34 weeks, 1 day
There has been so much to do over the last month, I feel like I have just turned around and May is almost here, heck, Piper is almost here! My belly keeps growing and it looks like I am trying to shoplift an overripe watermelon under my shirt. Piper now moves in big, strong ways - rolling, pushing and stretching. I have only 2 weeks left at work before my maternity leave. The nursery is now painted a beautiful sunny yellow, thanks to my wonderful father-in-law, Jan. I have only 2 more progesterone shots left and my ass is excited. We have been getting hand-me-down baby things for several weeks now and I am still stunned at how tiny the clothes are. And tomorrow is Piper's baby shower - thrown by two of my favorite people - my mother-in-law, Claire, and my sister-in-law, Jenn, both of which are far more baby oriented than I am. But, let me tell you what has really been going on.
At our last and final visit at the NJ Perinatal Group in St. Barnabas hospital we got to see Piper via ultrasound again. She looked fine, growing like a weed. And then we were informed that she was now breech, but we have 'plenty of time' to get her to turn around. That was Monday, March 29th. It made sense to me because she had been kicking at my waistband every time I would wear something tight. So, I accepted their statement and carried on with my life.
When we saw Judy, our midwife, later that week she felt my belly and was trying to decide which way Piper was pointed. With the evidence from the ultrasound and the kick, kick, kicking at my pants line, I told her that Piper must be breech right now. Judy felt around some more and decided the big, hard ball at the top of my uterus was, indeed, the head. So she is breech. So, so what?
Judy looked only slightly concerned when she told us that we could not have a home birth if Piper was coming breech. In fact Judy was not allowed as a certified midwife to knowingly deliver a breech baby at home. My jaw hit the ground. What? No home birth? But what does that mean? Visions of c-sections floated in my head.
There are ways of getting the baby to turn, Judy assured us. The website spinningbabies.com is full of ideas. When our visit was over, and I got in Griffin's truck, I was already looking up the website. In fact, I looked up several websites with tricks for turning a breech baby. And so began my two week journey of spinning that baby.
The easiest thing to do is just massage in a circular motion, around and around and hope she just goes with the flow. I rubbed my belly every chance I got - like I was my own Buddha. It is difficult to rub a belly in big circles with a shirt in the way, so I would sit on the couch in the evening with my shirt yanked up and over my belly and rub away. I couldn't tell if it was doing any good, but it felt nice. I tried to massage every chance I got, but there are a lot of times where you just shouldn't be yanking up your shirt - like while driving, for example. One truck driver got an eye-full one day when I was going home from work and I decided to stick to rubbing during couch time only.
Another trick is to try to get the baby to turn its head towards the direction you want her to spin by encouraging her to look at something. The website suggests using a small, but strong flashlight. Start the flashlight where you think the baby's head currently is and then move it slowly to where you want her to go. When she sees the light she may try to follow it like a cat does with a laser pointer. I don't know if that worked either, but I did it every night. I would cringe and yet stare deeply at my glowing belly thinking I might actually see her inside that red-yellow haze. It's like candling a chicken's egg to see if there is a chick inside. How creepy would that be? I didn't see her, but I almost didn't want to.
Another technique is 'aversion' - it's the opposite of the flashlight trick. I only did this one a few times since it bugged me and I am sure it bugged Piper. The idea is to put something cold on your belly in the area that her head is and then something warm in the area you want her to turn to. I only did this one in the afternoon after work, because by nighttime I like to be warm and snuggly. So I would put a package of frozen peas on the top of my belly and put the heating pad at the bottom of my belly and hope that Piper would get chilly and try to escape the cold. I don't know if this worked, I never felt her move when I would do this and it seemed kind of cruel to me - chilling half of her fishbowl.
The last technique that I really made a big effort to do was 'inversion'. I would lie on the couch with my head on the footrest and my feet over the back of the couch. I would try to get my butt as high into the air as possible. We were watching The West Wing at that time, and I would usually stay that way for half an episode or 25 minutes. I remember being a kid and watching TV this way. What was I thinking? Ah, to be a kid again! It is so uncomfortable now and it would kick my heartburn into high gear. The idea is to just get her head to 'sink' into position. I would visualize her giant noggin drifting down with the massive weight of her brilliant brain. (Guess I am already biased about my kid's intelligence) I would combine this with circular, bare belly rubbing, boy that must have been a sight!
After two weeks of torture, we were back meeting with Judy. We sat and discussed options if Piper remained breech. I wanted to avoid the hospital at all costs, so I was open to any ideas. She said that the OB she is associated with in case of emergencies could try to manually turn her. The doc could give me a muscle relaxer and try to spin Piper around. Judy said it would be painful, but could work - or it may not stick and Piper could just go right back to breech.
Another option is to use a different midwife who isn't restricted by the certified midwives rules. Apparently, Judy has a friend or colleague that is a midwife in Uganda and she is here either visiting or has come back home to NJ. My ears starting ringing when I heard the word Uganda and I missed most of the rest of the conversation. I pictured myself squatting in a field in Africa . . . hyenas laughing in the distance - but we are getting ahead of ourselves here.
