The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS, a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA

Two Unnecessary? Cesareans

I was pregnant with my first child and had an uncomplicated pregnancy. My b/p rose the last month but only slightly. I ended up being 2 weeks overdue and, with the doctor's advice, scheduled a c/s (thinking back on this, isn't that weird that he wouldn't have scheduled an induction??? If I remember right, it was for my b/p but it was really not that high and the NST I went for were fine). Anyway, I was scheduled for a Friday morning and lo and behold on Thursday evening around 11:00pm I woke up with what I thought was terrible gas pain in my back. Within an hour I knew it wasn't gas and realized I was having contractions. I woke my dh up and for the heck of it we timed them. I think we were both in shock that I was actually contracting!! I was having contractions 5-10 minutes apart lasting 30-60 seconds. Around 2am we decided to go to the hospital. I get there, check in, and am strapped to a fetal monitor. For all the money they take in,you'd think they would have one that worked right, but I got the broken one. It was not registering contractions, so I had to let them know when I was having them ( I think it was only registering the baby's heartbeat...sorry, its hard to remember.). Not that it mattered because I was supposed to let the nurse know when I was having a contraction, but they were in and out of there and no one asked about it after I was hooked up. Around 5am, after the doctor had come in and examined me (during a damn contraction) he asked how long had I been contracting, how often, and said something vague about being 2cm dilated and only slightly effaced. To be honest, I was having another contraction and didn't even hear what he was saying. { As I'm writing this I'm having this incredibly sad feeling come up within me. It's like I'm remembering everything so clearly.} Within a half hour or so, the fetal monitor starts looking like the baby is in distress. They flipped me on my side and it seemed to get better. Then the baby's heartbeat went down again really low. I remember seeing the heartrate really low (is it possible for it to be around 40?) and thinking, "oh sh*t" my baby's got a problem. The doctor comes swooping in, blabs something about fetal distress.....c/s....scheduled for one anyway....you'll be holding your new baby soon. I was being operated on within 20 minutes or so. I won't even get into how bad the spinal was...that's another one for another day.

My 2nd pregnancy resulted in me being hospitalized within the first 2 months because I lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks. I couldn't eat...just kept throwing up everything. After that, the pregnancy, other than me feeling nauseous all the time, progressed fine...no high bp etc. At a prenatal visit, the doctor asked if I was going to schedule another c/s. Not knowing what I know now, I agreed. Get this...he says, "It will be better for you because then you can make your plans for your first child ...you know, get the grandparents to babysit him." I ended up c/s'd the second time...another spinal horror story.

You know what the worst of this is? I wonder if I could have delivered natural on each birth. I know this sounds silly, but I feel in some way, by scheduling my children's births, that I messed with nature to some degree. My naivete, lack of preparation, and fear literally destined the outcome of my births. I don't know exactly what happened medically and never gave it much thought until lately but I plan to find out through my medical records. Well, thanks for everyone's insight lately...you've brought some healing for the past and some hope for a VBAC for the future!!