As we prepare to welcome our fifth sweet baby into the world, I thought it would be fun to share each of our kiddos’ birth stories. Each one is unique and perfect in its own way, and I’m thankful for the twists and turns of each! For those not looking for ALL the details, you may want to skip these posts. This is the third story in the series of four (for now), until I’m able to share our newest addition’s special story.
Anyone who knows Bennett now (as a four year old little boy) will probably read this birth story and be like, “yup, sounds like Bennett!”. He loves to do things on his own terms and never does anything until it’s his own idea. His birth story is no different! Bennett is my only child so far that I’ve gone full term with. He was also the first baby we waited to find out the gender of, and that was such a fun surprise. As I got closer to 40 weeks, my blood pressure began to creep higher and higher until, at my 40 week appointment, I was officially considered to have gestational hypertension. Due to this, I knew that at 40 weeks and one day, my midwife’s recommendation would be to induce. We talked through my options and both decided that we would try breaking my water, as it was a great option and less invasive than jumping right to pitocin. Also, since I’d had this midwife with both Avah and Lucy, she knew that my body seemed to respond to my water breaking in my previous deliveries.
Rich and I showed up to the hospital at 10 p.m. to try breaking my water, as that was when my midwife’s shift began. They got me checked in and monitored Bennett on a non stress test. I was having very light contractions, but wasn’t really feeling any of them despite them registering on the NST. Bennett was responding well, so we decided to go ahead with rupturing my membrane (breaking my water). My midwife broke my water at 10:30 pm and within minutes I was having strong contractions lasting a minute long and 3 minutes apart! Crazy! The nurses and my midwife were shocked with how quickly my body jumped into intense labor just by breaking my water. Within the hour, I was ready to push and with about five pushes, our 10 lb baby BOY came roaring into the world bringing us so much joy and love. We were thrilled to welcome a healthy, handsome son, especially as a surprise!
One thing that did differ in Bennett’s birth was that we had a minor complication afterwards. After about 20 minutes of enjoying our sweet boy, my midwife approached us about the fact that my placenta had not delivered. She and the assisting nurse had massaged my stomach trying to get my uterus to engage and push out the placenta, but by this point, it should have come out naturally and wasn’t progressing. Our best option at this point was to give me a shot of pitocin to try and get enough momentum going to contract my uterus and push it out. We agreed to this, and from there, things progressed quickly. The mood in the delivery room changed and the attending OBGYN came in to consult with my midwife about next steps. At about 45 minutes post-delivery both my midwife and the OB approached Rich and I with our options. The placenta needed to be delivered within 60 minutes of the baby or I risked several postpartum complications. My options were to get some pain medication administered right away through my IV line and have the OBGYN try for a manual removal (ie. reach inside to try and scrape the placenta off the uterus to get it moving) OR opt to go right into surgery and have it surgically removed. After quickly discussing the risks of both, we made the decision to attempt the manual retrieval first knowing that I would be knocked out and taken to emergency surgery right at the 60 minute mark if it didn’t work. The anesthesiologist came in immediately after we decided and, after discussing my gestational hypertension and asthma as pre-existing conditions, the correct pain medication was administered. It happened to be a drug that made me feel tipsy and laugh. SO, through this very serious complication, I was nervously giggling in a bit of euphoric state as the OB proceeded to stick what Rich later said was his entire arm “up there” to manually remove the placenta. As the clock ticked closer to 60 minutes, Rich as well as the nurses and doctors in the room started prepping for surgery. At 58 minutes after delivering Bennett, the OB told Rich he was going to give it one more try and then they had to call it. Praise the Lord, the last tug got the placenta out! It truly was down to the wire and we were so thankful the manual retrieval worked. I was still giggling away despite knowing the situation was serious–it was the oddest situation and sensation! My midwife and the OB spent extra time checking over the placenta to ensure it hadn’t ruptured and was fully intact. Thankfully, all looked great and crisis was averted!
I’d be lying if I said this whole complication didn’t shake me up a bit in retrospect. In the moment, it was hard to process or understand, but afterwards I had a lot of questions. Why wouldn’t the placenta deliver? Was this something I’d be at risk for again in future deliveries? Was there a choice I made during delivery (like breaking my water) that made me more susceptible to this? I don’t know if I’ll ever fully have answers to these questions. I’ve gone on to have at least one additional birth that didn’t have this complication, and been reassured by my midwife in DC and my OB here in California that sometimes things like that just happen and need to be addressed. One thing I do know is that I am very thankful I was in the hospital for this birth. I’ve always been inclined to keeping my deliveries as natural as possible in terms of progression and inducement, but I’ve also always felt very strongly about having hospital births for this exact reason. If and when something doesn’t go exactly as planned, it’s reassuring to know the medical care I need is right there, ready to respond immediately, rather than an ambulance ride away. Also, despite the fact I’ve labored through all of my deliveries without an epidural, I by no means am against them! In this instance, despite skipping the epidural for the delivery of Bennett, I was VERY thankful to already have a hep lock in my arm that they could put pain medication directly into after the birth to help ease the pain of the manual retrieval of the placenta. For me personally, it was crucial during all of my births to know there was an anesthesiologist and surgeon (OBGYN) at the ready should complications occur.
Once we got over the shock of the placenta incident and were moved to our recovery room, we had the best time bonding with Bennett. My recovery was a little harder this time around, as I needed extra stitches due to the stretching during the placenta retrieval and had more bleeding than prior deliveries for the same reason. We ended up staying in recovery for two nights rather than one, and just enjoyed the time resting together and focusing on Bennett before heading home to introduce him to the girls. While the placenta experience was different and a bit shocking, overall my entire birth experience was still very positive. We had incredible care from my midwife, the doctors, and nurses, and were sad knowing this would be our last birth at Fort Belvoir, as we had orders to move to California that summer. Bennett became the perfect addition to our family and his big sisters were SO excited to welcome him into the family once we got home. And once again, the entire labor and delivery experience was one of the most empowering and uniting things I’ve ever walked through both as a woman and a spouse. There truly is nothing quite like experiencing all the stages of labor and welcoming a life God created in you with your spouse into the world together, as a team. I think after each birth, Rich and I have said how blessed we feel not only to have another healthy child, but to have experienced bringing this life into the world together, as a team!
