first-time mom, no med, vaginal twin birth

oops. use one below.

 

oops. use one below.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Jude Rose:
I color-coded transition on for those who may just want to skip to the actual birth part. Hope my story can help other twin mamas!
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So this is how I created my first-time mother, drug-free vaginal twin birth.

I guess it starts with my pre-natals. I understand and even accept that twin births can simply go the wrong direction in a very short amount of time. Once I found out at 20 wks I was having twins, I chose to give up my homebirth plans and deal with the medical world.
I guess my attitude was, if it ain’t broke, don’t touch me. The nearest hospital to me only does c-sections for twins, so we went an extra 40 minutes away to one that would be open to vaginal delivery. I was recommended a doc who also has experience and was willing to deliver the second twin vaginally even if breech.

We got along alright, but everytime I saw him, he brought up an epidural, even after I said the subject was no longer allowed to be discussed. I switched to another doc at 32 wks in the same clinic who had a much less Type A personality and also was willing to catch my babies in a position other than flat on my back on the skinny metal nonnegotiable OR table.

Fast forward to 35 wks, 5 days. My homebirth midwife was now my doula and advocate. We had planned to drive the 1 1/2 hrs to the hospital and check into a Comfort Suites with jacuzzi and I would labor there. She would meet us at the hospital when things were really going. But instead, my waters broke at home at 5 in the morning. Jacuzzi plans were gone.
Instead, I just called her on the phone and we went for plan B, which was to labor at home for awhile, eat, and then get to the hospital hopefully later than sooner. I found the idea of being continually monitored and not allowed to eat offensive and wanted to delay it as long as possible.

I also was using the Hypnobabies program in hopes of having a pain-free birthing. It’s hard for me to say what parts of it worked. I know I did not have a pain-free birthing! But time was in a warp speed all day and I was very calm and fearless the whole time. The first-stage was so easy! It was as bad as kind of annoying menstrual cramps. DH and I used the Contraction Master http://www.contractionmaster.com/ and just packed and prepared. My water wouldn’t stop leaking though and it eventually started to show bloody show. That was good news that this was the real thing and would mean less interference from the docs.

The ride in the car wasn’t that great. I tried to relax and listen to my Hypnobabies tapes, but I had to keep my muscles tight for all the moving the car was doing while on my hands and knees in the back seat. I gave up and just focused through the contractions. They were getting more intense, but quickly went away.

We got to the hospital at 1:30 and were astonished to find we were at 5 cms! I lied to them about when my water broke and said 11 A.M. knowing they put you ‘on the clock’. My midwife/doula was called and showed up at 3:00. All the while, I just would look at the pretty black spruce out the window of the LDR room during a contraction and breathe through it. Even though we had progressed beyond annoying menstrual cramps to more of a seizing clamping down pain, it was easy to get through them and afterwards I’d just pick up my conversation where it left off.

Eventually I started to feel pushy. My body was doing it, not me! Midwife was surprised, but thought we should get checked and it turned out I was over 9 cms by 5:00! This is when the coolest thing happened. The L&D nurse on hand informed me she would now wheel me down to OR in the birthing bed. My jaw dropped and I said, “Really??? I fought with two different doctors over this subject!†She said, :Your doctor didn’t forbid it, did he?†I thought quickly and carefully carved my sentence, “No. He forbade doing a C-section on a birthbed. He said it was too unsafe.†(he actually said he has no problem with birthbeds, but the chance of c-section means they can;’t be used.†She relaxed and said, “oh, that would never happen. We have an OR table on standby we put you in.†I remember thanking her right after the birth saying getting the birth bed was just like Christmas.
Anyway, we get to the OR room and it’s time to push. I definitely had the urge to push with the contractions, but there were always only two at a time. It took me an awful long time to figure out how to make the most out of them. DH and my doula were amazing, especially since the L&D nurse wanted me to go into the infamous knees to your ears position for pushing. I looked at her like she was on crack and my doula, who’s helped over 1800 babies birth in their own homes, knew she had to advocate for me. She convinced L&D nurse to let me try turning over and doing some bearing down to a squat position. This helped me find the ‘sweetspot’ for pushing and some progress was made.

