A Cesarean Birth Story
I had my 40 week appointment two days before the due date of my son.
My midwife was checking on the baby and me and she had asked if I wanted a membrane sweep which I said sure. As she was about to check for dilation, she became confused.
She then informed me that I was not dilated at all, when I was at 1.5cm 3 days prior at L&D for false labor.
She left to grab an ultrasound and to our surprise, my son was breech. The midwife said that she'll need to schedule ECV ( external cephalic version).
I didn't want to, but it had to be done so she scheduled it for the following day. I had 24 hours to flip him heads down.
As we showed up the next day, he flipped heads down!! They told me I could either go home or go ahead with the induction - we decided to go ahead with it.
By 10am took cytotec via mouth - at 0cm.
1pm took cytotec via vaginally,I was 1cm dialted.
4pm another dose of cytotec vaginally, still at 1cm.
No contractions or anything.
7:10pm 2cm dilated.
My Midwife decided not to do another round of cytotec as they noticed a few contractions were about to start. They told me that they'd be back at 10pm to start pitocin and break my water.
However, this guy had different plans…
By 7:30pm, I had to pee really bad so I got up to walk over to the bathroom, sat down on the toilet…
GUSH OF WATER CAME OUT!!!! It was like a freaking Niagara fall!
My husband came into the bathroom and said "it seems you leaked on the bed and the nurse checked with a strip to see if it was your water, it turned blue..." which I already knew, obviously.
I eventually went back to lay down on the bed, and started to contract really badly… I was struggling to breath so they put me on oxygen.
My heart rate became high and my blood pressure was low so they got very concerned about me. Then my son's heart rate dropped... it was back and forth between me and my son..
9:30pm, I told my husband that I had a feeling it wasn't going to end well and requested an epidural. It was a good thing I did because, by 11pm they couldn't get my heart rate down and we decided to go for a c-section.
He came on his due date at 12:23am and now shares a birthday with his daddy.
It was intense! We later found out that my body did not react well to cytotec and in the end, we are glad we both were healthy and safe.
POST PARTUM
My recovery was pretty great. I only bled for less than two weeks. The main thing was to keep moving but nothing over the board you know?
I had my mom fly here and my dad drove here to stay with us for a week to help out when he was born.
My husband helped so much with diaper changes and waking me up (I’m deaf) whenever he cries/hungry overnight.
Lots of hugs and talking helped me a lot emotionally knowing that my husband was here for us.
My current pregnancy
As for attempting a vbac with my current pregnancy, as of right now I am 20 weeks and at our anatomy scan they found that I do have an anterior placenta ( where the placenta attaches to the front of the uterus versus the back). The placenta is right above the c section scar so they want to do another ultrasound at 32 weeks to make sure it stays that way, or moves up more.
The good news was that she was head down!
I plan to do a TOLAC ( Trial Of Labor After Cesarean) since I’ve never had a vaginal birth.
If I don’t go into labor on my own by a date that I have chosen for personal reasons, then I have decided to do a RCS( repeat c-section)
However, at my 38 weeks, they want to check my cervix and see how I’m progressing, if everything looks good and ready then they can do what’s called gentle induction around 39 weeks which they’ll have me on a low dose of pitocin and gradually stop so my body can take over to labor.
Thank you so much for reading Kelli’s story of how she was able to birth her son into the world. Cesarean births all happen for a different range of reasons and I loved how Kelli listened to her body and her inuiton on how to best give birth to her son. Making that choice is not an easy one to make sometimes.
You can follow this momma on Instagram @kellbel_xo
As we wrap up this amazing story I wanted to note a few things.
I wanted to stress the importance of knowing all of your options and having true informed consent around ALL of the induction methods if that is your choice.
This will be so important in how your experience can go regardless if it ends in a repeat c-section or a VBAC. Also knowing and understanding the natural induction methods that you can try safely at home, since most Obstetricians have not learned these in school and therefore do not teach them to their patients.
Below I have cited a few evidence based articles that I think will be really informative and helpful in making your informed decision.
Induction for due dates:
Natural Labor induction Evidence and options:
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/category/series/natural-labor-induction-series/
This article talks about evidence on VBAC ( Vaginal Birth After Cesarean):
Evidence on External Cephalic Version to flip a Breech baby to a head down position.
This is also a great recourse if you plan to do a VBAC with your next birth and are looking for positive stories and great information on how to best prepare for one.
The VBAC link:
As always please never hesitate to reach out to me!
or
email me at transformedmaternityandbirth@gmail.com
If you have a cesarean story and or VBAC story that you would like me to share I would LOVE to feature you here on my blog. Birth happens in many different ways and it can be really informative and helpful to read and listen to them when we are preparing for our own births or trying to heal from a birth that maybe didn’t go the way we envisioned. You can send me your birth story on my email listed above OR click on this link birth story layout.
When one woman supports another, we strengthen our voices and we start to wake up a generation that has more choices and therefore more empowered births.
I hope you have an amazing day!
Xo, Trista