Hospital Birth vs Home Birth
In order to clearly compare both my hospital experience, and my home birth experience, here are the time lines in comparison.
Labour times:
First Delivery, Hospital - Clara
2 Days before Due Date
1:20am Water Broke
(No subsequent progress)
10:00am Arrive at hospital, check if water broke
Sent home, to return at 1:00pm for induction
2:00pm Checked into room, oxy drip begins, hello constant hook-ups to IV, heart monitors, and machines
1 stale hallway to walk, small sterile delivery room, with a clock in view, right on the wall...
8:00pm First contraction felt, checked - 4cm
10:00pm Exhausted from contractions, checked - 4cm no progress (epidural ordered & laughing gas)
10:30pm Epidural given, heart rate dropping and then lost in Clara
Emergency C-Section on stand by, 8 doctors and nurses fly into room and try to bring heart rate back to normal, I'm going in and out of consciousness, Jesse is white as a ghost in the background, as no communication has been relayed to him. I feel tears rolling down my face, my worst nightmare, losing my baby is becoming a reality.
Minutes go by, Heart Doppler is put on Claras head, adjustments have been made in my positioning and heart rate is found, she is now being monitored indefinitely
I fall fast asleep, Jesse goes to get food
2:00am I'm woken up by the nurse, and am now fully dilated, asked if I was ready to push.
Feeling half asleep, body numb, legs like jello and cold. A little nauseous ... I asked if I could have 20 minutes to wake up.
2:30am Feeling more alert, nurse notices baby is coming, Jesse is cracking jokes, and I'm laughing, doctors are prepping in the background
2:45am Laying on the bed, I can't feel a thing from my belly button down. I'm told to push for 10 seconds.
A few pushes later, and our baby arrived.
2:58am She's born
Delayed cord clamping, and instant skin to skin. 2 resident doctors delivered, and also did after birth rehab.
3:10am Clara was taken for testing, measuring, weighing, etc.
4:00am We were transferred into postpartum, Jesse was sent home to get some sleep, Clara was sent into the nursery so I could also sleep.
5:30am I walked to the nursery to get Clara, but the nurses refused to give her to me, she had kept up the entire nursery and had finally just fallen asleep. I walk back to my room, alone, exhausted, and feeling totally out of control.
Total Labour time: 25.5 hours
My "feeling" of labour time: 7 hours (minus sleep) 3 hours
And so on, and so forth...
As you can see, it was a very text book birth. There wasn't anything out of the norm for a typical hospital birth. The classic intense induction, the order of the epidural, the loss of heart rate from distress of the epidural. I was lucky enough that my body finally relaxed enough for me to progress (all while sleeping), and with only a few pushes she arrived. I consider myself very lucky, and with that being said, I know from hearing other birth stories that I have nothing to complain about. My baby was healthy, we had no other health issues, and recovery was quick.
However, after playing the experience through my head over and over again during postpartum, I started to realize more and more that I had other options. I had a voice. I had a say in the decisions that these doctors were presenting me. Yet, I didn't know. My water broke, and the nurses told me that I needed to be induced after 12 hours, or else I'd be at risk for infection. Fear was instilled in me... I needed to listen to them -- or else I'd lose my baby.
When they took Clara away from me, it felt like she wasn't my baby. That I didn't have a say when it came down to when I wanted her. When they finally returned her to me, she didn't feel like my baby. I didn't know what to do with her, so I just left her in the bassinet until she started to cry. Which I then remember being terrified of her because I didn't know why she was crying...
There's so much more distress that came from this, but I will compare the two experiences in my next post.
Now, here is a break down of the second pregnancy...
Labour Times:
Second Delivery, Home - Charlotte
5 Days before due date
4:30pm Checked, 5cm - Stretch and Sweep to help progress
All night, mild cramping (typical)
6:30am Lost mucus plug, mild cramping still with braxton hicks contractions
9:00am I call Jesse, thinking I was in false labour, but it was hard to concentrate on Clara and go through the contractions so he came home
10:00am Midwife is called, contractions are 3 minutes apart, but not very painful.
10:30am They arrive, checked, I am in full labour, the midwives said that the baby should arrive around lunch time. I laughed. I was sure she wouldn't arrive until later that night, or even early morning.
11:00am Jesses parents arrive to watch Clara
12:00am Contractions are getting stronger, but it's still pretty mild. Eating snacks and drinking lots of water. Doing the stairs in the house and continuously walking around, chatting with Jesse, his parents, and the midwives. They're all eating watermelon.
1:00pm Move into the warm tub, contractions still pretty mild in pain
1:15pm Water broke, or did it? I was laughing because I didn't know. Midwives came to check, sure enough it did. That next contraction hurt... It felt like my contractions I had when I was induced with Clara. These were the real labour pains... Here we go, for the long haul...
1:25pm Contractions are now intense, I get out of the tub, my body didn't want to be in there anymore.
1:30pm My body is telling me to push, I go to our bed
On all fours, 3 pushes later...
1:38pm She's born
Immediate skin to skin, and delayed cord clamping
We have skin to skin for an hour and a half, she has an instant latch, and Clara comes upstairs to meet baby. Following Jesses parents a half hour later.
3:30pm she gets her testing done and is weighed and measured
We stay in bed for a few days, family comes and goes, lots of bonding and resting...
Total Labour time: 7 Hours
My "feeling" of labour time: 23 minutes
Quite the difference.
