Our Breech Baby Was Delivered Naturally – You Can Too!

April 28, 2009

We started with Cytotec, a pill that is inserted and irritates the muscles into contractions. The first dose started mild contractions. Three hours later, the second dose started contractions that were a bit harder. The third dose, everything stopped. I looked at the clock at 3am and lost hope again. Every time I was checked, there was very little progress as far as going into real labor. Then, the doctor decided to hook up some pitocin – another way to induce labor. Maybe, with the small amounts of movement that had already happened, the pitocin would really get things moving. The doctor was willing to let me try as long as we were progressing. If there was no progress, then we would move toward a c-section.

A few minutes after being on the pitocin, the doctor also broke my water – then I could really feel contractions!! I finally felt like things were moving! I regained hope! My husband was there for each and every contraction, helping me focus, rubbing my shoulders and neck, reminding me of cute things that the kids do, showing me videos and pictures on his phone of our beautiful family. With each contraction, the pain got worse and I had more wonderful things to focus on. Finally I was checked and had dilated to 7cm! We were nearing the finish line!

I did not realize that after the doctor checked me, he had an emergency call to see a patient. I progressed from 7 to “ready to push” in a fairly short time. I remember all the signs of the transition period, when your body goes from contracting to getting ready to push. I asked to be checked again and they found that I was, in fact, READY!! The room began to be transformed and the doctor was called. I could not stand the waiting – this was by far the worst part of the whole labor! I had to hold the urge to push while waiting for the doctor to get there. It could only be THIS doctor that could catch this baby because of his willingness and experience with breech presentations – I HAD to wait! In hindsight, I’m sure this helped the very positive outcome that we had as this time of waiting, of pushing a few times when I wasn’t supposed to and of my body getting even more ready to deliver.

I finally saw the doctor enter the room and a huge wave of relief swept over me! Finally, the moment we had been waiting for! Up to this point, we had been through all this before – the pain, the transition, the emotions – with our other babies. This part was completely different – how was this breech baby going to come out? I didn’t have time to think about all those questions I had been over in my mind a thousand times every day up to this day. I had been lying on my side, curled up to try to keep this baby from coming before the doctor. Once the doctor was ready, I rolled over and saw the doctor and made one final huge push. She came out ALL AT ONCE!!! One push – unheard of in a breech delivery!!! I will never forget the look on the doctor’s face – arms waving in the air (after he had handed the baby to the nurse, of course) and such a look of joy and victory and brightness!!! What a feeling of relief – and then when I heard her cry, I just knew she was going to be okay!!!

WHAT A MIRACLE!!!!!!!

She was perfect and healthy and wonderful!! The rest of the story goes back to “boringly normal” – which is NOT boring at all!!! She nursed wonderfully, I felt GREAT!! I think the recovery with baby #4 was the quickest so far!!

As the children’s song says “My God is so GREAT, so STRONG, and so MIGHTY, there’s nothing my God cannot do!!”

Also, my husband … once again, my words fail me as I try to tell how wonderful he was throughout the whole learning experience. When I felt like everyone thought I was crazy – he stood by me and was a strong support. When I thought I was crazy – he reminded me of all the reasons I was making the choices I was making. When I had lost hope and courage – he found it and carried on with it for me. I’ll never forget how he worked so hard that Monday night and then drove 3 hours just to get me to the doctor the next day. What a wonderful man I have!!

Not to mention the family and friends I have had trying to help through all this – the prayers that have been offered up on our behalf time and time again, the babysitters … so many contributed to this outcome in so many different ways, I don’t have the space to tell you about all the stories and wonderful people we are blessed to have in our lives.

I write this for those of you that may be reading this and are currently pregnant with a baby who is in a breech presentation. I want my story to give you hope and encouragement!!

If you find yourself in this situation, you can read detailed instructions on all the ways I tried to turn my baby. One of them just might work for you! Breech Baby Turning Techniques Series – You will be directed to another blog owned by me, NaturalHealthTutoring.