Birth story

... because I don't want to forget it!  And also for those out there looking for an account of what a "planned" caesarean section might look like - here is my experience.

Prior to delivering our little bao, we had planned to have a natural vaginal birth for our little baby.  I am, as you know, a bit of a hippy at heart and would love more than anything to afford everything natural and organic.  Including the process of birth, of course.  Everything leading up to birth seemed to indicate that a natural vaginal birth was in the works for us.  I had a fairly mild pregnancy with very mild symptoms and the only "major" complication was gestational diabetes which got worse towards the end of pregnancy.

Because one of the big concerns with gestational diabetes is that the baby will grow too large to fit through the birth canal, my OB referred me for a third ultrasound at approximately week 36 of my pregnancy.  It wasn't at the usual radiology clinic that we went to for the first two scans, it was at a specialty clinic for fertility issues.  We were hopeful that everything was going to go smoothly because I'd been weighing just right and my fundus always measured to the week.  At the scan, the doctor was able to do the scan herself and the first thing she said to us as she looked inside the womb was, "Does your doctor know that your baby is breech?"

"NO!"  I said.  A couple of weeks prior to this scan, my doctor had felt the baby and said that the head was down.  And how this scan is showing us that our baby is definitely not in optimal position for birth.  The doctor advised us that the baby could turn on its own.  Or the baby can be turned manually, in which case, the procedure would have to be done within the 37 week mark.  Unfortunately, for first time pregnancies and lower amniotic fluid (which she also measured in that scan), and my small size, a manual turn did not have a very high chance of sticking.  Baby would likely turn back around.  Little bao was sitting in frank breech - sitting with his legs sticking up, bum snuggled where his head should be.

We also discovered at this scan that there was something not quite typical happening with one of little bao's kidneys.  It looked as if there was a blockage at the bladder where it connects to the kidney as the ureter, the tube between the kidney and bladder, was enlarged.  She said if it doesn't work itself out, then he'll likely need to see a urologist to determine the next step.  Since humans have two kidneys, little bao's system was functioning just fine.  The risk is infection developing from the blockage not properly able to drain waste.

Since nothing could be done about that until after little bao's birth, we turned our attention to the breech situation.  What were we going to do?  After much prayer, conversation and thought, we decided that an elected c-section was our most comfortable choice.  Our hospital didn't have the necessary experience to delivery breech babies, labour would be more difficult, and there is risk in hurting the baby who is birthed breech.  Much of labour is psychological and I didn't feel confident in this respect considering little bao was breech.  We didn't want to wait for labour to begin since if he was still breech at that point, our situation would become an emergency c-section.

A caesarean delivery was planned for my week 39 mark.

I was not thrilled about having major surgery, but there was a relief in knowing exactly when our baby was going to come.  There was relief in knowing that there would be many medical professional experienced with handling situations much worse than ours.  There was peace that if this is the way little bao would be introduced to the outside world, then this was the way safest for both mom and baby.  I was definitely nervous; I likened it to stage fright - I knew that it would be okay but the lead-up to the performance was a little bit nerve wracking.

The night before the birth/surgery, I slept really well up to about 2 AM then only dozed for the rest of the morning.  We were to be at the hospital by 6 AM.


OHMYGOODNESS - BLOGGER DIDN'T SAVE THE REST OF MY ENTRY OF THE ACTUAL SURGERY! ARGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH -------------- I guess I'll have to rewrite it another time.  BOOOOOOOOOOOOO -------