Pregnancy Complication
As we were approaching the second half of my pregnancy journey, my OB/GYN wanted to closely monitor me because I had tested positive for COVID at 21 weeks via an antigen test. She told us many pregnant women who had COVID had complications with birth, so she wanted me to get additional ultrasounds to check baby’s size. I went in for one at 28 weeks and baby was growing appropriately, measuring in the 35th percentile. When we went in for our 34th week checkup, my doctor checked my fundal height and said it was really small and wanted me to do another ultrasound to check baby’s size. The ultrasound results showed baby had dipped down to the 17th percentile. I remember the radiologist looking a little concerned when she told me the results, but she also said, “At least it’s not in the 10th percentile — that’s when you should be worried.” My husband and I were already worried because if everything was normal, we should have stayed around the 35th percentile, that indicated that in the last 6 weeks, our baby hasn’t been getting the proper amount of food/nutrients. My doctor immediately instructed me to increase my daily caloric intake because she was concerned maybe I wasn’t eating enough to feed baby or it could be something unknown related to catching COVID.
I had a follow-up ultrasound appointment 3 weeks later, and after the radiologist was done getting her scans, instead of telling us immediately what weight percentile we were in, she told us to wait in the other room. We were waiting for quite a while and then I decided to use the bathroom, and while I was in the bathroom I was able to make out her speaking to someone on the phone about my results. Couldn’t hear everything clearly, but I knew it didn’t sound like good news. When she came back to our room, she said our doctor was going to call us and talk to us about the ultrasound. We asked her what percentile our baby was in now, and she told us under 10th percentile. My husband and I were in total disbelief — the radiologist couldn’t even tell us the exact percentile. I had already increased my weight by 10 lbs in 3 weeks, and clearly our baby was not growing.
A nurse in my care team called me later that afternoon, and basically told us that our baby was really small and that we would likely need an induction soon to get the baby out. They wanted to perform one more test on me, a stress test, to measure the baby’s heart rate so I had to go back to the hospital the next day. A stress test is where they put a band around your belly and it can track the baby’s heart rate. During this test, the nurse who was attending me informed me that I was having contractions already, but they were very minor. Aside from that, she said that the baby’s heart was very normal and not undergoing any stress. This was a relief to hear. If the baby was undergoing stress, I believe they would have kept me at the hospital and I would have to get the baby out immediately. The nurse told me if things look good on the stress test, it was likely we’d be able to push out my induction to an additional week. Later that afternoon, my OB/GYN called and informed me I had IUGR which stands for Intrauterine Growth Restriction – which describes all babies who are in the tenth percentile are lower. If we were measuring in the tenth percentile or lower across the entire pregnancy, I don’t think my OB/GYN would be as concerned — some babies are just really small, but because we started in a normal weight range and then dropping by tens of percentiles every few weeks, there was clearly something restricting the growth of baby. My OB/GYN informed us babies who measure this small have a higher risk of stillbirths when they stay in the womb longer and the best approach for us is to get the baby out and have them grow outside of the womb. Supposedly 37 weeks is considered full term, so according to her, getting the baby out now is totally fine. I already had an appointment scheduled to see my OB/GYN at 38 weeks, and so the nurses were pushing me to get induced the next day since my doctor would be working in the hospital that day. This all came to me as a surprise, because obviously, I was not expecting to give birth that week, thought I had at least one more week left. And so we scheduled it, to start the induction on Wednesday, stay overnight and then deliver by Thursday afternoon.
Getting Induced
My OB/GYN recommended the following induction plan which she believed to be the most natural approach: inserting a foley bulb and a cervix ripener, which for me was Cervadil. The plan was to go into the clinic that Wednesday afternoon so that my doctor can insert the foley bulb, then I can go back home and let the foley bulb slowly start to open my cervix. Then check back into the hospital by 10pm, which by then they will add the Cervadil. My doctor said that the Cervadil will likely get me to 4cm by 8am the next morning, and then they would give me pitocin to speed up labor as needed, and so by Thursday afternoon, I should be ready to deliver.
