My Birth Story and Functional C-Section
How we achieved a gentle cesarean after our natural birth plans went awry.
I’m writing this with my sweet baby boy nursing in arms, nearly two months postpartum. There was a lot to emotionally process with the birth of our son (not to mention the intense physical healing that had to take place), but I finally feel ready to share our birth story!
Preparing for an Unmedicated Birth
Even before getting pregnant, I knew I wanted an unmedicated birth. To help achieve this, I did endless amounts of research not only about birth, but also about who I wanted my provider to be. After finding out I was pregnant, my husband and I had narrowed it down to two choices - a local birth center with midwives that would attend the birth, or a highly recommended local OB that specialized in a functional approach to birth. Given my history with epilepsy, and having not quite reached a year since my last seizure, we made the decision to go with the OB and deliver in a hospital in case of any complications. Not to mention, we loved our OB immediately after meeting her, and she calmed a lot of the fears and anxieties that I had around delivering in a hospital. She knew my fears surrounding a hospital birth and my desire for a more “homey” or birth center birth, and assured me she would do everything in her power to help me achieve that.
My Baby Had Other Plans…
Everything went as smooth as could be during the first and second trimester of pregnancy. We found out at 20 weeks that our son only had a single kidney, so we did require a visit with maternal fetal medicine, but they had no major concerns and we carried on with business as usual, just with a couple extra ultrasounds scheduled to make sure his one kidney was developing appropriately.
At 29 weeks we made a trip to Washington for a baby shower with my husband’s side of the family. I remember laying on the bed trying to take a nap, and I felt our baby do a crazy roll. I wondered if he had flipped breech because I suddenly felt a difference in the location of his movements. The following week at an ultrasound, they confirmed my suspicion - baby boy was head up. My OB suggested trying out the Spinning Babies protocol, as well as regular chiropractic care along with the some other suggestions to encourage him to flip.
I incorporated all of the recommendations to help my baby flip, but wasn’t too stressed about it given that we still had ample time. Around 34 weeks, things started getting more difficult. I had a rib that would occasionally pop out of place, but was easily put back in with chiropractic care, but around this time, it wouldn’t stay in place. My chiropractor explained this was due to the hormone, relaxin, and suggested increasing my visits to help with comfort. Even though I was getting adjusted multiple times each week, the pain continued to increase as my belly grew. It made it very painful to breathe in certain positions, especially in the positions for the Spinning Babies protocol. Even still, I was determined not to give up trying, but it did make it exceptionally more difficult and made for a very uncomfortable last few weeks of pregnancy.
A New Birth Plan
Much to my dismay, we hit 36 weeks with a head-up baby. My OB suggested we talk about an ECV (External Cephalic Version) but after another ultrasound, found that my amniotic fluid levels were on the lower side of normal. My OB said that combined with having an anterior placenta made her very hesitant to perform an ECV for the increased chance of complications.
And if you’re wondering if we considered a vaginal breech delivery…. Short answer is yes. Unfortunately, it was against hospital policy, and given other contributing factors, we did feel the most peace about being at a hospital for our birth. So we went ahead and opted for a c-section, and I continued to pray that I would go into labor naturally before the c-section so that we could still experience some of the benefits that come from the natural hormone release that happens during spontaneous labor and having contractions.
I’ll be honest, I actually had quite a difficult time processing the reality of wanting an unmedicated birth to, well, the most medicated birth option possible. But while I am a person who loves the least amount of medical intervention possible, I do find that there is an appropriate time and place for them, and I’m so grateful for modern medicine in times of need.
As I’ve mentioned, I was extremely grateful for my OB, especially once we knew we were going to probably end up doing a c-section. She still suggested we put together a birth “plan,” or prefernces so we still felt like our son’s birth was special and we were still getting some of what we wanted from our birth experience. Our OB offered to perform a “gentle” cesarean. If you aren’t familiar with a gentle, or family-centered cesarean, it’s a more natural approach to c-sections. The goal is to offer a more natural bonding for the mother and baby while still acheiving a safe surgical delivery. Here are a few things we did to accomplish a gentle cesarean:
Vaginal seeding: this is essentially wiping down the baby with the mother’s fluid after birth to help expose the baby to the same beneficial bacteria they would have been exposed to in the birth canal. While this was on our birth preferences sheet, we weren’t able to do it since my water broke before having him.
Clear drape: they placed a clear drape in front of the blue drape and they said to just us know when we would like them to pull it down so we could watch as much or as little of the operation and birth as we wanted. We didn’t care to see much accept for the birth itself, but it was great to have the option.
“Walking” the baby out: rather than quickly pulling the baby out, this is a slower way of removing the baby that way it helps to mimic the vaginal squeeze that happens during a natural birth. This helps to expel excess fluids from the lungs and helps with the baby’s breathing.
Delayed cord clamping: while there is a more strict limit on how long you can delay the cord clamping because of bleeding risks, our OB delayed the cord clamping by 60 seconds while my son laid on my lap so that he could still receive benefits from the pusling cord.
Partner involvement: after the initial cord cutting, my husband was still able to cut the remainder of our son’s cord which still felt very special.
Immediate skin-to-skin: as soon as my son’s vitals had been checked, we did skin-to-skin the OR. We only separated for a short time while they wheeled us into recovery and then he was immediately placed on my chest and they assisted in making sure he latched correctly.
