Labor & Delivery - Every Woman Has a Story

She found out she was pregnant and knew this was what she’d always wanted. She loved working with children and felt like she would be an amazing mother. As the baby grew inside her, she had no idea how much love she would feel when he arrived. Her pregnancy was easy and enjoyable. At 38 weeks, her water broke and she went into labor. She arrived at the hospital and was 4 centimeters dilated. This was really happening! They got her to a room and as the contractions progressed, she asked for an epidural. The anesthesiologist was great and her epidural went smoothly. After about 10 hours of labor, she was not progressing past 8 centimeters so they decided to give her Pitocin. The next time the doctor checked, it had been 15 hours since her water broke and she was told she was most likely going to need a C-section. The baby was face up, which makes it difficult for him to get through the birth canal. She was in shock! Everything was going smoothly up to this point. She wanted to push him out. She wanted to experience the miracle of delivering a baby. She asked the doctor is she could try pushing…if it was even possible for him to come out that way. She said it was and she would allow it. After 20 hours of labor, she was finally dilated to 10 centimeters and the nurse called the doctor. They told her, “Okay, it’s time to push!”. She was shaking and sweating, unsure about this. She wanted to deliver the baby but this was scary! They told her she had to do it now so she pulled herself together and started pushing. She pushed for an hour with no progress and surrendered, saying okay, just do the c-section, I can’t push any more. She was exhausted!

They wheeled her into the operating room and she was shaking so badly she could not straighten her arm for the blood pressure cuff. They told her they were going to get started and made sure she was numb enough. She was in and out of consciousness during the surgery, as the anesthesiologist gave her something to calm her down. The surgeon had to stand on the table over her body to pull the baby out. He was a big boy and was lodged in her pelvic bone. His little face had a bruise from where she’d been pushing but he was a healthy baby boy! They whisked him off to the nursery and finished the surgery. She remembers pressure as they were trying to deliver her placenta. She heard a big splat and a nurse say “Whoops!” Next thing she knew, she was in the recovery area with a fever, still going in and out of consciousness. They tried to push the baby on her but she did not have the strength to hold him. Once her fever broke, she was wheeled to her room, forced to hold the baby even though she kept going in and out of consciousness.

As they navigated the halls of the hospital, she kept telling the transport technician, that she felt like she was going to drop the baby. She was weak and was afraid. Something wasn’t right. He told her that she had to hold the baby, there was no other option. During this transfer to her post-partum room, she hemorrhaged. There was blood everywhere…more than she’d ever seen! At some point during the transfer, she was cleaned up and it was never documented. No notes were made…something happened in the OR and on the way to the post-partum room that there was no record of and this would completely alter her experience….There was too much blood loss and no one had paid attention. She was sitting in her recovery room and had no idea the chaos that was about to ensue around her.

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