I agreed to my OB/GYN’s recommendation, and started to mentally prepare myself for labor and birth. I had no idea what foley bulb or Cervadil was and then quickly google searched both methods. After reading about the foley bulb, I was immediately shook and started to freak out. A foley bulb is this balloon contraption that they insert inside your cervix which they fill with saline solution to slowly and mechanically open up the cervix. I’ve never had anything inserted up my cervix and was terrified at the thought, this procedure sounded so invasive and then I was immediately sad that this was not what I had in my birth plan, with my cervix opening up the natural way. Cervadil is a vaginal insert that gets pushed up against the opening of the cervix to help soften the cervix and help it open.
We scheduled my foley bulb insertion Wednesday afternoon at 2pm. I was pretty nervous and terrified all morning leading up to the procedure. I just couldn’t shake the thought of having someone ram a device up my vagina. My husband went with me and held my hand the entire process, which took roughly 5 minutes. I will say, it was definitely painful and probably one of the most terrifying moments of my labor. After the procedure, I could feel the insert inside of me, and had to take it easy walking. When we got to the parking lot, I started feeling contractions. It felt very similar to my menstrual cramps, which are super painful and typically knock me out. The contractions would last a few minutes, and were about 10-15 minutes apart. I was pretty much knocked out in the entire car ride home. Once we got home, I immediately hit the couch to rest, waiting for the next contraction to happen. Eventually they started to lessen and stopped. I’m not sure why, I assume it was just the initial insertion of the foley bulb that made me feel the contractions. Spent the rest of the afternoon watching television and eating ice cream. We ordered thai takeout for dinner and then I took a shower before getting ready to head to the hospital. My parents arrived to pickup our dog and then we were off to the hospital.
We arrived at 10pm and checked in. I changed into my own hospital gown that I brought from home, a gift from my cousin, something that was a lot more comfier than the ones they give you at the hospital. Since I was getting induced and especially since the baby was really small, I had to be monitored 24/7. After I got strapped in and poked and inserted by needles, the nurse gave me the Cervadil close to midnight, and the plan was to get some rest while the Cervadil did its magic. We got ready for bed and then 30 minutes later, something popped in my vagina and I felt a bunch of fluid come out. We called the nurse to come in, we weren’t sure if my water broke, or if the foley bulb balloon popped. The on-call OB/GYN came in to inspect, and indeed, the foley bulb had popped inside of me, something that they said usually doesn’t happen. The foley bulb is suppose to come out on its own once it reached 3 cm. Then they decided to check how dilated my cervix was, and it turns out I was already dilated at 6cm! I was amazed, because according to my doctor, if all goes well, I should reach 4cm by the following morning, and I hardly felt any pain from the contractions. At this point, my nurse asked if I wanted the epidural. Part of my birth plan was to be as natural as possible, and to not ask for epidural unless I felt like I really needed it. She said usually when women get to around 6cm is the time they ask for it. Since I hadn’t felt any pain prior to hitting 6cm, I was feeling good, and thought, maybe I don’t really need it. So I told her, I think I’m good. She gave me a questionable look but told me I could still ask for it later if it starts becoming painful. My husband and I decided to get some rest.
Then an hour later, I started feeling pain. A part from pain, my body was also trembling. I was starting to feel the contractions and they were happening fast. We decided to call the nurse and ask for the epidural. She told us the one anesthesiologist working in the hospital was attending to other patients and so we had to wait. And so I had no choice but to wait. The pain shot up dramatically, my contractions were literally seconds apart, I had no time to relax in between them. During this time everything was pretty blurry, since the pain was so unbearable. I couldn’t move, I remember just holding on to my husband and groaning and moaning into his chest. We’ve been waiting at least 30 minutes and my husband got very inpatient and asked the nurse where the anesthesiologist was. Finally he was on his way, and they had to get me to sit up right so that they can insert the needle in the back. My body was so numb from the pain, from the foley bulb, to the Cervadil, to the contractions, there was no easy way I was just going to sit up at that point. So the nurse had to pick me up. I think maybe even my husband had to help. The anesthesiologist arrived and within 5 minutes I got the epidural. It was magical. The anesthesiologist said that if I started to feel pain again, I just had to press the button, and he would administer more epidural. The pain was slowly wearing off, however, something alarming started to happen. I was still coming out of the daze, and the nurse started telling me to lean on one side, and then lean on the other side. My husband was at my side observing. And it appeared that my uterus was contracting and stayed contracted and not relaxing. This caused my abdomen to become rock hard, and my baby’s heart rate dropped down to the 50s, I was basically squeezing against my baby and she was having a hard time breathing inside. The nurses tried a few more things, and decided to call the OB in. Things started beeping and a bunch of other nurses came in, and they strapped an oxygen mask on me. They moved me into more positions to try to see if my uterus could relax, even got me to flip over and get on all fours. This was when I looked back and saw my husband standing in the corner holding his head, he looked freaked the f**k out. That’s when I realized, oh something is clearly wrong. I heard my care team mention C section, and that was when I “woke up” and decided to start breathing really deep. If my uterus was contracting and not allowing my baby to breathe, I will try to get as much oxygen as I can for her. I did not want a C section. I think it had gotten a little better but it was not good enough so ultimately they decided to inject me with a muscle relaxant. Finally my baby’s heart rate climbed back up and all was good again.