Labor
We had our c-section scheduled for the 28th, a few days after Christams. On the 26th, we were working through a long list of things we needed to get done. We ran around returning items to stores, cleaning the house, and we decided to do a spontaneous date that night “just in case” it was our last night just the two of us, and I’m so glad we did. For the last two days I had felt an increidble amount of pressure in my abdomen. I remember say, “I really feel like this kid is trying to break himself out.” Turns out he was.
I woke up at 4:30 am on the 27th needing to use the bathroom. I stood up and a large gush of water came flooding down my leg. I knew my water had broken. I woke up my sleepy and very confused husband and then I called our doula. She instructed me to call the hospital to see if they wanted me to come in immediately or wait a while. I called and spoke with a nurse, and since we had some concerns about his fluid levels, they instructed me to head on in. We finished packing our remaining items and were out the door within an hour. We arrived at the hospital around 6:30. I remember in the car just feeling so relieved that my body had naturally decided to go into labor, and I was going back and forth between excited energy and feelign very tired. I started experiencing some mild contractions, but nothing very uncomfortable or painful.
We got to the hospital around 6:30. We signed in and then they took us into triage. They tested my vaginal fluid to confirm my water had broken, which it had. They also tried to start an IV. They blew two veins in my arms and then another nurse came in and got one started. The anesthesiologist came in and talked to me. This was around 8 am and he said “okay, we’ll get started in about thirty minutes.” No one had told me what time we would be going in. I asked the nurse and she wasn’t sure. That’s when the nerves started really kicking in. I remembered the verse that had come to me in the car while we were driving over and I pulled out the Bible app on my phone and started reading, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” - John 14:27
We let our doula konw the updates and she headed our way. They typically don’t let more than one person accompany the patient in triage, so we were overjoyed when our doula was allowed to join us. After she arrived there was a constant flood of people in and out of the room. First the anesthetist, then my OB, and a constant flood of nurses doing various tasks.
My nerves really kicked in at this point. I had never had surgery before and I was starting to feel anxious. My odula offered to pray and so everyone stopped what they were doing and gather around and we all prayed before going back to the OR. I took a big deep breath and started to feel so much better, though still nervous.
Delivery
Hunter (our doula) took all of oru belongings and wished us luck and we walked back to the OR. My husband was instructed to stay in the little waiting room meant for dad’s while they gave me the spinal. This was actually one of the parts I was most nervous for, but much to my surprise it really wasn’t that bad. They had me curl over a pillow and take a deep breath as they gave lidocane to help numb the area in my spine. It felt like a very tiny pinch. After that they did the spinal, to which I felt a very minimal amount of pressure and that was it. They quickly laid me on my back and started prepping for surgery.
Lots of people started to come in the room. A few of them introduced themselves. There was a NICU team there ready to check the baby after he was born, lots of nurses, and the OB’s.
I started to feel incredibly tired. The tingling started spreading to my arms. They put up the blue screen so I couldn’t see what was happening with a clear drape in front of it so they could drop it down so we could see him being born. A few minutes later my husband came in. By that time the tingling started reaching to my face. I told the anesthesiologist and he tilted me up a little and said that was normal because it travels. Soon the anesthesiologist said they were going to get started.
I was expecting to feel a ton of pressure, because that’s what everyone said I would feel. But honestly I didn’t even feel a lot of pressure, I just felt some tugging. I asked my husband to talk to me to distract me because I didn’t want to think about what they were doing. So he talked and I was so relaxed from the anesthesia that I nearly fell asleep.
After less than 10 minutes, my OB said, “Wow, he’s big Jenn!” And then they pulled down the blue screen and we saw them place our baby on my lap! A little purple, bloody, and lots of dark hair! We heard his little (yet somehow so loud) cry! Our doctor did delayed corks clamping then handed him to the NICU team. My husband got to cut the cord and then they brought him over and placed him on my chest. He had been crying, but he calmed down as soon as they gave him to me.
Recovery
They stitched me up and wheeled me into recovery. I started not feeling very well once I was in recovery. I was feeling a little nauseous and extremely exhausted. But after we got into the room they placed my baby on my chest again and much to my joy, he latched and immediately started eating!
He continued to nurse, but I started to get the shakes pretty bad. I eventually had to the hand our son to my husband because I was shaking so bad I could barely hold on to him. That was probably the worst part of the whole thing. It took me a little over an hour for the shaking to mostly stop, and after a few hours, they wheeled us into our room.
I’ll be the first to say that I’m incredibly impressed with everyone who is up walking around the day after their c-section. Recovery was a lot harder than I had expected, and as someone who doesn’t love to lay around, I was a little shocked and disappointed with how difficult it was for me to get up and moving.
We stayed in the hospital for two days and then headed home. Even though it was hard, I prioritized rest and barely moved from my bed for the first few days. After that I would occasionally go downstairs to sit on the couch. Even though it was difficult to be that intentional about resting, I am SO glad I was. My body healed incredibly well, and I credit it to rest and very intentinal nourishment.
Even though my birth was nothing like what I had thought it would be or had originalyl wanted, I’m still so grateful for a safe delivery and strong, healthy baby boy. And while I do hope that if we have another child, I’ll be able to deliver naturally, I always want to remember that my son’s birth was a fail, it was still a beautiful day I will cherish forever.
