BIRTHY STORY &The Business of Being Born

Have you seen this?
I had previously avoided seeing it for the following two reasons:
1) I thought it would scare me and I didn't feel I had a choice other than a Hospital Birth due to being High Risk (Chronic Hypertension) or even the ability to use a midwife over OB
2) I naively thought that being in Canada would make a difference and that our health care system would not promote the same treatment as private health care would in the US.
Oh my.
Last night while doing a night feeding I stumbled across a showing on The Movie Network and finally decided to watch it. Within the first 20 minutes I saw my birth story explained pretty much verbatim.
Apparently what happened to me was common. I understood going into the induction that my chances of a c-section would increase but I didn't have the full picture. I really wish I had seen this documentary BEFORE agreeing to an induction with NO resistance. A lot of people had commented (in IRL and here) that my induction would give me Sadie so "it would be worth it". A point made in the documentary was that too many women think the end result (healthy baby) is all that matters and how you get there isn't important. I went in thinking that and although I do not regret what happened I would have done it differently had I been more informed.
That said, I've scraped my original birth story and I'm starting over. Here's my INDUCTION story. If you do not care to read it all you can watch the following clip from The Business is Being Born to see exactly what happened:

Otherwise, here goes:

December 28th:
6:30 am - Call hospital, instructed to come in at 8:30 am
8:30 am - Arrive at hospital, enter Triage, hooked up to EFM (Electronic Fetal Monitoring)
9:30 am - Painful Internal exam reveals by shitty resident who commented it was her last day about 5 times in 10 minutes. I am 0 cm dilated, Cervidil inserted to "ripen cervix"
(NOTE: I should have stood up for myself and declined the induction at this point!! Seriously do NOT accept an induction!)
12:30 pm - Completed 2 hours of EFM after Cervidil and instructed to go home and come back at 9:30 pm to check progress. We went to the mall and had lunch at McDonald's before going home.
3:00 pm-9:00 pm - Trying to sleep but in too much discomfort: Sitting hurts, laying down hurts. We leave for the hospital and WALK because I do not want to sit in a cab. Very windy/snowy night. It was like walking in a blizzard! Electrical wires blew out as we were walking and sparks started to fly. I almost had a heart attack thinking we'd be struck by a wire!
9:30 pm - Arrive at Hospital and checked back into Triage. Cervidil did not work and needed to be removed because it was causing me to have strong and frequent contractions. Next step was using a Foley Bulb (catheter placed in cervix and inflated with saline to open the cervix). The aforementioned shitty resident performing this procedure was AWFUL at it. It was torture!! I screamed at her to stop (nearly kicked her in the head) and they had to call in an OB. Thankfully she was able to insert the catheter with little pain!! I was checked into L&D at this point because I was crying hysterically in pain thanks to the dumb ass resident and the OB felt that "I'd been through a lot and it wouldn't be fair to send me home only to come back in the morning".

