This will be a long read, but I loved reading detailed birth stories when I was near my due date, so I hope this birthing story will be a good read for others🩷

Here’s my wild birth story of my 3rd baby👶🏽

I had prodromal labor since 32 weeks! It was horrible and I swore that they were all for nothing because I never went into active labor with them even though the contractions were very much real painful true labor contractions! It was mental and physical torture.

At 39+2weeks I was woken up at 3am to my waters rupturing. I rushed to the bathroom and the fluid kept gushing out! It was so much fluid. I noticed the fluid was dark greenish brown. I called labor and delivery and they instructed me to come in right away due to the Meconium. They wanted to make sure baby wasn’t in distress. My hospital bag was already packed in the car so I just changed clothes, got my husband up and toddler and we headed off to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 4:30am and I was triaged for an hour before I was sent to my birthing suite.

I decided I wanted to do this birth unmedicated. With my last pregnancy I did unmedicated for 18hrs before they started pitocin. I got the epidural before the pitocin because I’ve read how painful induction medication was.

This time around I decided to stay unmedicated no matter what 😅

My contractions were painful but super manageable with breath work and visualization. I also had a doula which was invaluable to my birthing experience.

All morning my contractions were 9-15mins apart. Finally at 12:30pm my doctor decided to check me for the first time and I was only at 2cm 50% effaced and -4 station! Meaning I wasn’t in active labor yet and it could be awhile. However since there was Meconium in my amniotic fluid the doctor said it was dangerous to let me labor for too long as risk of infection was high. My doctor called the NICU team to be on standby because we didn’t know if baby swallowed any of the fluid.

My doctor went over all my options and we decided together to start me on pitocin to get my contractions regulated and more frequent because at that point they were still every 9mins apart. We needed me in active labor. My doctor stated she would start me on the lowest dose which was only 2.

At 1:30pm the nurse comes in and starts me on the pitocin. I foolishly thought I would have at least 30mins to an hour before the medication kicked in….I was so wrong! Two contractions later the pitocin kicked in and OMFG my very manageable contractions turned into absolute HELL!! The pain hit me like a ton of bricks and all I could do is scream in agony! I’ve never in my entire life ever knew pain on that level could exist without dying shortly after 😣 It truly was the worst pain of my life. My contractions prior to pitocin had a very distinguished pattern where I would feel the rise of the contraction, I could mentally prepare and breathe through it when it reached its peak, then I would feel the contraction passing, similar to the rise and fall of waves in the ocean 🌊

The contractions when the pitocin started felt COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! There was no rise, peak then fall, NO it was just straight peak pain back to back every 1-2mins!!

I tried every position to ease the pain, I got in the shower and all I could do is howl out like a feral animal 😅Surprisingly the growling helped just a tiny bit but the pain literally had me in an altered mental status where I couldn’t even grasp words or understand anything anyone was telling me.

At this point I decided to get the epidural. I yelled out so loudly to please please give me the epidural. When the anesthesiologist came in about 1.5hrs after I started my pitocin she asked how far dilated I was. The nurse said I was only at 2cm an hour and a half ago.

I could not believe I was still only at a 2 because of the immense pain and I had so much pressure down below like something was trying to split me in half down there.

The anesthesiologist started my epidural but it did not work! The pain was still excruciating 😖 the nurse looked at me and seemed concerned so she decided to check me even though they just checked me less than 2hrs ago. Her face was in complete shock 😳 she was like “omg call the doctor she’s ready to push!” I was in utter disbelief that I had literally went from 2cm to pushing baby out in less than 2 hrs!! The doctor rushed in and was surprised too! She told me how extremely rare it is to experience precipitous labor and that she’s only ever had 2 other patients in her whole career who’ve had extremely fast active labor and I was the second fastest.

I was still screaming and felt so bad for the other mamas on the unit but the pain was insane. My doctor told me that they should have checked me before the epidural because after 7/8cm they won’t offer the epidural because it won’t help at all because at that point it’s too late. So this was why the epidural wasn’t working at all for me because I was already 10cm and no one checked me until after the epidural was in place! I was crying to my doctor to please help me with the pain some how. They tried to push pain meds through my IV and nothing helped! Finally the anesthesiologist said that she could give me something that would take the pain completely away but it would make me drowsy. I was worried that I would be too tired to push but the pain was so bad that I didn’t even care at that point. I decided to take the strong pain meds! I’m so happy I did! I pushed for over an hour and about halfway through my pushing the medication kicked in and I was so thankful! I could finally focus and push properly.

While I was pushing my baby’s heart rate would drop drastically. I have a massive uterine fibroid and the baby’s head kept getting pushed sideways because of it and it made her heart rate drop each push. Due to her head positioning they couldn’t use a vacuum or forceps. The doctor then mentioned if the baby didn’t come soon then I would need an emergency c section. This was the worst news for me and I really didn’t want a c section. I had an emergency c section with my first and it was traumatic and I never wanted that experience again.

I’m so thankful my doctor was such an epic OBGYN because she stuck her had way up and turned the baby’s head and pushed the fibroid back while I pushed and my baby came right out! (It was at this point I was so grateful for the pain meds 😂)

It was by far the best most magical birth. It was wild and hectic but oh so magnificent and amazing. I consider this a very successful, non traumatic birth experience 🩷

Our sweet 3rd baby girl was born weighing 8lbs 7oz and 22in long!