In the next few posts I'll be writing about:
Labour times:
2 Days before Due Date
1:20am Water Broke
(No subsequent progress)
10:00am Arrive at hospital, check if water broke
Sent home, to return at 1:00pm for induction
2:00pm Checked into room, oxy drip begins, hello constant hook-ups to IV, heart monitors, and machines
1 stale hallway to walk, small sterile delivery room, with a clock in view, right on the wall...
8:00pm First contraction felt, checked - 4cm
10:00pm Exhausted from contractions, checked - 4cm no progress (epidural ordered & laughing gas)
10:30pm Epidural given, heart rate dropping and then lost in Clara
Emergency C-Section on stand by, 8 doctors and nurses fly into room and try to bring heart rate back to normal, I'm going in and out of consciousness, Jesse is white as a ghost in the background, as no communication has been relayed to him. I feel tears rolling down my face, my worst nightmare, losing my baby is becoming a reality.
Minutes go by, Heart Doppler is put on Claras head, adjustments have been made in my positioning and heart rate is found, she is now being monitored indefinitely
I fall fast asleep, Jesse goes to get food
2:00am I'm woken up by the nurse, and am now fully dilated, asked if I was ready to push.
Feeling half asleep, body numb, legs like jello and cold. A little nauseous ... I asked if I could have 20 minutes to wake up.
2:30am Feeling more alert, nurse notices baby is coming, Jesse is cracking jokes, and I'm laughing, doctors are prepping in the background
2:45am Laying on the bed, I can't feel a thing from my belly button down. I'm told to push for 10 seconds.
A few pushes later, and our baby arrived.
2:58am She's born
Delayed cord clamping, and instant skin to skin. 2 resident doctors delivered, and also did after birth rehab.
3:10am Clara was taken for testing, measuring, weighing, etc.
4:00am We were transferred into postpartum, Jesse was sent home to get some sleep, Clara was sent into the nursery so I could also sleep.
5:30am I walked to the nursery to get Clara, but the nurses refused to give her to me, she had kept up the entire nursery and had finally just fallen asleep. I walk back to my room, alone, exhausted, and feeling totally out of control.
Total Labour time: 25.5 hours
My "feeling" of labour time: 7 hours (minus sleep) 3 hours
And so on, and so forth...
As you can see, it was a very text book birth. There wasn't anything out of the norm for a typical hospital birth. The classic intense induction, the order of the epidural, the loss of heart rate from distress of the epidural. I was lucky enough that my body finally relaxed enough for me to progress (all while sleeping), and with only a few pushes she arrived. I consider myself very lucky, and with that being said, I know from hearing other birth stories that I have nothing to complain about. My baby was healthy, we had no other health issues, and recovery was quick.
However, after playing the experience through my head over and over again during postpartum, I started to realize more and more that I had other options. I had a voice. I had a say in the decisions that these doctors were presenting me. Yet, I didn't know. My water broke, and the nurses told me that I needed to be induced after 12 hours, or else I'd be at risk for infection. Fear was instilled in me... I needed to listen to them -- or else I'd lose my baby.
When they took Clara away from me, it felt like she wasn't my baby. That I didn't have a say when it came down to when I wanted her. When they finally returned her to me, she didn't feel like my baby. I didn't know what to do with her, so I just left her in the bassinet until she started to cry. Which I then remember being terrified of her because I didn't know why she was crying...
There's so much more distress that came from this, but I will compare the two experiences in my next post.
Now, here is a break down of the second pregnancy...
Labour Times:
Second Delivery, Home - Charlotte
5 Days before due date
4:30pm Checked, 5cm - Stretch and Sweep to help progress
All night, mild cramping (typical)
6:30am Lost mucus plug, mild cramping still with braxton hicks contractions
9:00am I call Jesse, thinking I was in false labour, but it was hard to concentrate on Clara and go through the contractions so he came home
10:00am Midwife is called, contractions are 3 minutes apart, but not very painful.
10:30am They arrive, checked, I am in full labour, the midwives said that the baby should arrive around lunch time. I laughed. I was sure she wouldn't arrive until later that night, or even early morning.
11:00am Jesses parents arrive to watch Clara
12:00am Contractions are getting stronger, but it's still pretty mild. Eating snacks and drinking lots of water. Doing the stairs in the house and continuously walking around, chatting with Jesse, his parents, and the midwives. They're all eating watermelon.
1:00pm Move into the warm tub, contractions still pretty mild in pain
1:15pm Water broke, or did it? I was laughing because I didn't know. Midwives came to check, sure enough it did. That next contraction hurt... It felt like my contractions I had when I was induced with Clara. These were the real labour pains... Here we go, for the long haul...
1:25pm Contractions are now intense, I get out of the tub, my body didn't want to be in there anymore.
1:30pm My body is telling me to push, I go to our bed
On all fours, 3 pushes later...
1:38pm She's born
Immediate skin to skin, and delayed cord clamping
We have skin to skin for an hour and a half, she has an instant latch, and Clara comes upstairs to meet baby. Following Jesses parents a half hour later.
3:30pm she gets her testing done and is weighed and measured
We stay in bed for a few days, family comes and goes, lots of bonding and resting...
Total Labour time: 7 Hours
My "feeling" of labour time: 23 minutes
Quite the difference.
In the next few posts I'll be writing about:
- The home birth experience, with midwives
- How the ingestion of placenta has changed by postpartum
- How my life has changed, going from a family of 3 to a family of 4
Blogging is a tad difficult right now, but I'll be sure to let you all know when they are ready.
With love,
@simplelifewife