Unfortunately there was always this sense of urgency about the situation. Outside the OR room were about 13 staff waiting to ‘save me’ from myself and deliver my baby for me. Or, to be fair, to whisk in and save lives if an emergency arose. My doula has seen too many ‘failure to progress’ hospital interventions and would urge me to really make each push count or I would lose my birth.

Was that really true? I’m not sure. My doc said it wasn’t. He told me after that everytime he wanted to swoop in and help me along, he’d leave the room and go do something else. He even delivered another baby during that time! All I know is that DH brought his camera and there are an awful lot of pictures of men with their arms folded, standing around.

But eventually L&D nurse got impatient and brought up the ol’ knees in ears thing again. Instead, my doula and my DH each supported a leg and gave me their hand. I was to *pull*l on the hand, bearing the energy down and out. They provided tension against my legs and feet that made the pushes work. The other thing I finally surrendered to was one thing that had been bothering me all along. I had read so often in natural birth advice to never hold your breath while pushing. You should ‘breathe the baby out’ . Also that my body would push for me if I would just let it.

NOT.

Only when I started doing the work of pushing and forcing a third push off of my two contractions while holding my breath and then taking a quick one in between, did the baby descend more efficiently. Doc came in to catch. His idea of perineal support was inserting his finger in the opening and swooping it around the head. OUCH. Now that hurt! I wanted him to stop so badly I pushed that much harder to just get his finger out from an already very stretched area!
And thus Baby A, Sean Edward, was born at 6 lbs 2 oz, 19 inches. Apgar 8 then 9 at 7:13 P.M. after 2 hours of pushing.

Once Sean was out, they put him on my chest while the entourage came pouring into the room. I was told to push NOW! and said, but I don’t have any contractions yet. They didn’t care. PUSH NOW! I firmly kept my hand pressing in the new cavity where Baby A had been while my doula held her hand firmly at the base so we could keep Baby B in exactly the position he had been in. If he went transverse, everything would go south-C-section for me. Breech or vertex-no problem.
So I summoned some extra determination and just bore down. Seth Thomas was easily born 7 minutes after his brother; it was made especially easy by the fact he was a whole pound smaller, 4 lb 15 oz! Apgar 8 then 9.

The thing that surprised me was how alert I was during the whole thing. While I did mentally shut out the extra people in the room, I never went away to Laborland or even lost my ability to make calculated decisions. I’m glad because I had so many odds not in my favor allowing a twin birth to simply be a normal birth. Luckily my homework and choices for providers and a little luck from a couple of baby boys who politely kept their arms tucked in and positions ideal all came together to create the best birth I could ask for in a hospital setting with twins. And all the memory of any pain was erased within a week.

Funny last note. There was a surreal thing that happened while I was being wheeled out of the OR back to the LDR room. Right outside the door was an entire Lamaze class. Here I am, a sight after birthing, holding my two vernex covered babies in my arms, and there’s all these strangers staring at me. I was told it was a class I instantly wet into teacher mode and proclaimed, “A twin birth vaginally with no meds! You can do it!!!!!!!!It’s totally possible!!†Everyone laughed.
My husband heard the next day that another lady who birthed that evening after me used me for inspiration to get her through. Woo-hoo!

 

I have to say that is an amazing story! I am planning a homebirth for a singleton in October, and it is awesome to know that you did all you could to get your natural birth, even with twinkies. It is so hard with all the issues involving having twins, and how doctors handle it especially! It is great to see you found a doctor/hospital that was willing to let you birth your babies the way you wanted and still be there waiting patiently just in case. BRAVO MAMA!

 

YAY!!! WAY TO GO!!!! that is so funny about the lamaze class!
you are an inspiration!!

