Brooklynn’s Story: A breech cesarean at 38+1 weeks

I guess I should start by saying Isla was a surprise pregnancy, or at least not planned!

At the age of 25 my (boyfriend at the time) now husband, Troy, and I had just moved back to Michigan after he had retired from his professional hockey career.

The news was a shock, but instantly I was all in. My world had already began to shift.

My pregnancy was pretty great now looking back! I battled a lot of nausea throughout the beginning half, but I was able to work through the days and just get sick at night.

At 28 weeks, we made our way over to Hawaii, just the three of us, and Troy and I got married on the top of a mountain. Our life as a family was just starting and we were doing it all together!

The remainder of my pregnancy was pretty non eventful. I can remember having a ton of rib pain near the end, specifically the back right rib which I would beg Troy to rub, and the front of my ribs we so tender to the touch.

I sought out a chiropractor and his funny, but true words were, “The only solution is birth!”.

I was planning on delivering at Hurley hospital in Flint MI. That’s where I was born and it felt full circle to deliver there myself.

My doctor was Dr. Moreno. He had interesting reviews, some women complaining of his bedside manner. But I thought I was pretty witty myself and they just didn’t know how to take a joke and roll with the punches.

I actually really enjoyed him during our prenatals too! Always happy and high energy.

Come 37 weeks, and I remember feeling Isla moving so much more than usual. And HARD! I actually said “Ouch!!” out loud at one point, and the next morning my whole stomach was sore to the touch.

Weird.

That week at my appointment we happened to have an ultrasound and they determined that Isla was breech.

Ok, so that explained the extreme movement.

Dr. Moreno came in and his words were, “So it looks like you’re getting a zipper! ziiiiip”.

He was telling me I needed a Csection because of Isla being breech. We didn’t talk of any possibility of delivering breech with another provider, and he mentioned quickly how painful an ECV would be and how it most likely would be unsuccessful.

So with that we picked a day for my baby to be born. The 24th of January at 39 weeks...

That number didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel like her birthday.

I was so excited to know we were going to meet our baby in just two weeks! But it was ominous feeling almost. I just was so enamored with the idea that my baby and body were going to write their own story of our birth together in the right timing. And now that was gone.

I find comfort in being prepared, so naturally I called up the women in my life who have had a Csection. I asked them to tell me step by step what would happen and what advice they had for me.

Looking back this was SO helpful! I felt like there were no surprises along the way and I could repack my hospital bag and prep our house alternatively for this procedure.

Ok well there was one surprise. My water broke.

At 38 weeks and one day on January 18th, I woke up to pee at 6am. After getting back into bed I felt like I had peed myself a little, so I made my way back to the toilet. I did this a few times, then I remebered a podcast I listened to where the women said her labor began with her water leaking.

So I stayed on the toilet and timed the leaks. About every 10-12 minutes a little tiny gush of water would fall into the toilet.

I WAS SO EXCITED! My baby and body decided to go into labor, on their own time.

I woke up my husband, who was going to be waking soon to go to work. We had our first snow storm of the year that night and he was supposed to be plowing that morning.

Change of plans and we were on our way to the hospital! We were actually told to go to McLaren in Flint, because Hurley was full.

Once I was checked in my nurse, Kristy (who has such a special place in my heart and MADE our time there so enjoyable) asked if I’d like my dilation checked for future reference. I agreed and I’m glad I did.

I was 4cm dilated! That showed me even more that my body was capable of so much. Isla was still breech however, and they even joked about having to find her heart rate through my ribs! Which now explains the soreness.

The prep for the Csection was quick and smooth. There is a lot of hustle in the OR with everyone having a specific job to do. With Troy not in the room yet, I asked for Kristy, who had quickly become my comfort in the whole process. She was rigtht there with me and that made me feel calm.

Not too much later and Troy was there in the room beside my head. I could tell he was smiling from the squint of his eyes. We couldn’t wait for this moment.

The surgery began and I could feel the justle of my body. I looked at Troy and said, “I’m going to be so sore.”

It was only about 15 minutes before excited energy filled the room and nurses started to tell me she was coming out, and then, my baby was born!

Quickly a nurse walked her beside us to the warmer, as they said they would do, and I saw my baby for the first time. My first thought was, “it’s me”. Our souls recognizing pieces of ourselves in one another. We were connected.

We asked for Troy to do skin-to-skin with Isla since I was feeling weak. So after they laid her face against mine, she found her place nestled against Troy’s chest.

I felt like I was stitched up in about 20 minutes and before I knew it, we were in a recovery area and Isla was on me.

I can still remember the scrunch of her little warm body against mine. She found my nipple and began nursing. I told Troy and the nurse excitedly, “I’ve dreamt about what this would be like!”. She made it easy on us both.

Those first exhausting days and weeks were bliss. Even in the exhaustion, Troy and I were completely in love. In love with our baby, with each other, and with our new life.

The recovery wasn’t awful but it was painful. Ice packs were consistently shoved into my pants over my scar to give some sense of numbing relief.

6 weeks later I had my check up with Dr. Moreno, and I was excited to be there, and ready to talk about contraception. I had questions about non hormonal options and had done some research prior.

In the mix of us talking back and forth, I’m sure I must have interrupted part of his montage, because I got a quick and abrupt, “shut up, shut up!”. Twice.

So maybe this was the bedside manner those other women had been referring to.

Honestly that’s the only part of my Csection experience that I look back at and I’m bothered by.

I truly loved our experience for what it was. Our daughter Isla’s birth.

I fully believe as mother’s our birth experience is only half ours. The other half is the baby’s. For whatever reason, Isla decided to flip breech. And that gave me this experience, and view on birth. And I know this lesson in her birth shaped my future experiences as well along with the lessons those taught me.

And do I dare say, may have been the first domino of the reason why I became a doula.

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