So we were playing Cranium last night, and I had to do the equivalent of a charade for “Walk the plank.” I walked across the couch and walked off onto our hardwood floors. I hit kinda funny, and my knee is killing me now. I sprained my MCL in that knee before, so it has a history of injury (though it’s been a long time and had plenty of time to heal). I didn’t sprain it again or anything, but it’s in just enough pain to be annoying. Rachel didn’t get it, but she has an excuse: she was having a hard contraction.
Speaking of that sort of stuff: We went to the OB yesterday, and here’s what they told us:
1) The baby’s placenta is dying. It’s not; it has small flecks of calcification, so it’s just aged. However, this is what medical professionals tell you so that you will induce with pitocin. The placenta looks fine. It’s aged at 38 weeks and 2 days when Rachel is 42 weeks.
2) Rachel’s fluids are fine (they’re an 11 or 12), but we should really be concerned because they could just disappear at any time. Well the truth is that won’t happen until the placenta is a grade 3. Calcification flecks indicate it’s only a grade 1 or 2.
3) Rachel really needs to go to the hospital and induce with pitocin because the baby is too big for her pelvis and her cervix is posterior. The chances of this being true are very, very small (though doctors tell a lot of women that).
4) The pitocin won’t work (yes, they told us this right after they said she needs to use pitocin). And Rachel has a 100% chance of needing a cesarean. This is 99% true…if she were in a hospital. When a doctor gives pitocin, it usually puts the baby in fetal distress. Thus, if there isn’t quick progress, the doctor has to get the baby out to get the baby out of fetal distress. With Rachel’s cervix position, a posterior baby, and a small pelvis, labor is probably going to be slow and painful. But a midwife will be a lot more patient than a doctor. Hospitals are much more concerned about liability (thanks to guys like John Edwards) than patients.
Needless to say (for anyone that’s familiar with midwifery), everything we heard was a load of crap. There is a slight chance that she may need a cesarean (there always is), but medical professions typically exaggerate the need for them and underestimate the danger of them (especially on the baby’s lungs).
September 29th, 2005 at 8:57 am
Docs are frustrating!
I hope all goes well for y’all. I’m praying for Rachel and baby.
September 29th, 2005 at 10:31 am
I don’t know if they lie as much as cover themselves in case of lawsuit. The fact is that more babies are stillborn after 42 weeks. If they told you everything looked great and you had a stillborn child, they’d be liable for a lawsuit. Therefore, they have to tell you every single risk to cover themselves.
September 29th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Well, she made at least three flat out lies.
Nine percent of women go over 42 weeks. Sure, more stillborn babies are born after 42 weeks because of placenta death, but a placenta doesn’t go from grade 1 to dead in two days. It goes from stage 3 to dead in 1-2 days. The vast majority of late babies are fine.
Rick
September 29th, 2005 at 11:17 am
Shoot, all that stuff sounds scary - I’m probably going to freak out when/if I become a dad.
September 29th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
hehehehehe. sounds like oyu read up on all that, rick
and we’ll remember that later isaiah. you have to freak now, becuase you said you would 
seriously, though, i pray every day for ya’ll and esp. for kyrie.
September 29th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
We’re inducing on Saturday at 8:00, so it sounds like the four of us are probably going to be in the delivery rooms this weekend. Good luck guys!
September 29th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
Well, hopefully the delivery room isn’t in a hospital for us. That would mean a cesarian.
Jon and Hollie went to the hospital this morning, so she might be in labor too (I’m not sure; he just sent me an email saying they were going to the hospital).
Rick
September 29th, 2005 at 1:50 pm
I originally thought homebirths sounded great. But, you know, I’m just not sure I’d go for it now. I’d be more than a little terrified.
September 29th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
We’re all praying hard for you guys!
September 29th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
Sarah,
Yeah, but it’s not the homebirth that is causing her to be late, and if she had been going to the hospital all along, no doubt she would already have had a ceserean by now, so I guess it just depends on what sounds worse to you! =)
Rachel Ruth(planning a homebirth in 24 weeks)
September 29th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
My husband says he used to know you online.
Did you have your first baby at home?
September 29th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
Who is your husband? I used to know some Mosley’s way back when. No, in Virginia it was illegal for homebirth midwives to practice for profit (kind of weird, they could do it for free for a friend but couldn’t be paid for it). Consequentially, most direct entry midwives had ceased to practice and there were only nurse midwives in hospitals. Abigail was born naturally in a hospital with a CNM attending.
September 29th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
Nathanael.
In that case, what’s the benefit to having a CNW rather than a doctor, if you’re delivering in the hospital anyway? Maybe they pay more attention to you? Ours didn’t pay much attention at all, but then she wasn’t our doctor to begin with, so maybe she figured we didn’t matter so much.
September 29th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Midwives labor sit. Whatever midwife is on call won’t leave my side during labor at the hospital unless I want her to (or to go to the bathroom, etc. ;o)) Plus, they are way less apt to do things like make you get a c-section simply because of the amount of time you labor, etc. My CNM will supervise my care completely and catch the baby and only call in a doctor if there are big complications.
September 29th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
Rick, you’re a man after my own heart. Don’t you love how the post-dates assumption is that the placenta is a time bomb waiting to go off, as if it were an entirely independent organ with an expiry date stamped on the side and its continued health and function had no relationship to the mother’s health and nutritional status?
