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Two Birth Stories, March 2002 and December 2003

By Kim

With my daughter in March of 2002, my water started to leak at 3 a.m. on Friday.

I went in to Kaiser and they admitted me. By 10 a.m. I was still not in active labor, so they started me on Pitocin. Around 5 p.m. I still didn't have her, so I got the epidural.

Finally at 11:30 p.m. I started to push. After two hours and 45 minutes of pushing the doctor realized that my daughter was facing the wrong way, so she reached in and turned her, gave me a small episiotomy and out my daughter shot. The doctor had to drop the scissors to catch her.

With my son things went faster. I went in to the hospital at 9 a.m. with really bad heartburn. They admitted me and said they would induce. They finally started the Pitocin at 1 p.m. At 3 p.m. I had the epidural.

They kept upping the Pitocin every half hour until the baby's heart rate dropped below 60 for five minutes. About 10 doctors and nurses came in and moved me around and the baby's heart rate finally went up. They had to take me off the Pitocin because it was hurting the baby.

They checked me at 11:30 p.m. and by that time I was fully dilated and ready to push. By the time they got me in the delivery room and everything ready for the baby it was 12:55 a.m. I gave a few really big pushes and my son was born two minutes later.

Now we are trying for our third. I am not going to have Pitocin this time at all. It really scared me when my son's heart rate dropped that low for so long. I am going to wait it out for however long it takes this time!