Second Birth
I became pregnant during a move from NE Iowa to Central Iowa. I found a midwife at a clinic in Ames. Again, she was an older lady & we hit it off right off the bat. I saw her through my entire pregnancy except for the last visit when she had to leave for a conference. I gave her my birth plan & she had absolutely no issues with it. She said we might get some push back from the hospital on the Vitamin K shot & the Hep B shot, but should respect our wishes. We anticipated some postpartum hemorrhaging so we had pitocin IV & pitocin in a IV on stand by just in case.
The baby had laid sideways for so long, almost too long they wanted an ultrasound to make sure nothing was preventing her from turning her head down. By the time of the ultrasound, she had decided to turn down. (my hips have never been the same) At my last prenatal visit, a different midwife checked me for dilation, I was 3 cm. This was on a Friday, she scheduled me for an appointment for the following Tuesday but said I wouldn't make it til then. The next day, we had thunderstorms & tornadoes headed our way. Baby decided it was time. We got to the hospital & they decided I was in early labor & they were going to send me home. We had the TV on & a tornado warning came out for our town. The nurse looked at my chart & asked, do you live in a trailer? I answered yes. She said, we are going to keep you here.....just in case. 2 hours later, contractions came on strong. I headed for the shower to try to ease them with water over my belly & ease back labor with water on my back. My husband woke up about 15 minutes into my shower & asked if I was having contractions, I could only nod yes. He got the nurse so she could note the time. 6 hours later, after 32 hours of labor & 10 minutes of pushing, my daughter came into the world. She was born at 4:40 am on May 28, 1995. After skin to skin contact the nurses took her to clean her up & get some measurements. Some blood started coming out & the midwife just massaged my uterus to get the placenta to come out. My wonderful nurse by the name of Gail, quickly hooked up the IV with pitocin & then grabbed my daughter to get her nursing. She was there from the start of the nursing session until my daughter was full. Blood loss this time was only 35%. My nurse tried to move me to the toilet a few hours after the birth but I almost passed out. It was 12 hours later that I could finally walk on my own.
We went home on Memorial Day. It still took me about 6 months to recuperate from the birth but I was happy to have some strength to take care of 2 kids, 1 dog & my husband instead of everyone having to take care of me.
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