MyMaine Birth Julia’s Emergency Cesarean
Childbirth is an extraordinary journey, filled with anticipation, hope, and the expectation of a certain kind of experience. But what happens when things don't go as planned? This question lies at the heart of our latest podcast episode on My Maine Birth, where we delve into Julia's story—a labor and delivery nurse whose own birth experience took an unexpected turn.
Julia's narrative begins with the excitement of a normal pregnancy, but at 37 weeks, she faced the revelation that her baby was in a breech position. This twist in her story brings forth the reality that childbirth can be unpredictable and challenging, and sometimes our best-laid plans must give way to emergent necessities. Julia's choice between a scheduled cesarean section or an external cephalic version is a profound reminder of the tough decisions parents are sometimes forced to make.
The episode then transitions into the emotional aftermath of an unplanned C-section, exploring the intricacies of postpartum recovery. Julia's candidness in sharing her struggles with breastfeeding and her emotional journey of acceptance offers solace and understanding to listeners who may be grappling with similar challenges. The importance of preparedness for labor's unpredictability, even for healthcare professionals, is a poignant takeaway from her experience.
Virtual birth trauma healing sessions emerge as a beacon of hope, illustrating the importance of support systems and professional guidance in the postpartum period. As an experienced doula and birth photographer, I offer these sessions via Zoom, providing a space for mothers to process their birth stories with care. These sessions emphasize the significance of addressing emotions and encouraging self-care and community support.
Julia's story is a testament to the power of sharing and healing. It reassures listeners that it's okay for birth plans to change and underscores the message that no one should go through these experiences alone. Her story invites us to celebrate the collective courage of mothers and redefine motherhood amidst the trials of childbirth and recovery.
By sharing these stories, My Maine Birth aims to foster a community where the strength and vulnerability of the birthing process are both recognized and honored.
For the rest of the week, we are going to hear powerful stories that shed light on the challenges, the unexpected turns, and the emotional aftermath of a birth story that does not go as you imagined it would. I believe it’s important to create a safe space for these narratives, to raise awareness, and to support those who have gone through difficult birth experiences.
To all the pregnant mothers listening, I encourage you to assess your emotional readiness for today’s episode. If hearing stories of birth trauma might not be what you need at the moment , I completely understand. Please feel free to skip the rest of the episodes for this week and join me again next week for an empowering birth tale.
For those who have recently experienced birth trauma yourself, I want you to know that you are not alone. I see you, I hear you, and I am here to support you.
In addition to my weekly podcast and my adventures across Maine as a Birth Photographer, I offer a virtual service designed specifically for mothers who need to process their birth stories.
My Birth Debrief Sessions over Zoom provide a safe and confidential space to explore your emotions, find healing, and work through any lingering feelings of disappointment, fear, or grief.
I am an experienced birth professional and I am ready to listen with empathy, offer guidance, and help you navigate the complexities of your birth experience. Click HERE for more information on my Birth Debrief’s and to schedule your session.
Angela: 0:00
Welcome to my Maine Birth, a space where we share the real-life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine. From our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated. For those that don't know me yet, I'm your host, Angela, and today I want to take a moment to acknowledge that not all birth experiences go as planned. For the mamas that are currently pregnant, you might want to shield yourself from these potentially triggering stories, and I want to take this moment to honor your emotional well-being and provide a compassionate trigger warning For the rest of the week. We're going to hear powerful stories that shed light on the challenges, the unexpected turns and the emotional aftermath of a birth story that does not go as you imagined it would. I believe it's important to create a safe space for these narratives, to raise awareness and to support those who've gone through difficult birth experiences. To all the pregnant mothers listening, I encourage you to assess your emotional readiness for today's episode. If hearing stories of birth trauma might not be what you need at the moment, please skip this episode and join me again next week for an empowering birth story on Monday. For those who have recently experienced birth trauma yourself. I want you to know that you are not alone. I see you, I hear you and I'm here to support you.
