When I was pregnant with my first child, delivery was this far off event that I never really worried about. I floated through my pregnancy just enjoying all the little kicks and watching my belly grow. That is, until the day that my Doctor announced that my healthy baby could officially be born any time now. Ladies, I have a confession to make, I freaked out! Suddenly I looked down at what I once viewed as a cute little belly and all I saw was a 20 pound brick that was somehow going to come out of my body whether I wanted it to or not! There was no changing my mind, there was no turning back, it was ready or not girl, you’re about to have a baby.
Sound familiar. Yeah, I’m betting that it does. I haven’t met a pregnant woman yet who didn’t have that, “O _ _ _ _!” moment.
Looking back on it now I realize that the biggest fear, across the board, is of the unknown. See, no matter how many tapes you watch, or how many books you read, delivery is something that you just have to experience. Part of the reason for this is that there are a large number of women out there who seem bent on sharing the very worst of what delivery could ever be. It must be the whole misery loves company phenomenon, but it is something that I will never understand.
And while I know that I can’t completely take your fear away, the one thing that I can do is take away the mystery. I’m going to walk you through delivery from the moment that you show up at the hospital until you have that sweet little baby in your arms. Now, keep in mind that your delivery won’t go exactly like mine did. But chances are good that things will at least flow in the same general direction!
So let’s get started!
The first thing that happens when you get to the hospital is that they have you fill out paperwork. Yup, even if you pre-registered like I did, there are still more forms to sign. Now if you are in active labor then they might let your husband do this while you are whisked away, but otherwise be ready to sign on that dotted line. Then they give you a bracelet and away you go.
You get to walk over to labor and delivery where you will be shown to your room. Different hospitals are set up in different ways, but mine was one where you labor and deliver in one room and then were moved to your recovery room. They give you a gown to change into and then tell you to use the restroom if you have to. (Dumb question if you ask me, at 9 months pregnant you ALWAYS have to go to the restroom!) But then they leave you alone for a few short minutes to get settled in. My husband spent this time pushing every single button he could find. I was positive that he was going to get us thrown out before we ever got started.
But, I digress. Before you know it your nurse will be back, and this time she will have supplies. She will take all your vital signs, check your cervix, hook you up to a fetal monitor, and then draw blood for labs. And in the interest of full disclosure, this was hands down the very worst part of my delivery. First off I am terrified of needles, and, of course, the nurse missed the vein not once, but twice. And to make things even better she then threw my blood into the sharps container with the spent needle, so we had to do it again. Yes, she was my very favorite person after that and I was very very sad that it was then time for shift change.
Anyways, at this point they also hooked me up to an I.V. because I was being induced. Chances are good that you will have to have an I.V. as well. It’s required if you want an epidural or if you need to have I.V. antibiotics during your delivery, so be ready for that.
After all that, things got pretty boring for a while. In fact, we spent the next four hours just sitting around waiting for things to get good. The nurse came in about every half hour to check both the babie’s vitals, and mine, and to make sure that my I.V. was doing what it should. It usually wasn’t and she would fiddle with it for a minute, push a few buttons and then hot foot it right back out the door. My labor was progressing during this time, but it never got to the point where I was really bothered by it. You feel cramping that steadily gets stronger, but it’s a pain that you can deal with.
Then, about 12:30 my doctor cruised through the door wearing a very goofy looking bow tie. I had to give him a hard time about that and he, in turn, had to break my water. This is where things started to get good. Because let me tell you that those cramps that weren’t any big deal before hand were now at a whole new level. They definitely had my attention and with-in 15 minutes I was banging on that call button and begging for my epidural. It was still a pain that I could deal with, but I could see where this was going, and it was a road that I did NOT want to walk down alone! My doctor just patted me on the head as he left and said that he would see me later that night at about 8pm or 9pm. Ha, little did he know!
You need to keep in mind that after you ask for your epidural, they still have to give you a whole bag of fluids before you can get it. Because of this you don’t want wait to ask until the very last second or you might not get it at all! My labor jump-started after my doctor broke my water, and they later told me that if I had waited even another 15 or 20 minutes I wouldn’t have gotten it at all. So, if you want an epidural make sure that you ask early and ask often.
Now, if I was worried about the I.V. you would think that the idea of an epidural would scare me to death, but by the time that little man wheeled his cart into the room I had no fear of that needle left in me. And I promise that you won’t either. He had me swing my legs over the side of the bed and kind of curl my shoulders down. Then he had my husband stand right in front of me so that I could hold on to him. You feel a little prick and then a bit of a burn going down one side, a burn down the other, and then…..nothing! It’s a beautiful thing. All that discomfort that I had even 30 seconds earlier was now gone. Then downside is that you can’t move your legs, which feels rather odd, but it’s a fair trade if you ask me.
It was great because now I could kind of enjoy what was happening again. I was cracking jokes about all the different wires coming off of me and laughing at my family bundling up in sweaters as they walked into my room. See, when you are in labor you’re not exactly chilly, so I had them crank that thermostat as low as it would possibly go. They were freezing, I still felt a little warm. Guess who won? Yup, sweaters it was!
In fact, the only thing on me that was cold was my left arm. That was where I had my I.V. and they had been pumping me full of fluids all day. Since the fluids are kept refrigerated, they are cold when they go into your body so your arm is pretty chilly. Kind of like driving down the road on a cold day with the window down and the heat on.
At this point it was about 3:30. Way to early for anything to happen according to my nurse, but it sure felt like something was happening to me. I started to feel this amazing pressure pushing down through my body. At first I thought that my epidural was wearing off, but when I really thought about it, it was pressure and not pain that I was feeling, even though it was uncomfortable. It was persistent, and didn’t let up like the contractions had. I wanted to push and I wanted to push NOW.
My husband ran out to get the nurse who came in assuring him that we couldn’t be ready yet. She pulled up the sheet, asked me to give a little push, and then turned white. Her head snapped up and she ordered me not to push again. That’s when the fun started. Suddenly I had all these people in the room. They were bringing in a bassinet for the baby, changing my bed around for delivery, and wheeling in a few different carts of supplies. And though all of this was fun to watch, I still REALLY wanted to push. I kept asking my husband to just throw some gloves on and catch but he wasn’t cooperating with me.
Then just when I thought that I was going to have to catch my daughter myself my doctor walked in, sans weird bow tie. He started talking about how this usually takes a while for first time mothers as he wheeled his little stool into place. I didn’t care what he was saying, just that they were finally going to let me push! They asked my husband to hold one leg and my sister to hold the other. Then, in what I consider to be an amazing effort on my part, in three big pushes my daughter’s head was out.
She had her hand up by her mouth and was crying before she was even all the way out. I had to giggle as my doctor started saying, “Whoa, whoa baby!” Apparently things were happening faster than he was ready for! She straightened out that little arm, and out she came. On minute she was a part of me, and the next my doctor was holding her up for me to see. It was amazing. I had done it, and you will too.
At the end of the day, your body knows what it’s doing. As much as you don’t want to hear it now, birth is a natural process, and you will make it through. Just make sure that you have a doctor that you trust and then go for it. Push as hard as you can and it will all be over before you know it. Yes, there is pain, but the memory of it dims. I never believed it when people told me that, but it’s true. And before you know it you will be thinking about number two. They really are that wonderful!
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