aww waterbirths..one of my fave topics. I have done it both ways: #1 was pure hospital/dr led. OB didn't abide by any of my wishes.
He was VERY into inducing moms. I kept telling him "I want to go natural.. I don't want to be induced" and he kept saying "trust me you don't want to go natural" I was young and first pregnancy - so finally he convinced me to be induced. I think pitocin should qualify as torture drug lol. OMG it was soooo awful. And with the internal monitor and iv's and thing and I felt so confined to the bed. I never cussed so much in my life. I had some stadol which only served to knock me out between ctx..so that it felt like one ctx after another. Finally the pain was so bad I said "I can't take it anymore" and got an epi which I have absolutely NO recollection of. Well as it often goes, immediately after my epi they realized I was 10cm and my child was born no more than 30 min later (and probably 10 min of that was waiting for dr to arrive as she was crowing..man that felt like an eternity!)
ok so fast forward to #2 - I KNEW I didn't want a repeat of #1! It was only a year later and very fresh in my mind. Sooo I started checking into midwives and that is when I discovered home waterbirthing. It was indeed an amazing difference. Of course the major thing is she did not push me to induce... and yes I was a few days late...but my body did it's "thang" and went into labor on a Saturday evening. By lunch time the next day I was holding my baby... all with a WHOLE lot less cussing lol. This time was so much different. For one - I had a BREAK between ctx where I could feel good, laugh, relax. Seriously we were telling jokes between ctx right up to transition. So here I am in the birthing pool, almost in a leapfrog type position, leaning over the edge, gently bouncing up and down during ctx, focusing on my inner self. It was actually SUCH an overwhelming experience that I began to cry, just out of "wow I KNEW I could do this" types of feelings. My midwife whispered to my husband she felt I was in transition due to the hormonal changes lol..and she was right. Close to that time she wanted me to go potty to empty my bladder and I'd say that was the hardest part as I had ctx along the way and while using the potty. That is the part where mabye a few cuss words slipped in lol. But then I got back to the wonderful tub..and gave birth. We got the cord cut and one midwife took my daughter after holding her for a few moments to dry her and attend to her while I birthed the placenta (I have NO recollection from my first birth of birthing the placenta!) Then we all snuggled on the bed while midwife checked me, did all the measuring and things, and I quickly was able to begin breastfeeding my daughter. I would definitely do it all again.
Now the dilemma: I will graduate nursing school in May. Would love to find a low intervention L&D to help moms with a waterbirth or even non-induction type experiences. But of course those are few and far between.
When I did L&D clinical pretty much everyone was on pitocin. I of course know it's useful when there is a medical need..but my insides tell me that it is often used for a doctors convenience to schedule deliveries during day time hours... same thing happened to my best friend, I tried to talk her out of induction. But the dr. took advantage of "Im tired of being pregnant" and she was convince no prob..she was getting an epidural. After she told me "no one told me it could still HURT"
I'm an old fashioned kind of birthing gal I guess lol... and I just cringe at how much the medical field messes with the birhts... first inducing before really ready, then the mom is so hooked up to stuff she doesn't progress, she isn't being up and doing things to help the baby move down because she hurts and just wants to be in bed, or because she is limited in mobility (I have heard of some hospitals using a tele monitor for fetal monitoring) Then we end up with vacuum, forcep, or csections. I also feel from what i have learned about pit that it puts so much responsibility on the nurse, because of so many potential complications that the nurse must be SUPER diligent to closely monitor this drug and be ready to react (as well she should at any birth, but to me this inc. the chance of a problem)
of course when I do clinicals its 5pt:2 nurses. So the nurses have no time to really help the pt during this awful pain. I think coaching made a HUGE difference in my 2nd birth where I was constantly attended by 2 midwives who gave me relaxation techniques to use and reminded me to breathe during ctx.
My first day in clinical was with a 17y old who was literally thrashing in bed. Her mom was telling her to "behave" ugh. I felt like I was able to get in there, gain her trust, and help her use some of the techniques I was taught. She calmed down a GREAT amount. But of course I stayed by her side the entire time (actually was very fast, about 1.5 hrs) her epi did not arrive before time to push, and by this time I felt like she was trusting me and I wanted to stay by her side. Of course I got in trouble with my teacher for not doing all my paperwork recording the ctx patterns every 15m and documenting very well lol. I just wanted to hand hold this young girl through so much pain lol. So I just feel like maybe I wouldn't be such a hot L&D nurse in the current medical model. I dunno..I have very torn feelings on it all. I'm considering maybe a focus on postpartum and newborn, and lactation nursing.
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