Another midwife visit.

[rivka]

I can't believe that I'm still pregnant after 10 days of prelabor.

Yesterday the cramping and the sharp pains around my cervix were so uncomfortable that they almost had me crying. Today I'm feeling a bit better, physically - well enough that I took a walk around the block - but I'm very discouraged.

At today's visit I was 3.5cm dilated and 60% effaced - barely changed from a week ago. She stripped the membranes, with my permission. It really didn't hurt any more than a regular pelvic exam. Hopefully that will do something, but I'm not feeling especially optimistic right now.

We talked about things I could do to speed labor along. My midwives really don't recommend castor oil, but she did suggest that I start black & blue cohosh - 10-15 drops each in a little water, every 30 minutes until contractions are regular (or for four hours, if contractions don't start). I'll try that in the morning. I'm also going to continue with the evening primrose oil. She recommended sex, spicy food, nipple stimulation, crying, and yelling at curiousangel. (I'm pretty sure the last two were jokes.)

At 41 weeks - so, this weekend - they want me to go in for a nonstress test. She told me to bring my suitcase, because if the baby's in distress I won't be going home again, but also said that there's no reason to believe that the baby will be in trouble. Because of the situation with my hip, after 41 weeks they're willing to go any direction I want to go - waiting, or induction, or scheduling a C-section. If I wait, they'll do a biophysical profile between 41 and 42 weeks, and then after 42 weeks they would want to see me three times a week to monitor the baby's condition.

We talked the most about a Cervidil induction. She said that even though it's primarily a cervical ripening agent, when the cervix is already ripe it usually brings on contractions. (She said it works that way for about 75% of the women in their practice.) The big advantage of Cervidil would be that it could be removed if the contractions got strong, and that it wouldn't necessarily lead to the cascade of interventions you can get with a Pitocin induction. I would have to stay in bed and not eat anything for the first two hours, but after that I could move around, get in the tub, go home if it doesn't work, etc. I wouldn't need an IV or continuous fetal monitoring.

I don't think we're willing to try a Pitocin induction unless the baby is in distress. It just seems like there are too many downsides.

A friend recommended that, if I turn out to need a Pitocin induction, I consider just scheduling a C-section instead. She pointed out that the only thing worse than a C-section is a long hard labor ending with a C-section, and that I've already been told I have a greater than 50% risk of section anyway. I am not convinced, but I'm sitting with the idea to kind of get used to it.

I'm having some cramping now from the internal exam. I wish that at this point I believed that cramping *meant* anything.

Comments

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Ugh. This really is an *awfully* long time to be so *very* pregnant.

Hey! Critter! Get out here, your mom wants to meet you!

-J

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I know this part is really hard. (My first was two and a half weeks past due, ending with a Pitocin induction.) Hang in there.

[lcohen]

*hugs and comforting foot rubs*

[eeyorerin]

I keep thinking "Maybe today's the day for Rivka!" or "Gee, I wonder if the Lil'Critter has made her appearance yet?" when I skim my reading list. I'm sorry that it hasn't happened yet. It sounds frustrating and disappointing and demoralizing and very uncomfortable.

(Well, the day is young. Maybe today could be the day. I will hope really hard.)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

You've done such a good job of making us believe it will never happen that when you finally deliver, none of us are going to believe it!

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Hey, they all do come out eventually. Tell her that no all hope is lost, the elections around here have gone rather swimmingly, it's not such a completely hopeless world to be born into.

[pameladean]

You can so embarrass her with this story when she's twelve. Only you probably don't want to. I'm so sorry things are hanging and hanging, like Sisyphus, only on the inside.

P.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

How disheartening! May you go into labor soon soon soon!

[melebeth]

Pitocin induction can end up being _very_ unpleasant, according to my two friends who recently had one.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

An A-MEN to the suggestion about avoiding Pitocin at all costs.

A friend who had it described it as a 20-minute contraction compressed into 20 seconds.

[redbird]

*hug*

[perceval.livejournal.com]

It's hard to get mentally ready for a Cesarean birth. I've had to because of a large fibroid that might end up blocking my cervix. Of the usual pregnancy books, I found that What to Expect (AKA Ask Your Doctor for Permission to Breathe) has the best C-Birth coverage, and Birthing from Within has some good tips for positively reframing Cesarean birth (i.e. by calling it birth instead of section).

Here's hoping that baby will come out eventually. Nipple stimulation worked for a friend of mine who was stuck in pre-labour, and herbal bath tonics for another friend - her midwives gave her the tonic after she'd come in for a false alarm.

Those little critters do have a way of disrupting one's best laid plans, don't they? I admire you for letting your baby lead the way, even though your spirits are low.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I continue to wish you, Li'l Critter, and Michael the very best possible wishes. (In that order, because while Michael's well-being is just as important, he's not quite as biologically entwined at the moment.)

