When I was about a week overdue, I had a regular appointment with a doctor I’ve never had before. I had the non-stress test done, and everything still looked good with the baby. Of course he brought up induction as usual, and I did my best to ignore him. He also did the normal check where they see how far along you’re dilated, and he said that I may feel a little uncomfortable from it. Well, I’ve had plenty of these checks by now, and they never hurt before. This time it hurt a little, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I then stood up and there was a pool of blood on the floor. What in the world did this guy do to me?? He then had me lay on my back and took my blood pressure. He said it was high so I had to go to Labor & Delivery right after he was finished (it’s in the same building). I was nervous and a little confused about what was going on. I’ve always had low blood pressure, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because I was angry that he brought up induction and for the fact that I was bleeding like crazy. I go upstairs to Labor & Delivery and I tell them the Dr. sent me here because of my blood pressure, so they check me. It’s high, so they tell me to lay on my side and they’ll take it that way. This time it was normal, and they said it was high only because I was laying on my back which puts pressure on me from the baby. I tell them about the bleeding and the doctor looks at my chart and says, “that can happen when the doctor strips your membranes.”   What?? I tell her that he didn’t even tell me he was doing that, and she was shocked and says that she always informs her patients before she does that. I mean I would have let him do that since some people think it can bring on labor, but seriously…TELL YOUR PATIENT FIRST! I totally felt violated-again. Make that another doctor added to my “do not use” list.

About a week after that, I had an appointment with the doctor I liked and he set my induction date for what would be 14-days overdue (which I had agreed to). It was my goal to avoid induction, so I did everything within my power to try to bring on labor naturally. I used all the methods you commonly hear about, some old wives’ tales, and some holistic methods. Nothing seemed to be working: doing the deed; eating spicy foods, eggplant parm (which I hate), pineapple, cinnamon; walking a lot; or bouncing on my exercise ball. It was now 2 days before my induction day. I called a massage place to schedule a foot & hand reflexology session for the next day, and told them I was pregnant. A few hours later the therapist calls me and asks how far along I was. I told them a few days shy of 42 weeks, and she says they aren’t allowed to work on anyone over 41 weeks. So I ask her if she has any tips on reflexology points that I can use to induce labor. She tells me to press on certain areas of the ankles and the “webbing” of your thumbs. She said it usually works within 24 hours. All day and night I used acupressure on these points while relaxing and listening to music. I even felt some cramping in my abdomen which I took as a good sign.

That night when I went to bed, I felt some more cramping and hoped that the acupressure did something. I got up around 5:30 a.m. to use the bathroom, and right after that I felt what I thought was my water leaking. I then did the “test” by seeing if I could “hold it in” or not, and I couldn’t hold anything in, so I knew it was amniotic fluid. I got into bed and told my husband I think my water was starting to break and then I suddenly felt very strong cramping. So THIS was what a contraction felt like!  I was very happy and told myself that we’ll stay home as long as possible, which is something they talked about in my Childbirth Prep class. Well, within 30 minutes the contractions started to come really quick and were about 4 minutes apart, even though they were short at about 30 seconds long. At this point I quickly nixed the idea about staying home and wanted to get to the hospital right away. Of course my husband being the procrastinator he is, had to take a shower first. Can you believe that?!

We get to the hospital and they confirmed that my water was leaking and that I was 3 cms dilated. I thought it would be bigger than that, but at least it wasn’t still 1-2 cms. The contractions were coming super fast and super strong. I immediately knew which “type” of labor I was having:  the quick, intense kind. I was kind of happy that it was at least going to be quick, even though it was painful. But it was at this point that my labor started to go exactly OPPOSITE of what I had planned. . .