The Bradley Method

I met Megan and her husband a few years ago at wedding. They are such a fun couple. She is a teacher so you know homegirl and I have a ton in common. Her birth story is such an excellent example of how being informed can help you make the best decision for you and your baby. She planned on using the Bradley Method, but was also prepared to be flexible if needed. Good thing, to! 

Charlie and  I had been married for 4 ½ years when we began talking about starting a family.  Our 5 year anniversary was in August and we decided we would like to get pregnant sometime between August and November.  I’m a teacher so we thought it would be the perfect plan since I would be pregnant for the entire school year then have the baby at the end of the year and have the entire summer.  We began talking about when we thought we should start trying in February 2014.  What we didn’t know was that I was already pregnant!  I found out I was pregnant in March after taking 4 pregnancy tests…I was convinced the first 2 had to be wrong; they weren’t.  My entire pregnancy was picture perfect.  I felt great the entire time, was rarely tired, never sick and had no stretch marks. 

Charlie and I decided we wanted to take the 12 week Bradley course for natural childbirth.  I always knew I wanted to have a natural childbirth despite not being opposed to epidurals or pain medicine.  I can totally understand the need for an epidural.  The reason I wanted to have a natural, un-medicated childbirth was for my own sake.  I didn’t want to go through life and say I never even tried.  If it was more than I could bare then I would know next time but I wanted to do everything I could to at least try it un-medicated.  Everyone tells you that you can somewhat know what to expect in pregnancy and labor based on how your own mother’s.  Knowing that with my older brother my mom’s plan went from a natural childbirth (yes, my mom took Bradley too) to an emergency C-section, guided our decision to go to a hospital rather than a birthing center for our first baby.

We went for our maternity pictures Sunday, October 19^th, attended our last Bradley class Monday, October 20^th and I sat down to make a final “get ready for baby” to-do list on Tuesday.  I had been feeling great but feeling very pregnant and with 2 more weeks to go.  At my 36 week prenatal appointment I was ½ cm dilated and 50% effaced and measuring 1 week ahead of schedule so I knew to expect the baby to come early.  Wednesday morning I woke up not feeling myself.  I had menstrual-like cramps and just felt crappy overall.  I was in the middle of completing my report cards and holding 1^st quarter conferences so feeling “off” kind of sent me in to a little bit of a panic mode.  I had felt so good up to that morning, I knew something might be happening.  I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions consistently for months now and they were usually pretty strong.  I took advantage of it by practicing breathing and relaxing through a contraction.  The difference was on Wednesday, every time I had a Braxton hicks I would feel a sharp pain.  My maternity sub came in that day to observe and I introduced her to the class (thankfully) and also let her know that the baby might come early so be prepared to be called in.  After school that day I stayed late to finish report cards and leave a few notes just in case I didn’t come in the next day.  I then went to Target to buy a nursing cami, as well as stopped at the local fire department to have the new car seat checked. 

Later that night I was talking to a friend on the phone and she reassured me the cramps were normal and her baby came a week after she had them.  That put me at ease knowing I probably would have a week but I need to finish my to-do list…oh and pack!  I arrived home around 7:45pm and sat down to eat some dinner.  Right as I took a bite of my garlic toast I felt and heard a pop, then felt a gush.  I rushed to the bathroom to experience what felt like a never ending pee to discover my water had broken and instead of a week, I had an hour and a half.  This was at 8:15pm. 

I called Charlie into the bathroom and told him what was going on but still felt very unsure about the whole thing.  My water broke so now what?  I headed upstairs to pack my bag and that’s when the contractions started.  I had fully prepared to relax through contraction pain in my stomach or my back.  I was not expecting to feel the sensation in my hips!  My contractions were never painful but instead felt like an intense ache.  The only position that was really comfortable was to bend over the bed and sway my hips.  After a few minutes Charlie came up to check on me and ended up packing for me.  Every time I had a contraction, water would gush out and to save our brand new carpet I had to just stand over a pile of folded towels.  At this point my contractions were around 7-10 minutes apart and were lasting 60-90 seconds.  I managed to get on the bed with the laptop and send out a few emails to notify my principal, class and sub that I would not be there tomorrow and that I would be canceling my remaining conferences.  We had previously decided that we would labor at home until my contractions were consistently 3-4 minutes apart and lasting 75-90 seconds long. So, I decided to get into a relaxing position on the bed and turn on the music I had prepared and continue laboring at home.

I set the laptop down and moved onto my side and turned on the relaxing music.  As soon as the next contraction started I quickly realized lying on my side was NOT going to work and my “relaxing” music sounded like a screeching bird (even though it was a waterfall).  The Bradley course provided me with a bag full of tricks for how to relax while laboring so I started to try out different things. 

