Happy 1st birthday, Megan!!! Here's the story of how you came to us!
Alright....here it is! If you want to skip to just the labor/delivery part, I labeled it 3/4 of the way down. To preface it all, most of you probably saw the post about unassisted childbirth and my very brief crabby reply. Well, the reason that I felt forced to go that route is because of Group B Strep. I've tested positive with each of the kids now. When I became pregnant with Megan I was determined NOT to test positive and if I DID test positive, I'd decline the antibiotics. Well, 34wks into this pregnancy I had been taking probiotics daily, upped the garlic, upped the vitamin c and been practicing meticulous genital cleaning. Went to my midwife appt and did the stupid test. I told my midwife how I thought that the test was very skewed to be positive since they do a vaginal AND A RECTAL swab and how the bacteria lives in the digestive tract. I was not happy. Fast forward 2 weeks. I had my weekly midwife appointment. Declined an internal. I do those myself, thank you very much. Well, RIGHT when I got there, I was brought back to the room, stepped on the scale (gained a total of 22lbs. Whoop de doo.)THEN the nurse told me my Group B Strep culture came back positive. "no big deal. You'll just have 2 rounds of iv antibiotics before delivery. nothing to worry about." Nurse's words NOT MINE!!! I'm livid!!! She takes my blood pressure (which OF COURSE is rising as she's taking my pressure). I normally chat with her and ask questions. Find out what my blood pressure is and so forth. I am so frustrated I just want to cry. She brings me back to my room to wait for the midwife. There she says, "do you want an internal?" I think she saw the look on my face...not pleasant. "I didn't think you would". I'm probably one of the LEAST intervention-happy patients there. We don't take prescription drugs, I question EVERYTHING and I KNOW WHAT I WANT OUT OF THIS PREGNANCY AND DELIVERY!!!!! Midwife comes in and tells me again "your Group B Strep was positive" She could SEE how frustrated I am. She tells me, too, that as long as I take the iv antibiotics I've covered my butt and can leave the hospital without going "against medical advice" at the 8 hours postpartum like I wanted. This started the whole story about WHY I DON'T WANT ANTIBIOTICS!!! I blindly did them with both Molly and Seth during labor. Every 3-4 hours they hung a new bag of abx on the iv and I just accepted it like a blind sheep. With Molly she showed no signs (externally) of being affected by the abx. Now I see how messed up her digestion is (allergies and all) and KNOW that every dose of abx before and after delivery along with all the vax's she got just destroyed her. It's being fixed now, but, that doesn't fix everything. Seth on the other hand...oh, man......He battled the worst yeast problems our pediatrician had ever seen. I had a raging vaginal yeast infection for over a month, we passed thrush back and forth for 3 months and that doesn't even begin to cover all the issues. He had toxic poop for almost 2 months. He couldn't digest any solid foods for almost 8 months. None at all. I know that's not too far out of the realm of "normal" but, any solid foods he would instantly throw up with tons of mucous. He had the most screwed up digestive tract. The only thing going for him is that at 4 months I stopped vaxing. He only had 2 shots up til then and that 2nd one about destroyed his kidneys. Anyways....she tells me that there are other abx out there other than the 2 I was given with Molly and Seth that cause LESS yeast issues. Yeah, right....let's inject it directly into our bloodstreams, destroy ALL the healthy bacteria in both of our digestive tracts. Not to mention now the healthy bacteria in my vagina will be gone. She tells me I can always start the probiotics now and just "mega dose" through delivery and the week afterwards. I ALREADY TAKE THEM!!! I've tried so hard this pregnancy to PROTECT this little baby from crap like this and now I'm virtually being FORCED to wreck it!!! Oh, the abx that she says is "less" toxic than the others? Here's some info on it: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682399.html
Sure doesn't sound "gentle" does it????
So, I continued talking with her. Mind you, she was a HOMEBIRTH MIDWIFE for TWENTY YEARS!! She didn't test for Group B Strep during her h/b practice and now she's forced to in order to be covered by insurance and have hospital privileges. She's not pro-abx by any means, HOWEVER, she is covering her own butt. I can understand that, just makes me mad.
