waterspyder

I had my last major obstetrical appointment today. The baby is 6lbs 8oz so far... and although I will be full term as of Sunday, I still have about three weeks to go, so still on track for about an 8-9lb baby. Yikes. From here on out they plan to check my blood pressure to make sure I don't develop sudden preeclampsia, and then we "wait and see". Any day now. Ack.

But today I also met with the anaesthetist, and I'm a little nervous. I really feel like if I am not able to have a natural delivery, I'm going to be kind of screwed. This is mostly because I'm obese. Actually, I meet the clinical definition of morbidly obese but most people can't tell I had a pre-pregnancy BMI of over 40. Basically, the doctors are going in under the assumption that I will eventually have to have a C-section, something I very much don't want for a variety of reasons. They assume this because most obese women need C-sections due to a variety of health complications... complications I don't have. Actually, I'm really healthy. I have no breathing problems or deformities in the back of my throat or jaw, I have excellent muscle tone, I do not have diabetes in any of its forms, I gained a reasonable amount of weight (25lbs) and I most certainly don't have high blood pressure (and seriously, if my blood pressure spikes to 130/80 after encountering several cases of "teh dumb" on the road, it's not likely to get dangerous anytime soon). I'm surprisingly active and athletic... taking yoga classes and salsa lessons until last week, and still, I'm probably going to undergo unnecessary medical procedures because most women of my height and weight are not active people who generally eat a balanced diet.

Some things they want to do is get an epidural catheter in my back ASAP, regardless of if I want epidural anaesthesia or not.... and that alone carries some serious risks. They also want to put in an IV right away in case they screw up the catheter and need to do the C-section under a general. This too is problematic since I generally have low blood pressure and tend to collapse veins with IVs in them; average lifespan is 3 hours. This may not be so bad, but I only have 3 veins that nurses have ever been able to use for IVs. I don't like the math. And I'm allergic to the tape. Boo. And don't get me started on the anaesthetic, it just sounds like bad news to me. At least we both agreed that narcotics are an exceptionally bad idea, so I won't have someone shooting me full of them insisting that there was no way I could be still in pain. Nitrous is still a go.

I've resolved to deliver my first baby the same way my mom delivered me. Eight hours, start to finish, no complications.

Here's to hoping.

no subject

I mean, the mainstay of the pain management for women is the epidural.

When you get an epidural, you lose the ability to move around, eat and drink, and you also need to be catheterized[1]. The third increases risk of infection, the second makes it so you can't obtain new energy sources making contractions less effective, and the first means you can't use gravity to help the baby descend or rotate[2]. Also, because your body can't feel the baby and the contractions anymore, the doctors usually have to give a Pitocin[3] injection to get things started again, because they very often stall out. Also, it increases the rate of fetal distress[4], and makes a C-Section 3 times more likely than in a natural delivery. And there are straight-up side effects of an epidural.

What the fuck?

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[1] You also usually don't regain the ability to urinate on your own for 24-48 hours after the epidural.
[2] 4% of babies fail to rotate in natural deliveries, while 21% fail to rotate with an epidural resulting in the need for C-section or a delivery with instruments.
[3] Pitocin is used 3 times more often during deliveries with epidurals. Pitocin may also hamper the mother's ability to make the natural Oxytocin which lets down milk for breastfeeding.
[4] Fetal distress is 30% more likely in epidural deliveries