Angela: 1:26
In addition to my weekly podcast and my adventures across Maine as a doula and birth photographer, I offer a virtual service designed specifically for mothers who need to process their birth stories. My birth trauma healing sessions over Zoom provide a safe and confidential space to explore your emotions, find healing and work through any lingering feelings of disappointment, fear or grief. I'm an experienced birth professional and I'm ready to listen, offer guidance and help you navigate the complexities of your birth experience. If you're interested in scheduling a birth trauma healing session, visit my website mymainphotocom to learn more and to book your session. Remember, your story matters and I'm here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can heal, grow and find strength in our shared experiences.
Angela: 2:21
Thank you for joining me today on my Main Birth, and remember to take care of yourself and each other and, as always, let's keep the conversation going. You can always message me over on social media. You can find me on Facebook or Instagram at my Main Birth. Today's birth story guest is Julia, and she shares her story of an emergency cesarean after multiple attempts at inversions to turn her son, who was breached. Hi Julia, Welcome to my Main Birth. Hello, To get started, do you want to share a little bit about you and your family?
Julia: 2:58
Oh sure, so I'm a Maine native, actually. I grew up in Tennant's Harbor and my husband, though he's actually from Albania. We met when I was studying abroad in Italy back in like 2010. He was working and living there at the time, and I brought him back here, and we've been married for over 10 years now and just decided to start a family this past year.
Angela: 3:22
I love it. So tell me about when you first found out you were pregnant and a little bit about your thoughts in choosing your care.
Julia: 3:31
Oh sure, for me it was kind of no surprise really. It was pretty textbook for me. I can, I can feel when I'm ovulating, so I kind of knew when it was time to get the ball rolling. And a week went by, you know, I missed my period and took a test and there we were. So it was pretty straightforward in that respect. Yep, and I chose to go to an obstetrician. I'm a labor and delivery nurse at Maine Med so I work with quite a few of them and so it's kind of comforting knowing everybody there, including, you know, the nurses I work with too. So there are no surprises. I know kind of like everyone's style, I guess you know in deliveries, but you know things. Obviously things didn't go exactly how we thought they would go yeah, so how was your pregnancy?
Angela: 4:24
Did you do testing or ultrasounds?
Julia: 4:28
Yep, we did all the normal tests, all the normal ultrasounds. Things were looking really good, very, very normal. You know I was very exhausted, especially in the first trimester, but that's kind of an expected thing. I wasn't too nauseous, which was great. So kind of on the opposite spectrum, I couldn't stop eating every couple hours. So but yeah, all the tests were looking good and you know it made for a fairly normal pregnancy.
Angela: 4:53
Now what happened next?
Julia: 4:55
Well we, we kind of guessed a little earlier on that he was still breech, just based off of how I was feeling. They check some Dopplers in the office, so sometimes you can kind of guess position based off of where you're finding the heart rate. And so we decided to check again and whoops, we're still still breech at 37 weeks, and we had known he'd been breached kind of leading up to it as well. So I was trying all of the different things to try to flip him around, doing all the inversions oh my gosh, so many, so many inversions trying to sleep in certain ways to encourage the turn and he just, he just didn't, he just didn't want to turn for whatever reason. And so there we were, presented with a couple choices of what to do next.
Angela: 5:52
Yeah. So what did you? What were your choices?
Julia: 5:56
Yeah. So we could have either proceeded with a primary C-section, which is just a C-section no labor, you just come in on a scheduled day and have a nice, usually calm C-section, which is something that I'm always happy to support as a nurse in labor and delivery it's amazing the variety of different births that you can experience there with people, which is really nice. Or the other option which we wound up going with is a, an external cephalic version, where you go in and the doctors either under anesthesia or not under anesthesia. The doctors then go and put their hands on your belly and actually physically try to turn the baby head down. So I had opted to try without anesthesia first, simply for the fact that if you get a spinal, it can take a while for the spinal to wear off afterwards, and I thought well, you know, if I can kind of like suck up the discomfort for a little while and they turn him successfully, I can just have some extra monitoring and then walk out. So I wouldn't have to worry about waiting to be able to like urinate in order to leave, because that's one of the side effects of getting a spinal. So that didn't work. However, and God love them. They tried so hard. They tried four times. I had a. Per my request I asked them to keep trying. I was able to tolerate it with squeezing my husband's hand.
