The urge
to push was uncontrollable, and I pushed through the next contraction. We all heard a loud “POP,” and with that my
membranes ruptured in what felt like a tidal wave. We tried more different positions, lots of
Arnica, and nothing seemed to get the rest of that lip out of the way. My body wanted to push through each
contraction, which felt like pushing against the worst bruise of my life. I couldn’t help but scream through
contractions at this point. Nothing
helped, the pain was intolerable, and I wasn’t progressing. It was decided it was time to transfer to the
hospital.
Chris
knew this was a likely outcome, so she had already set everything up behind the
scenes without my knowing. When the
decision was made to go, she was ready to make it as smooth as possible. I knew I needed pain relief, so she started
an IV of fluids, so there would be no delay in administering the epidural once
we arrived at UW Medical Center. Alex
and I rode in Chris’ car with my IV bag hanging from the dry cleaning hook in
her back seat. Just before we left, I
looked out the window, and noticed my mom and my sister watching, looking very
upset. I was in my own world at this
point, but it must have looked pretty scary from the outside. I later found out that my mom had asked Chris
what would’ve happened back in the day.
She bluntly told my mom that the baby or the mom would often die if
medical intervention wasn’t available.
Chris encouraged me to pant through the contractions in the car, but it
felt almost impossible with the persistent urge to push. The pushing led to screaming, which was my
exorcist-like coping mechanism.
Around
6AM, we got to UW. Mara, Chris’ student
assistant, knew exactly where she was going, and there was zero delay in
getting me to my room. They were
expecting me, and the anesthesiologist was ready to administer the epidural on
arrival. This certainly wasn’t part of
our birth plan, but it felt like the only option. UW is a teaching hospital. There were students and residents everywhere. Apparently, I freaked out the resident who
was supposed to give me my epidural, so his supervisor gave it instead. I was happy for this because the epidural was
administered quickly, painlessly, and the relief was immediate. I could still move my legs, which made me
thankful. When the rest of the birthing
team came back in the room, I had been transformed.
After
a few hours, the doctor(s) checked me, and I had progressed a little bit. In a few more hours, there was no change, so
they recommended Pitocin. We knew we
wanted to avoid Pitocin, so we delayed this for a few hours. Chris thought Pitocin was appropriate given
the situation, so we decided to give it a try after waiting with no change. The purpose was to increase the strength of
my contractions to get me to 10 centimeters.
I had been at 9 centimeters for over 17 hours at this point. They started the Pitocin slowly, gradually
increasing it. For the next 6 hours, I
slept, got my pain meds adjusted, and hoped that my body would progress to the
point of pushing. The doctors didn’t
seem too optimistic, but since I was okay and the baby was okay, they let us
continue laboring. In the late
afternoon, they started making rumblings about a C-section. I wanted to avoid this at all cost, mostly
because of the difficult recovery. Around
5:15PM, the doctors came in to check me.
We were expecting the big C-section talk, but after nearly 12 hours in
the hospital (and 28 hours of labor before that), I was finally at 10
centimeters! I could tell by the tone of
their voices that the doctors and nurses were surprised at that outcome. Later our midwife told us that she was
surprised they let us continue to labor because most doctors would’ve performed
a C-section by this point. Chris said
that we didn’t follow the outcome that would’ve been written in textbooks. The doctors said I was ready to start
pushing, and I so relieved and ecstatic to hear the news. You
couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Finally,
the end was in sight!
Around
5:30PM, I started pushing. The nurses
and Kristin helped me to make my pushes as efficient as possible. This was the first time that I felt back in
control after we made the decision to leave the birth center. I was determined to push this baby out. I pushed on my side with a leg propped up, and
my pushes were doing the job. After
about 30 minutes of “practice pushing,” they could tell the baby was getting
closer, so everyone started to get ready for the birth. Although they weren’t very painful, I could
feel the contractions, so they took out the monitor that measured the strength
of my contractions.
I
pushed for about 1 1/2 hours, but it felt like 5 minutes. I got to rest for several minutes between
each contraction. As the room filled up
with medical professionals, I found myself concentrating on the familiarity of
Kristin’s voice. She encouraged my
pushing, and she let me know when my pushes were really effective. I remember looking up at one point, and I saw
an overwhelming number of people in the room.
When I saw several people lingering in the doorway, I got upset and said
something about there being way too many people in the room. Alex said that a lot of people looked around,
but nothing changed when I said this. I
was quickly distracted by my next contraction.
At a later appointment, our midwife said that we had taught the young
doctors a very valuable lesson about waiting for a woman’s body to do her
job. From the teacher’s perspective, it
was a good thing that so many people were involved in her birth. When we got close, everyone got into
position. My sister caught the moment on
video, my mom held up a leg, Kristin coached my pushing, and Alex got ready to
guide her out of me into the world.
At
6:54PM, our beautiful baby Elina was born.
Alex caught her and put her on my stomach with the help of the
doctors. She was slippery and bright
pink with a strong set of lungs. We
wanted to wait for her cord to stop pulsing before he cut it. After about 15 minutes, Alex cut the cord,
and she was brought closer to my chest.
What a beauty! She weighed in at
8lbs, 14oz. We delayed newborn exams
(there were no immediate health concerns), so we could bond as a new family for
over a half an hour. I had a second
degree tear, so unfortunately, this time was also shared with me being stitched
up. Elina was a lovely distraction.
Very
shortly after her birth, the massive team of medical professionals left the
room. My mom and sister left after
things had settled down. Alex’s mom came
to meet her first granddaughter, and my dad and Megan were next. We all moved down to my recovery room later
that evening. We left the hospital
around 5:30PM the following day. We
tried to leave earlier, but they wanted to keep us for 24 hours, and there were
lots of “delays” which kept us there on their timeline.
Although
Elina’s arrival didn’t go according to our birth plan, we still felt like were
in charge of the decision making process.
Being educated and having our doula there were essential to advocating
for the birth we wanted for our daughter and our family. The contrast of the hospital experience and
the birth center experience was night and day. The cervical lip issue doesn’t usually happen
with future children, so we look forward to (hopefully) a different experience
with our next child. We are thankful for
a very healthy baby and all the caring people that helped bring her into the
world.
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