Given that I've already signed up for childbirth, and that's coming up in less than two months, I'll go ahead and experience it myself.
Before anyone else here responds, I hope you know what those days are going to be like. I can tell you that when the OB decides on the date, it's happening. They will put you on stuff that encourages dilation towards getting that baby going. If you don't get open wide enough, I hate to say this: they'll prep for surgery. You'll be out like a blown lightbulb and the father won't be included in the scene (safety and sanitary reasons). You won't see your child until you wake up. You won't have control over what they do to your precious baby (I repeat) not until YOU WAKE UP. You haven't laid eyes on this miracle and people, complete strangers, are the first contact your baby have had in this world. What the hospital decides is what is going to happen, so best hope you got into one with a good reputation for care.
When you get your newborn, I suggest you prepare to tape your eyelids open. I know what I said earlier about the hospital deciding everything and caring for the newborn, but after a couple of sleepless nights it gets blurry on who is in need of care here. Also, once that abdominal wall is cut, encouraging those damn damaged muscles to go back towards being flat is incredibly difficult (if not impossible).
Yes yes, the videos my doctor gave me to watch prepared me for all that. Actually, the videos say that "your support person" can usually sit at the head of the bed with you during a C-section. They'll drop a curtain between your head and your belly so you won't have to watch it happening. In most cases, they'll keep you awake but give you a numbing shot.
Anyway, the doctor gave me a whole series of videos and emphasized to watch the C-section video "just in case" even though I'm planning on a vaginal birth.
Are you talking about a planned date? Like, “We’re inducing labor on the 14th.” Maybe that’s different then? My son was an emergency C-section. I put on scrubs and went into the operating room and sat next to the anesthesiologist. The nursed held a sheet up so I couldn’t see the operation, but the moment my son came out they lowered the sheet and I saw him. The doctor checked him, the nurses took him back and cleaned/weighed him, and less than 10 minutes after the C-section, I was holding him.
Yep, that's what they told us to expect from the videos!
It was a date to be induced and there was a full day's worth that had gone by being under that influence, getting poked, told how little progress was being made dilating, and finally being told that they'd have prepare a cesarean section for birth. It wasn't pleasant experience when being informed of a "code-blue" event afterwards. The hospital in question would not be a place I'd recommend returning to. I still worry about the two bruised marks I discovered behind my child's head (above the back of the neck) and if that had done damage (they said they used some tool).
Yep, the videos said there could be bruises or cuts on the baby's head, but the baby would be fine.
Given that they've been so forthright with me, I think we have a good medical provider. It's Kaiser, by the way. We also have a family friend who is a pediatrician with Kaiser, and they gave her some kind of jacket that said #1 in maternity care or something. She was wearing it on a video conference we had with her recently, since my husband was freaking out about Covid cases rising and wanted some reassurance about Kaiser's Covid precautions.
If you had an epidural and they pumped you full of pain killers, things grind to a halt. Even if they’re inducing labor. I’m gonna guess they had you on your back the entire time also, which makes it worse. And it sounds like they tried a forceps delivery, or perhaps they needed to use forceps to position the baby somehow. Just guesses, though. The doctors should have informed you of what was done.
Yeah, learned about that part in university when I took a human development course and watched "The Business of Being Born." I am not planning on an epidural. One of my friends recommended nitrous oxide, but they won't do that right now with Covid. I'm going to try it without painkillers and ask for fentanyl if I can't take it anymore.
They did tell me afterwards. That is the problem: I didn't know before that this was going to happen. I expected and hoped for a natural delivery with my child having both parents being present. None of that happened. The wing had my child in the nursery for half a day before we could be permitted to share a room together.
As for the forceps, I don't know. They said what it was, but I forget now. The way my memory plays with their description of it, I am thinking of a type of vacuum or suction tool. I don't remember what it was and that is the excuse why I called it a "tool". Maybe it was forceps? Only they would know and I doubt they'd remember (if they still have their positions there).
I just remember that day starting with the moment our parents walked in while the OB had been poking (knees up and legs spread wide open for their blessed view), being informed that "pain killers" were being resisted (don't know the story behind that one), and an anxiety attack popping up right when surgery had been decided to be next on today's menu. Then a big pause (unconscious), waking up and bolting out of bed (searching for you-know-who), and nearly ripping the cords off to get to the nursery. I remember being pissed when I learned they had given my baby formula.
I think I should stop here. I've hijacked this thread more than enough as is. I apologize
@minacia .
Wow, that is scary. Did they give you an option on which painkillers to take? Did they even tell you which ones they were doing? Kaiser gave me a big booklet to read through when they first confirmed my pregnancy, and it had lots of stuff including the pros and cons for all the different painkillers. Then, there were some forms I filled out for my "birth plan" that included how I wanted to manage my pain. They also asked about my religion, so I wrote "Independent."
Absolutely nothing to apologize about!!
Thank you for sharing your story with us. I’m sorry you had to go through all that
Yes, thank you! It is good to be prepared for the worst just in case. I think things will turn out OK, though. I've had doctors who made me feel really uncomfortable at other places, but so far I like the Kaiser doctors I've been dealing with.
I also got diagnosed with gestational diabetes a little early because I knew my mom had it, and I wanted to get it under control ASAP. They usually diagnose it around week 20 from what I understand, but I got it diagnosed at week 16. The doctor kinda shrugged and was like, "OK, your initial (12 week) blood tests came back normal, but you can go take the 1-hour glucose test right now if you want." So I walked right down to the lab and did it. That came back abnormal, I came in three days later for a three-hour glucose test, and sure enough!
I'm also glad I got that diagnosed early because it lit a fire under my husband's ass to get the paperwork for Medi-Cal sorted out after he quit his job (because his coworkers weren't wearing masks) and started taking online classes. Husband tends to procrastinate on things like that. The gestational diabetes "high risk pregnancy" also gave me priority paperwork processing to speed the transition to get on Kaiser through Medi-Cal instead of seeing Medi-Cal's default providers. I just had to give them the name of the doctor who was already handling my diabetes.
Also, I'm really glad I live in California, because I don't know how this works in other states, and it's probably a nightmare.
