Fears into Reality?

Like most parents, you enter into the realm of parenthood with the expectation that everything will be perfect. However, when you are a nurse, sometimes too much knowledge can put a damper on those dreams. My first pregnancy was amazing!!! Plenty of energy, no morning sickness, blood pressure stayed where it should.  I couldn’t ask for more.  But as a nurse, I would have the worst case scenarios running through my head.  At the time, my husband and I lived on an acreage about 15 minutes away from the hospital.  Throughout that time, my husband was also travelling all over the province with his work.  The scenario that ran through my head throughout my pregnancy was that I was going to have a cord prolapse.  Now this is something that rarely happens, and I have never actually seen one in my career, but my imagination was quite OK with filling in the details. 

Despite my fears, my pregnancy advanced with no concerns. I went off work at 36 weeks, took that time to finish off a course I was working on, and prepare our home for our new addition. However, at 37 weeks, my doctor had concerns that my baby’s head hadn’t “dropped” yet.  So off to the hospital for an ultrasound to make sure baby wasn’t in a breech position. Everything looked great on the ultrasound so off I went to continue my “nesting”. At 39 weeks, baby still hadn’t dropped. At that point, my doctor told me that he wouldn’t allow me to go past my due date, because if my membranes ruptured with baby’s head still high, I was at risk for a cord prolapse!!! There it was, my fears becoming a potential reality.

So the day before my due date, I was admitted to the hospital for an induction.  Despite my walking, and bouncing on the yoga ball, I didn’t have much more than a few mild tightenings.  So we tried round 2, with basically the same effect.  The wonderful thing delivering in the place that you work is that you KNOW that everyone has your best interests at heart.  After the 2^nd induction didn’t work, my doctor suggested that we opt for a cesarean section.  I was torn between not wanting to give up too easily, and wanting to make the best decision for myself and my unborn child. Ultimately, I decided, with the help of some wise coworkers, that trying another induction likely wouldn’t put me into active labour, and I would end up being more worn out by the time baby did come.  (Let me tell you, it was no easy decision, as I had my mom on the other side telling me how much doctors like to intervene too quickly).

Ultimately, the c-section was the best decision. Our baby girl was born that evening, happy and healthy. She nursed like a trooper and we never looked back.  The reason she never dropped????  She was coming out face first (not a position which any of you would ever want to contemplate delivering a baby).  So am I sad that I had to have a c-section?  Not really.  As I’ve shared with many of my patients since then that are facing an unplanned c-section, “Yes I had to have a c-section, but I don’t pee myself when I exercise”.