The Albright Family Birth Story
Aaron and Jeanette
Ethan Aaron Weight: 10 pounds, 7.7 ounces
Born: July 18, 2006 7:25pm Length: 22 ¾”
We were very fortunate to get pregnant at first try and we decided to keep the news a secret until Christmas when we shared our surprise blessing with family and friends. Overall, I had a nice pregnancy with no morning sickness just some early on fatigue and later, swelling due to water retention. We decided to not find out the gender of the baby.
During our second trimester, we began our Bradley Method birth classes as we wanted a natural birth for our child. We learned so much that prepared us for every aspect of our birth and we were educated with enough knowledge to make the right choices along the way. We are very grateful for the class and the instructor that we had.
At 38 weeks, my doctor recommended I take my leave from work due to the swelling and long commute. At our 40 week checkup, we learned our doctor was going to be on vacation the following week and for some time the week after that as well. We were upset and saddened by this news as she had been very supportive of our choices for our birth and we wanted her to be there for the delivery. Our doctor did a physical and said the cervix was softening and I was dilated to a one. She stated she could induce us the next day as we were full term and something was getting ready and she doesn’t like chancing late babies with postmaturity syndrome. We had a very hard decision to make of not allowing medicinal interference and allowing the baby to come out on it’s own versus the emotional need of having someone we were comfortable with deliver us. We decided to wait and let nature take it’s course. The doctor supported this decision and had us come in for monitoring the next week while she was away to check baby’s activity. All went fine.
At 41 and a half weeks, we had another check up scheduled with the doctor and we knew the potential for inducing was even greater now. We were still only dilated to a one. She monitored us in her office and I was having contractions but I was not feeling them. The doctor still wanted to see much more activity for baby so she wanted us to go next door to the hospital for monitoring there. I was given a sugar drip to stir up the baby and things looked a little better but the doctor still didn’t like the inactivity. She did a physical and we were dilated to a two so she said we were being admitted. Knowing that we wanted to avoid inducing if possible, she let us proceed on our own that night to see if we would progress. We were up walking the halls to help try and get baby moving down. I was still having contractions about ten minutes apart but I was not registering them.
The next morning, we had not progressed on our own, so we allowed the oxytocin drip which started at 8:30am. I did not feel any contractions until around 12:30pm which I ranked as a pain level of one and at that time I was dilated to a four. Everyone said I had a high threshold for pain since I was not feeling the contractions too bad. I did not have any back labor. I used the birthing ball to get through early labor. Things progressed pretty quickly from then on as I remember the contraction pain going up to about a three or four. About 2pm, I was in the bed to deal with the pain and my water broke at 2:50pm. I vomited the liquid diet I had that day. I was then dilated to a six and 75% effaced. I used deep breathing and low groanings to get through the contraction pain. It was much more intense after my water broke and once I was around an eight dilated, I wanted to push. I expressed this around 4:30 but it was not until 4:50pm that I was fully dilated and could start to push.
During second stage, my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. I began pushing in classic style and struggled to find my rhythm of getting the most out of my pushes. We used the birthing bar, birthing handles and a knotted towel to pull on. The towel was the best method. During pushing, the baby rotated so the doctor did a procedure where I pushed to my right to try and move the baby back in line. At 6:30 I was at a station two and not progressing. The doctor suggested the vacuum and she used it twice while I pushed during a contraction to no avail. All during the labor and pushing, the baby’s heartbeat was always strong. A little while later I could feel the burning sensation of the head crowning. The doctor was continually massaging me and using warm water to try and avoid a tear. The head came through the birth canal and the cord was in the way so the doctor removed it from the baby’s neck. The baby would still not come out and it took another 10 minutes of pushing before the baby came out leaving me with a 3rd degree tear.
It was 7:25pm, and the doctor placed the baby on my belly (announcing we delivered a “toddler”) and we found out it was a boy and then the doctor was calling for our pediatrician and told daddy that she was cutting the cord. Ethan was being worked on in the crib with nurses and the doctor trying to stimulate him. He was tired and not peaking up and he was not crying. He was given an apgar of 2. They rushed him to ICU to put him on some oxygen due to poor blood gases. The placenta was delivered very soon after with a natural knot in it and mom was then sewed up as dad went to be with baby. Ethan’s 5 minute apgar was a 7 and I was told I could go see him after recovery. I had to wait one hour for the rest of the fluids and then I got to see him in ICU. They told us all was okay and we’d get him back in our room after the final tests came back. We learned he had shoulder dystocia and that’s why he did not come out so easily but the doctor did not have to break the collarbone.
Around 10:30pm, I got to hold Ethan for the first time and he latched on just fine and I got to breast feed him.
Due to the traumatic delivery, our doctor wanted us to stay for two nights. On Thursday, after Ethan’s circumcision, the pediatrician said he had jaundice and we had to wait results of the bilirubin test before being released. It was 11.2 but we were still released that night and had to come back on Friday morning to retest. It was then an 11.6 and the doctor wasn’t too concerned since it hadn’t jumped a lot. We just had to put him in the sun and keep his feedings close together. On Sunday, one more bilirubin test revealed it was an 8.9 so since it was going down we were in the clear. We wonder if the jaundice was a symptom of being induced.
We feel very happy with our delivery and how our doctor and the hospital staff supported our decisions. Our doctor expressed that she felt very good with inducing as she assessed the placenta to be “old” after delivery and with Ethan’s low blood gasses, she felt he would not have thrived any longer in the womb. That made us feel more confident in being induced. After we were home I told my husband I wanted to do it again. He assumed I meant for more children (which I do want) but I meant the whole delivery process as I learned so much going through it and I feel I could have done so much better. But, of course, we had a healthy baby in the end so the method doesn’t matter so much now.
![8816_145054087477_531102477_2645804_6184512_n[1]](http://www.blogsmonroe.com/childbirth/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/8816_145054087477_531102477_2645804_6184512_n1.jpg "8816_145054087477_531102477_2645804_6184512_n[1]")
The Albright Family Birth Story