So...I ask her, if I decline the abx during delivery, when will baby be discharged from hospital? After a MINUMUM of 48 hours and they will admit her into either the Special Care Nursery OR NICU depending on the pediatrician on call. They will then start direct IV abx on her until she's a minimum of 48 hours old and they will be running blood cultures on her every 6-8 hrs until discharge. STUPID!!! The stupid part is 40% of women are postive for GBS. Of those, WHETHER YOU DO THE ABX OR NOT approximately 10% of those babies will accumulate GBS. OF THOSE, only a fraction of those babies will be sick. So...let's just prophylactically cover ALL GBS positive mothers just in case you are one of only a handful babies born in the US in each year that will become sick with GBS. If that happens, ABX fix it!! Why treat before? Why not just wait for symptoms? Another kicker? Unless your water is broken for a prolonged period before delivery, mother runs a fever during labor, or you have a prolonged pushing stage and baby stays in the lower 1/3 of your vagina for an extended period of time, there is virtually NO RISK AT ALL!!! Ok, this is my 3rd baby...Molly was pushed out in less than 20 minutes. Almost 10 pounds and positioned wrong and it only took 20 minutes. Seth came out without pushing. Umm....don't see the risk YET.....
We continued through our options. I could also take the abx and just be discharged at 8 hours knowing I've now damaged baby's digestive system and done damage to me. Just to play by the rules, OR I could show up very close to delivery and "maybe" get a full dose of abx in me before delivery and hope the peds think "at least she got SOME in her" hoping it's close enough to delivery that baby gets very little. I would still be held for 24 hrs minimum at that point.
I asked the m/w what happens if I decline and sign baby out Against Medical Advice at 8 hrs like I want. She said (this is a direct quote)."If you do, do NOT come anywhere near a clinic or hospital for at LEAST 3-4 days. Leave town if you can. Social services WILL come and look for you. Especially since you are on Medical Assistance. They will think you are endangering your child's life"
SO....my hands are tied. Great, huh? Stupid stupid stupid. I sat and cried on the phone with Dan for 45 minutes yesterday and he knows how much I HATE abx. HATE HATE HATE. I don't give them to us as adults, or the kids, WHY WOULD I DO THIS TO AN UNBORN BABY?????
I asked her if we could re-test next week....we COULD but the ped will only take the positive result and react accordingly. Also, ready for this???? GBS is CYCLICAL. Meaning, you could test negative for it one day and if you have pooped, you WILL test positive for it the next day. GBS lives in the digestive tract and they test for it, not just vaginally, but, they swab the rectal area for it, too!! They are just setting people up for testing positive!!!
I'm just mad. Now my only REAL option was to "oops" deliver at home. And then avoid the hospital and clinic for a few weeks. I called the Department of Health and have a home-birth birth certificate application form here. I can apply for the birth certificate a few weeks after delivery and fly under the radar.
Dan is NOT happy. I was fine going into the stupid hospital and playing by their rules for 8-12 hours after delivery if it meant not being "flagged" as a non-compliant parent by social services.
I still would be fine delivering here at home. We can't afford at this point to pay for a home birth midwife in the "just in case". I've been saving this whole pregnancy to take a little time off of work. I'll only be home 2 months as it is. Paying for a home birth midwife would wipe that out. Now, I can deliver here at home and if there ARE emergencies, I guess we'll deal with it at that point and get to the hospital. OR I can go to the hospital and decline abx and just ride the wave. The m/w did tell me that I am not a prisoner at the hospital and I CAN decline ANYTHING. Well, DUH! But, then I face the wrath of big brother. I already was declining everything. NO Vit K, No Hep B, No eye ointment, No PKU at the hospital. I was all set up with my ped to do the PKU later on. Now I had this to deal with.
