So what on earth am I talking about with that title? Well, pretty much exactly what I said.
There have been many times I've heard a woman talk about her "emergency" birth story. Labor progressed quickly (she may be home or she may already be in the hospital) and she feels pushy. Let's say she's at home and on the phone with a 911 dispatcher (or her spouse/friend/kid/dog/etc is) and she feels an overwhelming urge to push. But alas, she is told to FIGHT against her body's natural desire and force to prevent the baby from being born until help arrives. Let's say the woman was in the hospital and the doctor isn't there, but of course he will be soon, so she's told by her nurses to resist the urge to push.
Now, I've felt that urge to push, in fact, I've been that woman at home in full blown labor ready to have a baby and I can tell you if you don't know for yourself, there is NO way you're going to fight that urge. It doesn't do you any good, anyway. If the urge to push has come, your body will literally birth the baby without your help. So you can push to help it or let it happen on it's own...either way, you're havin' a baby!
So for the rest of this blog I am not speaking as a homebirth or out of hospital birth advocate. I am speaking solely for the purpose of educating on "emergency birth", that is birth outside of how it was planned to take place.
I'm not naive, so I know that 3% of US women are choosing to birth with midwives and only 1% are choosing to birth at home. That being said, EVERY woman should be prepared for an unassisted home birth. I repeat: EVERY WOMAN SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR AN UNASSISTED HOME BIRTH.
Why?
Well, because you NEVER know what's going to happen. You need to trust that birth truly IS normal and that it is very rare that complications arrive especially when the process is left to happen naturally. It may be your second or third baby and labor just progresses quicker than expected or perhaps you handle your contractions very well and don't realize you're truly that close to birthing. Whatever the reason, you're now at home and about to have a baby. Quick, what do you do?
First, you RELAX and calm down and trust in this process.
Second, you let your support person and doctor/midwife/witch doctor know that you are in full blown labor and baby will be coming where you're at.
Third, get COMFORTABLE. Listen to your body, what does it want? Should you be squatting with support? Or is laying on your side more comfortable? Listen and do that.
Next, breathe through your contractions and push when your body tells you to push. If you have a partner there, have them get you some sheets or towels for the birth mess. Don't be afraid if your water hasn't broken, most bags of water don't break until the pushing phase. The towels will help to keep this mess under control. If fluid is clear: awesome. If meconium is present, that's ok. If the baby happens to aspirate the meconium, they can be suctioned. Many hospitals/midwives/birth centers are no longer suctioning for meconium unless they know the baby has swallowed some. So, you're still good to go.
*Do not have your support at any time check you for dilation*
As you and your body are pushing together, have your partner prepare to catch the baby. If you don't have someone there, try to get in a position so that you can gently welcome baby to this world. Don't pull the baby out, continue to push with your body. It may help to take a little rest after the head is birthed before you push the baby the rest of the way out. If you notice the cord around the baby's neck, don't be alarmed. Nuchal cords are present in 1 in every 3-4 births, wrapped at least once. This is not an emergency but rather another variation of normal. If you're able, simply loosen the cord and slip it off the baby's neck, then push to deliver the body.
You may notice that when your baby is first born, they are gray or bluish in color. Don't be alarmed. When your baby passes through the birth canal, up to half of their blood volume is pushed back up in to the placenta. As long as the cord is thick and pulsating, they are receiving nutrients and oxygen from the placenta. There is no need to clamp or tie off the cord. Many people let the cord finish pulsing on it's own so the baby gets vital blood that was lost back to the placenta, this helps reduce jaundice and other complications in newborn babies. As your baby's blood begins to circulate, they will "pink up", you can rub them to help get the blood moving, and skin to skin contact is vital to keep them warm.
If able, bring the baby skin to skin and begin nursing. Nursing immediately after birth will help with any post partum bleeding and can reduce hemorrhaging. If you notice that your baby's umbilical cord is short and they cannot reach your chest, hold them lower on your abdomen, DO NOT tug on the cord. The placenta can stay attached to the uterine lining for 30-60 minutes, so let the after contractions do their work and release the placenta. You may push it out when you feel the need, if help hasn't arrived yet.