[xopher-vh.livejournal.com]

sex, spicy food, nipple stimulation

Wait a minute. Isn't that redundant? The spicy food can vary independently, and you can have nipple stim without sex...but are there really people who have sex with no nipple stimulation? Learn something every day.

A friend of mine had a C-Section March 17, and was ordained an Episcopal Priest April 2. (Sounds like a Snickers commercial: have a C-Section, get ordained.) They don't have to be bad, I guess is the point. If any.

You would know, I guess, if Pitocin is actually associated with neurological disorders in the child, later in life. My Pitocin birth was blamed for my ADHD for a while, until we noticed that everyone in my family, induced or not, has it to some degree. So I dunno.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Argh. So sorry you're still pregnant.

I've heard good things about cohosh (and bad things about castor oil, so I'm with your midwives on this one...). I will cross my fingers that it will do the trick for you. (BTW - the more I hear about your midwives the more I like them - I don't expect to hear CMWs suggesting herbal/natural solutions like EPO and Cohosh - that's great!)

As you know, it's not uncommon for first babies to be late. Although I expect it *is* unusual for them to be late after 10 days of prelabor!!! Lil' Critter wants to start with distinction, it would seem.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Some people have nipples that aren't wired right for stimulation to be pleasant, it's too much, too intense and on the wrong edge of painful, so it can be very mood breaking. (This is true for all genders.) Some women's nipples that used to be ordinary develop this extreme sensitivity during pregnancy. Some never change back.

Now I'm sure that's TMI for you, but there you go.

[xopher-vh.livejournal.com]

No, not TMI. But I think that's just terrible. Those poor people!

Could you like, cover them with something (a dental dam, maybe) to lessen the stimulation so they could feel it on the pleasant side? Or is it just the whole thing...I guess the association would still make it unpleasant.

Wow. I really HAVE learned something. I normally go for the most intensity in my lovemaking (for both me and my partner), but "the wrong edge of painful" sounds like I need to be careful in this case.

Thanks for enlightening me to this. My lovemaking skills just improved slightly by knowing I have to watch out for this. Not that I've USED the said skills in mumblemumble...[trails off]

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The spicy food can vary independently, and you can have nipple stim without sex...but are there really people who have sex with no nipple stimulation? Learn something every day.

Early in pregnancy, my nipples hurt SO MUCH that I had to sleep in a bra so they wouldn't brush against the sheets and wake me up with agonizing pain. You damn betcha no one was allowed to stimulate them.

But also, when they talk about nipple stimulation to promote labor, they're talking about doing it for, like, an hour at a time. I won't say I've never done that in a sexual context, but it's hardly habitual.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

(BTW - the more I hear about your midwives the more I like them - I don't expect to hear CMWs suggesting herbal/natural solutions like EPO and Cohosh - that's great!)

Yeah, I adore my midwives. I really really appreciate being able to discuss the pros and cons of cohosh and Cervidil in the same conversation, you know? They're totally comfortable with medical interventions when necessary, but they're also very conversant with natural/herbal remedies. I feel like they're willing to go with whatever works in their experience, and whatever my preferences are, rather than having a particular philosophy (either pro- or anti-western-medicine) they expect their clients to conform to.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

My midwife recommended an out-of-print book called The Cesarean Birth Experience, which I found used through amazon.com. I really liked it. It includes a lot of suggestions for how to make a C-section as birthlike as possible.

I've written about my quest for positive C-section information here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/rivka/240970.html), in case you're new-ish to my journal.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Doh - CMW should have been CNM, of course. But I'm sure you knew what I meant.

My experience with CNMs in MI has been that they are more "medwives" than "midwives." But I'm sure that varies tremendously from state to state (depending on the lay midwifery laws) and person to person. Your setup sounds ideal.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I suggested to my midwife that I might have pseudocyesis (http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/p1/pseudocy.asp), and she just looked at me funny. Some people are so closed-minded.

[xopher-vh.livejournal.com]

OW OW OW! Gods, sorry I brought it up. MY nipples are hurting now.

And I've definitely done nipple stimulation for more than an hour in a sexual context - it was one thread among several, of course, but I did.

But I see what you mean now.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Like, I imagine, most of the people following this adventure, I tend to start my LJ reading these days by going straight to your journal to see if that baby has decided to join us in the world yet.

I do wish she would. If she keeps this up, she's going to miss the best part of spring!

If I were there, I'd offer to make you a nice, spicy-but-not-incendiary curry in hopes of helping things along. Since I'm not, well, blessings and candle-burnings and finger-crossings and long-distance *hugs*.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

I'm with those who say anything to avoid Pitocin. David's birth went from fetal distress to labor failing to progress to Pitocin to Hell to C-section. If anyone even mentions the P-word in front of me again (assuming, of course, that I get pregnant), I will grab the nearest person by their genitalia and demand a [expletive] C-section now.