[blue]LABOR/DELIVERY[/blue]
I skipped the next 2 weeks of prenatals. I was too upset to show up. I finally went in at 39wks and a day shy of 40wks (April 19) just to cover my butt. I NEVER thought I'd still be pregnant to my due date (April 20), but, there I was. Unfortunately, the next day, April 21 is the 5 year anniversary of the day my sister died. My mom is EXTREMELY mentally unstable and it would not be in the baby's best interest to have the same birthday as that. Not at all. My mom would CONSTANTLY be comparing baby to my sister anyways. She does with Molly and it's not fair. I'm already dilated to almost 5 at this point and I go into my appointment and start crying. I'm trying so hard to not break down, but, here I am sobbing. I BEG BEG BEG my midwife to just break my water that day and let me have this baby so she doesn't have to share that day w/my sister. This ENTIRE pregnancy I have been SOOOOOO anti-intervention and my midwife knows it. This is NOT what she was expecting to hear out of me. We sit and talk for about an hour. She does an internal. Yup. Still almost 5cms and about 50% effaced. Baby at -2. She doesn't want to break my water since baby is not FULLY engaged, but, tells me she can try to get me in to the hospital that night to either have prostglandin gel inserted to get me more effaced and the next morning she could break my water. Ok.
My plan at that point was to be gelled and GO HOME AND LABOR and have baby there. She has no clue that I plan on that, but, I went ahead and drove myself to the hospital and got gelled. Well, I instantly was put into hard labor from it. There goes my plan to go home. There was NO WAY I could drive or even hide the contractions from the nurse long enough to get discharged. I call Dan and have him call his parents to watch the kids until my parents could drive 90 minutes to stay with them. I was only on the stupid fetal monitoring for the 1st hour of labor and the rest of the labor I was literally left to be laboring my own way in our room or walking the halls or in the tub or bouncing on the yoga ball. The nurse came in once an hour to just listen to baby's heart beat for 2 minutes. She used a doppler turned so quiet it was at her ear so the sound wouldn't distract the laboring. She was the most FABULOUS nurse we could have had!!! At 2:30am the nurse came in and we talked about the whole GBS thing. I told her WHY I didn't want them. The whole story. Sat and cried a little. She also was told how Molly is allergic to a few of them and how I was soooo mad that my hands really were tied about it. She left for a while and came back. She talked to a pharmacist and between the two of them (and my midwife) they found a very mild obscure antibiotic that was not a broad-spectrum antibiotic, but, very specific to only a certain type of bacteria. Best part, it was ONLY given every 8 hours versus every 3-4. The chance that I (or baby) would be building up a tolerance to that specific antibiotic was sooo slim that I took it. I ended up with only 1 dose of the antibiotic. I was only checked when *I* asked to be. I made NO PROGRESS until 4am. Obviously I was trying to mentally work through the loss of my "planned labor/delivery" My body did not start working WITH the contractions until I came to terms with what my delivery was becoming. Just hard labor and then at about 5 am I started crying. I do NOT cry during labor. EVER!!! Dan knew things were going to be a rockin' soon at that point! I paged the nurse begged to be checked and was 7. She got this big smile on her face and said she was calling the midwife and going to start filling the birth tub. I was in the birthing tub at 5:30, started pushing involuntarily with contractions and at about 5:50 my water broke in the tub. It was AWESOME!!! That's when Dan got in. Started really pushing then and she was OUT at 6:07am!!! She was 9lbs and 21 inches long and PERFECT!!! I pulled her out of the water myself!!! I could feel her cord pulsing so fast! It pulsed as fast as her heart and was the most incredible feeling in the whole world!!!! I didn't have a single tear, rip, or any issues at all! I got out of the tub at about 6:20 and delivered the placenta and just felt awesome!!!! The nurse and midwife asked me if I had ever thought about a home birth....um, yeah, just couldn't afford it this time! Even Dan was amazed how wonderfully everything went! I wanted a virtually intervention-free delivery and I got it! Even in a hospital!!!! I declined the vitamin k, eye ointment, and the stupid hep b and wasn't even questioned about it! I was so afraid of the confrontation, but, it was never even an issue. The nurse just brought me the refusal forms to sign. By 7am we were back in our own room and I already had my discharge papers! Called my pediatrician at 8am and BEGGED for the early discharge even though we only got the one dose of abx. As long as I promised to take her temps every 1-2 hours until she was 48 hours old and call her if she had any sort of temperature, we were free to go!!! We walked out of the hospital a bit before 5pm (just 11 hours after delivery!) We came back to the pediatrician Monday morning and she was just 6oz less than her birth weight of 9lbs. We did Megan's PKU and newborn screening blood work then. What a fabulous, unexpected experience!!!!! Not what I was planning at all (other than the water birth part!!!), but, I couldn't have written a better plan! I was able to decline virtually everything without being held hostage as a result!
