Three weeks overdue

by Belinda
(Wisconsin)

My first child was almost three weeks overdue when I went in to be induced. I got to the hospital at around 1:00 in the afternoon to start my labor. The doctor inserted my Pitocin and told us to wait. By 6:00 when absolutely nothing had happened the nurse attending to me sent my family home.

Maybe fifteen minutes after everyone had finally left I heard the woman in the room next to me start screaming. Five minutes later I was in hard labor, ready to push. I dilated really fast and was trying to push within an hour. My son was having trouble. His heart rate was very low and every time I pushed it would drop even farther. I tried to get my midwife to do something to help but all she would do is keep encouraging me to push.

By 2:00 in the morning I was getting really upset. I was still pushing but had made no progress. And my son’s heart was still in distress. That’s when a nurse stepped out and called a doctor. Half an hour later I was being wheeled into an operating room for an emergency cesarean. I was strapped to a cold table in a cold room and numbed from the shoulders down. A few minutes later I was holding my firstborn son.