My Birth Story Part I


I was 19 when I surprisingly ended up pregnant with my first child. I was young, naïve, idealistic and well … scared shitless. During my 4th month of pregnancy my partner and I moved to Dundurn, which is 15 min South of Saskatoon. I managed to find a care provider in about a month to take over my pre-natal care. The pregnancy went smooth. At the end of December my Care Provider checked my cervix. I was a cm dilated.

I was worried that my partner who worked on the road would be unable to make it home if I called him when I actually hit the labor stage. I called my mom and she came to stay with me for a few days and finally insisted after 3 days she was not going to leave until I called my partner and told him to come home. So I obeyed my moms orders and my partner was back the next day. We waited impatiently for 12 days before those labor pains finally kicked in on January 12th 2006 at 10 am.

My contractions started and stayed at 5 min apart from the onset. At 11:30am I called the hospital and they told me to come in. My partner was surprisingly calm. Even made a stop at the McDonalds drive through. He was considerate enough to ask me if I wanted a cheese burger too. At the time I was “what the hell?“ but it served as a good story afterwards. At 12:30 I arrived at the hospital, they checked my cervix, a disappointing 3 cm with 3 min apart contractions.

I could not stand upright and the nurse insisted I get my butt out of bed and do some walking. Grudgingly I paced to the bathroom and back to the bed. That was in between having to lay down for the many pelvic examinations by this intern Dr and this student nurse. I remember thinking to myself after the 20th one that I might as well walk around naked because everyone in the world had their fingers in me. Anyone else want a shot?

At 2:30 and 5 cm dilated my contractions were steady and with not much rest in between. They offered my something for pain and as soon as I could nod my head I was whisked off for an epidural. At the time it was wondrous not feeling anything from the ribs down that is until it was time to deliver. My Dr. came in, in between delivering the 4 babies that women were having at the same time as me, broke my water when I hit 10 cm which was a awful pea soup that she told me was meconium and insisted on showing me and my partner (who turned the same color) It was explained that they would whisk the baby off right away to suction and monitor for aspiration.

I had not clue what the heck they were talking about. She told me that I was ready to push. “ready?, Ready? I cant feel a f_ing thing how do I know if I pushing and when?” The nurse stared at the EFM told me when to push. My baby went under distress right after my second push and I was told to push that baby out now. They fired up the vacuum right next to my head and said you have less that a minute or we'll have to use it. I bared down with everything in me and pushed out my 5lb 10 oz baby girl in 2 mighty pushes.

She was born at 6:17 pm. I got to hold her an hour later after they finished “observing” and suctioning her. They gave me one chance to push out my placenta. I peed instead. They decided my membranes were just too thin to see so they sat me up and shipped me off to recover. Of course I had a massive infection due to retained membranes that took a week of IV antibiotics to rid myself of.

I was sorely disappointed about my labor. It was not what I wanted and I felt violated and felt that my massive infection was due to the dr’s being too busy to care. I figured I would not have another baby for at least 5 yrs or never. Well that lasted for 2 yrs. See My Birth Story Part II.


My Birth Story Part II

I moved to Kindersley and I became pregnant with my son shortly after when my daughter was 18 months old. I vowed I would not have a birth like my first. The only way to change that was to educate myself on what contributed to the factors that led to the disappointment of my first. After doing so I decided on a non-medicated L&D.

The pregnancy was not easy on me. I was ill a lot and at 30 weeks I was put on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy due to the fact I was leaking amniotic fluid. Their was talk of an induction if I lost any more fluid. I was thinking the whole time (and there was a lot of time with bed rest) that “great so much for my better birth.”

Induction would have ruined that for me. Luckily my body and my baby boy held out to 39 weeks. My sister-in-law had just had her baby. My partner asked if I would like to go with him to see his sister. I had a feeling I was close to going into labor and opted to stay home and not make the 2 hour trip to Saskatoon. That and I didn’t want to end up delivering in the same hospital again. My partner got back from Saskatoon at midnight.

I went into labor 15 min later. I was adamant that I was not going to be at that darn hospital at 3 am so I thought I would catch some sleep and hope the labor progressed nice and easy. At least till the morning. The contractions were strong enough to wake me around 3:30 am so I got up had a drink and a bite to eat and headed to the computer to waste some time. All the while I made an attempt to move around as little as possible.

Like I said I was NOT having this baby before morning. At 5:30 am the contractions really started to smart so I thought I would have a warm bath to off set the pain. I got as far as dipping my butt in the water for 10 seconds before the contractions really hit and fast. They were less than a minuet apart. It took me 20 min to get myself out of the bath and dressed thinking the whole time that I was going to have this baby on the bathroom floor alone and when I only lived a half a block from the hospital.

I didn’t think they would believe that I just couldn’t make it on time J . I managed to get to the phone and call my mom to come watch our daughter at 6 am. When I made it to the hospital I was hunched over holding onto the nursing desk when the nurse looked up she said wow u don’t look good what’s the matter. I looked up and bellowed “I’m in labor, I’ve had better days”

Then off to the delivery room I was whisked. My partner talked with the nurse and filled out the paper work because at that time all I could say was “pfffft, pffft ahhhhhh whooo” you know the usual labor language. They managed to help me get a gown on. Not sure why they bothered. They checked me and I was 9 cm dilated. The Dr. was called in and clacked into the room wearing her high heels 10 min later. I was wondering to myself how she expected to catch my baby in those shoes. For some reason the clinic had not sent my pre natal papers to the hospital yet. They were concerned what my group B strep status was.

I’m in the bed thinking “little late for that now isn’t it” The Dr. still insisted that she needed to go to the clinic and grab those papers. No sooner than she pulled out of the parking lot than I suddenly had the urge to push. The nurses panicked calling the Dr. telling her to get back NOW! They tried to get me to hold off pushing. I will tell you now that is TORTURE! They brought over some nitrous to help alleviate the pain I took one whiff and threw it. That stuff was poison it made me feel sick.

I was in transition but Ill blame it on the nitrous anyway. I said I’m going to push and one of you better be ready to catch this baby. The words left my mouth and I heard the clack, clack, clack of the Dr.s high heels running down the hall with her yelling “I’m coming, I’m coming) She perched below me while I tried to move myself into a better position. The contractions didn’t cooperate with me and it was slow moving ( a few inches at a time) between contractions before I managed to perch myself with my butt hanging mid air off the bed.

My Dr. said its time to go. If you not pooping your not pushing hard enough! That got a good laugh out of all of us. I felt every part of the wondrous delivery and It was great. Yes of course it smarted but I did at all my self. I delivered a healthy 6 lb 5 oz baby boy at 7:15 am.


Jenny Andrew