Judy checked my belly. She felt all around and listened to the heartbeat with the doppler. The heartbeat was lower in my belly than it had been last time. The hard lump at the top of my belly seemed to turn into a squishy one, like a butt, and she said she thought she could feel the head just above my pubic bone. Piper had spinned! Somehow - one, some or all of my efforts paid off and Piper was now in the proper position. We were delighted.
As we were leaving, Judy told me not to do anything to disturb Piper now. We don't want her spinning back around. Okay, I will keep the frozen peas away from my belly. That won't be hard. But why did she turn in the first place? Was it those tight waistbands? Or the back brace? Or how I sit leaning forward while squinting at the computer? I can't be sure. I will try to send her 'head down' thoughts as often as I can. Just keep your head down, kid, and everything will be okay.
Showing posts with label midwife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label midwife. Show all posts
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Making the Move
22 Weeks, 1 day.
We met with the certified nurse midwife yesterday. Our appointment was at her home office and of course we arrived early. She didn't mind, invited us in and we sat down in a cozy room. She asked a couple of basic questions: where we lived, my due date, what week I was in and confirmed that we were looking to have a home birth.
Then she asked us if we had questions for her. I didn't know where to start, so she did. She practiced originally as a labor and delivery nurse starting in 1986 and then began doing home birthing in 1997 after going to midwifery school and doing an internship. She has delivered over 700 babies and assisted with another 1100 births.
She told us about her track record for home births. With her first time mothers have a 10% transfer rate to a hospital. That is pretty good, I had read it was 25% on average. She has never needed to do a transfusion for a mother although she could. She told us about her experience with different situations and what she would do. Her level of knowledge and confidence really made me feel comfortable. An OB would never do this - they wouldn't be expected to defend themselves and prove that they would be a good doctor for you.
She asked us to tell her about the pregnancy and what we were looking for in a birthing experience and why. I told her about the miscarriages and who we were currently seeing for care. I told her that I wanted to be home with my family included, if they want to be. I said I would like to invite my mother and father-in-laws and my brother and sister-in-law. (I think my brother would jump out of his skin, but I would invite him anyhow.) I said I wanted it to be fully natural and not be rushed. I didn't want things to spin out of control, which I think happens in hospitals far too often. She nodded a lot and asked questions that ensured me that she was listening to what I was saying and not just planning on what to say next.
She told us that she could do all of the prenatal care from here on out and we wouldn't need to continue going to the OB or perinatal group. She said she is affiliated with an OB in Morristown if we do run into any problems before 37 weeks. I told her that we had one more appointment in 5 weeks at the perinatal group for an ultrasound to check for growth. She said it wasn't necessary for us to continue to have ultrasounds and that the development of the baby could be palpated at this point. I wondered why my OB never did that.
I don't really have a problem leaving the OBs, frankly, I am glad to leave them. There are 3 doctors there and although they are very nice, they don't know me from Adam. In fact, they have gotten our due date wrong several times and keep asking the same questions about the previous miscarriages over and over even though this is all in my chart. The only thing they do every 4 weeks is check my blood pressure, weight, check my urine for protein and sugar, check the fetal heartbeat and then send me on my way. It always seems like a waste of time for us.
On the other hand, the perinatal group does all of the ultrasounds. It's wonderful getting to see Piper moving around inside me. They usually print out a few pictures for us to take home. Since we have now 'graduated' and don't need to be seen every two weeks, it seems like this is just going to be a novelty to keep seeing her through ultrasounds.
Now we have to decide whether we will go to the scheduled ultrasound appointment. The midwife said we didn't need to, but she didn't say we couldn't go. It's up to us. Griffin and I talked about it afterwords. He said he would be fine going one more time. The real question is whether he would be fine not going one more time. That is the question.
I have read over and over that ultrasounds in the third trimester are not necessary unless there is a problem, but we like the ultrasounds. It's so cool to see her and not just feel her inside me. I believe the next ultrasound would be our last one anyhow, so how could one more hurt? Do we care that it is unnecessary? Maybe this is why health insurance costs so much. Well, we have time to think about it.
We talked for almost an hour with the midwife. She asked questions, we asked questions and I felt like I knew more about her in one hour than I know about the OB I have been seeing for the last 2 years. It's a much more personal experience.
We told her that we were considering a waterbirth and she said she does a lot of them. She explained what we would need to get and how the logistics would work. It seemed to be pretty much as I had read.
I asked her again if she thought we were good candidates for home birth and she agreed. She said it's not for everyone and she can usually tell after speaking with a couple whether it is a good option for them. She said she would not take on anyone for home birthing that she thought could not handle it or if it would be too risky for mother and child.
Finally she told us that we would need to get a copy of my records from my OB's office. I thought about how fat my chart now was: filled with information about failed pregnancies. It also has all of the information from the NJ Perinatal Association. So much stuff that we want to put behind us. My only fear is telling the OB that we don't want to use them anymore. I don't know why that scares me. When we were there last time and I asked about a midwife, I could almost see the hackles going up on the doctor. They can't say 'no', can they?
