Birth Story: Quick, Smooth Pitocin Induction

 Hilary is a friend of mine from high school who recently welcomed her first son into the world. I am so glad she took the time to share her birth story here with us and with all of you! Congratulations Hilary and Joe, and Happy Birthday baby Cole!

-The Birth of Cole Porter-

"Starting around 35.5-36 weeks I started having high blood pressure issues. My blood pressure would be so high that the machine wouldn't even be able to register it. I was put on some blood pressure medicine and would go in weekly for non-stress tests to monitor baby. The medicine helped my blood pressure go down to an almost normal level, and I felt so much better overall while on the medication. At my 38-week appointment my blood pressure had creeped back up to a high level even with the medicine. My midwife mentioned that with my blood pressure still rising despite the medicine that it would be beneficial to schedule an induction for safety of baby and me. So, it was set that I would be admitted to the hospital at 7:30am on 11/7/11 for my induction. She did an internal to see what our starting point was before the weekend, and I wasn't dilated or effaced at all.

Sunday evening we packed my hospital bag and the baby's hospital bag and went to bed early. I woke up around 1AM Monday morning with some cramps that seemed to come and go. I tried timing them, but I was tired and knew I would be going to the hospital soon enough anyways so I just tried to get some more rest. We woke up early, showered, ate breakfast, and headed out the door. I got admitted into the hospital and my Dr. came up to talk to me about the different induction options (Cervadil, and the Foley Bulb). She checked me and I was 1cm and 75% effaced, and mentioned that with the contractions early in the morning and being dilated I could just start with Pitocin. At 9:30am the Pitocin was started and I was on my way to having my baby.

The contractions weren't as bad as I though they were going to be. Even though I had to be hooked up to monitors I was able to move around a bit, and that helped a lot. Soon enough they were getting stronger and closer together. I kept asking the nurses for something in my IV to help take the edge off, but I had to get checked by my Dr. first. At 12:30pm my Dr. came to check my progress and I was dilated 6cm, she mentioned that if I wanted any medication that I needed to go ahead and get it now since I was moving along so quickly. Due to having contractions starting at 1am and not getting much sleep I opted to get an intrathecal to help me relax and get some rest before pushing. With the intrathecal I was still able to feel the pressure and was able to get up and walk around when I needed to. By about 2:10pm the pressure was just too much for me to handle so I paged the Dr. to let her know. I was checked and she said I was a solid 10+ and was ready to push. We started pushing, my water finally broke and there was meconium in the fluid so the baby's pediatrician was called to the hospital to be there for the baby.

After about a 1/2 hour of pushing our baby boy finally came into the world at 2:44pm.

Hilary, Joe, and Baby Cole Porter!

He weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. Cole was born a perfectly healthy and happy baby. He latched on and nursed like a champ right away. We absolutely love and adore him!"