Solly, the wise baby
This will be a mostly personal technical view on childbirth in a hospital and the side effects from a non-medical knowing software engineer. Becoming a parent is a rite of passage traveled only by the unselfish lunatics that desire to care for a helpless baby for years in search of a family. The road is long with sleepless nights, but worth it for a smile from the most innocent among us.
Induction
40 weeks and 2 days was the day we decided to induce, as my wife was not dilated.
Day 1 - Cytotek
We spent the first day in bed with her taking a tablet form of Misoprostol named Cytotek taken orally in her cheek to soften my wife’s cervix overnight.
This Patient Information Sheet is for pregnant women who may receive misoprostol to soften their cervix or induce contractions to begin labor. Misoprostol is sometimes used to decrease blood loss after delivery of a baby. These uses are not approved by the FDA. No company has sent the FDA scientific proof that misoprostol is safe and effective for these uses. There can be serious side effects, including a torn uterus (womb), when misoprostol is used for labor and delivery. A torn uterus may result in severe bleeding, having the uterus removed (hysterectomy), and death of the mother or baby. These side effects are more likely in women who have had previous uterine surgery, a previous Cesarean delivery (C-section), or several previous births. [1]
Day 2 - Pitocin
After her cervix was soft, she had an IV drip of increasing dosages of Pitocin which is a type of Oxytocin, which is a hormone released that stimulates uterine contractions to speed up the process of childbirth.
Pitocin causes contractions that both peak and become stronger more quickly than naturally occurring contractions. The result is a labor that is more difficult to manage. In addition, the uterine muscle never totally relaxes between contractions, increasing stress on both the uterus and the baby. Because of the increased potential risks for the uterus and the baby, continuous electronic fetal monitoring is indicated. The fetal monitor and intravenous line make movement more difficult. The hormonal orchestration of labor is disrupted. Pitocin does not cross the blood-brain barrier; therefore, endorphins are not released in response to the increasingly strong and painful uterine contractions. [2]
Day 3 - Epidural, Acetaminophen, & Antibiotics
Because of the Pitocin contractions, the pain was too much and my wife needed an epidural. This let her dilate throughout the night without the pain of the contractions. The nurses had to come by every hour during the night to move her from right to left side sleeping.
Laboring women do not experience the benefits of endorphins as they try to manage their contractions. Additionally, without the help of endorphins, they are likely to require an epidural. The epidural alters the course of labor, prolonging the length of both first- and second-stage labor and increasing the need for the use of instruments at birth. [2]
Interestingly, epidurals aren’t correlated with C-sections
Epidural labor analgesia is not associated with increased rates of instrumented vaginal delivery for dystocia or cesarean delivery. Patients receiving epidural analgesia have longer labors. Patient satisfaction and neonatal outcome are better after epidural than parenteral opioid analgesia. [3]
Epidurals can also create a doom vortex, where it requires more Pitocin. It can also increase the temperature of the mother, which can increase the chance for complications and infection.
We found that epidural analgesia was associated with prolonged labor, an increased need for oxytocin stimulation… [4]
The epidural in conjuction with the long delivery time brought my wife’s temperature over 100.4 F, to which the nurses began treating it with both and IV of acetaminophen and antibiotics, to reduce her fever and prevent infections.
…an increased incidence of maternal fever… [4]
Strongly pushing, we almost had him out and we decided to use forceps to bring him out, after the first pull, he was out.
…and an increased number of forceps deliveries. [4]
Either because of the forceps and epidural or both, she had a 4th degree perineal tear
Epidural analgesia is associated with an increase in the rate of severe perineal trauma because of the more frequent use of operative vaginal delivery and episiotomy. [5]
Day 4 & 5 - Rest & Antibiotics
We ended up having to stay an extra 2 days after administering antibiotics to ensure my wife and baby’s health. Luckily, and by God’s will, everyone was safe at the end of the day. We were unprepared for the domino effects the treatments had, but are now more wiser going forward.
Wife notes
So first thing is, I had to be induced. My doctor reassured me no matter how long I had waited I would have had to be induced. That is something I’ll truly never know, and if/when we have another child and things go as smoothly with my pregnancy again, I am going to wait until 41 weeks next time. I waited until 40 weeks 1 day to be induced.
We went in Wednesday at 5:00 and I was given my first round of meds to hopefully soften my cervix, start dilating and trigger my water breaking. This medication you take 4 rounds of it before they try something else. Long story there is, it didn’t progress me much at all by mid day the next day. I had stronger contractions but not enough to make progress. So at 6pm on Thursday they broke my water and started me on pitocin. That’s when shit got real. Almost immediately after they broke my water I had cramps and started contractions stronger… and they increased the pitocin and they got stronger..stronger and began to feel almost unbearable. I wanted to try to go without the epidural so they offered me a pain medication. That shit was not good, it barely helped with pain and instead made me act and feel like I was high and drunk off my butt. It was not good…and the contractions only got stronger and I was like yelling in pain, it was excruciating I won’t lie. I have never in my life get such pain. They also came so fast with no breaks. THIS was ALL because of the pitocin. Normal natural contractions are not that intense and fast. We found out they put me on too much too fast… and didn’t lower it once the pain became unmanageable so I begged for the epidural. I had been going for two or so hours and felt like I was dying for real. I was delirious. Adam was freaking out. Also the night nurses were never good..they all had bad bedside manner and seemed to cut corners. I got the epidural… and it was like magic…in that the pain was gone in about ten minutes.. but.. you literally lose feeling from the waist down. Like my legs were so floppy. I did not like how that felt either to be honest, but I wasn’t in pain so it was cool. The night nurse that night was 6-7 months pregnant and had the absolute worst bedside manner, she was young. All the other nurses held my hand if I needed it or at least tried to stay when I asked.(I got really scared sometimes and holding their hands and Adam’s while I contracted helped) The epidural dulled the contractions and the night nurse and a tech had to flip my position in bed every few hours. During one of those times that they moved me(because I couldn’t move on my own) they accidentally unplugged my epidural. Oh I should also mention that the epidural caused me to spike a horribly high fever, so I had to also be put on strong antibiotics. Well about 30 minutes after that, my epidural wore off and the pain began to start again back in FULL force. At this point I still had a high fever and was sweating SO MUCH but because of the fever I was uncontrollably shaking. When we tried to tel the nurse she sort of dismissed us until I basically started screaming in pain… so she called the epidural guy back(this ended up being a different guy and he was amazing, the first epidural guy was rude to Adam) He got VERY UPSET at the nurse, which I appreciate in hindsight. He chastised her very harshly in front of us and got me hooked back up, taught Adam what to look for if something happened again, and in about 10 minutes I was pain free again. After that it was smoother because I progressed to 10cm and 100% cervix softened and it was time to push! That sucked but it wasn’t bad, I did push for 2 hours 🥴 and they used forceps to get him out. But I had him vaginally which was a win! And pushing made me feel like a champ!!! I mean it sucked and was tiring, but I did it! Buuuut I did get a 4th degree which is where you tear your perineum… so that’s not the best. BUT my doctor was able to sew and repair that great and it’s been healing awesome! I have not felt a lot of pain there where as many people do, so I’ll take that win too.
So yeah. It was a bit traumatic. I do blame the complications on some negligent nurses… and my genes 😂 My sister and mother had to be induced so.. But we found out they gave me too much pitocin too fast. So just be mindful of that if you have to be induced
- https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/misoprostol-marketed-cytotec-information
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595289/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9875879/
- https://pubs.asahq.org/anesthesiology/article/100/1/142/548/Labor-Analgesia-and-Cesarean-DeliveryAn-Individual
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10432139/