Interventions
I’m still working on putting down Lucia’s birth story. It’s difficult; I can’t seem to think about it without crying. But I want to record and share some of the details in the meantime, in bits and pieces, before they start getting foggier than they already are.
Andrew and I created a basic “birth plan” that we gave to Kaiser (our HMO) several weeks ago. The plan detailed things like what pain management strategies we wanted to use, whether Andrew wanted to cut the cord, etc. The gist of our “birth plan” was this: Natural birth, no interventions.
From the moment we arrived at the hospital, however, the interventions began. In triage, Lucia’s heart rate occasionally decelerated, and so from that point things changed. Here is a list, in roughly chronological order, of the interventions I underwent to bring Lucia into the world. Anything that attached to my body was cumulative—they didn’t remove one wire to make room for another. I was in labor for approximately 24 hours, 18 of them without any drugs.
• Fetal monitoring, hooked up to a stationary monitor
• Blood pressure cuff on my right arm that intermittently inflated
• Blood pressure thing on my left index finger
• IV catheter in my left hand, first with nothing, then to hydrate me
• The midwife broke my water to move things along
• Oxygen mask
• Dose of fentenyl (sp? A pain relief narcotic that did nothing whatsoever for me)
• Epidural
• Pitocin (just 20 seconds’ worth)
• Catheter
• Fetal scalp monitor
• Episiotomy
• Vacuum-assisted delivery
• Another catheter
Even today, a week after the birth, I’m still finding small bruises and bits of leftover glue on my body from where the needles and wires were attached.
Andrew and I created a basic “birth plan” that we gave to Kaiser (our HMO) several weeks ago. The plan detailed things like what pain management strategies we wanted to use, whether Andrew wanted to cut the cord, etc. The gist of our “birth plan” was this: Natural birth, no interventions.
From the moment we arrived at the hospital, however, the interventions began. In triage, Lucia’s heart rate occasionally decelerated, and so from that point things changed. Here is a list, in roughly chronological order, of the interventions I underwent to bring Lucia into the world. Anything that attached to my body was cumulative—they didn’t remove one wire to make room for another. I was in labor for approximately 24 hours, 18 of them without any drugs.
• Fetal monitoring, hooked up to a stationary monitor
• Blood pressure cuff on my right arm that intermittently inflated
• Blood pressure thing on my left index finger
• IV catheter in my left hand, first with nothing, then to hydrate me
• The midwife broke my water to move things along
• Oxygen mask
• Dose of fentenyl (sp? A pain relief narcotic that did nothing whatsoever for me)
• Epidural
• Pitocin (just 20 seconds’ worth)
• Catheter
• Fetal scalp monitor
• Episiotomy
• Vacuum-assisted delivery
• Another catheter
Even today, a week after the birth, I’m still finding small bruises and bits of leftover glue on my body from where the needles and wires were attached.
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