Julia: 7:24
I don't know if you've ever seen YouTube videos of external cephalic versions. There are some of them that look very straightforward, very easy, very. You know. They just manipulate the belly so easily. This guy just didn't want to turn. So I had two grown adults just trying to really turn this guy around and he wouldn't budge.
Julia: 7:46
So that's when I decided maybe we should go ahead with the spinal anesthesia. I had read online and from actual peer-reviewed studies because I find data very empowering for myself I had read that spinal anesthesia can actually improve chances of success because it can relax your abdominal muscles a little more. So that was kind of my thinking and I wanted to make sure that we had tried everything to turn him before where I. What I thought would happen if he didn't would be to like walk out and schedule a C-section for later. So we went to the OR. A couple hours later I got my spinal and it was actually a combined spinal epidural. They gave me about half the normal dose of a spinal so that it could wear off quicker, regardless of the outcome. But they left an epidural catheter in there just in case things would proceed to a c-section then, and there they could bolus it with extra pain medication.
Julia: 8:46
And it's a good thing they did, because ultimately what wound up happening was that his heart rate dipped. It dipped once but came back up during one attempt, which I've read also can happen. So we weren't too concerned about it. But the second time they attempted his heart rate went down and it stayed down.
Julia: 9:06
And so you know my obstetrician is looking at me like I think we have to meet him today. So good thing I'd put the car seat in that day too, because trying to do that after a few sleep deprived nights in a hospital, I think just would have put me over the edge. But so about probably about five minutes or less later we met our baby because his heart rate was just not coming up. So but the nice thing was that I would say in like under two minutes, like the NICU team was there, an emergency squad of nurses and and surgical techs were there, getting the ball rolling really quickly. So so it felt actually quite comforting that not only did I know everybody pretty much in the operating room, but things went really quick and uh and he came out looking great.
Angela: 9:57
Yeah, I bet that was comforting at least, even though it was kind of a scary situation, I bet, to know everybody around you coming in to help you.
Julia: 10:06
Sure was, Absolutely. It was nice to one of the nurses was able to take some pictures of our C-section so it kind of helped to reframe the kind of scarier parts of that day for us. You know, we can look back at those photos and and actually see like the joyous moments that were happening.
Angela: 10:26
So, yeah, yeah, because so you already had the epidural and so you were able to stay awake for that, yeah, and my husband was already in the room and the epidural worked.
Julia: 10:36
Great, I did, I did tell, I did tell my surgeon, you know, make sure you test me really good before you do anything. So and she did, and I didn't feel a thing. But so it was great, feeling like everybody had done their best for me.
Angela: 10:54
Yeah, oh my gosh, you guys all always do such an amazing job, like literally with everyone. It's incredible what you guys do just every day anyway, well, that's kind of like what.
Julia: 11:07
I guess it made it easier and harder for me Because, I don't know, I felt like each time I go into my shift as a nurse there, you know I'm always trying to help a patient achieve their goals in their labor or whatever their birth goals are. And you know that wasn't a C-section emergently, certainly wasn't, wasn't my goal. I had initially planned on just laboring mostly at home, coming in hopefully being advancedly dilated and then delivering kind of quickly without an epidural. So so really that was kind of not what I was expecting. And certainly there was quite the grieving process afterwards too.
Julia: 11:52
I felt like I hadn't, you know, I had, I had consented to a, to an emergency section if necessary, to my doctor and everyone, but I hadn't consented to the universe. It felt like I hadn't really I hadn't actually thought that that would probably happen. In fact it's pretty rare that it would happen. But you know, again, working in labor and delivery too, I do see like I do see some rare things happen. So you know, it's always in the back of my mind that hey, you know, something could happen here and it's best just to be prepared. And I was prepared. I brought colostrum with me. Like I said, I set up the car seat but I truly mentally prepared, I was not, was not ready to meet him that day, but but there we were, kind of rocketed into parenthood so quickly.
Angela: 12:44
Wow Well, so how was your immediate?
