Labor and Delivery Story

When I was pregnant I got diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. My OBGYN thought it necessary to send me to a high risk doctor. He didn't seem concerned because my baby was the proper size and my fluid was normal and my blood sugar levels were always great.

Pre - Labor

When I reached 39 weeks my OBGYN still thought it necessary to delivery me quickly. However, I would not let her do it because I knew the risks involved in an induction. I read that one intervention more often leads to another. At that appointment she did a membrane sweep.

I hate I let her do it because it gave me period type cramps for no reason because it didn't put me in labor. By the way at this point I was one centimeter dilated and 50 percent effaced.

The next week at my appointment she demanded that I be induced because of the risk to the baby.I was 2 centimeters and 70 percent effaced. She did another membrane sweep and it really hurt.  She scheduled my induction for 2:30 am the next morning.

That's when it all started!

Before Going to the Hospital

My appointment that morning was at 9:30 and I never stopped cramping from that moment forward. I told my husband to go to work and I would call him if I needed him. I called him around 3:30 pm because I felt the need to time the contractions or cramps. I wasn't sure if I was having contractions because the pain was in my back and not my stomach.

Around 7:00 pm the contractions were around 2 to 3 minutes apart. I was advised to go to the hospital.

Triage 

When I got to the triage room to see if I was going to be admitted, my blood pressure was 186 over something insane. This really shocked me because I hadn't had blood pressure problems at all during my pregnancy. The monitored me for awhile an and it would not good down. We feel that my pain level was the cause of this. The gave me medicine through an IV.

When I arrived in triage I was 3 centimeters but had progressed to 4; I informed them that I didn't want any pain medication.

The doctor on call asked me if I wanted her to break my water. I said no and she told me it would help things progress a lot faster. I told her that I would allow it when I reached 7 centimeters.

Labor

At the hospital I was able to labor in the tub and be monitored at the same time. However, the pain of labor mad my vomit multiple times.

I was encouraged because every time they checked me I was progressing farther along.

At the 3:30 am the doctor came and checked me and told me I was 7 centimeter so I allowed her to break my water and of course the pain intensified. The nurse checked me an hour later and I was 8 centimeters. yay!

At that point, I stopped progressing. My OBGYN came to check on my around 10:30 am. I informed her that I was 8 centimeters and I hadn't progressed anymore since 4:30 am. She checked me and burst my bubble even more by saying that I was only 5 centimeter. I know! Have you ever heard of such a thing?

At this point I chose to have the epidural because I had been in labor for 24 hours.

With the epidural my contractions began to slow down. So the put me on Pitocin and put a monitor on my baby's head to make sure the contractions were adequate.

Delivery

Seven hours later at 5:30 pm I was 10 centimeters and could start pushing. I pushed for almost 2 hours. At first I didn't know how to push because I couldn't feel anything. I told them to turn the epidural off so that I could feel better.

After I pushed my beautiful baby boy out, I hemorrhaged. The had to get my uterus to clamp down which hurt really bad. The gave me medicine to help. In the end everything was ok.

My baby was 6 pounds and 5 ounces; 20 inches long. I am so glad that I didn't let him be delivered early. He had no problems with this sugar levels and neither did I.

It was a very traumatic experience but he was well worth it and it has not influenced my decision to have more children.