After that emergency Grey’s Anatomy scene, it was finally time to get some shut up and prepare for the push. 2 hours later, I was awoken from contraction pain yet again. It seemed like the epidural was wearing off, and I didn’t want to press the button right away because it hadn’t been that long since I first got the epidural, and I still wanted to use as least pain medicine as possible, so I held off a little longer. Then the pain started ramping up again, and I decided to press the button. We started hearing a beeping sound, but we had no idea what it meant. The pain continued and started becoming more severe. We realized later that the button wasn’t working, hence the beeping sound, so we called the nurse. The nurse said the anesthesiologist was attending other patients and then she asked me whether I was feeling any pressure towards my bottom and if I was feeling any urge to push. I was pretty numb from the epidural so I wasn’t able to ascertain where and what the pain was, and it was around 4am and I was tired. She decided to check my cervix, and it turns out I was already 10cm, time to push!
We were all so surprised at how quick I got to 10cm. We were only at 6cm at 1am, and after I asked for epidural which was around 2am, they checked my cervix again, and said I was still at 6cm. Who would have known I would have dilated 4cm in 2 hours. Any how, it was go time. For the next several minutes, anxiety built up, I was not expecting to be at this point so soon. I was anticipating the push to happen 12 hours later. I was terrified. While we were waiting for the attending OB/GYN, we started hearing demonic screams coming from the other rooms. It turns out there were several other women who were getting ready to push at the same time as us. And since there’s only one OB/GYN, I had to wait. I think we waited nearly 30-40 minutes, and during this time, they couldn’t add any more epidural. So I was feeling a lot of pressure down there between my vagina and butthole. I definitely felt the urge to push. Finally the OB arrived, and they gave me guidance on how to push. I remember thinking this is the time for me to be strong, I need to have strength to push my baby out. I had prepared myself for this moment, by staying fit and doing ab workouts. I knew I got this. Luckily I wasn’t so tired from being in labor, since I got to 10 cm so quick! I pushed a few times on my back, and every push there was progress. At one point in my pushing, they noticed my baby’s heart rate had dropped. The nurse and OB were talking amongst themselves and they sounded a bit concerned. The possibility of a C section was mentioned again. Then they told me, that I had to really push as hard as I could, because my baby was under a lot of stress from all the pushing, since she was so small and didn’t have enough reserves. She pretty much couldn’t stay in my canal. If I wasn’t able to push her out, they would have to consider a C section. So I buckled down and really started pushing as hard as I could. At one point, I saw a nurse take out a white bag with some instruments inside. And I asked her what that was. She said it was a vacuum. I had done my research prior to birth, and knew that I wanted to avoid getting vacuumed as much as possible. No way I was going to let them put something on my baby’s head to suck her out of me. So that motivated me to push even harder. They got me to sit up and hold on to these handle bars that were attached to the bed and that gave me a really good angle for pushing. I had so much adrenaline, and within another few contractions, I gave it my last push, and there she was! It took about 20 minutes / 6 contractions to push, so fast! I was so relieved I was able to do it without any pushing interventions.
Once baby came out, they quickly wrapped her with a blanket and placed her on top of me to hold while they started tying her umbilical cord. Four minutes later, I had to give it another push to push my placenta out. What a wild ride. And that is my birth story!