At 10:30 I was having a difficult time relaxing through the contractions because of where I was feeling them.  I decided to take a warm bath.  My contractions were consistent so I knew the bath wouldn’t slow things down.  Unfortunately, the bath did not help relax me and by the time I got out of the tub my contractions were lasting around 1 ½ -2 minutes and were roughly 5 minutes apart.  I managed to make it to the bed to lay down on some towels to continue laboring.  I apparently fell asleep after that and would wake up for a contraction and fall back asleep.  Charlie prepped the car and came to bed at some point to rest.  At around 11:45 I woke us both up by grunting loudly with a fairly strong contraction.  I thought I would have control over any noises that I would make during labor…you don’t!  Charlie told me to tell him when the contraction stopped and it never did.  At this point my contractions were double peaking.  Charlie came around to my side of the bed and decided it was time to go to the hospital and tried getting me out of the bed.  At midnight my body started pushing.  Again, you have absolutely no control over this!  I managed to slide out of bed but still bent over because not only were my contractions not really stopping but every few minutes my body would start pushing.  As I look back, I’m sure it was rather comical to see but every time I would squat and push Charlie would try pulling on my pants (remember, I had taken a bath early so I was still undressed).  This was quite a process to get me dressed.  Looking back I should have just grabbed a robe and moved on.  The most humorous thing that I remember is Charlie giving me a pair of flats and I kept saying “no, the blue sandals” and him responding “we don’t have time to be picky!”  I finally got downstairs and in the car at around 1:00AM. 

Charlie did a great job driving.  He didn’t speed until we were almost there and he thought he was going to have to pull over to deliver the baby himself. He tried his best to avoid the numerous pot holes on Providence Rd as we headed to Presbyterian Main.  Most of the drive is a little blurry to me except for when a fire truck decided it needed to respond to a call right as we drove past and almost hit us.  When we arrived at the hospital at around 1:25AM my body was still pushing with most of the contractions.  It took a while for me to get upstairs to the labor and delivery floor.  We walked through the doors and started moving towards the nurse’s station to check in when I dropped to a squat and started pushing.  Charlie picked me up and yelled for a nurse.  Several came running and placed me in a wheel chair and rolled me into the nearest triage room.  The nurses kept telling me to relax and stop pushing and were definitely acting like I was dramatizing the situation.  This was until they checked me and I was 10cm!  They immediately went into action mode and stripped me down, placed me in a gown and rolled me down to delivery. 

If I could tell first time moms one thing about the hospital is to expect the fetal monitoring strap to be tight!  I was not expecting this and it was very uncomfortable.  I’ve heard so much about Presbyterian’s quiet and intimate atmosphere.  Unfortunately, if you come in at 10cm and pushing, you end up with all of the lights on and 8 nurses in your room with you.  I began pushing at 1:50am.  The most surprising thing was that I thought I would feel my contractions to know when to push and I couldn’t.  I ended up just pushing when I had rested and felt up to it again.  My final push was at 2:20am and I watched (yes, without a mirror I could see everything happening) the face of my baby girl come out…blue!  Elise had flipped to posterior and wrapped the cord around her neck 4 times.  Unfortunately that meant that the cord was immediately cut and she was given to the nurses to make sure she was breathing and had appropriate responses. After a couple of minutes Elise was 100% fine and Charlie brought her to me.

One particular point that we are glad we stuck to our guns about…not using any medications. I believe that if we had even accepted an epidural that Elise wouldn’t have responded the way she did after she was born. Her cord being wrapped around her neck so many times had kept her from getting enough oxygen during birth and immediately after. Her O2 stats were extremely low and she was a little sluggish to respond at first. After just a couple of minutes though she picked right up and all was well. If she would have had any residual or transferred medications in her body she probably wouldn’t have responded the way she did and been taken to NICU.  Also, being educated and having a definite plan in what you want is key.  If I couldn’t manage anything else, being aware of what was happening was crucial to me.  I didn’t want to put the responsibility on Charlie to be aware of every little thing because I was “zoned out and relaxed.”  Being aware of what was happening prevented several things from happening that I did not want nor need such as an IV and an episiotomy.

I’m really glad that Charlie was involved in the entire birthing experience and attended the Bradley classes with me.  Everything we had learned went completely out the window as soon as I went into labor and I really depended on him to remind me of what we had learned.  Overall it was an exhilarating experience and ended with a beautiful 5lbs, 20.5 inches long baby girl and it only took 6 hours and 5 minutes!  Next baby, I’m going to make sure I’m packed and prepared for it to happen fast.