I went to L&D at midnight at 37 weeks to begin my induction (I was diagnosed with gestational hypertension). After inserting the IV and asking a million questions, they checked my cervix (I was 1cm and 80% effaced) and then decided to insert a foley balloon and cytotec to attempt dilation and effacement. I was extremely scared for the foley balloon insertion (I have a sensitive cervix), so I asked for a pain medication to help me relax and handle it. They administered nubane and around 4am inserted the balloon and cytotec (the balloon *insertion* was not as bad as I thought it would be). That said, the placement caused me to lose a lot of blood very quickly, which caused my blood pressure to drop extremely low. I felt horrible and couldn’t communicate with my husband or the nurses or follow simple directions. It felt like I was fainting and my vision became very pixelated; my husband said my skin turned paper white. My baby’s heartbeat dropped simultaneously, which necessitated a stream of midwives and nurses to come into my room. They managed to quickly get me and the baby stabilized and within no time I was able to relax and attempt to sleep.

Around 6am they inserted another dose of cytotec... pretty quickly after that contractions started. Holy hell— contractions with a foley balloon are sickeningly painful. I couldn’t talk through them, couldn’t figure out which position would alleviate the pain (note: no position helped). My poor husband tried to touch my hand at one point and I asked him to leave my line of sight! He was in near tears just watching me go through each wave. Each hour or so my nurse would tug on the balloon (this was something that I didn’t know they had to do with the foley), and I would cry out each time begging for her to stop when I began to feel resistance from my cervix. After another hour of contractions, I was on the verge of vomiting from the pain when my midwife and nurse walked in and asked what I wanted to do— epidural, more nubane, or nothing. I decided to try another round of nubane. After about a half hour or so, I began to relax— nubane doesn’t stop the pain, but it takes the edge off and feels like you’ve had a couple of glasses of wine. After the nubane, the nurse was finally able to pull the balloon out! I can’t even begin to describe the relief that I got once that horrible device was out of my body!! Even with continued contractions, they were nowhere near as painful as they were with the balloon in place. I felt freaking euphoric. After this, my midwife checked me (I was 4cm and 90%) and decided to break my water.

Nothing much happened, labor-wise, after my water broke. However, my midwife, the on-call OB, and some nurses came in to tell me that during the foley balloon episode my blood pressure spiked to the 160s/100s. So they decided that I would either need magnesium or an epidural to try to keep my pressure down. Due to the honesty of my midwife and nurse regarding how the magnesium makes someone feel, I opted for the epidural. They placed the epidural soon thereafter.

After the epidural was in place, they started pitocin and my midwife checked my cervix and scraped residual scar tissue off of it (from a LEEP that I had done 3 years ago). Ouch! It hurt even with the epidural in place! Repeated cervix checks revealed that I was not progressing quickly, although I was having regular contractions.

Around 9pm, my cervix was 5cm, 90-100% effaced. So my mom, husband, and I decided to try and get some sleep because we figured I wouldn’t have the baby until much, much later. From 11pm on, I began to have pelvic pain and feel pressure with each contraction. My nurse said that that was a good sign and that the baby might make an appearance earlier than we all thought. Around 1:00am my midwife checked my cervix again and said, “you are going to have this baby in the next 30 minutes!”

They set up a mirror for me to see, and with all of the nurses, my midwife, and student midwife in place, I began pushing. Pushing is extremely difficult- especially when you cannot feel what you are doing exactly. I could see my baby crowning in the mirror! At some point the midwives accidentally blocked the mirror and I couldn’t see anymore. I pushed and paused to catch my breath, but my husband said “keep pushing, he’s right there!” I didn’t believe him because last I saw, he was merely crowning. The midwife said that I could reach down to feel his head, which I did (incredible). The baby began to slide out and the midwife instructed me to grab the baby so that I could help “catch him” and pull him up to my chest. That was one of the most intimate and rewarding moments of my life! We were able to have a 5 minute delayed cord clamping, and do skin to skin (kangaroo care) for 2 hours immediately after delivery (one hour on my chest, one hour on my husband’s)— they even did the Apgar while the baby was on my stomach! Love my midwives and hospital! No tears and only 20 minutes of pushing. 🖤

Tadhg Parker Mullen was born at 1:30am on 26 July 2019 weighing 6lbs 12oz and measuring 19.75 inches.

Here he is 2 weeks post-partum! 🖤

And here I am on my induction day and 2 weeks post-partum: