Labor Begins
On Wednesday evening at 7:30pm I started feeling contractions after dinner. Adan was 10 days late at this point and I was really excited when the contractions started. My little sister and my husband were with me and we decided to go walk around IKEA to bring the contractions on. I was ready!

During a contraction with my husband at home
While walking around IKEA the contractions started to become more noticeable and in the bathroom I saw “the show”. We closed out IKEA and continued walking at an outdoor mall to keep them going. When we arrived back home I checked my answering machine only to find a call from Kaiser about my missed induction appointment they were trying to force on me. I thought it was suppose to be the next day. I called them as a courtesy to let them know I was in labor and they tried to get me to come in and induce because I was 10 days late. This confused me because I was in labor already!! They argued with me about coming in and put a Dr. on the phone to try and talk us into it. I handed the phone to my husband Jason and he told the Dr., “that we where not coming in till the contractions are closer together and we will not be induced”. Jason told the Dr. we would come in the next morning. I tried to sleep, but it was impossible. The phone call was pretty upsetting and now I was afraid to go to the hospital because I wasn’t sure how they would treat me. By 3am the contractions started to become stronger and closer together. We decided to call our Doula and she came over sometime early Thursday morning. My contractions grew closer together from 3-4 minutes apart and I could not talk through them. We decided it was probably time to go.
Walnut Creek Birth Center
We arrived at Walnut Creek’s Birthing Center around 7:00 in the morning and met the midwife working that shift. She immediately started talking about induction because she said I was 42 weeks. I explained to her my cycle was 31 one days and he was not 42 weeks yet. She argued with me and did not have a good bedside manner. She was nothing like the Midwives I had met or even read about. She did nothing but try to push interventions on me. All of my worse fears about giving birth at a hospital were coming true. She did the fetal monitoring and the first print out did not have enough spikes for her taste and she was worried, however the nurse said he was probably

Contraction in the hospital
sleeping. All the other printouts were amazing! But the Midwife kept referring to this one print out and saying he was a class 2. My sister went out of the room to talk to her about how she was behaving and this helped with her giving me some space so I could feel free to labor naturally. However, every time she would come into the room my contractions would stop and space out up to 8 minutes apart! I walked the halls laboring with my team. We even walked outside and every time I had a contraction I had to lean on one of my birth team. It was a little embarrassing at first having people look at you while having contractions, but I really wanted to progress and have my baby.
The contractions became even stronger and we went back to the room and the midwife sent another midwife to come and check on my dilation. I had made no progress! I was only 2 centimeters dilated. She said I was 100% effaced and scraped my membranes and stretched me to 4 or 5 centimeters. My contractions where pretty strong and I thought it was all coming along now. Hours later the evil midwife came in to check on me again and tried to talk me into being induced and the contractions stopped and then spaced out until she left the room. My husband came and laid down behind me in the bed and they started back up again immediately. Eventually I waited out her shift and she left without a word.
Midwife #2
The second Midwife was amazing. She was so sweet and looked at my fetal monitor print outs and said he was doing great and had a very strong heart. It was only one that was not spiked enough because he was probably sleeping. She allowed me to labor normally and never pressured me to induce. She was everything I hoped for in a midwife. Unfortunately I was not dilating and still wasn’t progressing. After laboring for 30 hours my body could no longer handle it. I could barely walk and couldn’t stop shaking. I knew when I finally got to the pushing stage I would physically not be able to push and probably end up with a c-section. I decided to get an epidural so I could rest and try to gain my strength and I hoped the epidural would help me dilate. After several hours I still was not dilating and was talked into a low pitocin drip. It was my last resort. I was very disappointed. I did not want intervention at all and here I was getting one after another. I looked at all my options and felt this was my only choice. The second midwife’s shift was over and I begged her to stay… She assured me the next midwife was great.
Midwife#3
I don’t remember very much of the beginning with midwife three, but I do remember she was not happy with my status. She wanted to induce me with a stronger dose of pitocin because I was not progressing as fast as she would have liked. The contractions were pretty strong at this point. My water had broken, but my contractions had slowed down again. I did not want a c-section, so I thought a higher dose of pitocin would help save me from it. After the pitocin kicked in the pain was pretty unbearable and being stuck in the bed was AWFUL! I cannot tell you how much better it is when you can walk around. Things finally progressed and I finally made it to the pushing stage around 11 in the morning on Friday. Wow! what a relief!
I was so excited to be able to push. It was a whole new energy that came over me. I put my whole heart into it. Midwife 3 was very fond of one position on my back and told me this is what she preferred I do for awhile because of her years of experience this has been the best way for women. I did it for awhile, but I felt like I was not making progress. The midwife left the room and my labor team encouraged me and the nurse would look over occasionally and tell me I was doing really good. I thought I was!