I do wonder about putting all this on the blog before you have a safe and healthy homebirth, though. After Naomi was born, I discovered that Matt had put a prayer request up on his blog, along the lines of, “waters have been broken for almost two days now with no labor forthcoming and there are past group B strep issues so please pray” — which served only to cause needless worry to various people who either did not have all the information that went in to our decision to stay home, or were unwilling to interpret what information they had on the assumption that doctors don’t necessarily have your best interests at heart.
Hoping to see baby pictures here very soon!
September 29th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
I needlessly offended some “medical professionals” with my “But medical professionals lie” line, so I removed it.
Clearly, not all medical professionals lie. However, I think there is a prevalent habit of lying in the OB-GYN profession. They do it for good reasons. Some of them do it for good reasons; it’s a scare tactic to get you to do what they think is right. Others, a smaller portion, do it for greed.
Also, I accidently posted this as Rachel originally, and I couldn’t delete the original post. That post is a blank quote, but several people have commented on this post in that thread, so just scroll down if you want further clarification on where I am at on this whole thing.
September 29th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
Sorry, Sora. I have a bad habit of being a troublemaker.
Nothing bad is going on! Everything’s good. Don’t worry! Honest!
We’re now out of the legal homebirth without doctor’s permission time period. If the doctor thought Rachel was in any great danger, the doctor wouldn’t keep clearing us for homebirth. So if you like to put all your eggs in your doctor (i know; it sounds kinda like a pun…sorry, I haven’t slept much lately), it’s all good (just like if you call Sam…sorry, Monroe joke).
September 29th, 2005 at 9:31 pm
I just showed this post to Matt and he said, “Well, I hope they do the right thing.”
“And that would be?”
Looks at me like it is self-evident. “Not chop open the wife, of course.”
“Honey, read it again. Does Rick sound like he’s going to let anyone chop open his wife without a really, really good reason?”
“I thought you were going to say, “without a really, really good fight.”"
September 30th, 2005 at 12:16 pm
Hi Sarah,
I remember Nathanael. If I remember correctly, he and I have several siblings with the same names but in the reverse order.. kinda funny (for instance, I am Rachel but the oldest and Nathanael is the youngest in my family, and if I remember correctly we both have either a Jonathan, Rebekah or Benjamin. I think some of the middle names are even the same. hehe, reformed parents must all like the same names.)
Anyway, as far as the hospital and CNM, it just totally depends on the hospital and CNM. Some CNMs are actually even more opposed to natural birth than some doctors are, so you have to choose carefully (although it is more rare to have a CNM against natural birth). The one I had though was totally great — she had only done 6 episiotomies in 5 years, for instance. It also depends on the hospital because some hospitals have such restrictive protocols (must labor on back, can’t get up to walk around, etc) that the CNM is very limited in what she can do. I’m going to try to write smaller posts, I’m not sure if Rick and Rachel want me filling up their blog with birth stuff. In fact, how about you can email me at rachelruth@juno.com if you have any more questions?
Rachel Ruth
September 30th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
Dearest ones,
As a firm believer in the superiority of homebirth to hospital, would you mind (if you aren’t too busy!) substantiating these facts, for the sake of a few loved ones who think your facts aren’t scientifically sound? I’d love to read this information myself.
It also might be helpful to remind people that you are working with a competent and experienced medical professional, not some sort of hippie who lives in a teepee. (Like someone I knew years ago!)
The bottom line for me is this: You are in God’s hands. You are using the minds He gave you to make the best, most informed, intelligent decision you can…..the rest is up to Him.
I Love you (all three!) very much.
September 30th, 2005 at 9:14 pm
We are all praying for you here. It’s so encouraging to know that you, as first time parents, believe so strongly in homebirth. I was overdue with our fourth child and Mt. St. Helens blew causing the road between Deer Park and Spokane to close. My doctor told me there was a doctor in Deer Park that would do a homebirth. I was terrified. If I had only read the books that I have since then. You have a lot going for you — most importantly, the support of your extended family!
October 1st, 2005 at 12:28 am
Congrats Rick & Rachel!!!!!!
October 1st, 2005 at 6:27 am
Congratulations!
October 1st, 2005 at 8:32 am
Congratulations! I finally found where an announcement was made. Yay! Babies! Yay!, to borrow someone else’s line.
October 1st, 2005 at 8:49 am
Warmest Congratulations!
October 1st, 2005 at 2:31 pm
Rick and Rachel, there aren’t words. Congrats. I’m overjoyed, I’ll call you soon.
October 1st, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Yay! I’m soooo excited for you!
October 1st, 2005 at 6:29 pm
OK, I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that Kyrie’s here, based on all the sudden congratulations, so… CONGRATULATIOSN! Joy, joy, joy.
October 1st, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Praise the Lord! I’ve been keeping up with y’all, but just not making my presence known
Only good things await you…
Can’t wait to see pictures!
October 2nd, 2005 at 8:46 am
I’m dying to see pictures. All I can ever think about is babies now. Wacko.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Why you are just so smart, I don’t you why you just didn’t pop that little sucker out on the living room sofa.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Wow, Ashley, thanks for the compliment, but I can’t personally have a baby since I am male. Besides, the baby was born successfully two years ago (the day after I wrote this post, actually). Good thing everything I wrote in the post was correct, huh? Hope you can catch up with the posts! Feel free to sign up for my Basic Writing course!