Induction leads to Cesarean for April 11th!
By Danell Swim
April 11, 2008
Dawna had high blood pressure, and was admitted into the hospital for a labor induction.
About 9:30 p.m. or so, the nurse called the doctor in because Kevin, Jr. started showing some signs of duress. They gave Dawna oxygen, and he stabilized. The doctor wasn’t too concerned, and she went back to her office (where she had a bed to sleep in). She gave instructions to the nurse to watch us carefully so that nothing serious might happen. At the time, Dawna had dialated to 4 cm, and the doc said that things should progress pretty fast from there.
She was right. Dawna dialated very rapidly from that time forward. Kevin, Jr.’s heart rate was good, and things were progressing as they should. Doc had said that we should expect a baby sometime between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. At 12:30, Dawna was fully dialated, and it was time to begin active labor. That’s when things really got interesting.
Dawna began to push as per the nurse’s instructions. At the beginning of each contraction, Dawna was to push for 10 straight seconds, take a deep breath, push again, take a deep breath, and push one final time. Dawna was very diligent in doing this. A contraction came, and Dawna pushed. Another contraction, another push. Another contraction, another push. An hour passed. Nothing. Kevin, Jr. had only moved a little way. Dawna was giving it her all, but he wasn’t coming. Dawna’s pelvis was just too small.
Another 1/2 hour of contractions and pushing brought little or no change. Then, that’s when things got stickly. Remember that I told you that they would?
The doctor came in and looked at the readouts that monitored the baby’s heart rate and Dawna’s contractions. The readouts showed that Kevin, Jr. was beginning to come under duress. His heart rate would dip way south of baseline just after the contraction. This isn’t good. Then, his heart rate would race. Doc said, “This isn’t good.”
They wondered a bit whether or not a C-section was in order. Doc felt bad because Dawna had come so far into the birthing process. She hated that all her work would be in vain. She asked me if we wanted to try to use the vaccuum process to try and bring him down. I said, “No. Let’s do what’s safest for her and the baby.”
“That would be the section,” she said. “Let’s go.”
With the decision made, the doc and hospital staff jumped into action. Believe me when I say that they moved FAST!!! They wheeled Dawna out of the room at 2:25 a.m. They said that they would send for me in about 10 minutes. I figured that it would take them time to scrub, and I’d get in there and they would begin the procedure. Wrong.
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