The Covid pandemic caused a tremendous amount of turmoil and created uncertainty and doubt around what labor and delivery would look like for us and what our birth plan looked like.
In the months leading up to my due date I began exploring birthing options and plans, this allowed me to learn what it meant to get an epidural; side effects, the use of other drugs to speed up contractions, higher risk of c-section and the list goes on.
So when the moment came, and the doctor asked me if I wanted to change my mind and get the epidural as this was my last chance, the doctor warned “there could be 5 more hours of contractions like this
I am glad I got the epidural at the end because as the contractions got stronger and longer, they kept making my sons heartbeat dip by compressing his umbilical cord… at 9.5cm dilated my doctor made the call for me to start pushing because they couldn’t stabilize his heartbeat and if we waited any longer he could have been in more distress or I would have had to have an emergency C-section, which if you know me you would know I was strictly against having a C-section and was terrified it would come to that.