 

What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing. I just spent friday night and all day sat in a Childbirth class and was feeling very disheartened about the likelihood of a vaginal birth - you have given me new inspiration.

I also have to look into this issue of not having legs held up - every single film we saw (and there were about FIVE of them!) had the nurse and support person holding that leg up.

Good for you - enjoy your peanuts!

 

What an amazing birth story! Congrats on your babies!

 

quote:
Originally posted by Jude Rose:
quote:
Originally posted by Jude Rose:
I firmly kept my hand pressing in the new cavity where Baby A had been while my doula held her hand firmly at the base so we could keep Baby B in exactly the position he had been in. If he went transverse, everything would go south-C-section for me. Breech or vertex-no problem.




I must know more about this. How can you manually and externally keep baby b from turning once the space becomes available? My OB will let me try breech since I have delivered an 8 1/2 lbs. baby no prob. I absolutely don't want a csection unless baby is in distress. Tell me how this is done, or how I might get more info. I've never heard of this?

 

Actually, it just seemed like a common sense maneuver. My midwife and I discussed it beforehand. I had noticed in the stories of vag births turned to C/S for the second, that the problem was when baby B flipped into all the new stretched out space so we were brainstorming what we might do to help things along.

Although I had an anterior (front facing) placenta, which helped my odds of keeping Baby B wedged in place, we weren't going to take any chances.
It was easy enough to simply keep my hand firmly planted in the new empty space that was there when Baby A left. That would keep Baby B's legs from flipping over into it. And my midwife/doula kept her hand down by his head to stabilzed the space and keep it firm. I don't know if her manuever was as vital.
It was pretty obvious where that cavity was. Baby A was on the right of me and when I looked down, that part of my stomach was much different!

It was especially interesting how my uterus was still trying to adjust and I didn't feel contractions. I don't think my body would have been really ready to birth out Baby B for at least 10-15 minutes while the uterus adjusted. That would have given Baby B loads of time to move around. So it wasn;t too bad that I was pressured to get him out ASAP.

As for breech del, I wasn;t at all worried. The approach is that the doc either allows the babe to descend or he/she goes up and grabs the feet to pull it down to the birth canal. Mom pushes and then is firmly told at some point to stop pushing. This is when the body is out but the head is left. The doc then carefully supports the head and the pause allows the vagina to open and prepare. Then mom is told to push again and baby is born. It used to be done sooooooooo often and it's a shame it's become such a lost art.

In general, I'd like to say I have nothing but extreme respect for those who have had vag and C/S twin births. That must just feel like a Mac truck hit you.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Jordari:
What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing. I just spent friday night and all day sat in a Childbirth class and was feeling very disheartened about the likelihood of a vaginal birth - you have given me new inspiration.

I also have to look into this issue of not having legs held up - every single film we saw (and there were about FIVE of them!) had the nurse and support person holding that leg up.

Good for you - enjoy your peanuts!


Yeah, it's pretty stupid. Thankfully it wasn;t as bad as I thought it would be. But that's because I had two support people and the nurse had to back off. Having the birth bed was so helpful too because it cushioned my tailbone.

Honestly, twin births used to happen vaginally all the time. I used Elizabeth Noble's book Having Twins and More to inspire me. There's this pic of a woman having a homebirth. The pic is taken the very moment she realizes that it's not the placenta coming out, it's another baby! That face was burned into my mind and I just harrassed my caregivers until I found the ones who would listen and who would at least TRY to relax and let a normal birth occur. I knew it was possible.

I truly hope those who really want that kind of experience have it. It does take a little bit of luck. I will say I covered that a bit too with fervent prayers and specific requests for all angels and helpers to come in and assist!

 

Great story!!!!!

I've heard of "holding" baby B in position before. Glad it worked for you.

I had an (out-of-hospital) unmed/vag birth with my twins. Elizabeth Noble's book was also my inspiration. I agree that choice of caregiver is HUGE because it has a MAJOR effect on how the birth will be handled.

I bet you're on cloud 9. Enjoy.

Lisa