Paityn's Birth Story - Ignorance is Bliss - 6/25/03 to 6/26/03

The women in my family have a history of relatively fast labors. My mother gave birth to her first in an hour and a half and only ever felt a "butterfly" in her back along with strong pushing contractions. Her second birth was much the same and she delivered twins in 34 minutes after the "butterfly" sensation and pushing contractions. My sister delivered her first, a posterior baby in 7 hours, much to the surprise of her doctor who had no idea the baby was posterior because she wasn't experiencing much pain. Her second and third deliveries were two hours and 45 minutes respectively, the last of which was a planned home birth that the midwife arrived only 10 minutes before delivery!

I had no idea I was in labor. I was 40 weeks and 4 days when I woke up and felt a trickle of discharge that I thought might be my water leaking. I was told to come into the hospital for a check. After being hooked up to the monitors my doctor happily announced that my water had not broken, but that I was in fact, in labor and contracting every 3 minutes for 45-50 seconds. WHAT!? I was told that I was not dilated and about 20% effaced and they asked me to walk the halls for an hour. The next vaginal exam showed that I progressed to 100% effaced and 1 cm dilated, so the doctor expected a fast labor. I still didn't feel like I was in labor. Sure, now that they mentioned it, I did notice a frequent tightening sensation that felt a bit like butterflies, but heck, I was nervous. Skip forward to lunch time where I had no change in dilation and demanded to eat, which they reluctantly let me do. Skip forward to late afternoon where I could hear women who were in "true labor" screaming and moaning, and I successfully argued with my doctor that I was too happy to be there and that I should go home. When I left I was still only 1 cm dilated. I had refused any interventions all day, as I strongly feel that labor is a natural process and should be left to itself unless the baby or mother are in distress. I was certainly not in distress. I had dinner and laid down on the couch for a nap. About 30 minutes later I felt a "pop" and had the urge to pee. Once on the toilet my water broke like Niagara Falls. I ended up being the proverbial woman walking into the hospital with a beach towel between her legs, on an elevator with five strangers who knew exactly why I was there. During the 30 minute drive to the hospital I noticed more intense contractions lasting a minute long and coming every other minute. I was 7-8 cm dilated and was ready to push in two hours. Transition did not feel any different to me than the contractions I was feeling after my water broke. Everything went so fast, not painful but intense, except the pushing stage. I never had the urge to push, so it took 2 hours and 22 minutes. In hindsight, I know that I had been experiencing those contractions with my daughter for days before I went into the hospital. I just dismissed them as Braxton Hicks and kept waiting for when I would REALLY KNOW that it was labor.