In the event that the cord was short and your baby appears hungry or you feel the need to nurse immediately, try to push. It's not in your best interest to cut the cord without sterile scissors, as you don't want to risk an infection to the baby. If your placenta is not coming out, just be patient and wait for help. Don't attempt to tug on the cord and manually remove the placenta. Bend down/over to nurse if you need to.
If the cord was long enough for baby to be brought to breast, keep nursing until your help arrives or you're able to birth the placenta. Keep baby, cord and placenta intact without properly sterilized scissors.
That's pretty much it, you've had a baby. Congratulations.
Regardless of where you plan to birth or who you plan to attend you during that momentous occasion, it is wise to be prepared for anything and to know what is truly required, and what else is not. The easiest thing to remember in an emergency birth situation like this, is that less is more. Hopefully all of you get the births you're planning, but for those who end up in a situation that's, to them, less than ideal, be well informed.
Showing posts with label unassisted childbirth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unassisted childbirth. Show all posts
January 29, 2010
February 8, 2008
Why I love natural birth and how I came to love it.
You may be surprised to hear that I have not always been a natural birth advocate. In fact, I was very far from it.
My first pregnancy was unplanned. I was with a huge jerk (to put it incredibly lightly) and was only 16 when I conceived my glorious daughter. After seeing the two lines on the test confirming my pregnancy and deciding right then and there I was keeping my baby, the second decision I made was to sign up for an epidural, because "No way was I going to feel that pain if I didn't have to!". My mother tried to talk me out of it numerous times, having birthed my brother and I naturally, but I wouldn't have it. Yes, I had sex and was soon to be a mother, but I was still a teenager, and part of my insistance was to spite her. Ahh, ignorance is bliss.
When Christmas break of my senior year arrived and I was just days away from my due date, I still never doubted my decision to "numb" my birth experience. When the big day came, I did just that. At 4 cm and "near death" from the pain (Read: I was a big fat wimp that did nothing to prepare except sign up for the epi) I received my epidural. "In 15 minutes, you'll feel nothing from the waist down.". GREAT. FINALLY. But, what's this? 15 minutes later I'm still crying like a baby. The epi didn't take, so I had to have it re-administered (oh yea, that was fun. Anyone who's had one of those gawd awful things KNOWS what I'm talking about!). This time, it took and I proceeded to fall asleep.
I was woken up a few hours later by nurse who checked me, said I was complete and told me to start pushing. After about 1 1/2-2 hours of pushing, my doctor showed up. 3 hours from the start of pushing, my mom holding one leg, my best friend holding the other, my daughter was finally born, with internal monitor in her head and all! She was whisked away to NICU to address this DANGEROUS (sarcasm) meconium, then her apgar was done and finally, at 1 hour old, I held my baby girl, nursed her for 15 minutes and she was whisked away again, to go to the nursery, while I was sent to post partum.
Fast forward to baby number 2. The birth of my second daughter was very different from that of my first. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with contractions, pretty regular ones at that, but not painful, just consistent. I sent hubby off to work and told him that by the time he got home at around 1pm we'd probably need to head to the hospital to have a baby.
That never happened. I mean, we had a baby, but not at 1pm, and not at a hospital. My labor quickly progressed from consistent to efficient. I thought back to my previous birth, when I thought the end of the world was approaching at 4cm, and I decided I was nowhere near that this time and to labor it out at home until Seth returned.
I began to feel a lot of pressure, and was sure I had to go to the bathroom. I made a lot of attempts to do so, but to no avail. I paced a lot, it's just what my body needed, told me to do. I hardly sat still for a moment. Finally, I was having to really breathe through my contractions and decided a bath sounded nice. I ran the water, nice and warm, and sunk into the tub. I actually began to drift to sleep. The bath worked...for a while. Finally, I was in the mindset that birth was eminent and I need to go. I called Seth at work, but he said he couldn't leave (at this time we were very poor and he worked a minimum wage job that we needed and he was afraid of losing it). I called my best friend, Toni, and she rushed right over.
