As I drew near the end of my fourth pregnancy, I was focused on physical difficulties and planning for the care of my children while I birthed. My three girls were all born small and 38-39 weeks gestation, so I expected this pregnancy to be the same. However, this baby seemed bigger than the others, even as I gained less weight. I thought I would have an October baby, but I was trick-or-treating pregnant. At 39 weeks, I did not feel like birth was imminent, though my mom drove up to spend the night a few times to avoid coming in overnight. You see, my second birth was precipitous (she was crowning before I was in the hospital), so my mom had reason to be anxious about making the 30-minute drive to my house before I left for the birth center. This would be my first birth center experience; my first two children were born in a rural hospital and my third with Cheryl, at the hospital here in the Twin Cities, where I had to wait for a really long time to get into a labor room. For this and so many other reasons, I was really excited to try the birth center.
Just before my November 9th due date, I had lower back pain while I was putting the kids to bed and making lunches for school. When the pain was there a full hour, I called mom and then the midwife; this seemed to be my time. Forty five minutes later, just after 9pm, I was ready to leave with just a few mild contractions. My husband was in his PJ’s! He thought we had time to rest.
It was dark and quiet as we entered the birth center that night. The midwife asked if I wanted to be checked for dilation, or just to wait a bit. But since I was going to need antibiotics for the first time, I asked to be checked. The antibiotics should be given 4 hours before birth, and I did not expect to have that much time. After checking, she stated we were there for the night and I had the IV in no time. The contractions were increasing slowly, with strong lower back pain, much like my first labor (she was sunny side up until the midwife turned her). I tried walking, resting, sitting in the tub, and heating pads. I had enjoyed laboring in the tub with my water birth (though I did not like birthing in the tub) and hoped the warmth would ease my back pain.
Contractions increased, my husband tried to sleep, but the back pain become increasingly severe. Jane, the midwife, had a suggestion; we could try sterile water injections. She described it to me: four injections in the lower back, just into the skin, expected to cause severe surface pain for about 30 seconds per injection (they could do 2 at a time). It would cause the pain receptors to be shut down in the whole lower abdomen, relaxing my muscles and allowing me some rest and relief … that is, if I could handle the initial discomfort. I decided to try it, because after all, I was really struggling with the pain––it only let up for 10 or 30 seconds at a time. Plus, I had no anesthesia with my previous birth; I felt like I could handle 30 seconds of difficulty. I did think this was the time to try nitrous oxide. The availability of nitrous with a big factor in my choosing the birth center. I got the mask as the midwife and attendant gave the injection. It was sharp, intense pain. I almost could not take the second round, but near tears, I gave them the go-ahead and I’m so glad I did. It really helped.
After the injections, they settled my on my side to rest. It was nearly midnight and I should have been asleep. I had never missed a night’s sleep due to birthing. I finally got the hang of the nitrous mask after a few contractions. It was hard! You have to breathe very hard and deep to activate it, which is not easy when you are in pain. I wished I had started the nitrous earlier, especially to have figured out how to make it work when I was getting the injections. After 5 or 10 minutes, I realized the contractions were far apart. They had been less than a minute apart and were now getting much farther apart. I took a nap for 10 minutes at least once, maybe twice between contractions. I was starting to worry that nothing was happening!
About 30 minutes after the injections, I had a hard contraction that broke my water. We called for the midwife, who tried to help my flip to my other side. As she was moving me, I had the urge to push! It was all happening so fast, as I had been sleeping just minutes earlier. It took some doing to get me and the nitrous mask onto my hands and knees as the contractions came hard, along with the urge. I took long pulls of nitrous as I pushed, and was glad for it. My husband saw our baby first. I asked twice, “What is it?” I think it was hard for him to realize that it was a BOY! A very big boy. We said to each other, “What are we going to do with that?”; we were used to girls, we knew girls. We had not even agreed on a boy’s name yet. But, we eventually decided to call him Joseph Andrew, after his great-grandpa. He was born 2.5 pounds bigger than my eldest, 1.5 pounds bigger than my biggest girl.
We brought him home before 7am. Two of my children were playing with Play-Doh, expecting Daddy to come home with coffee, not a baby. But they sang Happy Birthday to their new brother before going to school/daycare, and were of course reluctant to leave him.
Kate is a prodigal Minnesotan who spends all her time with children; either her own four kids and husband at their home in Minnetonka or through her work as a pediatric nurse practitioner. She has spent the last decade breastfeeding and is amazed at the complexity and beauty of the body. She enjoys old movies, baking shows, and book and bible studies, for which she is constantly unprepared.