90 Minute Labor! Positive, unmediated hospital (almost car) birth at 39+2 (crosspost from Babybumps)

Hi Folks! I found the birth stories on this sub amazingly helpful and reassuring, so I wanted to share my experience. Warning: for such a short labor, this is quite a long post!

This was my first baby, and the speed of the labor and birth were completely unexpected, although we knew it would probably be faster than average FTMs. I had BH contractions every day from week 20. On several occasions the BH contractions would come every 5-6 minutes, lasting for several hours. I checked in with my (hospital-based) midwives about this, and they always gave me successful tips for stopping/slowing the contractions (increasing my calcium intake helped tremendously). My 36 week checkup revealed the contractions had been productive, because I was already 1.5cm dilated and 50% effaced. Each week I was more dilated and effaced, and the midwife said she expected my labor to be shorter than average first-time deliveries. She told me to expect 6-12 hours of labor, compared to the standard 12-24 hours.

On Wednesday (39+0) I had rhythmic contractions coming every 5-6 minutes for several hours while I was at work. The felt a little more intense than my usual BH contractions, but were not painful.. My midwife advised that I go on a walk to see if they increased in intensity, but they slowed down and eventually stopped. I felt “off” all day, a little dizzy and light headed with the inability to focus on work. I also felt some period-like cramping in my lower abdomen and legs. I had a few contractions on Thursday (39+1), but nothing rhythmic.

On Friday (39+2) I worked until about 1pm, and my partner and I took the afternoon off from work. I went to Target to buy some groceries and walk laps (it was close to 100F that day). I got home around 3, and we watched Netflix while I ate half a frozen pizza and drank a whole pint of Guinness. At 5:30pm I laid down in bed, brought myself to orgasm (which triggered a contraction), and took a nap. I remember waking up several times thinking that the ‘period cramp’ sensation was getting worse. At 7pm I woke to a contraction that was more painful than anything I had felt yet. It did NOT feel like a BH contraction, but rather a warm, twisting, period-cramp-on-steroids level pain in my core. I went to the bathroom and opened my contraction app on my phone and started timing. I had another painful contraction 12 minutes later, and then they started coming every 2-4 minutes. They were getting more intense and painful, and I was having diarrhea in-between each one. I told my partner that I thought I was in labor, and that my body was cleansing itself out, so he should give me some privacy in the bathroom and also pack the car. I was feeling disoriented at the speed of the contractions. I called my midwife’s answering service and she called me back about 10 minutes later. I told her the contractions were coming every 2-4 minutes, and she almost didn’t believe me that it had only been 30 minutes since I felt the first one. She later told me that the panic in my voice followed by breathless whimpering indicated that I was in transition. She told me to drop everything and drive to the hospital immediately. I was super hesitant to leave the bathroom, because it seemed that I was losing control of my bodily functions, but I grabbed a towel and we ran out the door. Attempting to sit in the car was a terrible idea, so I got in the back and assumed an all-fours position, with my head hanging over our newly installed carseat. I felt super nauseous, but I’m proud to report that I didn’t lose any bodily fluids in the car. I did, however, start feeling the urge to push, which made me start to panic. I was moaning and groaning and asking my partner to drive faster. I remember him frantically calling his sister (she was planning to be there for the birth), and leaving messages with me screaming in the background, haha. We got to the hospital and entered through the ER. I ran into the ER bathroom while my partner checked us in. I was moaning so loudly, the lady in the next stall asked what was wrong and I said “Nothing! I’m just in labor”. She said, “Girl I been there!”. I sat down to use the bathroom and realized that squatting over the toilet was causing me to push involuntarily! I started to panic even harder. I ran out of the ER bathroom to find my partner at the registration desk. They made me initial several forms (facepalm), during which time I informed them that I was getting ready to push a baby out of my body and they needed to get me some type of bed ASAP. The dude at the counter was like “well, we ordered you a wheelchair”. My moans got louder and looked up to see everyone in the ER waiting room staring at me. The wheelchair arrived several minutes later, and I asked if it was possible to just walk myself. They said no, and so I lowered myself down, and used the foot rests to hold my whole body up off the seat since I couldn’t sit down (my baby’s head was right there!). People in the ER were congratulating me and my partner as we made our way towards the elevator, which was simultaneously totally annoying, and also strangely helped me stay focused and remember why I was there! They wheeled me to L&D triage, where the intake lady handed me a gown and a cup and asked for a urine sample. Yeah….that was definitely not possible at this point. I ran into the bathroom, and pulled my pants down when I small gush of water erupted onto the floor. I started yelling that I needed to push, and the triage lady yelled “don’t bear down”!. My partner ran into the bathroom and helped me get my clothing off. He said I looked pretty pathetic- whimpering with my pants down around my ankles. I came out and they lead me to a bed- FINALLY! And then I saw my beautiful midwife’s face. (She happened to be at the hospital for another birth, which was very lucky). I was in a bed, in the right place, facing the right person. The safety and security I felt in that moment was indescribable. She interested her hand into me and said “fully and 3” (which I guess means fully dilated and +3 station), and they wheeled me off to the delivery room. I had planned for an unmediated delivery, but in that moment I asked my midwife if it was too late for the drugs. She replied “Yep! You’re going to meet your baby in just a few minutes”. Once we got to the delivery room they had me shift my body to another bed, which was uncomfortable, but I was just so happy to be done moving locations! They quickly put a hep-lock in my arm, but it wasn’t hooked up to any fluids. My body immediately started pushing on it’s own. This part is a little blurry, but I believe that I asked for some type of resistance to help push- and they raised up the little handles on the side of the bed. I told them it “hurt so much”, and the L&D nurse to my left encouraged me to do the panting breath. That’s when I remembered the method of “breathing your baby down” in the hypnobirthing book that I read. I took a few deep breaths and pushed with each long exhale. He emerged with a huge splash of amniotic fluid after about 3 or 4 pushes. I felt his head first, and I expected to wait for the next contraction to expel his shoulders, but my body couldn’t wait and he came out all at once. My partner said it was like being at sea world, and my midwife called it a ‘baby explosion’. She later told me his hand was up by his head, so maybe this is why he came out all at once? The nurse put him on my chest and he immediately peed and started crying. I was in shock! I could not wrap my head around the speed of things. I was simultaneously feeling super lucky/grateful that my labor was so short, and slightly traumatized by the experience of launching straight into the transition phase and having to navigate a large hospital while trying to prevent my body from pushing.