We left the appointment feeling really positive about the whole thing. I asked Griffin if I sounded like a nut talking to her and he reassured me that I didn't. My reasons for wanting a home birth are equal parts emotional and logical. The thought of going to the hospital to deliver Piper makes my skin crawl. The last 4 times I was in a hospital was to have another failed pregnancy removed. I don't associate hospitals with anything good. Hospitals are where you go if you are sick, I am not sick. I am going to have a baby!
We met with the certified nurse midwife yesterday. Our appointment was at her home office and of course we arrived early. She didn't mind, invited us in and we sat down in a cozy room. She asked a couple of basic questions: where we lived, my due date, what week I was in and confirmed that we were looking to have a home birth.
Then she asked us if we had questions for her. I didn't know where to start, so she did. She practiced originally as a labor and delivery nurse starting in 1986 and then began doing home birthing in 1997 after going to midwifery school and doing an internship. She has delivered over 700 babies and assisted with another 1100 births.
She told us about her track record for home births. With her first time mothers have a 10% transfer rate to a hospital. That is pretty good, I had read it was 25% on average. She has never needed to do a transfusion for a mother although she could. She told us about her experience with different situations and what she would do. Her level of knowledge and confidence really made me feel comfortable. An OB would never do this - they wouldn't be expected to defend themselves and prove that they would be a good doctor for you.
She asked us to tell her about the pregnancy and what we were looking for in a birthing experience and why. I told her about the miscarriages and who we were currently seeing for care. I told her that I wanted to be home with my family included, if they want to be. I said I would like to invite my mother and father-in-laws and my brother and sister-in-law. (I think my brother would jump out of his skin, but I would invite him anyhow.) I said I wanted it to be fully natural and not be rushed. I didn't want things to spin out of control, which I think happens in hospitals far too often. She nodded a lot and asked questions that ensured me that she was listening to what I was saying and not just planning on what to say next.
She told us that she could do all of the prenatal care from here on out and we wouldn't need to continue going to the OB or perinatal group. She said she is affiliated with an OB in Morristown if we do run into any problems before 37 weeks. I told her that we had one more appointment in 5 weeks at the perinatal group for an ultrasound to check for growth. She said it wasn't necessary for us to continue to have ultrasounds and that the development of the baby could be palpated at this point. I wondered why my OB never did that.
I don't really have a problem leaving the OBs, frankly, I am glad to leave them. There are 3 doctors there and although they are very nice, they don't know me from Adam. In fact, they have gotten our due date wrong several times and keep asking the same questions about the previous miscarriages over and over even though this is all in my chart. The only thing they do every 4 weeks is check my blood pressure, weight, check my urine for protein and sugar, check the fetal heartbeat and then send me on my way. It always seems like a waste of time for us.
On the other hand, the perinatal group does all of the ultrasounds. It's wonderful getting to see Piper moving around inside me. They usually print out a few pictures for us to take home. Since we have now 'graduated' and don't need to be seen every two weeks, it seems like this is just going to be a novelty to keep seeing her through ultrasounds.
Now we have to decide whether we will go to the scheduled ultrasound appointment. The midwife said we didn't need to, but she didn't say we couldn't go. It's up to us. Griffin and I talked about it afterwords. He said he would be fine going one more time. The real question is whether he would be fine not going one more time. That is the question.
I have read over and over that ultrasounds in the third trimester are not necessary unless there is a problem, but we like the ultrasounds. It's so cool to see her and not just feel her inside me. I believe the next ultrasound would be our last one anyhow, so how could one more hurt? Do we care that it is unnecessary? Maybe this is why health insurance costs so much. Well, we have time to think about it.
We talked for almost an hour with the midwife. She asked questions, we asked questions and I felt like I knew more about her in one hour than I know about the OB I have been seeing for the last 2 years. It's a much more personal experience.
We told her that we were considering a waterbirth and she said she does a lot of them. She explained what we would need to get and how the logistics would work. It seemed to be pretty much as I had read.
I asked her again if she thought we were good candidates for home birth and she agreed. She said it's not for everyone and she can usually tell after speaking with a couple whether it is a good option for them. She said she would not take on anyone for home birthing that she thought could not handle it or if it would be too risky for mother and child.
Finally she told us that we would need to get a copy of my records from my OB's office. I thought about how fat my chart now was: filled with information about failed pregnancies. It also has all of the information from the NJ Perinatal Association. So much stuff that we want to put behind us. My only fear is telling the OB that we don't want to use them anymore. I don't know why that scares me. When we were there last time and I asked about a midwife, I could almost see the hackles going up on the doctor. They can't say 'no', can they?
We left the appointment feeling really positive about the whole thing. I asked Griffin if I sounded like a nut talking to her and he reassured me that I didn't. My reasons for wanting a home birth are equal parts emotional and logical. The thought of going to the hospital to deliver Piper makes my skin crawl. The last 4 times I was in a hospital was to have another failed pregnancy removed. I don't associate hospitals with anything good. Hospitals are where you go if you are sick, I am not sick. I am going to have a baby!
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