Birth Story of the Week- Katrina + Finley

Birth can make us face our biggest fears, conquer and come out the other side stronger, more resilient... a mother! Meet Katrina and her sweet boy Finley as she shares their story of an unplanned (unwanted turned wanted) cesarean birth. I hope you got your orange juice with pulp promptly following recovery! Thank you for your submission!!

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My due date for our baby boy was June 18th, I thought for sure I was going to have him on time as I was extremely uncomfortable with so much pressure building up! Well, June 26th arrived and I was induced at 9am with Cervidil, it was the most uncomfortable thing I had experienced since my cervix was so high. About 4 hours later, I felt some discomfort but nothing too major. By 7pm that night I was having “contractions” 1 minute apart lasting 45 seconds each. I was not getting a break.

 

I called the maternity ward and the nurse told me Cervidil can do some wonky things, to wait a bit longer and see what happens. I couldn’t take the discomfort anymore so I was on all 4s in the hot shower for about 2 hours, that helped quite a bit. Finally I said to my boyfriend Kris that I can’t go to bed like this, we need to go to the hospital. I finally managed to get to the hospital and the nurse checked me and I was not dilated AT ALL! I was so upset. I told her to take the Cervidil out, I’m done with this. She contacted Dr. Snider who was delivering for me and she said she would be at the hospital soon to talk to me about my options. By the time Dr. Snider arrived, I was 4cm, so she broke my water and moved me to a delivery room! At that point it was midnight. By 1am I was 6cm. They told me I was going to have my baby soon as I was dilating quickly. Well... hours went by and I wasn’t dilating any further.

By 8am the next morning it was decided to put me on an oxytocin drip, at that point I opted for the epidural. When I asked for the epidural I was bawling, all I wanted was a drug free labour and delivery but after being up all night I needed a break. My pain and exhaustion was so bad I don’t even remember getting the epidural to this day. I do remember finally being at ease and getting a small nap until 10am when I started feeling my contractions again. And since I was on the drip, these contractions were no joke. By noon I was checked again and I went down to 5cm! I was beyond upset at this point. Right as I was about to ask for a c section, they told me I needed one. A c section was my biggest fear but at this point, I was sooo happy to hear that! At about 2pm the surgeon Dr.Kalos and my doctor Dr. Snider went over everything with me about the c section. All I remember was getting into an argument because all I wanted was some orange juice with pulp (I know weird thing to be arguing about, all the doctors laughed at my strange request) but I was so thirsty and they wouldn’t allow me any liquids!  

By 3pm they rolled me into the OR room on the maternity ward. Before they sliced me open they made sure I couldn’t feel anything, which I could feel everything but there was no pain. It was very traumatizing feeling yourself being cut open but no pain, feeling them pull your baby out, but no pain. During my c section I started feeling extremely nauseous and my chest got very tight, at that point I was terrified for my life. My chest had never felt like that before. I ended up projectile vomiting across the OR room as they were pulling Fin out of me. I had the anesthesiologist behind me telling me it was normal to feel like that from shock and the vomiting was from getting an injection as my uterus was bleeding. After all that my son Finley was born on June 27th at 3:13pm at 8lbs 14oz and 52cm long! 

I'm so excited to be sharing Birth Story of the Week as a regular feature! 
This project is about bringing our stories together and providing a wonderful resource for new and expecting families in our community. All births are wonderful and should be celebrated, no matter what type of birth (home, hospital, midwife/ OB, doula supported or not) if you would like to share your birth story please email it to info@nestedbirth.com a photo or two would also be great. Stories will be featured on my social media platforms and blog. My hope is that we can educate families on the options available in our community, provide healing and empowerment through sharing and of course CONNECTION.