Type 1 Diabetes Birth Story: Amelia’s Birth
This is the story of my daughter’s birth. She is my second born child and the experience of my son’s birth really set up what I wanted out of this one… You can read about his birth story here, if you haven’t yet.
June 3, 2019:
I woke up a little after midnight with what I immediately recognized as a contraction. Since this was how my son’s birth had started, I was pretty sure labor was beginning. But then nothing else happened. After getting up and walking around, no more contractions came, so I went back to bed, sure that I would be woken up by more. For some reason, my body decided to let me sleep the rest of the night, though.
When I woke up in the morning, I started to have some mild cramping coming in consistent waves. This was not at all what my first labor was like, so I was confused. What were these mild pains? Were these actually contractions? Since they continued throughout me getting dressed and ready for the day, I thought they might be, but it was such a different way for things to start that I was not really believing it.
I had a non-stress test (NST) scheduled for that morning. Since I thought labor might be starting, I asked my husband to go with me to the appointment instead of going to work right away. My mom and in-laws had been staying with us, so my in-laws dropped our son off at daycare for us. My husband and I went to the appointment, where the contractions could be seen by the contraction monitor during the NST, but they had spaced out a bit.
I asked the doctor to do a cervical check and membrane sweep, since I was going to need to be induced in a few days anyway. She said I was about 1cm and was able to do the sweep. She also noted that baby’s head was “right there,” meaning already fully engaged. She didn’t seem to believe that I was in early labor and confidently said to me that she would see me in a few days for my induction, which made me annoyed (she was not my favorite OB in the group I was seeing).
Within minutes of getting in the car to drive home, the contractions kicked back up. I was now pretty sure that I was in labor, so I asked my husband to stop at the liquor store on the way home—I wanted to buy a victory beer and some champagne for after baby arrived! It must have looked very silly to anyone watching for a pregnant lady to be wandering around having contractions in a liquor store around 9:30 in the morning… I joked to the cashier that I was in labor and they looked at me like I was crazy.
We headed home to find my mom and in-laws very curious about how things were going. In what I now know should have been the moment I realized I really was in labor, I rather bluntly told them all that I would not be able to stand it if they all just stared at me all morning, so the best thing for them to do would be to just keep doing whatever they were doing. To their credit, they listened. My mom went upstairs to fold some laundry and my in-laws went to get some breakfast. My husband wasn’t sure if he should go to work, since we weren’t sure if I really was in labor/the contractions weren’t that intense and could take awhile. After starting to talk about him going for a bit and checking in, I started to panic and get very emotional. I told him not to leave for work, but to just go do something around the house while I tried to relax and watch TV.
I put on one of the new episodes of one of my favorite TV shows—Jane the Virgin (an awesome show, by the way). The contractions started to become very intense within a few minutes of me being alone in the living room. I started timing them and found that they were only about 3 minutes apart and at least a minute long. I decided to call my OB’s office. They told me to come in. But I was stubborn! I wanted an unmedicated birth this time and I was determined to wait at home as long as possible, plus the hospital was only 5 minutes away. I knew I did need to go in sometime soon, though, if things stayed intense, because I was GBS+ and needed to be on antibiotics for a bit before birthing my daughter.
I was still alone in the living room and in between contractions started to wonder if I was further along than I thought… I realized I probably was when I suddenly had the thought that I could feel my daughter moving down if I just beared down a tiny bit during a contraction. Suddenly realizing it was truly go-time, I yelled up to my mom, who helped me get out the door to my husband, who had been washing the truck. We hopped in and headed to the hospital.
The contractions seemed to be coming one on top of another on the drive to the hospital, which was thankfully not hindered by traffic. My mom drove over to the hospital behind us in our other car so that we had two cars there. We parked and I must have had at least three contractions walking from the truck to the labor & delivery unit, which was not far from the parking lot. Each time, I would grab onto my husband and drape my arms around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder and swaying until the contraction let up. We would then continue walking and repeat that cycle with each new contraction. This position for labor is often called “slow dancing,” which is exactly what it felt like. Something about burying my face in my husband’s shoulder was very comforting.
Once we got inside, they brought us to triage and asked if they could check me. I consented and was thrilled/somewhat surprised to learn that I was 10cm—fully dilated! There was a flurry of activity as they scrambled to get me to a room and get me IV antibiotics. Luckily, I was not feeling a strong urge to push yet, so I just continued focusing on breathing through contractions and mentally resigned myself to try to cope with labor for at least an hour before trying to push to try to get the antibiotics going. My water had not broken yet, so with even one hour’s worth of antibiotics, I was hoping my baby would be protected from the GBS.
Once checked into the room, I changed into the hospital gown, they got the IV in, and I settled into coping on the bed. The position that I settled into was facing the back of the bed, with the head raised and me sort of leaning against it, while shifting between squatting and being on my knees. I would bury my face in the pillows during contractions, similarly to what I had been doing on my husband’s shoulder. Something about the darkness helped. Meanwhile, nurses were asking me tons of intake questions in-between contractions and I was trying to answer them even though I felt very out-of-it (in labor la-la land, as doulas say). They were so persistent! This is one of the only frustrating points of this second labor for me—I just wanted to be left alone to labor until I could push.
After what was probably 1.5 to 2 hours coping, I asked if the antibiotics had been in long enough and if it would be ok to push. The nurses encouraged me that yes—I could push whenever I wanted to. I gave it a little test push and could feel my daughter moving right away (so different from how it felt with an epidural! I could feel everything and had so much control!). I said I was ready, so they went to grab the doctor.
This led to one of the other frustrating moments in this labor—I wanted to push squatting or on hands and knees, knowing that this gave me more power and was a more natural position for pushing than on my back. The doctor wanted me to get on my back, because according to her, this would “open up my pelvis and since I would probably have a big baby, we needed my pelvis wide open.” If I had been in my fully logical mind, I would have cited evidence saying that this simply wasn’t true and that pushing in lithotomy (on your back) is actually not the most “open” position for the pelvis, but since I was in labor, the best I could do was to argue “that’s not what I’ve read.” We compromised to me doing a sort of side-lying position, half on my back, with me holding one leg in the air. As I started to push, she pointed out that my bag of water was still intact and as she grazed it, it finally broke.
The pushing position didn’t end up mattering too much—I had my daughter out in less than 10 minutes. I know this is probably mostly due to her being my second baby, but I think it was also made way easier by the lack of an epidural. The pushing was so much easier. Also, the doctor encouraged me to reach down and feel her head and once I did that, I had her head out on the next push. I had to pause after her head came out, because her cord was wrapped around her neck. The doctor gently and carefully uncoiled it and I pushed Amelia the rest of the way out in one push. Pausing in between had been difficult, but again, not impossible because I could feel everything.
Amelia went right to my chest for skin-to-skin. She was healthy, crying, and moving immediately, so she got to stay there. After the cord was done pulsing, my husband cut it and we both fawned over our adorable new baby girl. My placenta was out without issue within a few minutes and looked good. I had very minor tearing and only required a few stitches.
I felt amazing after this birth! I felt awake, energized, and celebratory! I did shake a little bit (normal as the adrenaline leaves your system), but a warm blanket helped. Amelia was able to latch on within the first hour and our breastfeeding journey got off to a smooth start.
From start to finish, my labor was about 6 hours and I would do an unmedicated birth over an epidural birth if I ever had another child. It may not be the right choice for everyone, but for me being in control of my body and feeling everything was a much more grounding and positive experience.
Amelia weighed 8lbs, 14.5oz and was beautiful from the start.
With love and respect,
Megan
