High intervention versus low intervention labor and birth

I wanted to write this article to let any mum out there who is planning on having another baby that every labour and birth is different.  I have had 2 labours and 3 births and each birth was a completely different

experience (even the 2 births that were included in the same labour were poles apart).

High Intervention Birth

My first labour was twins.  My waters broke at 11pm after having about half an hour of sleep.  As I wasn’t quite due yet, and it was a multiple birth, I was advised to go to the hospital straight away.  My contractions were painless Braxton-hicks but I spent all night awake with a midwife sitting next to me trying to get both heart beats with the CTG (my daughter was posterior, hiding behind my son, so her heart beat was muffled).  At 10am the doctors did their rounds, and the head consultant said “she’s still smiling, give her some syntocin”.  So then I had an IV inserted and a syntocin drip to strengthen my contractions.  I was coping with my contractions just fine, when my second midwife just about forced me into having an epidural- she wanted me to have the epidural before my contractions got so bad that it would be hard to insert it.  I sat on the edge of the bed, and bent as far forward as my belly would allow, and had the little sting of the local anaesthetic, and a little bit of pressure when the epidural went in.  That part was easy.  So then I had the epidural started.  Now that I had the epidural, I couldn’t get up to wee, so they inserted a urinary catheter as well.  The worst part of the epidural was that I could not move.  I had a nerve pinching in my back that was by far, worse than any contraction I had felt.  I just wanted to shift my weight a little, but I was tied down with all sorts of wires and tubes.  The midwives gave up on the CTG for my daughter, and I had a Fetal scalp monitor inserted.  So here I am, with a IV drip in the back of my hand, an epidural in my back,  a CTG monitor on my belly, a urine IDC in one hole and a scalp monitor in the other hole (sorry for being so crude) and I couldn’t move even if I tried.  The room was bright and full of people (my mum, dad, sister, husband, anaesthetist, registrar, consultant, 2 paed doctors for the babies).  Not exactly how I pictured it.  I had written a birth plan, with allowances for the fact that it may not run smoothly, but my second midwife told me straight out that The staff wouldn’t follow it (my  birth plan contained nothing out of the ordinary- I think she just wanted to be in control)

Charlottes birth

After over an hour of pushing, and not knowing when to push (my midwife was calling from the corner of the room over all the other people, “push through your bottom”) the staff decided that her heart rate was going up and she needed to come out sooner rather than later.  My epidural had been wearing off so that I could push better, but then they decided to use the ventouse after topping up my epidural again, but had not waited for it to work.  I just about hit the ceiling when they forced that suction cup inside me before the drugs had kicked in.  I didn’t know that I could levitate so high being heavily pregnant with twins.  Out of all three of my children, her birth was the worst.  I had no control and no focus.  At 7:05 pm Charlotte was born.  Thankfully it was with my 3rd midwife (as we were now into the 3rd shift of the day) and not the evil second midwife.

Lachlan’s birth

Same labour, different experience.  Now the epidural top us was working, left over from the ventouse.  My pain was under control, I could feel when I needed to push and Lachlan was born half an hour later at 7:35 pm, also via ventouse assistance (he was a bit lazy and didn’t want to come out). 

The worst things about this labour were- my lack of control, too many people in the room, poorly timed pain relief and being stuck in a bed for 20 hours.  But I had given birth to twins and I was proud of myself (even though I was very tired and had some post birth complications).  I spent the rest of that night being poked and proded to get clots out, and after having half an hour sleep in 45 hours, I was able to finally rest.

Low Intervention Birth

My second labour was a singleton, and a totally different experience.  I woke at 11pm (again) with contractions 5 minutes apart, after having a back ache all day, that I had put down to pushing a twin pram around the shops and being 39 weeks pregnant.  Although in the back of my mind, I thought labour was getting close and I had rung the hospital earlier that day to ask about back labour.  When I arrived at the hospital, my contractions were 3 minutes apart, I was 5 cm dilated with bulging membranes.  I walked up to delivery ward, stopping every few steps for a contraction.  I could not sit down.  I felt most comfortable (if you can be comfortable in labour) standing and bending forwards during a contraction.  When I got to the delivery ward, the room was dimmed, my husband, dad and sister were present (who spent the birth against the wall- my sister filming and my husband obeying my commands for drinks of water), along with 2 midwives. 

Imogen’s birth

I felt like I was in control of the situation.  A couple of contractions later, my waters broke, and I had an uncontrollable urge to get down on all fours and push.  I dropped to the floor on my hands and knees.  When I found out that the fluid was meconium stained, I decided that it would be nicer to my midwives if I was up on the bed and they could see what they were doing.  So I climbed up in between contraction that were now coming thick and fast.  My midwife instinctively put the back of the bed right up, and I knelt with my arms holding onto the top of the upright bed.  Gravity was my friend, and this is what I missed in my first labour.  Because of the meconium staining, the CTG needed to be on, but my midwife worked around what I wanted to and had to do.  I had a bit of gas at first, to take the edge off, but decided closer to the birth that I just wanted to concentrate on breathing and pushing, rather that holding the gas mouth piece.  My body knew what it was doing.  I was in control,  my urge to push was as primal and womanly as it gets.  It was a natural and beautiful, albeit painful, experience.  I felt the contractions, the strong bearing down, the burning as the head crowned, the birth of the shoulders and the strange slurpy plop as she was born and guided onto the bed behind me by the hands of the midwife- after about 2 hours and 45 min labour at 1:48am.  After my first experience, I did not want an epidural and I was glad that this experience was allowed to be as natural as possible.

Again I was proud of myself, as I had given birth to my beautiful daughter instinctively and with minimal assistance.  An hour later I was stitched up and breastfeeding.  Then I had a shower and walked to post natal, wheeling my new baby (I bumped into the hospital night nurse manager, who was my senior- that’s what happens when you give birth at the same hospital you work in, and happily told her that my labour was quick but noisy).

So, 3 different births, 3 different experiences, same mum, same hospital.

Don’t only go by your own previous experience and assume that your subsequent experiences will be the same.  Learn for your experiences but don’t let them make you fearful.  Every birth is different, every baby is different.  Use your instincts and let your body tell you what needs to be done.  If you have had a negative birth experience, think about what went wrong and how you might avoid the same problems again, you have done it before and you know what you want, what to expect and what you can have now.  Don’t’ be afraid to voice your wishes to the hospital staff and stand your ground, as long as its not going to endanger the life of you or your baby. 

 Thanks for letting me share my experiences.