MUSIC BIRTH STORIES: Theodorable

I started getting texts from my client around 3:00 pm on Saturday, alerting me that contractions had started. We kept in touch throughout the day, and she had a textbook labor pattern. Over the next ten hours, contractions progressed from 15 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart. I received a call around 1:00 am from mom, telling me that she had been having an active labor pattern (contractions coming every 5 minutes and lasting for 60 seconds) for two hours and that they were heading to the hospital!

We met in triage around 1:45 am. Mom was coping well and in very good spirits. I'm not sure what was going on in triage, but we were in there for hours with very little communication from the medical staff. At 2:30 a nurse finally came in to check mom.

She was 1 cm dilated.

No one wants to hear this after laboring all day! But mom wasn't discouraged, and she just kept breathing through her contractions. Her baby began moving like crazy. We were all laughing as we could hear it through the monitor. And all of the sudden:

POP!

Mom's water broke at 2:43 am and it was on. The intensity of her contractions picked up instantly.

We weren't moved to our labor room until 4:00 am, and after an hour of iv attempts, mom was able to get into the tub at 5:00 am. I was really excited to listen to this mom's labor music with her. She gave me her music a couple months ago so I could familiarize myself with it, and I actually used it as my roadtrip music when I was on my book tour last month. When the song "One Moment in Time" came on, I couldn't help but think how important this moment was to this family.

Things were intensifying steadily, and mom sought out more comfort. She hoped to find it in nitrous, but the mask made her feel claustrophobic, so she tried some iv pain medications, which helped her relax and find her focus. Around 6:30 am she started saying she felt pushy. It was hard to believe since she was just 1 cm dilated a handful of hours ago. I continued to help her breath slowly and stay focuses, but by 7:30 she was starting to grunt.

Could it be? Could she really be feeling the urge to push already?! A cervical exam showed that baby was nice and low, and mom was 9 cm dilated! She had a small anterior lip on her cervix, and as soon as that was gone, she would be pushing. The lip was a little stubborn and didn't disappear until 8:20. Mom was a champ, changed positions often, and grunted and blew through her intense contractions.

Once the cervical lip was gone. mom was able to focus all of her strength on pushing. And less than an hour later, this little man slipped into the world!

Since there was light meconium, the doctor suctioned him out a bit before handing him over to mom. In circumstances like this I usually see an immediate cutting of the umbilical cord and hand off to the nurses. I love that the doctor not only remained calm, but kept baby close to mom, and allowed this couple to proceed with delayed cord clamping.