I answered the door in nothing but a towel and told her to call an ambulance, after all, birth is an emergency situation, right? I headed to my bedroom to lay in my bed and wait, and in the less than 30 seconds it took for her to make sure the gate and door were open for the paramedics and then return to my room, my daughter was born. As she walked back into my room, I pushed, feeling my body completely take over and tell me "You need to do this...NOW". In 3 pushes she was born onto my bed, after about 2 hours of labor, with only my friend there. All was well, it was the hospital experience that ruined it.
Had I known then that we had just done something that was perfectly legal, I would have turned the paramedics away. Instead, it got us a 3 day hospital stay, a myriad of tests and an array of accusations.
This experience made me realize quite a few things. First and foremost, how amazing our bodies are. I naturally did many things that you SHOULD do in labor (sitting on the toilet, walking, the warm bath, squatting to birth...) but yet, I was never told to do any of these things. This is probably ONE of the reasons my labor was so quick.
Secondly, I felt so empowered. Was it what I planned? No. But that's what was so great about it. I would have never thought I could do that, but I did do that. And, I did it ALONE. How cool is that?
Thirdly, I realized that had I not had that blasted epidural with my first, I would have KNOWN that pressure to "go to the bathroom" was a BIG sign we were close to birth, that when my contractions were one on top of the other I was in transition, that when that urge to push came my body would have done it without me. Instead, I was numbed from my first child's birth, not just physically, at this point, I realized it affected it emotionally.
I began to question my births, yes, even my second one, though not the birth itself so much as the post partum stay in hell, I mean, the hospital. I realized that natural birth was no doubt the only way I would birth my babies in the future, save for a true emergency in which a cesarean would be required.
As I enjoyed my third pregnancy and all the excitement that went with it, I read and researched as much as I could. I knew I could do this (the natural birth) but I wanted to be prepared this time, I didn't want any fear that I had before. I began to learn a lot, and the more I learned, the more leery I became of the hospital. I almost had another UC (unassisted childbirth) with my son, only it would have been on purpose, but my husband really wasn't comfortable. Due to an insurance change in my 8th month and lack of preparation, I planned a hospital birth with my first OB and a rigid birthplan. I had my natural birth, it was pleasant, as pleasant as a hospital setting can make it, but I WILL have my homebirth next time, with or without the aid of a midwife.
I am happy to have 'accidentally' discovered the beauty of birth. My second daughter has taught me a lot, that is just one of many things. All my children have helped me learn and discover who I am, I only hope I can aid them in their own self discovery.
A long journey, and not done yet!
Alexander Odin Holt just minutes old.
9.6 lbs 21 1/2 inches
My Beautiful Girls; My life
Margaret Jane, 5 yrs
Iris Melinda, 2 yrs
My first pregnancy was unplanned. I was with a huge jerk (to put it incredibly lightly) and was only 16 when I conceived my glorious daughter. After seeing the two lines on the test confirming my pregnancy and deciding right then and there I was keeping my baby, the second decision I made was to sign up for an epidural, because "No way was I going to feel that pain if I didn't have to!". My mother tried to talk me out of it numerous times, having birthed my brother and I naturally, but I wouldn't have it. Yes, I had sex and was soon to be a mother, but I was still a teenager, and part of my insistance was to spite her. Ahh, ignorance is bliss.
When Christmas break of my senior year arrived and I was just days away from my due date, I still never doubted my decision to "numb" my birth experience. When the big day came, I did just that. At 4 cm and "near death" from the pain (Read: I was a big fat wimp that did nothing to prepare except sign up for the epi) I received my epidural. "In 15 minutes, you'll feel nothing from the waist down.". GREAT. FINALLY. But, what's this? 15 minutes later I'm still crying like a baby. The epi didn't take, so I had to have it re-administered (oh yea, that was fun. Anyone who's had one of those gawd awful things KNOWS what I'm talking about!). This time, it took and I proceeded to fall asleep.
I was woken up a few hours later by nurse who checked me, said I was complete and told me to start pushing. After about 1 1/2-2 hours of pushing, my doctor showed up. 3 hours from the start of pushing, my mom holding one leg, my best friend holding the other, my daughter was finally born, with internal monitor in her head and all! She was whisked away to NICU to address this DANGEROUS (sarcasm) meconium, then her apgar was done and finally, at 1 hour old, I held my baby girl, nursed her for 15 minutes and she was whisked away again, to go to the nursery, while I was sent to post partum.
