Luke Niels Brouckaert arrived on January 19, 2018, at 6:03am; 8 lbs. 7 oz., 21 inches of perfection.
Now let’s rewind; I was set on a home birth with a midwife and as few
interventions as necessary. My wife, Adrianne, was skeptical after her
own experience with two difficult hospital deliveries with our two
oldest sons. However, after meeting our amazing midwifery team and
touring Babies in Bloom Birth Center, we both agreed a birth center
birth with our midwife would be the best fit for our family. Liza’s
Bradley’s Method Class provided ongoing reassurance that our birth
plan was best for us.
As my January 10th due date approached, I made sure to eat 6 dates a
day from 36 weeks to 40 weeks, I took Red Raspberry Leaf capsules,
visited my chiropractor and acupuncturist regularly, took 5-W, did the
Miles Circuit (in fact, one night while we were out curb walking, we
ran into a neighbor who asked if were were “trying to walk that baby
out.” She turned out to be a labor and delivery nurse at scripps
Encinitas. We told her we were happy to meet her and hoped we wouldn’t
end up seeing her at work!) and practiced meditation and visualizing
Luke’s birth.
January 10th came and went, as to be expected. At 40 weeks 6 days, on
January 15th, I started experiencing contractions. These were like
the Braxton Hicks I’d been experienced for months, accompanied by a
bit of cramping. I ignored them quite easily. Later that afternoon, we
had a non stress test scheduled. Luke was a rockstar and our midwife
joked that she wanted to keep the print out showing the contractions
as an example of “an A+” test. I decided to have my midwife check my
dilation, which I had refused at my 40 week appointment. I was 2 cm
and 60% effaced and went ahead with a membrane sweep.
Early labor continued to progress over the next two days at home.
Contractions intensified and lengthened and it became more and more
difficult to ignore them, let alone get any sleep. Early in the
morning of January 17th, I lost my mucus plug. We checked in with our
midwife and agreed to keep her posted with my progress. By 8:00pm that
evening, contractions were closer to 3 minutes apart and lasting 90
seconds. We met our birth team at Babies in Bloom around 8:30 pm and I
was 6 cm dilated and 90% effaced.
I continued to labor throughout the night; my incredible wife kept me
calm and focused and helped me breathe through each and every
contractions, reminding me to relax if she started to notice any
tension in my body.
The following morning, January 18th, around 9 am, I had dilated to 9
cm and was now 100% effaced. By this point my water had broken, likely
near the top of uterus, and my midwife ruptured the remainder of the
membranes. During this time, our midwives has another birth—our
student midwife went to attend with another on call midwife. Of
course, that lucky mama was having her 4 baby, who practically slid
right out!
With our whole birth team was back at Babies in Bloom, we got the news
that we had run out of time for delivering at BIB. Before we left for
Scripps Encinitas, my midwife asked to check my cervix once more… I
knew I still wasn’t fully dilated, but had her double check, and she
confirmed I was still at a 9.5. Fortunately, our midwife called ahead
to the hospital to see what OB was on call; a known homophobic OB.
(with a lawsuit pending) would be there until 7pm. As a two mom
family, the last thing we wanted was to deal with potential
discrimination on top of our ever-changing birth plan, nearly 48 hours
after active labor began. We took our time getting to the hospital and
just barely made it out of BIB without overstaying our welcome and
into Scripps without arriving before the change of shift. At my
midwife’s urging, I walked into the hospital calmly and silently and
she helped me breath through each contraction while Adrianne got us
checked in. Since it had been several hours since my water broke and I
had now been in active labor for days, she wanted to stress that we
had merely run out of time at the birth center and both baby and I
were otherwise doing perfectly.
Once we checked into the hospital, we had an amazing traveling labor
and delivery nurse, Keisha. She worked with midwives and let our
midwife remain very hands on with my care.
After nearly 12 hours of transition stuck at a 9.5, I got an Epideral
to speed things along and hoped it would get me dilated that last .5
cm. The epidural took the edge off of my contractions and I was able
to get a little bit of much-needed rest at this point; I hadn’t slept
for more than a couple of minutes between contractions for about 48
hours. The epidural didn’t have the desired effect, and I still stayed
at 9.5 for about 5 more hours. During this time, my midwife manually
attempted to open my cervix. This was uncomfortable, even with the
Epidural, and it still didn’t get me fully dilated. Eventually, I
received a very small dose of Pitocin. Pitocin contractions are no
joke! I was limited to laboring on my back and my side, which
intensified the discomfort. Many of the contraction double peaked, one
after the next, after the next, as they had throughout the past 15
hours I had been laboring in transition . My midwifery team, my wife,
and our labor and delivery nurse and keep me focused and motivated. We
(we’ll, mostly everyone else) enjoyed moments of humor/delirium
between contractions. They all took great care of me physically,
mentally and emotionally. I was aware of my mental and emotional
fatigue in the back of my mind, but the support and encouragement I
had all around me enabled me to focus and stay in the moment.
Once the Pitocin kicked in, I dilated fairly quickly to 10 cm. It was
finally time to push! With each push, I could feel our baby making his
way through the birth canal–one step forward, two steps back. I used
my full strength to push him as far as I could, and he would slid
right back up as soon as I inhaled. It went on like this for hours.
While we were alone in the room with our midwife, she warned us the OB
would come in and talk about the need for a C-section and possibility
of using a vacuum. She went over the BRAIN list of questions she knew
we would have about the interventions. After weighing our options, I
was prepared to advocate for myself for the vacuum when the OB
arrived. The OB was very firm that we would have two chances to
deliver vaginally with the assistance of the vacuum. She was very firm
when warning us about the potential need for a C section if the vacuum
didn’t work. After nearly 5 hours of pushing, the OB gave me an
episiotomy and had me push a few more times before we tried the
vacuum. The episiotomy made no difference and I was more than ready to
try the vacuum. With the vacuum in place, I pushed with all might
might, and the vacuum popped right off. We tried again, and my heart
sank as I heard another loud “pop!” I knew the OB had said I was only
allowed two tries with the vacuum and I did not come this far just to
end up with a C section. I was so hopeful when the OB said she was
giving me one last push with the vacuum. I pushed with everything I
had left in me. The OB reached in and the cord was wrapped two times
around Luke’s neck, keeping him from dropping low enough to help me
completely dilate and then not giving him enough slack to make his way
through the birth canal. In one quick move, she slipped a finger under
the cords, unwrapped them from his neck, and his head and entire body
all flew out with that last push. Moments later my perfect baby boy
was placed on my chest and a mix of pure love and relief washed over
me.
Oh, and the nurse we met while curb walking in our neighborhood? We
did end up seeing her at the hospital, but not until after Luke was
born, which was totally fine by us!
