Join us tomorrow on my doulas podcast as Clare shares her birth story. Clear was in the middle of parent teacher conferences when her contractions started. She went home and continued her conferences virtually for about an hour and a half before she was no longer able to ignore her contractions. Claire's Doula came over, her parents came over to watch her little ones and it seemed like everything was moving forward. And then everything slow down. After spending the next week in prodromal labor oh, Claire developed a pounding headache and went to the hospital with concerns of preeclampsia.

While she had not developed pre-eclampsia, she still advocated for herself to stay in the hospital and be induced. Clare was 2 cm dilated and they had a plan to start with a cervical ripener. The on-call OBGYN, however, suggested that they start pitocin right away. Immediately contractions were strong and Clare was shaking as she worked through them. She was sure she had made significant progress. At her next cervical check Clare was still 2 centimeters dilated.

A few hours later Clare went to the bathroom and her water broke! She had another cervical check and she had dilated to 7 centimeters! During the cervical check, Claire's nurse thought that her bag of waters may have folded over on itself and the decision was made to try and break her waters further. Clare’s nurse attempted to break her water and then an OB residents decided to try. The Resident was extremely rough and Clare had to tell her to stop. The resident rolled her eyes and asked to try again. Clare again told her to stop. She rolled her eyes, snapped off her gloves and left the room.

Clear felt defeated, distraught, and embarrassed. She labored on pitocin for a few more hours and at her next cervical check she was told she was 4 cm dilated. Exhausted, and frustrated, Clare received an epidural in the hopes to get some rest. Clare had a little bit of relief but was still feeling all of her contractions. During a position change her baby's heart rate decelerated and the room was filled with medical professionals. After what seemed like forever, they got Clare into a position where her baby's heart rate had stabilized. She sat in Throne position while a strange calm came over the room. She spoke with her Doula and said that she didn't feel she couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only a few moments later, Clare felt the urge to push!

Listen as Clare shares how she advocated for herself by having someone removed from her birth team, and more.


Notes from the show

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth - *As a member of amazon associates, we may recieve a portion of proceeds when you purchase from this link.
https://amzn.to/3EUkwe1

*As a member of amazon associates, we may recieve a portion of proceeds when you purchase from this link.