Fast forward to baby number 2. The birth of my second daughter was very different from that of my first. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with contractions, pretty regular ones at that, but not painful, just consistent. I sent hubby off to work and told him that by the time he got home at around 1pm we'd probably need to head to the hospital to have a baby.
That never happened. I mean, we had a baby, but not at 1pm, and not at a hospital. My labor quickly progressed from consistent to efficient. I thought back to my previous birth, when I thought the end of the world was approaching at 4cm, and I decided I was nowhere near that this time and to labor it out at home until Seth returned.
I began to feel a lot of pressure, and was sure I had to go to the bathroom. I made a lot of attempts to do so, but to no avail. I paced a lot, it's just what my body needed, told me to do. I hardly sat still for a moment. Finally, I was having to really breathe through my contractions and decided a bath sounded nice. I ran the water, nice and warm, and sunk into the tub. I actually began to drift to sleep. The bath worked...for a while. Finally, I was in the mindset that birth was eminent and I need to go. I called Seth at work, but he said he couldn't leave (at this time we were very poor and he worked a minimum wage job that we needed and he was afraid of losing it). I called my best friend, Toni, and she rushed right over.
I answered the door in nothing but a towel and told her to call an ambulance, after all, birth is an emergency situation, right? I headed to my bedroom to lay in my bed and wait, and in the less than 30 seconds it took for her to make sure the gate and door were open for the paramedics and then return to my room, my daughter was born. As she walked back into my room, I pushed, feeling my body completely take over and tell me "You need to do this...NOW". In 3 pushes she was born onto my bed, after about 2 hours of labor, with only my friend there. All was well, it was the hospital experience that ruined it.
Had I known then that we had just done something that was perfectly legal, I would have turned the paramedics away. Instead, it got us a 3 day hospital stay, a myriad of tests and an array of accusations.
This experience made me realize quite a few things. First and foremost, how amazing our bodies are. I naturally did many things that you SHOULD do in labor (sitting on the toilet, walking, the warm bath, squatting to birth...) but yet, I was never told to do any of these things. This is probably ONE of the reasons my labor was so quick.
Secondly, I felt so empowered. Was it what I planned? No. But that's what was so great about it. I would have never thought I could do that, but I did do that. And, I did it ALONE. How cool is that?
Thirdly, I realized that had I not had that blasted epidural with my first, I would have KNOWN that pressure to "go to the bathroom" was a BIG sign we were close to birth, that when my contractions were one on top of the other I was in transition, that when that urge to push came my body would have done it without me. Instead, I was numbed from my first child's birth, not just physically, at this point, I realized it affected it emotionally.
I began to question my births, yes, even my second one, though not the birth itself so much as the post partum stay in hell, I mean, the hospital. I realized that natural birth was no doubt the only way I would birth my babies in the future, save for a true emergency in which a cesarean would be required.
As I enjoyed my third pregnancy and all the excitement that went with it, I read and researched as much as I could. I knew I could do this (the natural birth) but I wanted to be prepared this time, I didn't want any fear that I had before. I began to learn a lot, and the more I learned, the more leery I became of the hospital. I almost had another UC (unassisted childbirth) with my son, only it would have been on purpose, but my husband really wasn't comfortable. Due to an insurance change in my 8th month and lack of preparation, I planned a hospital birth with my first OB and a rigid birthplan. I had my natural birth, it was pleasant, as pleasant as a hospital setting can make it, but I WILL have my homebirth next time, with or without the aid of a midwife.
I am happy to have 'accidentally' discovered the beauty of birth. My second daughter has taught me a lot, that is just one of many things. All my children have helped me learn and discover who I am, I only hope I can aid them in their own self discovery.
A long journey, and not done yet!
Alexander Odin Holt just minutes old.
9.6 lbs 21 1/2 inches
My Beautiful Girls; My life
Margaret Jane, 5 yrs
Iris Melinda, 2 yrs
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