Ask The Pros
Pregnancy Photos
Pregnancy Calendar
Birth Plans
Birth Stories
Bookstore
Boy or Girl
Cesareans
Chat Room
Complications
Doulas
Educators
Episiotomy
FAQs
Feeding Baby
Fertility
Finding a Class
Health
Interactive
Labor
Message Board
Monitoring
Newborns
Newsletter
Postcards
Postpartum
Pregnancy
Reviews/Awards
Search
VBAC
Week by Week
Who We Are
Courtney Emma Campbell's Birth
March 1, 1998
I think you could say Courtney’s birth story started well before her birthday… My due date was March 7th. This was confirmed several times although, no confirmation was needed. I know the day I conceived as I was charting my cycles. I went into preterm labor on January 14th. Our doctor was able to get the contractions stopped but, I was on bedrest. As long as I was quiet and didn’t do much of anything we were fine. If I moved around too much I would start having contractions.
About the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy I would have contractions – more than just Braxton Hicks for hours every day. They would be anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes apart and would go on for 4-8 hours. We ended up going in for false alarms 3 different times. That was pretty frustrating – going in thinking, okay this is it, we’ll be bringing our baby home and then leaving the hospital to wait some more. The longer and longer I went the more my doctor would council me that I should be prepared for a c-section. The baby seemed to be getting bigger and she was getting worried I may have a problem because I’m not that big.
The last two weeks I carried her my blood pressure starting doing odd things and I had been swollen horribly for about 3 weeks. Testing for PIH was basically negative though my platlate count was below normal for a pregnant woman. February 28th, I was so tired of being at home and getting kind of cranky. We decided to go out to dinner. My mother came with us. At dinner, my husband, Greg, was anxious to do something else and wanted to go bowling. I didn’t want to go home and thought I would just watch the two of them. It was good to get out and Greg talked me into bowling 3 balls – 2 strikes – he’s convinced this helped bring on the "real thing".
Greg was sleeping on the couch (I kept him awake otherwise) and about 1:45 in the morning, I thought I had wet the bed. Yes, my water had broke. The first thing I did was call the hospital to talk to a labor and delivery nurse – I wanted to know if I should call my doctor. It really was silly but I felt bad about calling at that time of the morning. I called, yes, we should definitely come in. I woke Greg up and told him it was time to go to the hospital! There was no way I was going to the hospital smelling like a bowling alley so we took a quick shower which helped me relax a little bit as well.
The nurse had just gotten me up on the bed with a gown on when my water REALLY broke…I hadn’t seen anything yet. As the nurse put it when she called the on-call doctor (my primary doctor’s husband) I was "grossly ruptured". I had still been worried that I had wet myself again and she just said "sweetie, a pregnant woman cannot hold that much water in her bladder". I stayed in triage until the results of the Strep B test came back. I did test positive so even though my contractions weren’t coming regularly (I would have a bunch every few minutes for an hour or so then nothing for 20-30 minutes) it was decided they’d get me into a room so we could start the i.v. for the antibiotic. The on-call doctor also decided to have them give me a little pitocin in the i.v. to help regulate my contractions.
We got into our room about 5:30am and the i.v. was in by about 6:00am. There was a shift change at 7:00am and I remember that the contractions were starting to pick up. My new nurse checked me out, I was at 3 cm. We finally called family around 8:00am. The contractions were definitely intensifying at that time. Our nurse didn’t like what the baby’s heart rate was doing during the contractions she actually never told me what it was doing but, did tell me to lay on my left side. In that position, the baby did much better. I think around 9:00am I asked for something to help me with the contractions. In our birth plan we stated we wanted to go natural. I felt so guilty for asking for some help but, in the back of my mind I kept thinking I’ll be doing this for hours and hours and then end up having a c-section. The doctor, knowing my desire to have a natural delivery, suggested a partial dose of Stadol. My nurse explained that it was like having a glass of wine – you can still feel everything but you just don’t care as much. This was extremely helpful in calming me down and I actually dozed off between contractions a couple times. I had gone to the bathroom before about 8:45 – still at 3 cm. I kept feeling like I had to go and was constantly telling my nurse I wanted to get up and go. Around 9:30 she decided to check my progress and was possibly going to let me go in the bathroom. Hooray, I was at 8 cm. I had gone from 3-8cm and completely effaced in 45 minutes. No way was I going to the bathroom – it was time to push.
She called the doctor – who stayed with me the entire time I pushed. The only time she left the room was to tell someone that she was not to be interrupted until this baby was delivered. I pushed for just under an hour – probably because I was a wimp. I kept saying "I can’t do it" and Greg, the nurse and doctor would just calmly say, "yes, you can". My doctor was doing perineal massage in between pushes. At the time, I wanted her to stop as the stretching and pulling didn’t feel very good but, it was definitely worth it. Just under an hour later at 10:29 am our beautiful daughter was born. Weighing in at 7lbs 15.8 ounces (they wouldn’t just give us that 2/10th of an ounce and call her 8 pounds even) and 20 ¼ inches long. She had APGARS of 9 and 10.
She was immediately placed on my chest. From that moment on I could barely remember the pain that I had just been going through. Nothing else mattered, our baby was finally here. All that was left to do though was deliver the placenta – which I don’t remember as I was so fixated on my daughter – and to clean us up a little. NO EPISIOTOMY!!!! NO STICHES!!!! Just a very minor tear. My husband was with me every step of the way. He only left my side to get something I needed. He was my greatest source of support and encouragement. I don't know what I would have done without him. He is an extremely proud Father and has been since the moment he laid eyes on her.