December 29th
Made it through the night but I was not comfortable! I sat in a chair mostly and didn't sleep. I had 2 or 3 showers! I woke up with a sick stomach (nerves?) and ended up vomiting hard enough to pop the Foley catheter out.
Our day nurse was assigned to us and we are told I will have another internal to see if they can break my water. The nurse then talks me into an enema! I would later find out that this is NOT the norm and that she is extremely "old school". We called in our Doula and told her to come in ASAP! She arrived just as I was suffering the effects of the enema (which was not pleasant). At that point my feeling was that the hospital was torturing me!! I remember looking at the windows that would not open (it was so hot in my room) and thinking it was that way to keep women from jumping out of them! Around this time I was also given my IV in preparation for starting Pitocin. I had some time where I was able to walk around the floor before being put on EFM so I took that opportunity to go for a walk.
Things were pretty calm so I told D and our Doula to go and get breakfast. It was silly to ask both to leave at the same time but I did and I had a bit of a panic attack as soon as they were gone. Shortly after that the OB and resident arrived to check my progress. To my HORROR it was the same resident as the night and morning before. Her 24 hour shift felt like it was NEVER going to end!
Thankfully it was the OB that checked me and determined I was dilated enough to break my water (which she did). It was the first thing that had been done that wasn't painful. That first gush of warm water was awesome. The subsequent gushes of water for the rest of the day were not as exciting! Gross!
By this time my dad, step-mom and brother had arrived. Since we had too many visitors our Doula left for a walk. I had just been started on pitocin and at first nothing much was happening... AND THEN my contractions started up quickly and painfully. I wanted my parents and brother OUT of the room and I decided that I was going to accept the epidural. The contractions sucked and I was in so much pain. Our doula was still gone so I wasn't entirely prepared for what was happening. I figured I was already hooked up to EFM and therefore stuck in my room so it didn't seem to matter anymore. Our nurse, who had promised the epidural as soon as I wanted it, was not available so I had to wait and endure a bit of the pain. My main concern was that my parents would return from lunch. I gave D strict instructions to tell them to GO AWAY!!
FINALLY our nurse came back with the anesthesiologist who had a resident with him. I was asked a gazillion questions to determine if I could have the epi. I seriously think they should have asked this BEFORE I was in pain because I would have told them ANYTHING they wanted to hear to hurry them up. I was asked a lot of questions about having Pre-E and blood work had to be followed up on. It was pretty excruciating. They eventually determined that I could have the epi so I was prepped. I was given instructions on how to sit and the RESIDENT was the one that performed the procedure. I could hear the anesthesiologist whispering behind my back telling her what to do! I could hear her saying she thought she was "hitting the bone". In a clearer state I would have been completely freaking out but the pain was bad and I wanted the drug so bad. This must be what it feels like to be an addict. I was also seriously losing faith in using a teaching hospital!
So now I'm doped up and my legs are warm and tingly. I had a internal exam after my epi and it was amazing NOT feeling it! I was dilated 5 cm and stretchy to 6! Sadly the epidural was a nice feeling that didn't last long. Within the first hour the effect was wearing off. My left leg was dead it was so frozen but my belly still had the sensation of contractions. Things were picking up again but when I told the nurse she said I was fine. Right.
I had endured the epidural not working for a few hours at that point and I was feeling the contractions the same as I had BEFORE having the procedure done. It became obvious that I was feeling all of the contractions so an anesthesiologist was called in. Around the same time I was ready to be checked again to see how dilated I was. The result was 6cm so I wasn't progressing. The pain I was experiencing suddenly increased. I could not get comfortable in any position and the pain was over my entire stomach.
In a blur I went from getting my epidural adjusted to being surrounded by nurses and doctors. The pain I was feeling was caused by bad contractions that were causing Sadie's heart rate to drop. I didn't know what was going on and I had a rush of people around me. They sprayed something under my tongue to stop the contraction and explained that I was having a very strong contraction that "wasn't ending". The resident in the room put her hand inside me to "tickle" Sadie's head to try to get her to respond. It was crazy.
After things were settled the on call OB came in and started talking about doing a c-section. She said that Sadie had been in distress so they were turning down the Pitocin and would gradually increase it again over 3 hours. During this time I had to progress past 6 cm because I hadn't in the past 3.
This part of the "story" goes quickly. I didn't progress in the prescribed 3 hours and when they examined me I went back into the long contraction that again caused Sadie's heart rate to decrease. Once they had her heart rate back up again the OB was once again beside my bed and pretty much told me I had to have a c-section. Before I knew it I was signing the paperwork! I was told that "if they could do it before midnight" I'd only have to be in the hospital 3 nights but if it was after midnight I'd be there 4! It was 11:45 at that point and Sadie was born at 12:45 am... yay an extra night at the hospital at $285/night!

December 30th
The C-section itself was quick. We were delayed because there was a major trauma and an anesthesiologist was not available. When he did get there he came in wearing a back pack and a polar fleece jacket. He looked and acted like Vincent Masuka from Dexter. After determining my epidural would not work I was given a spinal (thank goodness). I started to feel the doctors pulling and pressing on my belly when I heard him say "I hadn't tested her yet". OMG! At least it worked?!? I guess they determined that by the fact that I wasn't screaming in pain as they cut me??? WTF?
Soon enough Sadie was out and I was watching as she was cleaned and given to D to hold. The resident had told me she'd be out quick and then they'd spend about 3o minutes on the "Humpty Dumpty" part of the procedure "putting me back together again". NOT something I found funny. She was a better resident but that was not cute!
Unfortunately because of the drugs I felt loopy and when D asked if I wanted to see her I said NO! I eventually called D over but everything was confusing in the OR. I was shaking like CRAZY. Did I mention that I begged Vincent Masuka for Ativan? I'm not sure what he gave me but it was gooood.
So that is my induction story beginning to end. I need to get around to documenting our hospital stay!
Like I had already said, i do not REGRET what happened. My recovery was easy and I am fortunate that I did not have a painful labor before going in for the c-section. Instead I had a long pain in the ass and unnecessary induction before going in for the c-section.
Hopefully I'll be able to try a VBAC for #2!!!