Alright....here it is! If you want to skip to just the labor/delivery part, I labeled it 3/4 of the way down. To preface it all, most of you probably saw the post about unassisted childbirth and my very brief crabby reply. Well, the reason that I felt forced to go that route is because of Group B Strep. I've tested positive with each of the kids now. When I became pregnant with Megan I was determined NOT to test positive and if I DID test positive, I'd decline the antibiotics. Well, 34wks into this pregnancy I had been taking probiotics daily, upped the garlic, upped the vitamin c and been practicing meticulous genital cleaning. Went to my midwife appt and did the stupid test. I told my midwife how I thought that the test was very skewed to be positive since they do a vaginal AND A RECTAL swab and how the bacteria lives in the digestive tract. I was not happy. Fast forward 2 weeks. I had my weekly midwife appointment. Declined an internal. I do those myself, thank you very much. Well, RIGHT when I got there, I was brought back to the room, stepped on the scale (gained a total of 22lbs. Whoop de doo.)THEN the nurse told me my Group B Strep culture came back positive. "no big deal. You'll just have 2 rounds of iv antibiotics before delivery. nothing to worry about." Nurse's words NOT MINE!!! I'm livid!!! She takes my blood pressure (which OF COURSE is rising as she's taking my pressure). I normally chat with her and ask questions. Find out what my blood pressure is and so forth. I am so frustrated I just want to cry. She brings me back to my room to wait for the midwife. There she says, "do you want an internal?" I think she saw the look on my face...not pleasant. "I didn't think you would". I'm probably one of the LEAST intervention-happy patients there. We don't take prescription drugs, I question EVERYTHING and I KNOW WHAT I WANT OUT OF THIS PREGNANCY AND DELIVERY!!!!! Midwife comes in and tells me again "your Group B Strep was positive" She could SEE how frustrated I am. She tells me, too, that as long as I take the iv antibiotics I've covered my butt and can leave the hospital without going "against medical advice" at the 8 hours postpartum like I wanted. This started the whole story about WHY I DON'T WANT ANTIBIOTICS!!! I blindly did them with both Molly and Seth during labor. Every 3-4 hours they hung a new bag of abx on the iv and I just accepted it like a blind sheep. With Molly she showed no signs (externally) of being affected by the abx. Now I see how messed up her digestion is (allergies and all) and KNOW that every dose of abx before and after delivery along with all the vax's she got just destroyed her. It's being fixed now, but, that doesn't fix everything. Seth on the other hand...oh, man......He battled the worst yeast problems our pediatrician had ever seen. I had a raging vaginal yeast infection for over a month, we passed thrush back and forth for 3 months and that doesn't even begin to cover all the issues. He had toxic poop for almost 2 months. He couldn't digest any solid foods for almost 8 months. None at all. I know that's not too far out of the realm of "normal" but, any solid foods he would instantly throw up with tons of mucous. He had the most screwed up digestive tract. The only thing going for him is that at 4 months I stopped vaxing. He only had 2 shots up til then and that 2nd one about destroyed his kidneys. Anyways....she tells me that there are other abx out there other than the 2 I was given with Molly and Seth that cause LESS yeast issues. Yeah, right....let's inject it directly into our bloodstreams, destroy ALL the healthy bacteria in both of our digestive tracts. Not to mention now the healthy bacteria in my vagina will be gone. She tells me I can always start the probiotics now and just "mega dose" through delivery and the week afterwards. I ALREADY TAKE THEM!!! I've tried so hard this pregnancy to PROTECT this little baby from crap like this and now I'm virtually being FORCED to wreck it!!! Oh, the abx that she says is "less" toxic than the others? Here's some info on it: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682399.html
Sure doesn't sound "gentle" does it????
So, I continued talking with her. Mind you, she was a HOMEBIRTH MIDWIFE for TWENTY YEARS!! She didn't test for Group B Strep during her h/b practice and now she's forced to in order to be covered by insurance and have hospital privileges. She's not pro-abx by any means, HOWEVER, she is covering her own butt. I can understand that, just makes me mad.
