Back story
Before we get too far into this you might want to go back and read the post where I described Veronica's whole crazy birth experience. Here's the link: http://illguthlife.blogspot.com/2013/09/veronicas-drama-filled-birth-story.html
And while we are catching up on things, lets talk really fast about my other two deliveries.
In October of 2010 I had a C-section to deliver the twins. Charlotte was Baby A and she was head down. Lydia was Baby B and she was breech. My doctor advised a C-section and I didn't have any problems with that decision. I still am glad I had a C-section. Read the whole story here.
One reason I wasn't too worried about a c-section was that I knew I could try a V-BAC (Vaginal birth after Cesarean) for my next delivery. And 17 months later that is what I did. Derrick was delivered in April of 2012 and was a successful V-BAC. Read his birth story here.
A few months after Derrick was born I sat down and compared the C-Section and the V-BAC. Both were positive experiences, but overall I preferred the V-BAC. You can read that post here.
When I found out I was pregnant with Veronica I knew I wanted to do a V-BAC again. I ran into a bit of trouble when my new OB/GYN had rights to a hospital that didn't allow V-BACs. But I resolved that by switching to a new doctor and hospital. Here is the link to that whole story. (Sorry about all the links, but I want you to have easy access to the details.)
I briefly thought about signing up for a class on the Bradley Method of delivery. I was really interested in the idea of husband coached labor. I also wanted to try to deliver Veronica without pitocin or an epidural. I'd had both when I delivered Derrick, and while I felt they were okay for that delivery, I thought it would be cool to do a completely natural birth. I ended up deciding against taking a Bradley Method class because it would have been a huge time commitment for both of us to attend the 12 week course.
Okay lets talk about un-medicated and home birth
First off, I should be clear that Veronica's birth was very much an accidental home birth. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would ever have a baby at home. It certainly wasn't something that I wanted to do. I couldn't wrap my mind around the thought of doing something so bloody in my own home.
But my labor went quicker than I anticipated. I went from contractions coming 10 minutes apart to transition in an hour and a half. I threw up, my water broke, the head crowned, and Veronica was born all in 10 minutes. Brandon barely made it back from dropping the kids off at the babysitters when Veronica was crowning. There wasn't any option to say, "hey lets see if we can make it to the hospital so we don't have to have the baby here."
I think one reason my labor went so fast was because I was at home. If I'd gone to the hospital they would have sat me down on a bed and hooked me up to a bunch of monitors. I suspect that would have slowed things down at least a little bit. Instead I was at home standing up and walking around. I was trying to get last minute things packed and get the kids ready to go to the babysitter's. When I did have a contraction I'd just hunch over, grimace, make funny noises, and breath through the pain. Then I'd get back to trying to find shoes for the kids.
Another thing that made my labor fast was that it wasn't medicated. I'd been given pitocin to help things along with Derrick. The pitocin made the contractions really painful and so that, combined with the fact that it was 2:00 in the morning, made me decide to get an epidural. The epidural had slowed down my labor. Obviously when I was at home that wasn't the case.
One final thing that made my labor really fast was that it was my second vaginal birth. I'd heard that each birth got faster, but I had no idea it could be that fast.
Even though it was a fast labor the delivery still hurt. Words really can't express how much delivering a baby hurts. Agony is probably the best word to describe it. I thought I was going to split right open and die in the bathroom when Veronica started crowning. Screaming really isn't the right word for the sounds I made during that time, but it's the only word that I can think of.
As much as delivering Veronica hurt it was totally worth it for the feeling of relief that I felt as she came out. I've heard of people describing it as orgasmic. I wouldn't go that far, but it was amazing. To go from utter pain to utter relief in one second was wonderful.
After she was born I also felt really empowered. I had just gone through one of the worst experiences of my life - and I survived. After that I felt like I could do anything.
I highly recommend doing a totally un-medicated birth. It is truly transcendent and life changing.
But I don't necessarily recommend home birth. Because after Veronica was born I very much needed to be at a hospital. I had a retained placenta that ended up falling apart inside of me. That resulted in a D&C procedure to get all the placenta out. And that, combined with all the blood I'd lost, caused me to have low blood pressure and faint. I was really close to needing a blood transfusion.
This is when the maybes and what ifs start taking over. Brandon and I think that if I had been able to deliver the placenta at home then all those crazy things could have been avoided. Maybe if I'd had a midwife and doula around they could have helped the placenta come out when it should have. But on the other hand, what if my uterus had ruptured because it was a V-BAC delivery? Things could have been really crazy then. Or what if Veronica hadn't been born perfectly fine? What would have happened if we didn't happen to have a bulb syringe in our first aid kit?
We don't know the answers to those things. What we do know is what happened. So based on what happened to me I can't recommend home birth. I still would prefer to give birth in a hospital.
But let me reiterate that I really really really recommend un-medicated birth.
Even though the delivery was painful it wasn't the worst pain I experienced that day. The very worst pain was when the doctor had to reach up inside of me to pull out pieces of the shredded placenta. I cried and screamed as I held the side of the bed while she did that. It was awful.
The next worst pain was when the doctor tried to sew me up without any medication. I don't know if they'd given me medication and it just hadn't taken effect yet, or what, but it hurt! Fortunately that ended when they noticed that I still had pieces of the placenta coming out of me. They finished sewing me up after I was all numbed up from the D&C.
The third worst pain was when I was in the ambulance and my body started contracting to get the placenta out. I was laying flat on my back with my legs strapped down to the stretcher. I couldn't push the placenta out even though every instinct was telling me that I needed to get it out. The EMT kept telling me that we were almost at the hospital. That ride felt like it lasted hours. This is probably when the placenta shredded.
The fouth worse pain was when the nurse or somebody was trying to draw my blood after I fainted. I was just so tired of being in pain at that point. I honestly wished I could just die so I wouldn't have to be in any more pain. This is the point where I decided we were done having kids.
And the fifth worst pain was delivering Veronica. So do with that information what you will.
In the end it all turned out just fine. Veronica was born healthy and I was able to recover and be healthy again. And that's really the main goal of every labor and delivery experience.
This my first post for the 7 posts in 7 days challenge from Jennifer Fulwiler at www.conversiondiary.com. Click here for the linkup party so you can see everyone else who is attempting the challenge. You can also join too if you want.
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