As long as we're doing birth stories, I must comment that I am constantly
thankful that, in my uneducated state before the birth of my first child, I
was lucky enough to have a non-interventionist doctor.  With both children,
I started leaking amniotic fluid at 37 weeks.  The first time, I didn't go
into labor (we waited 14 hours, and he gave me the advice to walk, and walk,
and walk....).  This turned out to be an induced vaginal delivery.
Unfortunately (as I now understand from LACTNET), the oxytocin receptors
were not active when we started, and they kept increasing the dose with no
noticeable effect, until, 9 or 10 hours after we started the induction, I
suddenly reached a threshhold where I had having strong contractions with no
breaks in between them.  I was given stadol, took a rest, and we started
over with very low doses of pitocyn (sp?).  The second time through it
worked, and I had a vaginal delivery after 19 hours of induction, and no
food or sleep to speak of for 36 hours.  I know that, with another doctor,
this would have been a C-section.

I ended up with a sleepy baby, with a disorganized suck, which in
combination with large breasts, short arms and flat nipples created a
disaster.  I now ask myself if part of the problems with my nipples weren't
caused by excess fluids from 48 hours of IV.  By day 4 she had not latched
on successfully, and would shut down when offered the breast.  I was lucky
enough to find a LLL Leader/Lactation consultant that day (it was a Sunday)
who visited me and helped us get started pumping, finger feeding, and suck
training.  For three weeks post partum, we had to wake her for feedings.  I
now ask myself, when she finally stopped being sleepy, was it because we
passed her due date, or was it because the stadol finally wore off?.  At
four weeks post partum, she finally took the breast, and we never looked
back.  I still quietly celebrate Nov. 28th each year as the day she began
breastfeeding.

The psychological response to a body that didn't work (didn't go into labor)
and a baby that didn't work (wouldn't even suck) were devastating, but we
worked through it.  It still upsets me to talk about it.

Second baby, same hospital (although now 150 miles away, because I simply
couldn't deal with the common childbirth practices in the town where I now
live), same doctor, same amniotic fluid leaking at 37 weeks.  This time, at
the doctor's suggestion, I took some castor oil to help start labor, cooked
dinner for my parents who had come to visit before the baby arrived, piled
my family into the car and drove 150 miles.  By the time we got into town,
labor was well underway.  We met at the hospital in the middle of the night,
walked a lot, sat in the jacuzzi, and had an unmedicated birth early in the
morning. The nurse who monitored me stopped to say good-bye on her way off
duty, and told me, "This is the way it's supposed to work.  I wish we'd been
able to film you for other mothers to see."  This child was not interested
in breastfeeding immediately after birth, but did within the first few
hours, and then went into that "deep recovery sleep" that has been mentioned
on LACTNET.  The feelings of competence, strength and well-being that
followed this second birth were just as overpowering as the feelings of
incompetence following the first one.

I think it is important to note that the doctor was in family practice, not
straight OB.  He is happy to have siblings at office visits and at births.
He, to this day, does not have the equipment to do sonograms in his office,
because he feels that he would prescribe them too often.  He now has a
partner, but they do not switch off on OB duties, you get to keep your very
own doctor during labor and delivery.  He supports and massages the perineum
during delivery, and almost never does episiotomies.  He instituted
pediatric exams for newborns in the room, because he didn't want to have to
leave the mother to go down to the nursery, and because he knows that
mothers and babies should be together.  When the nurses objected that there
wasn't enough light to examine the baby, he got them a cart with a scale and
a light for their examinations.  If you're in central Virginia and want to
know who he is, I'd be happy to refer you to him.

With all of the good things I have to say about this man, who my family
dearly loves, he didn't know enough about breastfeeding to give me good
advice (not that I expected advice on breastfeeding to come from him, even
with my first child).  I was astounded when she was 6 weeks old, when he
suggested a "relief" bottle once a day that the father could give so I could
have a break.  This was a child who had only been breastfeeding for 2
weeks--no way should she have been given a bottle.

Before my second child was born, I discussed the possible implication of
stadol on my first daughter's sucking problems.  He pulled out the records
and told me the last stadol I received was two hours before birth, and
therefore it shouldn't have had any effect!  I didn't really buy the
explanation then, but didn't have any evidence that he was wrong.  Since
subscribing to LACTNET, I've been collecting references on this subject, and
I plan to send him a nice letter with copies of relevant articles.  This is
a great doctor, and he really should have enough information to make an
informed decision on medication during childbirth! :)

Margaret K.K. Radcliffe ([log in to unmask])
Mining & Minerals Engr, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA