My name is Paige, I’m 29 years old. I had my first child in August of 2023. I stopped progressing during labor and had a c-section to have my son.

 

14 months later I became pregnant with my daughter. The pregnancy went smoothly with nothing of note other than having frequent braxton hicks. I would often wake up with them and thought it was odd how long they would last. Slightly uncomfortable but not anything I was particularly concerned with. I was convinced my daughter was “sunny side up” or in the OP position just as my son had been. It made me wonder if my body was trying to get her into a better position leading up to birth. 

 

Towards the end of pregnancy I was set on letting labor come on naturally to give me the best chance to have a successful VBAC. I went into labor naturally at 40 weeks and 4 days. I labored at home as long as possible because I didn’t want to be persuaded by extra interventions at the hospital. I finally went in after about 12 hours of laboring at home and was 4cm dilated. I had a doula who had me up and moving through many different positions to help labor along. My goal was to wait until I was 7cm before getting an epidural in an effort to not stall the labor. I did get the epidural when I made it to 7cm. My labor was extremely slow and I stalled at 9cm for a few hours. I was given low dose pitocin as my contractions were spreading out and not as strong.

 

Around this time  I had intermittent pain on the left side near my hip/groin area and partially on the left side of my previous c section incision. I had actually asked the nurse to get the doctor because I was nervous this could be a sign of rupture. The doctor reassured me that if I was rupturing the baby would lose position and become disengaged. She did a cervical check at that time and confirmed the baby was still fully engaged.

 

Still stuck at 9cm my cervix was swollen. In a last ditch effort they gave me benadryl to try and reduce the swelling. It worked and I was fully dilated and began pushing. 

At this point my legs were completely numb with the epidural and they had to be fully supported by other people. While pushing, I got more and more breakthrough pain on the left side of my groin/hip/c-section scar. The doctor and staff felt it was due to the baby being in a very low position and being OP. They were able to see her head at this point while I was pushing.

 

The pain was increasing intensely where it was difficult for me to push any more, my daughter’s heart rate also started to do more extreme decels at this time. My legs suddenly began to be able to move again. It was as if the epidural was turned off. They were flipping me every which way to try and stop the significant heart rate decels.The pain was excruciating and not going away between contractions. They made the call to head to the OR. As I was being wheeled to the OR, it felt like a bolt of lightning ripped across my abdomen. 

 

Thankfully, the medical team was able to deliver my daughter within 3 minutes of starting to cut. She came out limp and not crying. She required 3 minutes on the CPAP before beginning to respond more. 

My doctor said that I had just started to rupture as there was not much blood in my pelvis when she initially opened me up. My rupture went from the left side of my c section scar down the lateral segment towards my cervix. She was able to repair everything including a bladder injury that happened during the emergency c section. 

 

I was in labor a total of 46 hours and had low dose pitocin towards the end. My contractions were monitored with an internal monitor once I began receiving pitocin to make sure they were adequate and not too extreme. After talking to my OB and a high risk OB they feel like multiple factors led to this including the long labor, low dose pitocin, and my daughter being in the OP position. 

 

 

My biggest takeaway is how important it is to listen to your body. Mine knew my uterus could not handle any more. I believe that is why my contractions began spacing out and becoming less intense. My body was trying to stop. I also feel this is why suddenly the epidural “stopped working”. My body was warning me. My gut instinct at the start of the pain was that it was rupture related. Please. Listen to your body. 

 

Despite the traumatic birth, my daughter did not need any NICU time. She has gone on to develop as a healthy child however, without the quick action of my medical team this would have been far more catastrophic. I am thankful everyday for what we both have survived, and I will not make the same mistakes going forward.