Pushing with a smile?!
I finally asked another nurse to let me try another position and she got out the bar that goes above the bed. I was excited and thought…”wow, now we might get somewhere”! It didn’t really help very much either. It was a lot of work, but not much changed. I was still happy to have tried something different. The Midwife came back and said I had been pushing for 2 hours and had not made an progress. She wanted to do a c-section. I was pretty adamant to keep pushing. I wanted to have my baby vaginally. She agreed to let me try to push to “station 2″ and if I made it they would use the vacuum to extract him. I agreed to this, because I still believed I could push him out before that happened and it was still better than a c-section.
I pushed for awhile in the awful position on my back. I was starting to get tired. The midwife returned again and I could see on everyone’s face that they were also tired and had given up a little. The midwife was ready for me to quit. I begged her for a little more time and she reluctantly agreed after she made sure that the baby was not under stress by attaching another heart rate monitor to his head. I grabbed her hand and told her I WILL push out my baby and I don’t want a c-section. The midwife left and another nurse came in and I asked to try another position on my side. She was happy to oblige and this was a great position for me. I could feel myself push and I was determined now to push him out. I knew I was running out of time. Something came over me and the energy changed in the room. Everyone started to get excited. His head was getting closer and I was finally making progress! It did not take very long before he started to crown. The nurses starting calling for the midwife and getting everything ready. I was so relieved. Unfortunately the two midwives and Dr. on call were attending two emergency births. A clinic Dr. had to come in for Adan’s delivery.

I could not believe he was finally here!
Adan’s Birth
When the clinic Dr. came in the first thing she said to me was, “We need to do a c-section”. I was completely shocked! I had finally pushed him to the point of delivery and she wants to do a c-section. I looked at my doula and husband and said, “Why are they doing this to me?!” Everyone was confused and the nurse was telling the Dr. that I was ready to deliver and it was a good thing. She still fought it and my heart sank. I was so confused and mad! Finally the midwife came in, just in time, and was completely shocked and excited that I made it to this point. She asked the Dr. to step aside so she could take over. (Apparently the clinic Dr. was briefed incorrectly and thought his head had been in that position for 3 hours!) I pushed with all my heart again and at some point they realized he was posterior and had to reach in and turn him around! (The posterior position explains EVERYTHING! They should have diagnosed this before I was even in labor! http://www.storknet.com/cubbies/childbirth/posteriorlabor.htm)
Adan also had meconium in the amniotic fluid so when he finally came out we all held our breath because if he did not cry they would have to take him away to make sure his lungs were cleared. Adan cried almost immediately and they put him on my belly. I was so happy and still in a state of awe and could not believe I actually gave birth to my baby. It seemed like it would never happen. I was so grateful to my husband, doula and my sister. Without any one of them I am not sure I could have remained so strong through it all. They each gave me something to get through the longest and most difficult time of my life. We made an excellent team.

My new family
Midwife #3 also came to see me the next day and told me how humbled she was by me and my determination. She said she learned something from me. This was shocking, but amazing to hear. I hope the next mama that is in my situation and has her as their midwife will have more options for a natural birth and I hope she will be more encouraging and supportive.
Labor began on a Wednesday and little Adan was born 44 hours later, on Friday, May 21st 2010, at exactly 3:32 pm.