So, just so you know, two things:
1. If you're a guy, or not pregnant, and haven't had kids, this post might be a bit TMI for you. I wouldn't be offended if you decided you didn't want to read it.
2. My birthing choices, like the fact that I use cloth diapers and homeschool, represent the things that we've found best for our family--I'm not judging you if you happen to do things the opposite way from me. So don't feel guilty/condemned/etc.
The funny thing is that we had joked ahead of time, "Wouldn't it be funny, since the Steelers are in the Superbowl, if I went into labor on Superbowl Sunday? And then had the baby during the last, exciting play of the game?"
Har har har.
It actually started on Saturday night, with contractions that saw to it that I didn't get to sleep. Eventually we hit a plateau, in the middle of the night, enough that I could doze between contractions.
Early Sunday we called the grandparents, who got here after church, by which time I was having contractions every five minutes, moaning, and trying not to frighten the other kids, who decided I was roaring like a jaguar and was, consequently, hysterically funny. When the contractions began getting more like three and one minute apart, I decided perhaps this was really it and that I should go to the hospital while the getting was good.
So it was that we were checked in at the hospital about a half hour before kickoff. The nurse looked at me dubiously in the triage room and said, "I think it's silly to check you in here--you're going to stay". We found, to our surprise, that I was at 5cm (halfway), already.
Over the next five hours I pretty much handled labor by the expedients of rolling around in a tub of hot water (they have awesome tubs on the labor and delivery floor) and yelling my fool head off. Littleman was turned toward my left hip and didn't want to finish rotating, just like his brother, but unlike his brother could be convinced to turn with correct positioning. I kept yelling, but got out of the tub since I wanted to push the baby out and the midwife was understandably reluctant to catch the baby in the water. I yelled a bit more during pushing, until the Husband said "get the most work for your breath" and finally my rational mind got enough control to get good pushing in.
(During labor my rational mind is like the warden during a prison riot--aware but powerless.)
Out came Littleman, whose name should really be Bigman, gulping amniotic fluid and pooping simultaneously. He had to have the fluid suctioned out of his mouth and stomach for a few minutes after he was born.
I say he should be called Bigman because, while his siblings were 6lbs 9oz and 6lbs 10oz respectively, this kid was 8lbs 5oz. I knew it wasn't just my imagination that my belly stuck out to a ridiculous extent. He had a giant head -- 14.5 inches. His siblings were also cue balls--Buddy, you'll note, still doesn't have much hair. Littleman has a huge shock of black hair, and a cowlick that sticks straight up.
A few notes, if you're wondering what a completely natural delivery feels like. (Natural in that I had no Pitocin, no pain medication, no IV, no episiotomy, no interventions at all except for my water breaking when the midwife checked me once.)
I think the research is pretty clear that natural, vs. medicated, labor and delivery is best for the baby most of the time. That is the main reason why I put myself through contractions without pain medication. A secondary reason is that I've had two other labors, both with Pitocin and one with spinal anesthesia, and that the pain medication doesn't actually work that well. However, I'm not going to tell you that by having an epidural you will mess everything up and ruin your baby. You do what you have to do, ok? I'll tell you what the benefits were that I saw to a natural birth, compared to my medicated births, and you can draw your own conclusions about what might work for you.
1. Pitocin vs. No Pitocin
Contractions with Pitocin hurt a lot more than contractions without, and the rest periods in between contractions don't feel nearly as good with Pitocin. With my first two births, I had Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin, sometimes called Syntocin) "augmentation". I didn't realize how much it contributed to my exhaustion after labor until I didn't have it with this labor--the rest periods in between contractions were much nicer this time, with me feeling alert, happy, and relaxed, instead of tense, sullen, and still in pain.
Also, I think that my babies born after a Pitocin-augmented labor were more tired than Littleman. Pitocin causes stronger contractions than natural ones, which make it so the baby gets less oxygen. Littleman seems very alert and chipper, compared to his sibs.
2. Pain medicine vs. No pain medicine
I had no pain meds with Miss Boo except a dose of Stadol, an IV narcotic that lasts about an hour. It did nothing at all for me except make me tired--didn't even take the edge of the contractions. I highly recommend not bothering with it. With Buddy, I had Stadol (because I was on hour 30 of contractions and hour 4 or 5 of Pitocin-augmented contractions, and I was a bit loopy) and then, when the exhaustion was beginning to tell, an intrathecal (spinal) anesthetic. The Stadol, again, didn't do a dang thing. The spinal took away all sensation from about my armpits down, which felt wonderful, but which had some side effects:
I couldn't feel while I was pushing. I had already had a baby and knew how to push, so this wasn't bad for me, but if it was my first baby it might have been difficult to know when/where to push.
