Sunday, April 3, 2011

Midwife’s Marveled Madness

So again, God had other plans and I was upset that fate seemed to be against my heavenly birthing plan. On Monday December 27th, at 41 weeks, I went in for a non-stress test, have the membrane striped, and hopefully my water broke. Well early that morning I got a call from the Birthing Inn, ironically, the main water line to the entire Pearl Place 1 building broke (including their offices and the Birthing Inn) sometime during the Christmas weekend. Having no water, they could not function, but still wanted to see me, seeing as they could still do the NST, and check me out. The NST was fine, and I saw Joan, who would have broken my water IF the building water hadn’t broken first! Crying with frustration, Joan coordinated between the Birthing Inn and St Joe’s (in case I had to be transferred) as to when I can be induced. Unfortunately, to deliver at the Birthing Inn, you can’t be medically induced, but can have your water broken. I was told by Joan that she would bring me in Wednesday morning to the Birthing Inn and break the water. Well I got a call Wednesday morning saying that Kay, who was supposed to be meeting me at the Birthing Inn, was stuck at St Joe’s delivering 3 women from Pearl Place and couldn’t break my water. Apparently only one of them is on call to deliver at a time, and she said I would have to wait until Sunday, January 2nd as Bernie on call Thursday, doesn’t break water unless you’re already in active labor, and Friday, being the 31st was a bad day. By now you can imagine I was fuming. What the?!?!? I was almost 42 weeks pregnant and this on top of a lot of other negative experiences with the Pearl Place midwives had me so livid. I was about ready to stage a sit-in protest on the front porch of the Birthing Inn! So what other alternative did I have? I agreed to call in at 6am to St Joe’s on Thursday and, with the Midwives blessings, get medically induced. Why? Because first I was as miserable as miserable as one could get. I had 4 false labors and was told on many occasions by different medical professionals I would deliver by 39 weeks (dec.13). But Christmas had come and gone with no baby and after all that had happened that I couldn’t fathom, having this baby in January of 2011 was where I drew the line. But most importantly, I had a feeling of dread if she didn’t come out soon. I know her movements where less frequent, which is common, but I knew that we both we miserable and something would go wrong if she didn’t arrive soon. I was becoming more paranoid by the day. When this time finally came and I had to face that I may not deliver at the Birthing Inn. I was sick of being in limbo and having others dictate how this would go down. So at 41 weeks and 3 days, I made the choice between my potential dream delivery and following that nagging sense of doom. Would I rather wait and deliver at the Birthing Inn or take the precaution and deliver at St Joe’? Now I’m more of a spontaneous, trusting person. I have always believed that if I listen to my heart with a clear mind and have faith, everything will work out. So when my heart told me to take caution, I was a bit confused and second guessing myself. My midwife, after Adelia’s birth said “The Birthing Inn just wasn’t in the cards.” But I know that God’s intervention came into play.