Loved by the Family... I was privileged on Mother's Day weekend to attend and be an active participant in the labor and birth of a precious baby girl. Her mom, a veteran homemaker, home schooler and very capable in all of her tasks, had walked this road before, yet each pregnancy brings with it the anxiety at the end of how will it go for me, and how will I know?
As mom came to the hospital she was lovingly flanked by two of her daughters and her husband, who were very attentive to her needs. You could see and feel God's love in the room as mom was helped with drinks of water and walked down the hall to help get this labor going. A medical need had brought her in and her readiness to complete the tasks of labor and delivery in a safe manner and environment kept her there. After reviewing the options of how to pick up her labor pattern it was decided to have her walk for 40 minutes,release the bag of waters around the baby, monitor the baby's heart rate for reassurance and have her walk again for about 40 minutes. When you are already 4-5 centimeters it doesn't take a lot of intervention to coach labor to continue. Slowly but surely the contractions increased from 4-6 minutes to 4-5, occasionally causing mom to stop her walk, rest and catch her breath again. For about three hours her cervix remained the same dilation, but effaced (or thinned) a little. We talked again about how to get her over this hump of staying at 5 cm in spite of the walking, rupture of membranes and rocking in the rocking chair. It was agreed that we would start Pitocin at 1 milliunit and see if this would get her past the hump and on to her delivery.
Contractions began to slowly shorten in interval to 2-3 minutes apart. Mom was assisted to change her position, rock in the chair or stand and rest her arms and chest on a birthing ball for relaxation. Two sweet daughters kept at work stroking mom's hands, rubbing her arms and dad massaged mom's back. Talk about loving family support...as mom would occasionally frown and ask if her contraction had peaked yet I would see an empathetic tear roll down one of her daughter's cheeks. We kept encouraging mom at what a great job she was doing, conserving her energy and staying just ahead of the contractions that would culminate in the birth soon. At one point the the comment was made, "I'm think I'm going to need an epidural."
"You're doing fine", I countered. "Let me check you after this next contraction." Contractions were getting stronger now and the Pitocin had been reduced to 1/2 milliunit. Upon the exam she was found to have only a small lip of cervix now and the pitocin was turned the rest of the way off. Pitocin had only been necessary for one hour.
The knowledge that birth is eminent brings a second wind to a laboring woman that will enable her to work with her body when that urge to push comes and complete her work. The request for an epidural was forgotten as the room was prepared to receive the new baby. A very supportive RN, a student of nursing, medical tech and other personnel to support the needs of the new baby entered the room. Closest to mom still were her husband and two daughters.
Approximately 17 minutes later a beautiful feisty baby girl entered this world, reaching her little left hand out with her head, ready to grasp life and all its surprises and challenges. She was placed in the arms of her mother and appropriately let us all know how upset she was at being pushed out of her home for the past 9 months. Apgars of 9 and 9 at one and five minutes attested to the good start this little girl got that evening.
How blessed this little one is to be the 7th child to join a family who love and care for each other and greeted her as if she were the only child they had. Welcome, sweet baby girl!
