Chandler, Arizona
Sweet Pea ​Births
Sweet Pea ​Births
...celebrating every swee​t pea their birth
...celebrating every swee​t pea their birth
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Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 7:15 PM |
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I finally got approval from all the families to post the
Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby pictures. Here
is a brief synopsis of their outcomes along with a birth story from one of the
moms. All of these are babies from our Fall 2011 Bradley Method®
series. Angelika got to be one of these
babies, too! The families enrolled in
our classes with the intention of having natural births. However, all of them took to heart our
entreaty to evaluate all their decision points with the Healthy Mom, Healthy
Baby filter. Most of them deviated from
their birth plan, and definitely from what their expectation were…each birth is
unique. The beautiful element of these
photographs is that these babies are all healthy, and so are their mammas. I am going to number the babies from left to right. Baby 1 is our longest labor (so far) for this
class. This family labored for 51
hours! Mom and Dad labored at home, they
went to the hospital and found out they were only 3 centimeters so they
followed Berman’s law (go home if your are less than 5 cm dilated and not
showing any physical or emotional signs of late labor) and went home. Mom rested, ate, labored and the couple had
the support of a wonderful doula. They
rested that night and labored at home most of the day. When they went back to the hospital on day 2,
mom had not progressed as much as they had hoped but they were past a five so
they stayed in the hospital. When they
had marked the 48 hour of labor, they opted to have the bag of
waters broken to see if that would speed labor.
Guess what – the on-call doctor did not want to come in to the hospital
so he told the nurse to start a Pitocin drip instead. Mom and Dad evaluated their choices and their
wise doula gave them invaluable advice, “Let’s redefine our birth plan and make
the adjustment we need to keep the vaginal birth.” Knowing that mom was exhausted physically,
and that she had been dilated to 8 cm with no progress for several hours, the
parents evaluated their situation and opted for an epidural so that the strong Pitocin-induced
contractions wouldn’t sap what was left of mom’s energy. Three hours later they welcomed their son via
vaginal birth. He was ready to nurse –
Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby. Baby 2 is our Angélika. Most of the hospital to homebirth stories we
heard from families testified to the fact that their home births were
significantly faster than their hospital births. No transfer, no poking, no prodding, no weird
or distracting noises. So here we are,
going into our home birth so excited that we are not going to have to move to
the hospital since that had always stalled our labor in the past. Labor starts and it is a completely different
pattern than we have ever had before…the water broke at the midway point
instead of at the beginning, walking slowed or stopped labor and laying on my
side made things move along. By the
middle of day 2, I gave up on having the faster homebirth and resigned myself
to be the mom that went to sleep and woke up ready to push. You can read the long version here, suffice
it to say Angélika was born about five hours
after I surrendered and went to bed! Baby number 3 was born to an experienced birth mom. She has two older boys and this was her third
child, dad’s first. She made the
decision to switch care providers at 39 weeks!
Although she had been with her OB for several years and had even
followed her when she went into independent practice, she started to get red
flags in her third trimester. They
couldn’t agree on her birth plan; and then the doctor wanted to strip her
membranes a week before her estimated due date.
Mom made the decision to switch providers and moved to an OB recommended
by another classmate that still allowed them to deliver at the same
hospital. Guess what? This baby was ten days past his due
date! Had mom stayed with her first OB,
who knows when he would have been born?
By changing providers, baby was allowed the time he needed to start
labor. This couple opted for a cesarean
section to ensure a Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby outcome. Two factors led to their decision: three
hours of pushing with no change in station, plus amniotic fluid that was
stained with meconium. “Trust birth” as the saying goes…this young man was born
with his cord wrapped not once or twice, but several times around his neck. Baby 4 was an average length labor with a painful
complication. As labor progressed, she
had a ring of pain that radiated from her uterus down to her upper thighs. The lower baby dropped and engaged in the
pelvis, the more sensation mom lost in her legs! This mom and dad endured 18 hours of posterior
labor – I award them the title of “Rock Stars” for staying drug-free for so
long. It is truly a testament to her commitment and his coaching. Her midwives recommended an epidural since
she was not dilating past an eight.
