We Make Plans and Babies Don't Follow Them

That moment when you're headed to your first doula prenatal visit with a first time mom who is 35 weeks, and she calls you and says "So, it has been an interesting day... My water broke and I'm being admitted. Do you want to make your way to the hospital instead of my house?"

....WHAT!?

Luckily, despite our not having spent much time together, this mama was very calm and collected. And funny. I explained that she should do nipple stimulation to get contractions going (and avoid pitocin), I said "I know it feels weird to get sexy right now, but as they say, sometimes 'what gets baby in gets baby out'!" And she replied, "Maybe we shouldn't have had sex this morning!" And we both laughed.

Did you know BabyCentre UK has a bunch of safe sex positions for pregnancy images? Now I do!

I was nervous about a preterm baby, and any changes this might cause to the labor management plan, but everything turned out great. We did end up with pitocin to start contractions but mom labored with no pain meds and pushed her baby out in 6 quick hours.

It was one of those labors where I left work, doula-ed all night, and then returned to work in the morning, with no one realizing that while they slept and went about their routine, I was having an extraordinary night!



You learn something new every birth:

• The doctor told the mom that she couldn't start with cervidil instead of pitocin because her membranes had ruptured. 
• The nurse said the mom could use nitrous oxide during pushing if she wanted it (which she didn't). I've never seen it used during pushing. I feel like that would be hard to do both!
• I've never heard a nurse so insistent on the use of drugs for stitch repair on a non-epidural mom. She said mom could use the nitrous during stitch repair, but she couldn't hold her baby. Mom declined. She then told her she could give her stadol in her IV, and didn't even tell her the pros and cons. I said "that will make her loopy, right?" the nurse finally said, "yes." Mom agreed and regretted her decision when she felt totally out of it and couldn't do anything about it for an hour.