Arjun's Birthing Story

Lil A made a surprise entrance into the world on Saturday, June 4th, @ 5:48 am. He was exactly 21 days early, weighing in at about 5 lbs and 19.5 inches long. He is covered in hair from head to toe, and is just a tiny little peanut.

Labor started in the middle of the night on Thursday, June 2. Arun and I were up late watching the Spelling Bee and the Heat game. (It would be hilarious if Arjun ended up in the spelling bee 10 years from now - he wants to compete with all the other desis!) I went to bed late but was awakened by cramps in the wee hours of the morning. I thought it was Braxton Hicks but it kept me up, and it kept coming. It was not terribly painful, just uncomfortable, and I thought this was normal for this stage in the pregnancy so ignored them. I felt a tremendous pressure below, and figured the baby had dropped.

Later on Friday morning I met with our doula, Jette. She took one look at me and told me "Prepare yourself, you may be in the stage of early labor. Just in case, I'll pack my doula bags tonight." I said, "Haha, yeah right, its too early!" but as the day went on, the surges kept coming, becoming more regular and more uncomfortable. I had a regularly scheduled appt with the midwife later that afternoon. She walked in and asked how I was doing, and I said "um, I think I'm in labor". She jumped in surprise and conducted an exam, and sure enough, something was going on. She smiled and said, "Well, you are definitely not going to go full term. You are 90% effaced, the baby is at station 1 and you are 1 cm dilated. It could progress and happen this weekend, or things could slow down and you could walk around like this for 2 weeks." I still couldn't believe it was happening, and hoped that if I just took it easy and put my feet up, it would stop.

By dinnertime it was obvious the show was on! Surges were coming at regular intervals and were increasing in duration. Arun frantically packed the hospital bags, went to TJ's to buy some snacks and drinks, and made sure to get a haircut (it had been bothering him for weeks). I put on the hypnobirthing cds, got out the birthing ball, and zoned out. I had been practicing for weeks, and hoped to accomplish a natural delivery free of medical interventions (unless necessary). After 10, things really took a turn towards intense. Arun and I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible, before going to the hospital. By 1 am, I knew it was time to go. Jette met us at the hospital, and sure enough I was 4 cm dilated.

The midwife let us stay, and that's when the natak (drama) started. The labor & delivery nurse we got stuck with was obviously anti- natural birth. She kept trying to take advantage of my weakened state to push IVs, fetal monitoring, and make me stay prone in a bed (which is the most painful position to labor in). Good thing we had Jette there, who helped advocate for us and push back on the nurse. Even the midwife argued with the nurse to just let us be and let us labor the way we felt comfortable. When I refused to lie on the bed and instead wanted to sit on the birthing ball while being monitored, she said "well I will write you up as being non compliant". She tried to insert an IV, even when I said I didn't need one, and I showed her my urine was completely clear - I'm hydrated lady! We gave her a copy of our birth plan, and she just tossed it aside.

Eventually we were moved to another room and got a new nurse, who was not antagonistic and was supportive of us. My water started leaking around 4 am, and I was just 5 cm dilated. The surges were tremendous, and the midwife and nurse didn't believe me when I said this baby was coming fast. "Oh first babies always take a long time". The only thing holding the baby back was the bag of waters, looked like he was trying to come out still inside it. I gave them permission to break it, and ZOOM, I went from 5 cm to 10 cm in no time.

I knew it was time to push, but I wasn't aware that they were having trouble finding the baby's heart rate. It had just disappeared and suddenly things became very frantic in the room. My calm state of mind went out the window. For weeks I had practiced "breathing the baby down", and suddenly I had people yelling at me to "hold your breath and push mama!". (People - Don't tell an asthmatic to hold their breath.) I started hyperventilating, they gave me oxygen, and told me to grab my knees and push that baby out. I had no idea where my knees were or what was going on, but I pushed. I think I had Jette in a strangle hold at some point. In between a push, Jette took my hand and told me "Anita, here is your baby's head". I was just completely overwhelmed at that point. Arun was standing next to me, probably stricken at my pain and the baby's missing heart rate. After a few more pushes, Arjun came out, with the cord wrapped around his neck. They quickly undid it and he yelled out a roar. I still had no idea what was going on, and they said "Mama, you can stop pushing. Your baby is here!" And they plunked down this tiny little creature against my chest. When I reached out to touch him, he immediately stopped screaming and became calm.

Arjun is doing wonderfully. He passed all his tests. After a couple days at the hospital, our new family is safe and sound back at home, learning how to be with each other.