born March 8, 2008 at Tampa General Hospital, told
by Melanie:
This
was my first pregnancy and my husband and I were
surprised to be having twins! Identical girls was
at first a scary thought since this pregnancy was
not at all planned but we soon grew to be very excited!
I planned to have a completely natural birth and
all along was discouraged by each of the doctors
in the USF physicians group. They said things like
"don't try to be a hero" and "why
would you do that to yourself?" And when I
mentioned how opposed I was to a c-section, one
of the group's midwives mentioned that I would change
my mind if I had seen as many "dead babies"
as she has seen. I was horrified as was my husband
but we were uneducated in childbirth (we took the
hospital course on childbirth which basically discussed
epidurals and c-sections). We were also completely
convinced by the doctors that since I was having
twins it was extremely high risk and because of
this we completely entrusted them with each decision
along the way.
I had a completely healthy pregnancy
with no complications at all and had a doctor appointment
when I was just shy of 38 weeks. My blood pressure
was elevated so they sent me across the street to
Tampa General Hospital to be monitored. My husband
met me there and a cervical check was done by one
of the doctors. It was more painful than any exam
I had ever had performed on me. Moments later I
went to the bathroom and my water broke (we suspect
the doctor caused this). This started the cycle
of intervention. Oh and my blood pressure returned
to normal in a few minutes.
My water had broken at 4:30 pm on
Thursday afternoon and I was immediately placed
on Pitocin. I was not dilating and was strapped
to several monitors. I asked if I could walk around
because I had read this would help. I was then told
I would need to stay in bed since my water had broken
instead of leaking all over the hospital floors.
Embarrassed I complied and continued to lay there.
Still no progress and Friday morning came. Still
not dilating on Pitocin but I was still holding
out on the epidural. Friday night arrived and the
doctor came to inform us that he "had"
to insert an internal fetal monitor because it was
more accurate. We trusted. This was extremely painful
and I was never informed of the risks of the actual
procedure that was being performed. I also never
asked, again, I was trusting. I thrashed and screamed
and bled. The doctor stood there and said "women
usually have an epidural in place when I do this."
He then said he would give us a couple of minutes
before he tried again. I was terrified and called
for the epidural. The cycle of interventions was
continuing. I had the epidural inserted on Friday
night along with the internal fetal monitor.
Saturday arrived and there were still
no babies and I was still not completely dilated.
By Saturday afternoon around 5pm, I had finally
dilated fully and they began to wheel us in to the
operating room (standard procedure with twins at
TGH). We arrived in the operating room and I was
lifted onto the table and directed to push. I felt
nothing. The doctor stood straight up and said "this
baby is not coming out!" It had been 50 hours
of laying in the hospital with no food or drink
and only ice chips....I was exhausted but still
couldn't understand why my body was failing. I felt
that I was a terrible mom and accepted a cesarean.
I saw no other option. I lay there on the table
and waited through all the pulling and tugging and
pressure for a baby to cry. I heard it and then
around the curtain I saw a baby, naked, blue and
screaming with arms and legs outstretched. It lasted
a second and she was gone. Then a minute later I
saw my other daughter exactly the same way and again
only for a second. They were gone and my husband
went with them (I wanted him to stay with them).
I continued to lay there while the finished me up.
About one hour later we were all reunited to attempt
to bond. I didn't know what to feel. I was happy
they had arrived healthy but sad that it wasn't
the birth I had hoped for. Annabelle was born at
6 pounds 14 ounces and 20 inches and Abigail was
7 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches. They were born at
5:57pm and 5:58pm.....just in time for the shift
change and the doctor could go home on time. We
all went home together 3 days later!
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(note: see also Caroline
Leigh for this mother's VBAC story)
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