The Birth of Georgia Marie Sauvage (through the eyes of “Doula Deana”) July 25th-26th, 2008

When I arrived at Swedish around 10:40, the nurses at the nurses’ station greeted me warmly and got me a pair of footies…good thing since I arrived in heels! I was debriefed by Sally (although I didn’t know it was her at the time) about how the labor was progressing. She indicated to me that she had just broken your water and that Georgia’s head was a little cockeyed in the pelvis. She told me that you were in for a long, hard labor. Boy, did you prove her wrong! Little Georgia came just five hours after she made that statement.

I was eager to see you, and when I got in your room you were just headed out for a walk down the hall. I remember being so impressed that you weren’t hooked up to anything…you had a heparin lock in your right arm, but that was it. I will never forget the first moment I knew you were glad I was there. I was walking a bit behind you when suddenly your hand shot out from under the gown/blanket. I just was this had appear, and you said “Deana”. That was all the coaxing I needed. We held hands, walking slowly and pacing while Brad used the restroom. You said very little, but you did tell me that the contractions were harder after having your water broken.

Suddenly you headed into the Jacuzzi room and just said “I want the tub” or something very brief like that. You shed your gown and kept pacing on the tile at first. This turned out to be a blessing since you threw up a couple of times there, and it happened outside the water. By this point Brad was back, and he held the container for you to get sick in and just swayed back and forth with you. He was so amazing at supporting you and you made a beautiful team. Once you caught your breath you got in the tub.

In the tub, I really noticed how much you used movement to cope with your contractions. You rocked indistinctly—back and forth, back and forth—and it really seemed to help you. When you were not in the tub, the walking and pacing seemed to serve this same function for you. Of course, you weren’t focused on this at the time, but it was truly the best thing you could have been doing. The way Georgia was positioned; she needed a lot of motion to help jostle her through the pelvis and underneath all your bony structures. Your body was telling you to do exactly what you needed…it was amazing! You were moving almost constantly. The tub was also the place where you got into a rhythm of communication with everyone as well. From this point on, you only used head nods or one word instructions to us. For example, if you needed a drink you just said “thirsty”. If someone offered you a cold cloth and you didn’t want it you just shook your head “no”. It seemed you simply didn’t have the energy for more than that as all your efforts were focused on bringing Georgia out. But it worked wonderfully and we were all able to decipher your needs just fine.

During this time in the tub, you slept little in between contractions. It was so cute watching Brad reach out his had to catch you “just in case” as your head slumped forward toward the water! The other way we could tell the sleeping spells was that it was the only time you weren’t rocking… J You asked what time it was at one point, and Sally said it was midnight. We didn’t know this at the time, but now it was Georgia’s birthday… There was plenty of listening to Georgia’s heartbeat while you were in the tub. You also got a round of antibiotics for the Group B strep. Sally and the team did a great job of trying to interfere with your hard work as little as possible.

Then it was just the three of us again…Brad you and I. You worked through some pretty challenging contractions and said “I’m really not sure how much longer I can do this”…I remember thinking “that’s good, this is probably transition.” Then you asked Sally if it was too late for an epidural, and I knew we were close! J Sure enough, in a couple contractions you said you felt like you needed to push. I went out in the hall and got Sally. She declared you complete (fully dilated) at 12:50 a.m. We got you out of the tub, and on the walk back to the room you said softly “I’m a rock star!” I had to agree.

Once back in the room, you got down to the hard work of pushing. Georgia still had some turning to do, so it was tough. First, we paced around—you in the middle, Brad and I on each side. Whenever you had a contraction, we would squat and you would push. We moved to the toilet after this with you facing backwards. Lots of rocking and pushing took place here. Then we went over to the bed and tried lying on your side with one leg up. Then back to the toilet, facing forward this time…then on the bed using the squat bar. That seemed kind of challenging to get the hang of, but you were a trouper. Then Sally and the nurses rigged a sheet over the squat bar for you to hang on to and let your body weight be against while you pushed. You made some great progress this way, but unfortunately only about every third contraction was a super productive one. Therefore, after two hours of pushing, you were given a small pitocin drip to help foster some more effective contractions. I knew it was something that you originally didn’t want, and I could tell you bolstered up some great pushes right after hearing that. Luckily, they kept the amount of pitocin to a minimum and it did seem to help.

You went back to the toilet one more time…it was a long walk for you. But we took it slow and in between sips of Gatorade and a cold cloth on the neck, you made it. You sat forward again and got back to pushing. Sally was encouraging you not to rock so that you could put all that energy into pushing. She also really encouraged you to slow down your breathing because you got dizzy at one point. She offered lots of supportive words. Finally, we went back to the bed for what proved to be the last time. Sally had been listening to Georgia frequently, and declared her a “steady eddy”. This was super encouraging, especially since we were over two hours into pushing.

You were making great progress, and Georgia was finally cooperating with all your efforts. She finally came under the pubic bone and stayed put. We could now see her head even between pushes and soon we saw a little bit of here forehead…she was posterior! You were doing amazingly, but Sally did say that if Georgia didn’t come soon, she would need to do an episiotomy. At this point, I whispered in your ear on the next push “show her you don’t need an episiotomy.” And you did! You seemed to get a renewed burst of energy, and you pushed her even further with every effort.

After a few more strong pushes, her head was out…then the shoulders. Then Sally said, “Julie reach down…here she is…get your baby!” and you pulled her up onto your tummy. She popped out right at 3:45 a.m. It was amazing…she started crying almost immediately, and we were all just staring at her. She was tiny and perfect. Her head was a bit misshapen and bruised from the ordeal, but otherwise she was unaffected by it all.

Within a few moments, a hat was on her and she was handed to daddy. Brad did great, rocking in the chair with her and pacing the floor. You were getting the placenta out by this point, and it came out fine. We all looked at it and admired the baby’s thin cord and the tiny calcium deposits on the placental surface. You also got stitched up during this time. The tear was through four layers of skin, so the repair and stitches took a full 10 minutes or so. You seemed most surprised by the discomfort of the uterine massage as they “mashed” on your belly. But after that, you were calm and serene; you even ate some crackers and drank a little juice. Georgia was brought back over to you and you got to nurse…beautiful. The nurse really helped with getting Georgia latched on, and then she seemed like a natural. She popped off a few times, but with some “sandwiching” of the nipple, she got the hang of it. After a snack, she was weighed. She was a perfect 6 lbs. 10 oz.! I only stayed a bit after that since you were so sweetly concerned saying things like, “you know you don’t have to stay!” At about 5:15 I finally departed leaving the three of you to enjoy getting to know one another.