Julia: 12:47
postpartum Immediately postpartum was was great. In the hospital I felt really excited to meet my baby and obviously it was just a whirlwind of trying to get the breastfeeding on board and everything. So I really I really didn't have time in the hospital to quite process what had happened. It was just kind of like checking off the boxes, making sure that we were feeling ready and all set to go home, which by the end of, I think, the third day, we were definitely ready to head out of there. But it was more at home that things started to settle in and I started to really process what had happened and feel my feelings about it, which is kind of hard too, because I feel like in the hospital it seems like everybody wants to give you all the resources possible and it seems like the timing's kind of off, because when you go home, that's when you have more time to yourself, more time to your thoughts, to really think about everything that happened so immediately. That's how that went down.
Angela: 13:49
Oh my goodness, yeah right, I mean because you went in there thinking you're going to turn them and then you're going to have your vaginal birth.
Julia: 13:56
So exactly and the way that happened. The way that happened didn't necessarily feel like an empowering, the empowering birth that I wanted. You know, I guess when my patients come in and have their birth goals, you know I want I always strive to make them feel empowered about whatever decisions that they're making. But so it really felt like the decision being taken away from me kind of took away that, that power, which is a big reason why I struggled, struggled emotionally afterward. So how old is he now? He is about eight weeks, three days I think now. Yeah, so breastfeeding has been a whole other journey of itself. That's also been a challenge. He just he was born a little on the small side so he really didn't have the power to draw all the milk that he needed to. So there's been some triple feeding for the past couple months, which is also exhausting and a lot of work. But seeing him grow has been so rewarding and he's hitting his milestones so we're not really concerned at all at this point. He's doing a good job.
Angela: 15:08
Yeah, that's incredible. So now, if you were to give advice to any expecting or new parents, what would you say?
Julia: 15:19
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I think having a birth plan is great, but just recognize that things may not always go according to birth plan. Even before labor, things may come up in pregnancy that necessitate change. And you know, just really to know that, like they're not alone in their feelings, you're not. You're never alone in your feelings as as much as it feels like, especially, especially postpartum, because it can be such an isolating time for moms too. You're not alone. And you know and this is this is coming from you know a nurse too. See it all you are, you are not alone. So. And you know a nurse to see it all you are, you are not alone. So, and you know, if you're ever feeling, you're ever feeling down about it, especially if it's not getting better, you should absolutely seek help, talk to your midwife or your obstetrician. They have resources and they can hook you up with counselors who are specialized in you know postpartum depression or postpartum. You know the trauma that happens during, during labor and delivery.
Angela: 16:29
So yeah, it is a lot to process sometimes and not doing it alone is super important.
Julia: 16:37
I agree Absolutely. And talk with your friends and family too, because they they, you know the closest people in your lives can sometimes be the best support in helping you get through it yeah, well, thank you so much, julia, for sharing your story today thanks for having me. It was so wonderful. It was nice to share it actually so it's kind of like story medicine, sharing it yeah it definitely has therapeutic qualities to sharing so so I encourage everybody to share their story with whoever will listen.
Angela: 17:13
It's a good feeling and that's the end of another episode of the my main birth podcast. Thank you for joining me and listening. I hope that the stories shared here have been inspiring and informative to all of my listeners. For those who have recently experienced birth trauma yourself, I want you to know that you are not alone. I see you, I hear you and I'm here to support you.
Angela: 17:39
In addition to my weekly podcast and my adventures across Maine as a doula and birth photographer, I offer a virtual service designed specifically for mothers who need to process their birth stories. My birth trauma healing sessions over Zoom provide a safe and confidential space to explore your emotions, find healing and work through any lingering feelings of disappointment, fear or grief. I'm an experienced birth professional and I'm ready to listen, offer guidance and help you navigate the complexities of your birth experience. If you're interested in scheduling a birth trauma healing session, visit my website, mymainphotocom to learn more and to book your session. Remember your story matters and I'm here to learn more and to book your session. Remember your story matters and I'm here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can heal, grow and find strength in our shared experiences. Thank you for joining me today on my Main Birth and remember to take care of yourself and each other. And, as always, let's keep the conversation going. You can always message me over on social media. You can find me on Facebook or Instagram at MyMainBirth.