Their baby was born an hour later! Baby 5 was born to another multipara. This mom was induced with her first baby…and
she wrote her story out to share with you: "Our birth choices were
all made with a Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby outcome in mind. Our first big
decision was choosing a care provider we were comfortable with. We ended
up with a wonderful group of midwives who totally supported our birth
preferences and were obviously in favor of our choice to have a natural birth.
We had started with a group of midwives in Brooklyn, then went to an OB
in Phoenix for a couple of months while we waited for our AZ insurance to kick
in. This OB was definitely NOT on the same page as we were (he wanted to
induce before the new year so we could get a tax break...) so we switched as
soon as possible. When it came to our
labor, we chose to hire a doula and labor at home as long as we could so we
could avoid any potential pressure from the hospital for interventions.
As it turned out, my labor was so short that was pretty easy to do!
When we got to the hospital I was already 9 cm, so it was a matter of a
little time, then onto pushing, and within the hour Amelia was born. We
chose to skip the Hep B vaccine in the hospital, and waived the vitamin K and
eye ointment. We know my STD status, so we knew she was at no risk, and
we wanted her to be able to see the world as best she could with her newborn
eyes! As far as the Vitamin K shot was concerned, we did some research
and decided it wasn’t necessary unless she experienced trauma at birth, which
she didn’t. We also chose not to bathe her so the vernix could do its job
and she wouldn’t experience crazy changes in her body temperature. We
have yet to bathe her, and won’t for a while longer. We also decided to
encapsulate my placenta this time around.
It was an option presented by our Bradley® instructors, and we were
encouraged to do so by our midwife and our doula. We went home from the
hospital the day after our birth because Amelia and I were both doing well.
I wanted to see my 3 year old, and felt like I would be happier resting
and enjoying my family in our own home. It was a different
experience from our first birth. I felt like we were much more informed
and able to make more decisions that were Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby
outcome-minded. That said, I was induced with my first because of high
blood pressure, and while it wasn’t my ideal birth plan, it was a Healthy Mom,
Healthy Baby based decision. I also got an epidural after nearly 12 hours
of a Pitocin induced labor, and I was able to progress quickly after that and
go on to have a vaginal delivery. I truly believe that I would have been
too exhausted to push had I not gotten the epidural, so again, I don’t regret
that decision. An epidural was much more favorable to me than a C
section! We did have a doula with our first as well, and she was
instrumental in keeping us calm and grounded through uncharted territories!
With our firstborn Max,
though, we hadn’t researched the vitamin K shot or the eye ointment, so we did
both of those. We also were not informed about the benefits of placenta
encapsulation, so it wasn’t even on our radar the first time around. I
stayed in the hospital with Max for two nights, and felt like I needed that
amount of time! I definitely liked
working with midwives the second time around rather than an OBGYN like we did
with Max. I liked my OB with Max, but I was definitely more comfortable
with the midwives and felt like we saw eye to eye on our birth choices.
If we do have another, we will probably consider a home birth since
Amelia’s birth was so fast and relatively easy. That will be a whole new
territory to explore, but we’re definitely interested!" I hope these stories
demonstrate the importance of a care provider you trust and have a rapport
with, as well as the importance of making the choices to have a Healthy Mom, Healthy
Baby outcome. Happy New Year to all
these babies and their families – ours has been wonderful so far. Angélika started laughing today –
pure joy! Disclaimer: The
material included on this site is for informational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The reader should always consult her or his healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation. This blog contains information about our classes available in Chandler, AZ and Payson, AZ and is not the official website of The Bradley Method®. The views contained on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Bradley Method® or the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth®. March 5, 2012 to May 21, 2012 For more information or to register, please call us at
602-684-6567 or email us at [email protected] |
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