In honor of #breechweek (heeeey Better Birth), I agreed to post a blog about my breech birth. As any of you who have kept up with these Jones' know, our daughter Faith was born vaginally and breech. While I explained some of the inner workings of that, I also skimmed over a few things. So let me start back at the beginning...
Picture it: Houston 2013...
Sometime in October-ish, I, under the care of a hypervigilant OB, had another ultrasound done to check on baby. I was still in my late 20's/early 30's of gestational age, but while the OB was hyperfocused on my translucent gestational diabetes diagnosis, I noticed that kiddo was breech and was NOT prone to turning often in utero. As in I never felt her be not breech. So being the proactive mama that I am, I started looking up breech information. Of course the first focus was on getting baby to turn. My search led me to the Better Birth's breech predecessor, the now defunct, but rolled into BB, My Breech Baby site. Of course my search also led me to the Spinning Babies site. Seeing as our budget was tight, I couldn't afford much in the way of purchasing SB's resources or scheduling sessions with any of their practitioners, but I did try some of the techniques on my own and scheduled a visit with a Webster technique trained chiropractor covered by my insurance. The next month or so found me with my ottoman propped up on my sofa and me laying upside down on it or my knees on my sofa and elbows on my floor pretty regularly. My husband was amused. Meanwhile, my first chiropractic visit was intriguing and very relaxing - I fell asleep in the parking lot after getting adjusted! I went back a few more times and even a few postpartum sessions.
However, as November rolled around, kiddo was yet breech as seen on ultrasound. I could tell she'd never flipped and was seemingly very comfy as I felt her stretch out very often: head under my ribs, toes touching my bladder. So around this time, I started searching for local doctors who performed vaginal breech births as my OB had made it plain that breech=cesarean with her (especially since she was still cawing about my "big baby" from having GD). In my world, I'd fought too hard to get pregnant only to have it "cut short" by not being able to birth my baby vaginally. As I scoured the internet and called around, only one option seemed to constantly present itself. The Harris County Heath System hospitals. Of course at that point, I had to face my economic & insurance privilege head on. Do I pursue what could be lower quality care of the "county hospital" or stick with my fancy newly built Pavilion for Women? After chatting it up with my midwife who advised me to follow my heart on the matter and my husband who reminded me that President Bush (41) receives care at the county hospital, so surely it can't be horrible, I decided to schedule a consultation with Dr. Michael Lucas at Ben Taub.
So this brings us to December - on the 4th, I have my consultation with Dr. Lucas and his team. The "county hospital" experience was much of what I expected it to be with the lack of plush and posh. And it was also a culture shock that every admin person specifically asked to see my medicaid card instead of generically asking for my insurance card. But Dr. Lucas and his assistant checked me out and reassured me that all seemed well enough for me to birth my baby vaginally and he also told me that if the External Cephalic Version I had scheduled on the 6th didn't work or baby turned herself back afterward that I could simply pop over to him and he'd accept me as a patient. I left feeling a weight had been lifted from my shoulders!
Friday, December 6th rolled around and hubby and I pack our groggy selves over to the Pavilion for our 6am appointment for the version - I was exactly 38wks. We're relaxed and chatting away when the nurse who's checking me and prepping me notices that I seem to have low amniotic fluid. So my OB comes in and confirms the assessment and pretty much demands that I submit to a cesarean immediately. I declined. Just two days prior my fluid was fine, so I was prepared to simply transfer my care to Dr. Lucas. However, this is where my OB turned up the drama: death, doom, and destruction were my portion should I step foot out of this hospital. I declined again. She repeated her prognosis, this time appealing to my husband's more manly logic to convince me of the error of my ways. He declined. He was already on board with the plan to transfer care. I laughed. Finally she released me, AMA, after calling Dr. Lucas herself to verify that he would indeed accept me as a patient.
So at noon, after grabbing a small snack, we drove the short distance across the MedCenter to Ben Taub and got me checked in and after I was settled, he went scrambling to buy a carseat and the cosleeper (things we were planning on buying that weekend or next anyway) and grab my hospital bag. The OB team there confirmed my low fluid assessment and Dr. Lucas and I agreed to induce baby. The induction was started at 4p but stopped an hour later as kiddo was not happy with it. We gave it a rest and then Dr. Lucas, understanding my intense desire to birth vaginally, agreed to restart the induction. We did so at 6p. This is about where I lost track of the time... but I do vividly recall my mom, aunt, uncle, and cousin showing up to visit with me as Southern was playing in the SWAC championship game nearby. Funny story: my mom wasn't originally planning on coming that weekend, but a few weeks later. But when hubby called and told her I was having the baby she caught a ride with someone coming for the game!
Anywhoo - I did most of my laboring without pain medication. But apparently, this second portion of induction was going too well, because Dr. Lucas (who'd originally planned on going home) ended up sticking around to attend the delivery, as it went very quickly. Sometime in this, my water broke. Also sometime in this I was asked to get an epidural so that they could help me slow down my pushing as my body was taking this at a rather spirited pace. That was the hardest part of it all - holding still during contractions to allow it to be placed safely. After a while I felt a limb escape my womb. Sure enough, lil missy stuck her right foot out first... I've since nicknamed her Twinkle Toes for this. When we informed the nurse, they were in disbelief, but sure enough there it was. I was then transferred to the operating room, just in case, ya know. It was very cold in there. There were two things about the actual delivery I recall vividly: the temp in that room and this super annoying nurse who kept asking me to hold my leg with my hand that hurt from having prenatal carpal tunnel syndrome despite me telling her that I could hold up my leg without my hand (hey, I'm a dancer!) and that it HURT!
Kiddo was born shortly after midnight on Saturday, December 7, 2013 (5lb11oz: very far from big, if you've followed the secondary storyline here). Vaginally. And Breech. As mentioned there was an induction and epidural involved. There were also forceps and an episiotomoty. So while not everything was ideal according to the knowledge I have since obtained about best practices for breech birthing, I accomplished my primary goal at the time, which was to NOT have a cesarean hanging over my head as I headed into future pregnancies. And good thing, too, because it seems like baby sister, due December 2016, also has an affinity for being breech. This time I'm under the care of my midwife and will be delivering at home. Also humorous, my midwife seems to be having a year of breeches! It's not only Breech Week for her, it's been Breech Year. I guess this is a perfect match for my Breech Babies.
p.s. - we happened to spot a roach in both the pavilion procedure room and the county hospital labor room... so there goes your fancy schmancy dollars at work. ;-)
