Elijah was born on April 26, 2012, exactly one week before his due date. I was thirty-nine weeks pregnant and quite ready to meet our son. So around six in the morning on the day of Elijah's birth, we made our way to Woman's Hospital of Texas.
I had been having relatively intense contractions for the last few weeks of pregnancy along with some pretty intense cramping. I had at least two instances of false labor, where the contractions got to about seven minutes apart and then spread out again. My body was just not progressing. We had been stuck at barely one centimeter of dilation for three weeks and Elijah was not dropping. I was as active as I could possibly be but I must admit, my hour long commute to work was getting more and more difficult with the regular contractions and even though I know that the lack of progress I seemed to be making might mean nothing, I felt in my heart of hearts that our son was ready to be born and might need a little help.
The decision to induce was made by myself, my husband and my doctor....and it was not an easy decision to come to. Chip and I had taken our Bradley method classes and were determined to have a natural birth. However, we chose Dr. Smith because we trust her, and while natural childbirth was her goal for us as well, we knew that if she made suggestions, it was because she had our best interest in mind as well. So when she asked me if we wanted to induce a couple days before our 39 week mark, I knew that my instincts had been correct. After thorough discussion, Chip and I mourned the part of our birth plan that included no interventions but we felt good about the decision we made. My "mommy instinct" was telling me this was the right thing to do.
We arrived at the hospital around seven in the morning. A nurse had been chosen for us by our doctor and the Director of L&D specifically because she had a background in natural birth and actually began her career in a birthing center. Christine was such a blessing. She already had a copy of our birth plan and was determined to help us honor as much of it as possible. The plan was already changing but she knew that we still wanted to try give Elijah the best birth we could. I was hooked up to the pitocin at 8:15. By 9:15, my body was in full labor and they were able to remove me from the pitocin IV as well as the monitoring. Chip and I were able to labor naturally as we had planned.
We used many of the positions that we had learned in our birth class and moved freely around the room, discovering new positions that helped me get through the contractions. I was progressing very very slowly. Around five o clock I was only at three or centimeters dilated and my contractions were thirty to forty five seconds apart. They were literally right on top of one another. I was not getting any breaks in between. Because I was so far from pushing, or even transition, I began to realize there was no way I was going to make it. If the contractions had been further apart, I may have had a shot however the intensity and frequency was making it impossible for me to go on. We were still many many hours away from pushing. Through tears, I told Chip quietly that the time had come for an epidural. I hated the words coming out of my mouth and yet I knew that there was no way I could continue. Christine, unknown to me, had pulled Chip aside shortly before and told him that she expected I would ask and in her opinion, it was the right thing to do if I wanted to have the energy to push when that time came. Chip, being a most excellent coach, did not give in right away. He made me talk it out as best as I could (in my thirty second breaks) and made sure that this was truly what I wanted.
The anesthesiologist was called and I was given relief. After that, the world slowed down a bit for me. I was able to relax and BREATHE. I was looking forward to meeting our son and able to focus on that goal. I was sad that I was not able to do this naturally however I felt like a champ for laboring pain-med free on pitoncin for as long as I did. My dilation continued to progress beautifully and by six-thirty, I was at six centimeters.
Unfortunately Elijah was not dropping. He had remained at zero station pretty much the whole day. He appeared to be stuck. Around the time of this check, we also realized that my temperature was beginning to spike along with Elijah's heart rate. Christine had me move around into different positions to try to bring the heart rate down but it remained at around 180 bpm with no signs of coming down. Dr. Smith was brought in to discuss our options. The causes of concern were that he was not dropping so labor was still probably hours away and if my temperature got to a certain point, there would be concern about infection and Elijah would have to go to the NICU for observation immediately after birth. Chip and I had a decision to make. If we moved forward with a Cesarean section, we would likely still get our immediate bonding time and not have to be separated from Elijah. If we left it chance, it was likely to be hours before we were able to be with our son after his birth. As much as I wanted the opportunity to push our baby out, we realized his well being was most important and we believed that it was more important that he gets to remain with us after his birth. We also trusted our doctor and knew that if she was suggesting this, there were serious causes for concern. Through tears, gave our consent for the c-section and moments later, I was whisked away the operating room. I don't remember ever being this scared. I was scared for our son. I was scared to have major abdominal surgery while AWAKE!
Chip came into the operating room, just as they were beginning the procedure. I was shaking pretty violently from the medication. I looked at Chip and asked him to talk to me. It didn't matter what he said, just please talk to me. I kept listening, hoping to hear a little baby cry while I also continued to focus on Chip, trying to forget what was going on behind that curtain. Then, after only a few minutes, I heard the most perfect cry I have ever heard.
Chip told me he could see him. Then Elijah peaked over the curtain and I saw the most beautiful round face I have ever seen. Our son was born, perfectly. He was 8lbs, 6 oz and had an APGAR score of 8-9! He was alert and beautiful. He did have a slight cone head from being stuck but that just gave us confirmation that he needed a little help getting out. Dr. Smith would later confirm that if we had gone full term, or beyond, it would have been even more likely that we would have needed a c-section due to his size and my apparent lack of room in my hips. We had made the right decisions all around for our son, even if it was not what we had planned.
Chip stayed with Elijah while the doctors continued to sew me back up. That part seemed to take forever. Thirty minutes after Elijah had emerged from my belly, I was in the recovery room breastfeeding him, just as planned.
We stayed in the recovery room for about three hours. Chip gave Elijah his first bath, just as planned and was even able to take him out to the waiting room to meet his grandparents and Godmother while we were recovering.
Around eleven pm, the Parish family of three went, together, to our hospital room. Our ultimate goal achieved. We had a healthy baby boy. He was very alert. He successfully breastfed within 30 minutes of birth and had experienced skin to skin contact. I was able to hold him almost as soon as he was born and Chip and I remained with him the entire time. He had not been given eye ointment or any shots other than vitamin K. Elijah and I thrived so much after our procedure, that we were released from the hospital less than 48 hours after he was born.
An an ideal world, my son would have been born with no medical intervention and no medication. However, I am eternally grateful for Dr. Smith and Woman's hospital of Texas for helping us bring Elijah into the world safely and in a way that I believe was necessary for his situation. I will continue to pursue a natural birth experience for any future children we are blessed with but I have also come to understand that the ultimate goal of health and well being is most important. I am also grateful for the knowledge of have acquired through our Bradley Method classes and my research. It helped me to be more prepared and even more comfortable with the decisions we made for our son. We have been so blessed.