So...I ask her, if I decline the abx during delivery, when will baby be discharged from hospital? After a MINUMUM of 48 hours and they will admit her into either the Special Care Nursery OR NICU depending on the pediatrician on call. They will then start direct IV abx on her until she's a minimum of 48 hours old and they will be running blood cultures on her every 6-8 hrs until discharge. STUPID!!! The stupid part is 40% of women are postive for GBS. Of those, WHETHER YOU DO THE ABX OR NOT approximately 10% of those babies will accumulate GBS. OF THOSE, only a fraction of those babies will be sick. So...let's just prophylactically cover ALL GBS positive mothers just in case you are one of only a handful babies born in the US in each year that will become sick with GBS. If that happens, ABX fix it!! Why treat before? Why not just wait for symptoms? Another kicker? Unless your water is broken for a prolonged period before delivery, mother runs a fever during labor, or you have a prolonged pushing stage and baby stays in the lower 1/3 of your vagina for an extended period of time, there is virtually NO RISK AT ALL!!! Ok, this is my 3rd baby...Molly was pushed out in less than 20 minutes. Almost 10 pounds and positioned wrong and it only took 20 minutes. Seth came out without pushing. Umm....don't see the risk YET.....
We continued through our options. I could also take the abx and just be discharged at 8 hours knowing I've now damaged baby's digestive system and done damage to me. Just to play by the rules, OR I could show up very close to delivery and "maybe" get a full dose of abx in me before delivery and hope the peds think "at least she got SOME in her" hoping it's close enough to delivery that baby gets very little. I would still be held for 24 hrs minimum at that point.
I asked the m/w what happens if I decline and sign baby out Against Medical Advice at 8 hrs like I want. She said (this is a direct quote)."If you do, do NOT come anywhere near a clinic or hospital for at LEAST 3-4 days. Leave town if you can. Social services WILL come and look for you. Especially since you are on Medical Assistance. They will think you are endangering your child's life"
SO....my hands are tied. Great, huh? Stupid stupid stupid. I sat and cried on the phone with Dan for 45 minutes yesterday and he knows how much I HATE abx. HATE HATE HATE. I don't give them to us as adults, or the kids, WHY WOULD I DO THIS TO AN UNBORN BABY?????
I asked her if we could re-test next week....we COULD but the ped will only take the positive result and react accordingly. Also, ready for this???? GBS is CYCLICAL. Meaning, you could test negative for it one day and if you have pooped, you WILL test positive for it the next day. GBS lives in the digestive tract and they test for it, not just vaginally, but, they swab the rectal area for it, too!! They are just setting people up for testing positive!!!
I'm just mad. Now my only REAL option was to "oops" deliver at home. And then avoid the hospital and clinic for a few weeks. I called the Department of Health and have a home-birth birth certificate application form here. I can apply for the birth certificate a few weeks after delivery and fly under the radar.
Dan is NOT happy. I was fine going into the stupid hospital and playing by their rules for 8-12 hours after delivery if it meant not being "flagged" as a non-compliant parent by social services.
I still would be fine delivering here at home. We can't afford at this point to pay for a home birth midwife in the "just in case". I've been saving this whole pregnancy to take a little time off of work. I'll only be home 2 months as it is. Paying for a home birth midwife would wipe that out. Now, I can deliver here at home and if there ARE emergencies, I guess we'll deal with it at that point and get to the hospital. OR I can go to the hospital and decline abx and just ride the wave. The m/w did tell me that I am not a prisoner at the hospital and I CAN decline ANYTHING. Well, DUH! But, then I face the wrath of big brother. I already was declining everything. NO Vit K, No Hep B, No eye ointment, No PKU at the hospital. I was all set up with my ped to do the PKU later on. Now I had this to deal with.
[blue]LABOR/DELIVERY[/blue]
I skipped the next 2 weeks of prenatals. I was too upset to show up. I finally went in at 39wks and a day shy of 40wks (April 19) just to cover my butt. I NEVER thought I'd still be pregnant to my due date (April 20), but, there I was. Unfortunately, the next day, April 21 is the 5 year anniversary of the day my sister died. My mom is EXTREMELY mentally unstable and it would not be in the baby's best interest to have the same birthday as that. Not at all. My mom would CONSTANTLY be comparing baby to my sister anyways. She does with Molly and it's not fair. I'm already dilated to almost 5 at this point and I go into my appointment and start crying. I'm trying so hard to not break down, but, here I am sobbing. I BEG BEG BEG my midwife to just break my water that day and let me have this baby so she doesn't have to share that day w/my sister. This ENTIRE pregnancy I have been SOOOOOO anti-intervention and my midwife knows it. This is NOT what she was expecting to hear out of me. We sit and talk for about an hour. She does an internal. Yup. Still almost 5cms and about 50% effaced. Baby at -2. She doesn't want to break my water since baby is not FULLY engaged, but, tells me she can try to get me in to the hospital that night to either have prostglandin gel inserted to get me more effaced and the next morning she could break my water. Ok.