Buddy was still sleepy from the medication when he came out, and didn't breathe on his own--he had to have oxygen. He was also too sleepy to nurse, and slept a lot for the next few days after delivery and didn't nurse as much as he should have, which I think contributed to a case of jaundice he developed at a week old.
I was dreadfully tired and sore after Buddy's delivery, and lost a lot of blood.
By comparison, with Littleman I lost hardly any blood during delivery, he's nursing wonderfully, and I have a few stiff muscles.
3. Not Eating vs. Eating
...which might really be called laboring at home vs. laboring in the hospital. With both other births I went to the hospital too soon, as soon as I was sure I was in labor. This time we labored at home for 13 hours before we went to the hospital, during which time I ate whatever I wanted to and rocked in my own recliner. It made a vast difference in how strong I felt, since in the hospital I had been restricted to clear liquids duing labor. (Bleah!) Imagine trying to take a 50 mile hike on apple juice, Sprite, and Jello and you can get an idea of how tired and shaky laboring while hungry can make you.
5 hours in the hospital was much more doable after getting the early stuff out of the way at home. Unless you have precipitous labors, try staying home.
4. Conclusions
I think use of pain medicine in labor is a personal choice, but you may want to consider it as a pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later phenomena. My spinal definitely made the end of labor and pushing easier than my two non-medicated pushing phases; however, I was in pain and run down for days after labor, vs. being in pain for an hour or thirty minutes while pushing and then feeling pretty good in the days after labor. The nurses kept commenting this time on how well I was doing and how healthy and happy I seemed, compared to their c-section and epidural patients. If you have pressing reasons you need to feel good soon after labor, I highly recommend trying for a non-medicated birth. This is by far the easiest recovery for me, to the point that I'm having to remind myself to keep resting.
However, if you can ensure you'll have plenty of help after labor, perhaps you can afford to use some medication in labor. I refuse to make it black-and-white--I'm still convinced that the combination of Pitocin and fasting in Buddy's labor would have exhausted me to the point of failure during pushing and an emergency c-section, had I not had the rest that the spinal gave me. And believe me, a spinal is better than a c-section.
Any questions?
Cheers,
Breanna
1. If you're a guy, or not pregnant, and haven't had kids, this post might be a bit TMI for you. I wouldn't be offended if you decided you didn't want to read it.
2. My birthing choices, like the fact that I use cloth diapers and homeschool, represent the things that we've found best for our family--I'm not judging you if you happen to do things the opposite way from me. So don't feel guilty/condemned/etc.
The funny thing is that we had joked ahead of time, "Wouldn't it be funny, since the Steelers are in the Superbowl, if I went into labor on Superbowl Sunday? And then had the baby during the last, exciting play of the game?"
Har har har.
It actually started on Saturday night, with contractions that saw to it that I didn't get to sleep. Eventually we hit a plateau, in the middle of the night, enough that I could doze between contractions.
Early Sunday we called the grandparents, who got here after church, by which time I was having contractions every five minutes, moaning, and trying not to frighten the other kids, who decided I was roaring like a jaguar and was, consequently, hysterically funny. When the contractions began getting more like three and one minute apart, I decided perhaps this was really it and that I should go to the hospital while the getting was good.
So it was that we were checked in at the hospital about a half hour before kickoff. The nurse looked at me dubiously in the triage room and said, "I think it's silly to check you in here--you're going to stay". We found, to our surprise, that I was at 5cm (halfway), already.
Over the next five hours I pretty much handled labor by the expedients of rolling around in a tub of hot water (they have awesome tubs on the labor and delivery floor) and yelling my fool head off. Littleman was turned toward my left hip and didn't want to finish rotating, just like his brother, but unlike his brother could be convinced to turn with correct positioning. I kept yelling, but got out of the tub since I wanted to push the baby out and the midwife was understandably reluctant to catch the baby in the water. I yelled a bit more during pushing, until the Husband said "get the most work for your breath" and finally my rational mind got enough control to get good pushing in.
(During labor my rational mind is like the warden during a prison riot--aware but powerless.)
Out came Littleman, whose name should really be Bigman, gulping amniotic fluid and pooping simultaneously. He had to have the fluid suctioned out of his mouth and stomach for a few minutes after he was born.
I say he should be called Bigman because, while his siblings were 6lbs 9oz and 6lbs 10oz respectively, this kid was 8lbs 5oz. I knew it wasn't just my imagination that my belly stuck out to a ridiculous extent. He had a giant head -- 14.5 inches. His siblings were also cue balls--Buddy, you'll note, still doesn't have much hair. Littleman has a huge shock of black hair, and a cowlick that sticks straight up.
A few notes, if you're wondering what a completely natural delivery feels like. (Natural in that I had no Pitocin, no pain medication, no IV, no episiotomy, no interventions at all except for my water breaking when the midwife checked me once.)
I think the research is pretty clear that natural, vs. medicated, labor and delivery is best for the baby most of the time. That is the main reason why I put myself through contractions without pain medication. A secondary reason is that I've had two other labors, both with Pitocin and one with spinal anesthesia, and that the pain medication doesn't actually work that well. However, I'm not going to tell you that by having an epidural you will mess everything up and ruin your baby. You do what you have to do, ok? I'll tell you what the benefits were that I saw to a natural birth, compared to my medicated births, and you can draw your own conclusions about what might work for you.
1. Pitocin vs. No Pitocin
Contractions with Pitocin hurt a lot more than contractions without, and the rest periods in between contractions don't feel nearly as good with Pitocin. With my first two births, I had Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin, sometimes called Syntocin) "augmentation". I didn't realize how much it contributed to my exhaustion after labor until I didn't have it with this labor--the rest periods in between contractions were much nicer this time, with me feeling alert, happy, and relaxed, instead of tense, sullen, and still in pain.
Also, I think that my babies born after a Pitocin-augmented labor were more tired than Littleman. Pitocin causes stronger contractions than natural ones, which make it so the baby gets less oxygen. Littleman seems very alert and chipper, compared to his sibs.
2. Pain medicine vs. No pain medicine
I had no pain meds with Miss Boo except a dose of Stadol, an IV narcotic that lasts about an hour. It did nothing at all for me except make me tired--didn't even take the edge of the contractions. I highly recommend not bothering with it. With Buddy, I had Stadol (because I was on hour 30 of contractions and hour 4 or 5 of Pitocin-augmented contractions, and I was a bit loopy) and then, when the exhaustion was beginning to tell, an intrathecal (spinal) anesthetic. The Stadol, again, didn't do a dang thing. The spinal took away all sensation from about my armpits down, which felt wonderful, but which had some side effects:
I couldn't feel while I was pushing. I had already had a baby and knew how to push, so this wasn't bad for me, but if it was my first baby it might have been difficult to know when/where to push.
Buddy was still sleepy from the medication when he came out, and didn't breathe on his own--he had to have oxygen. He was also too sleepy to nurse, and slept a lot for the next few days after delivery and didn't nurse as much as he should have, which I think contributed to a case of jaundice he developed at a week old.
I was dreadfully tired and sore after Buddy's delivery, and lost a lot of blood.
By comparison, with Littleman I lost hardly any blood during delivery, he's nursing wonderfully, and I have a few stiff muscles.
3. Not Eating vs. Eating
...which might really be called laboring at home vs. laboring in the hospital. With both other births I went to the hospital too soon, as soon as I was sure I was in labor. This time we labored at home for 13 hours before we went to the hospital, during which time I ate whatever I wanted to and rocked in my own recliner. It made a vast difference in how strong I felt, since in the hospital I had been restricted to clear liquids duing labor. (Bleah!) Imagine trying to take a 50 mile hike on apple juice, Sprite, and Jello and you can get an idea of how tired and shaky laboring while hungry can make you.
5 hours in the hospital was much more doable after getting the early stuff out of the way at home. Unless you have precipitous labors, try staying home.
4. Conclusions
I think use of pain medicine in labor is a personal choice, but you may want to consider it as a pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later phenomena. My spinal definitely made the end of labor and pushing easier than my two non-medicated pushing phases; however, I was in pain and run down for days after labor, vs. being in pain for an hour or thirty minutes while pushing and then feeling pretty good in the days after labor. The nurses kept commenting this time on how well I was doing and how healthy and happy I seemed, compared to their c-section and epidural patients. If you have pressing reasons you need to feel good soon after labor, I highly recommend trying for a non-medicated birth. This is by far the easiest recovery for me, to the point that I'm having to remind myself to keep resting.
However, if you can ensure you'll have plenty of help after labor, perhaps you can afford to use some medication in labor. I refuse to make it black-and-white--I'm still convinced that the combination of Pitocin and fasting in Buddy's labor would have exhausted me to the point of failure during pushing and an emergency c-section, had I not had the rest that the spinal gave me. And believe me, a spinal is better than a c-section.
Any questions?
Cheers,
Breanna
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