The midwives decided it was best to go into the hospital. We called an ambulance because I was a bit 'messy' as you can imagine. It, actually, was quite comical. The ambulance arrived in a hurry and I simply walked outside to get in and they wondered "Where is the lady who gave birth?" I replied, "Here I am." They were a bit shocked because I was totally normal and perhaps even a bit annoyed at having to go to the hospital. Mike got in with me and we headed over to United. We chatted with the emergency guys along the way.
The three midwives and my Mom packed up Jude and headed over to the hospital in cars and met us there. It was turning into a mini adventure.
Well, the rest of the afternoon was quite busy. The doctors quickly determined that my placenta was not going to come out on its own - I would have to have it surgically removed. I am not going to lie, I had more pain when the docs were trying to get the placenta out than when I was in labor! The doctors had to manually remove it; no cutting etc. was done - thank God.
Surgery went fine and around 3pm I was done with everything and in recovery mode. We stayed at the hospital for the next 2 days since I had lost a significant amount of blood in the process. We are thankful that the Lord was watching over us as there was some danger involved, albeit somewhat routine.
I must say, I would not change anything at all about the entire experience... except the placenta problem, of course. I am bummed that I won't be able to have another homebirth. There is a 90% chance that the placenta would not naturally extract from the uteran wall again, so to be safe we will have all the rest of our babies in the hospital. At the same time, the Lord was SO present in everything and for that I am grateful. There certainly were moments that were more scary (I lost a bit of blood), but in those times there was a special grace present. Even going to the hospital, I was able to be lighthearted, have patience with doc/nurses, and I was able to trust in God's providence the whole time. Thank you Lord for a healthy baby and your protection over the entire experience!
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing your story. I've known Annamarie since our oldest sons were teeny.
Both my sons were born at home (Kim was one of my midwives for my first birth) but needed to transfer to the NICU due to breathing issues, where they stayed for 7 and 3 days respectively. I probably won't birth at home next time even though to prevent another transfer, although there is no way to know if it would happen again and the hospital probably couldn't prevent anything.
Anyway, I know what it's like to have a great homebirth, then be stuck in the hospital afterwards. A lot of my friends give birth at home and I get Facebook group requests for "1 million babies born safely at home" and whatnot and it makes me sad that I can't seem to just give birth and stay home with a healthy, nursing baby.
Congratulations on the birth of your son!
Sorry, that 2nd paragraph got mangled. It should say:
Both my sons were born at home (Kim was one of my midwives for my first birth) but needed to transfer to the NICU due to breathing issues, where they stayed for 7 and 3 days respectively. I probably won't birth at home next time although there is no way to know if it would happen again and the hospital probably couldn't prevent anything.
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