My plan at that point was to be gelled and GO HOME AND LABOR and have baby there. She has no clue that I plan on that, but, I went ahead and drove myself to the hospital and got gelled. Well, I instantly was put into hard labor from it. There goes my plan to go home. There was NO WAY I could drive or even hide the contractions from the nurse long enough to get discharged. I call Dan and have him call his parents to watch the kids until my parents could drive 90 minutes to stay with them. I was only on the stupid fetal monitoring for the 1st hour of labor and the rest of the labor I was literally left to be laboring my own way in our room or walking the halls or in the tub or bouncing on the yoga ball. The nurse came in once an hour to just listen to baby's heart beat for 2 minutes. She used a doppler turned so quiet it was at her ear so the sound wouldn't distract the laboring. She was the most FABULOUS nurse we could have had!!! At 2:30am the nurse came in and we talked about the whole GBS thing. I told her WHY I didn't want them. The whole story. Sat and cried a little. She also was told how Molly is allergic to a few of them and how I was soooo mad that my hands really were tied about it. She left for a while and came back. She talked to a pharmacist and between the two of them (and my midwife) they found a very mild obscure antibiotic that was not a broad-spectrum antibiotic, but, very specific to only a certain type of bacteria. Best part, it was ONLY given every 8 hours versus every 3-4. The chance that I (or baby) would be building up a tolerance to that specific antibiotic was sooo slim that I took it. I ended up with only 1 dose of the antibiotic. I was only checked when *I* asked to be. I made NO PROGRESS until 4am. Obviously I was trying to mentally work through the loss of my "planned labor/delivery" My body did not start working WITH the contractions until I came to terms with what my delivery was becoming. Just hard labor and then at about 5 am I started crying. I do NOT cry during labor. EVER!!! Dan knew things were going to be a rockin' soon at that point! I paged the nurse begged to be checked and was 7. She got this big smile on her face and said she was calling the midwife and going to start filling the birth tub. I was in the birthing tub at 5:30, started pushing involuntarily with contractions and at about 5:50 my water broke in the tub. It was AWESOME!!! That's when Dan got in. Started really pushing then and she was OUT at 6:07am!!! She was 9lbs and 21 inches long and PERFECT!!! I pulled her out of the water myself!!! I could feel her cord pulsing so fast! It pulsed as fast as her heart and was the most incredible feeling in the whole world!!!! I didn't have a single tear, rip, or any issues at all! I got out of the tub at about 6:20 and delivered the placenta and just felt awesome!!!! The nurse and midwife asked me if I had ever thought about a home birth....um, yeah, just couldn't afford it this time! Even Dan was amazed how wonderfully everything went! I wanted a virtually intervention-free delivery and I got it! Even in a hospital!!!! I declined the vitamin k, eye ointment, and the stupid hep b and wasn't even questioned about it! I was so afraid of the confrontation, but, it was never even an issue. The nurse just brought me the refusal forms to sign. By 7am we were back in our own room and I already had my discharge papers! Called my pediatrician at 8am and BEGGED for the early discharge even though we only got the one dose of abx. As long as I promised to take her temps every 1-2 hours until she was 48 hours old and call her if she had any sort of temperature, we were free to go!!! We walked out of the hospital a bit before 5pm (just 11 hours after delivery!) We came back to the pediatrician Monday morning and she was just 6oz less than her birth weight of 9lbs. We did Megan's PKU and newborn screening blood work then. What a fabulous, unexpected experience!!!!! Not what I was planning at all (other than the water birth part!!!), but, I couldn't have written a better plan! I was able to decline virtually everything without being held hostage as a result!
posted by Jessica @ 9:20 AM
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