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Story of an Emergency Cesarean Birth Jared's Birth Story On Tuesday, October 28th 1997, my labor stared out nice and easy. My contractions were ten minutes apart all day. Mike stayed home from work, drove the kids to school and we stayed together all day. I was sure that I was in early labor, and didn’t want him to go far. All day long the contractions stayed exactly ten minutes apart. (My labors take longer now that I have had so many babies.) We went shopping together. I think I took about three showers throughout the day so that I would be “fresh” when the time came to go to the hospital. Each time I thought it was the final time. I wanted to wait to go to the hospital until I knew that I was really close this time. I hate staying in the hospital for hour after hour only to have my labor slow down and just wait. We waited hoping the contractions would get closer together. I called the Dr around 5:00pm and told them that I was in labor but that I didn’t want to go to the hospital too early. They said to come as soon as my contractions were 7 - 8 minutes apart. They never got closer. Mike and I left the kids at my dad’s house and went home to our own comfortable bed alone without kids to worry about. I slept comfortably in my own bed until a little after midnight. All of a sudden the pains were a lot harder. I got up and took another quick bath, then woke Mike to go the hospital. We really had to hurry then. Strangely my contractions were still ten minutes apart but were very strong. As soon as we got to the hospital, the doctor came in to check me. He said that I was dilated to 7 and the amniotic sac was bulging. All of a sudden, while the doctor was still checking, my water broke! He suddenly became very alarmed! He told me that the baby’s cord was prolapsed (fallen down ahead of the baby), and that we had to do an emergency Cesarean section! He called for the nurses to get anesthesia fast, and to prepare for an emergency Cesarean section! He held the baby’s head back off of the cord trying to keep him from compressing it and killing him. `Mike looked at me as if to say.... hey wait a minute here...do we really have to do this?... I looked him in the eyes and told him that yes we did have to do this because the prolapsed cord would surely kill the baby if it were compressed by his head. His lifeline would be cut off. The doctor kept pushing up on the baby’s head and he hopped up on the gurney to hold the baby's head as we raced down the hall for the operating room. They put an oxygen mask on me and I breathed as deeply as I could trying to give the baby oxygen. My doctor told the anesthesiologist to go ahead and put me to sleep. I smelled and tasted the anesthesia and was out. Mike had followed everyone into the operating room and when a nurse tried to stop him he told her that he had been to all ten other births and didn’t intend to miss this one. They said “but you don’t have a sterile gown or mask” He said...”Then you had better get me one fast”. They did, but I am sure they were very leery of this guy being there to see a cesarean without a drape or the usual props. They didn’t have time to do much preparation. They squirted my abdomen with Betadine, and just started! Mike said they had baby Jared out in just a few minutes. He was born with a heartbeat, but not breathing. The anesthesiologist gave him oxygen right away. They rushed him to the neonatal intensive care nursery. There they worked on him, giving him oxygen, and getting him stabilized. He had a very rough start! They were afraid he was showing signs of oxygen deprivation. They thought he was “posturing”. That is stiffening his body in a certain way that suggested oxygen deprivation. He stopped doing this after just a few hours though. Jared doesn’t show any signs of damage whatsoever. His EEGs were good. His heart echo-gram was good. His reflexes are good. We have to follow up with two other specialists to make sure he is ok, but all indications are that he is fine! The eye specialist will make sure that no damage was done to his retinas by the resuscitation. The neonatal neurologist will double check the baby’s reflexes and check a little dimple at the base of the baby’s spine that could be something called spina bifida occulta. This would be an easily correctable problem. He has to have a hearing loss screening too. I will update this page as soon as all these appointments are met, and the evaluations are finished. Until then, please rejoice with us in knowing that Jared is alive and has joined our family! God was surely guiding us and protecting the baby as He let the Dr. find the prolapsed cord before it was compressed and cut off the oxygen supply! God is so awesome, and we are so thankful that He allowed us to find the problem in time to save Jared! He is a very beautiful and peaceful baby. November 10, 1997 Jared passed his hearing test today with flying colors! Praise the Lord! November 11, 1997 Jared's visit with the eye specialist shows that his retinas are fine!
Baby Jared's first picture. Taken in intensive care.
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