I kept looking back and forth between my midwife and partners faces, thinking “did this seriously just happen”? The baby pinked up right away, and the nurse helped me pull up my sports bra so that we could snuggle skin-to-skin. That’s when I realized they had hooked me to an IV (1 bag of fluid with a little Pitocin). I delivered the placenta about 10 minutes later.

I had a 2nd degree tear, and ended up with 9 or 10 stiches. This process took longer than the birth, and was seriously uncomfortable. My partner asked to hold the baby at some point, and I said ‘No! I need him as distraction to the stiches!”. We spent a few hours in the delivery/recovery room before moving to the mother-baby ward. My partner left to move our car and pick up some dinner (fried chicken, at my request). I couldn’t sleep much on the first night because of the adrenaline.

My partner was a ROCKSTAR from start to finish. He got everything together so fast, drove us safely (but quickly) to the hospital, and remained calm and collected through the whole ordeal, which was super important because I felt completely out of control. We were SO lucky that this happened on a Friday, because he works evenings almost every other day of the week. If he had not been at home…I don’t know what I would have done. Called 911 and had an accidental home-birth, maybe. He definitely would have missed it, which would have been so sad.

I’m 10 days post-partem now, and feeling great! The stiches and pelvic pain/cramping were pretty terrible for the first few days, but I haven’t taken ibuprofen in about 2 days and I feel fine. The sits-bath has been amazing (I soak my stiches for about 10 minutes, twice a day), and I also used a lot of dermoplast numbing-spray, which is awesome. I’m feeling a lot of whole-body soreness, which I think is a sign that the adrenaline of the whole experience is wearing off. I’m also very emotional. I cry sometimes just from looking at the baby and thinking about his future, but I’m not sad.

Breast feeding is going well, all things considered, but it’s harder than I imagined. My baby likes to fall asleep while he’s eating, and it can be really tough to wake him up, or get him to re-latch if he falls off. We’re still figuring each other out.

All in all, I’m very pleased with my birth experience, and I count myself lucky for many reasons.

Thanks so much for reading! I am so grateful to each of you sharing your experiences/concerns/vulnerabilities, and for being such a supportive community. It helped me through a lot of pregnancy anxiety, and more generally made me feel like I was part of something bigger. Here is some baby tax. Love and hugs.