Birth Story - induction - due to age

Hi, I wanted to share my birth story with you.

I am a healthy 37 year old mother who

was admitted on 5/6/2020 at 8:00 PM and dilated 2 centimeters, they started me out with Cytotec, the first round 4 hours, checked my cervix and no change. Second around 4 hours, dilated to a 3, with 30% effaced. At 8:00 AM they started Pitocin. The doctor came in and suggested they break my water, I refused and he wasn’t too happy about it but I am aware that breaking water means I have 24 hours to deliver or cesarean will follow. The doctor said “ it doesn’t necessarily mean we have to deliver you in a certain amount of time since I was on antibiotics for step b, we could wait it out..” (which I know isn’t the case). The midwife on staff said she was so proud of me for sticking up for myself and advocating for me and my baby because she has seen so many moms who just listen to the doctors without questioning. She told me I was right about delivering within 24 hours after my water breaks. They continued pitocin drip until about 3 PM at which time they checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 4 at 50% effaced. About 20 minutes later I felt a huge thunk in my lower pelvis, I have experienced my water breaking so I wasn’t sure but it was a new feeling so I assumed it was my water breaking. I called the doctors to check it and they confirmed it in fact was. Almost immediately after my water broke, my contractions came on strong and pretty close together maybe 3 minutes apart. I asked for a epidural next, within 30 minutes I had one. A few hours past and they nurses came in to tell me that my baby wasn’t responding well to my contractions, his heart rate was dropping every time my contractions was at it’s peak. So they moved me around, at one point I was on all 4’s at which point they felt was the best for the baby. They came in and talked to me about opting for a cesarean which I refused and said If I have to I will stay like this until he is here. I was devastated, I cried like a baby because this was not the plan. Around 7:00 Pm the shift changed and two nurses who I feel I owe everything to explained to me that the previous doctors and nurses were inexperienced and what was happening was normal. They then moved me back to laying on my back and explained that as long as the baby recovers from the contraction with in 5 minutes, there wasn’t an issue and the baby was doing exactly what he should have been doing. The babies heart beat was recovering within 30 seconds so all of that worry was for nothing. Around 8:00 PM, they checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 8, 100% effaced. The doctor said the words I longed to hear “we are having this baby tonight”. She said she would come back and check my cervix in an hour. At 10:25 she came in, check me and said “it’s go time”. Push, push now, lol. I was like “now, like right now?” I did one practice push with a contraction and the next contraction his head came out. The next contraction I pushed and he was out. Our baby boy was born a healthy 6.5 lbs little nugget with a small 1st degree tear. About an hour later I was up and ready to go. My point in telling this story is, a lot of

Doctors push Cesareans and I learned that with my first child, the minute things start getting sticky, they would rather have your delivery timely than naturally. I am

Happy, I know a cesarean wouldn’t be the end of the world but I am a single

Mother of two now with no help in sight and I knew it would be harder to recover on my own. Thanks for listening and I hope it helps another mom to read this.

Welcome Aston James - he is perfect!