All weekend long I have to admit I have been glued to my computer screen watching the events of a home birth after c-section (HBAC) unfold on the internet for a fellow blogger, Baby Dickey. I was absolutely terrified at how the events have unfolded and I am still scared for that mother and baby. I am sorry people but there are just so many risks in a HBAC and there's a reason that not many midwives will do it. The outcome this time was a good one so far, but they aren't out of the woods yet. And I just want to assure those of you who think because I thought the hospital was a good place for her to be that does not mean that I am a hater or unsupportive. Just a concerned human being for a woman and her unborn child.How I came on the scene!
Contrary to what some might believe on twitter I was not stalking or coming onto this because of someone else. I actually followed Baby Dickey on twitter before she started her home birth. I never really read her blog, but I had seen a few tweets from her. I knew that labor had started on Thursday. I hoped things were going well, but then late Friday morning/early afternoon I had heard that she was still in labor and the midwives had left. I began to follow things more closely and watching her sob about her midwives leaving. And I immediately thought about the birth of my youngest who was a hospital vbac (Vaginal Birth After C-section). I had a nurse at my side for the majority of my labor in the hospital. Why? Because she was monitoring my baby's heart rate closely. Because any sign of distress could have meant I could have been rupturing and we would need to change plans quickly.
And now no one was there monitoring this baby. No one would know anything was wrong possibly until it was too late. Now when I see a woman being left alone who has a higher risk of rupture with no one monitoring the baby and find out that the midwife is also an hour away I get worried. So I put a plea out to someone who was close to her to please talk to her about going to the hospital. She sounded scared and alone and I knew it was becoming a less than ideal situation. And sometimes we just need to hear it's okay no one will think less of you if you go to the hospital.
I immediately was told to just go away if I couldn't be supportive!
Why should she go to the hospital? That's not what she wants. This is all completely normal. Labor stalls. Okay, yes it's normal labor stalls, but she said it hurts so bad labor wasn't stalled if it hurt. And she was attempting a vbac! Why do people keep forgetting that? This wasn't some low risk case. I just didn't think she should be left alone. I would have cried too if I was left completely alone during my labor. And I also knew how crazy irrational I could be while in labor. With my youngest there was a machine that would not stop beeping in the room. My husband couldn't even hear it, but it sounded like it was blaring right in my ear. I made him hunt it down and shut it off because I was going absolutely mad from this quiet beeping noise that to me sounded 100 times louder than it was.
When I was in the midst of things experiencing some intense back labor it was my husband telling me to get pain meds that ultimately made me do it. I wouldn't have listened to anyone else telling me it was okay to have drugs but him. I wanted to do it all naturally. I did with my two oldest. I was sure that I could do it again. I don't think my husband even suggested pain meds to me with my two oldest deliveries. This time he did tell me to get them then though and I think it's because he could tell that I needed to hear it from him in order to do it. I wanted someone this woman loved to let her know it was okay to go to the hospital. Because I thought that maybe she would listen. But most importantly I wanted her to understand that people would not think bad of her if she did go to the hospital. There are no awards for enduring the most pain in child birth. And the bottom line is we want a healthy baby.
I was told, "The baby's fine!"
If the baby wasn't fine they never would have left. Sure, maybe the baby was fine when they left, but no one knew for sure how that baby was. Do people even realize how quickly things can go south? Again, her midwife was an hour away. Heck, according to mom's account of things it took 3 hours for the midwives to get there originally. So by the time some outward appearance of something wrong showed it would be another three hours before they arrived again? I was scared for this baby people and I wasn't the only one! You can say v-bac is safe all you want and you know I tend to agree with you when it's done under the right circumstances. And this labor was lasting FOREVER!
Two and a half days, FOREVER!
It took 60 hours from the time she announced she was calling the midwives because the contractions were 4 minutes apart until she was holding her baby in her arms. I know what you're all going to say, birth takes time. That's the way her body handles birth. It's only because of doctors wanting to rush things so they can get out of there that we are used to seeing shorter labors. But again let me remind you all SHE WAS A V-BAC! We can't look at this case the same as if this was her first child. She had a uterus which had an incision on it. What happens to a woman when you give her Pitocin during labor? It makes the contractions stronger. But, in most cases doctors will tell you they don't want to use Pitocin on a v-bac, right? Why is that? Well because of those stronger contractions it can put undue stress on the uterus therefore upping a woman's chances of rupture. So what exactly do you think happens to a uterus that has an incision on it after 2 1/2 days of contractions every three minutes? Does that put any less stress on the uterus? I can assure you that our ancestors who birthed at home were not doing it with a scarred uterus from a previous surgery. So this isn't exactly the same as our ancestors now is it?
I'm glad it's over!
I was so happy to hear that she was born Sunday morning and was fine even if it was at home. I understand that this is what mom wanted and I'm sure she's feeling over the moon that she did it. I am just so happy that the baby is okay though. Because after watching everything unfold she was at 8 centimeters for something like 14 hours. That's a crazy long time people. And every hour that went by I got more and more scared for that baby. They aren't out of the woods yet.
If mom tore badly I hope they got her to a doctor to stitch her up. Yup, here I go again with those doctors. They aren't terrible people though. A midwife delivered my oldest, but I tore too bad for her to stitch me up. I was in a hospital though and a doctor was just a page away. He came in with all the arrogance that most would expect of a doctor and the bedside manner of a tick. My mom and husband say they had to hold each other back from knocking him upside the head, but I will say this he did put me back together again. Something the midwife who I loved who delivered my daughter was unable to do. And I never had to see the man again after he got me right as rain.
You get what you take out of things!
Not everything that goes wrong in your life can be blamed on someone else. Sometimes you really need to look at the big picture in things. I could have come away from my first birth saying I will never trust another doctor again if I had focused on that small 15 minutes or so when I was being stitched up by one. Instead I focused on the fact that I had a beautiful new baby girl and everything healed the way it was supposed to down yonder. With my next birth I had a doctor the whole way and actually a much easier recovery which could have been due to a properly done episiotomy by a doctor, or because she was my second.
Things in life rarely go as planned though and definitely not in birth. Doctors do the best they can with as much information as they can gather. In Baby Dickey's case I am not so sure how much information was being gathered by healthcare professionals who were hardly there it would seem. No, doctors were not in the delivery room with me the entire time I labored, but with my youngest a nurse just about was and there are always monitors constantly recording everything so they can get a good idea what they are dealing with. The hospital probably would have performed a repeat c-section on this mother much sooner because 9 times out of 10 this just ends badly. It's not because doctors are lazy and want to get out of there; it's because doctors are trained and have seen things go from bad to worse in an instant. And we can't just assume this time it will be okay. And just think happy thoughts, that will make all the bad stop!
I know I have opened myself up to a lot of criticism about this case because so many feel that this was some huge step forward in the power of home birth. I worry how far women will push things for their perfect birth experience. It is a woman's choice, but I hope women are making this choice based on medical facts and not on how many women dodged a bullet playing the part of a stunt woman. I'm not even sure where women are reading that HBAC is safe because when I looked into it with my youngest my previous c-section meant it was a risk factor for me. And I had two perfectly normal vaginal births before my c-section for breech presentation. Two quick vaginal births actually. I quickly dismissed any thoughts of a HBAC when I kept reading that it was a risk. It was too big of a risk for me.
Once the high wears off from her perfect birth I wonder where Baby Dickey goes from here!
Do you think Baby Dickey is a hero or do you think she put her baby in harms way for her perfect birth experience?
