January 24th, 2023 was the best and also the most painful day of my life. Since I ended up going a week past my due date, I had a scheduled induction at 41 weeks. Being induced was not ideal, but since I was so late my doctor and I decided it would be the safest option for her.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a mother baby nurse and delivered at the hospital I work at. I knew my coworkers would take great care of us and we truly had the best team throughout our stay.

Also as a disclosure, everything that day was slightly a blur so I had to guess on all the times lol.

I arrived at the hospital at 6:30am for the induction. the only “birth plan” I had was to deliver a healthy baby, whatever way that may be… but I was really hoping for a vaginal delivery. I also planned on getting the epidural since I heard Pitocin induced contractions can be very, very painful. However I was unsure what time I wanted to get it. My nurse did warn me to try to get it before my water broke since the pain would get more intense and that it does take time to prepare for it since I would need a bolus right before. She told me that it was up to me when I wanted to get it and to let her know when I was ready.

I was 2cm dilated during my first cervical check in the morning. The midwife stretched me to 3cm and my cervix was already pretty thin so luckily I didn’t need a foley bulb to stretch my cervix (I have heard they can be very uncomfortable). My doctor had planned to induce me with Pitocin, which is the synthetic form of oxytocin which makes your uterus contract to help induce labor. I think my nurse started the pitocin around 8:30 am, and increased it at intervals since I still not having any pain with the contractions. Around 1pm my doctor checked me again, and since I was still 3cm, he stretched me to 4cm. Since my water had not broken yet, he did give me the option to break it himself. I decided to wait a few more hours and see if my body would give in on its own. I don’t know why but the thought of getting the epidural at this time didn’t even cross my mind, I think because I still wasn’t in any pain.

Of course right after my doctor and nurse left the room, my doctor left the hospital and my nurse went on break. About 15 minutes later, I sat up in bed and felt some fluid leak. It was a small amount of clear fluid but I was not sure if my water had broken or if I had peed myself, so I called the nurse’s station. She confirmed it was in fact my water. Initially I was super happy my water broke naturally and I felt happy my body was finally doing something on its own. 

And this is where everything really started…

The contractions started to HURT. SO, SO badly… I remember getting up to pee (because a full bladder made the contractions even more painful) and crying on the toilet because I was in so much pain I could not get up. Eventually the nurse helped me get back in bed so we could put the baby back on the monitor. The contractions kept getting worse and worse and I asked for the epidural. My belly hurt SO bad. I remember thinking in the moment that I would never ever want to experience this pain again and that this would be my first and last baby.

The nurse started the bolus which took 30 minutes and by around the time the bolus was done my nurse was back from her break. Anesthesia came soon after that to place the epidural. I would say from the time my water broke to the time I got the epidural was about 1-1.5 hours which I expected. I was also anxious about getting the epidural since I had seen several placed and was nervous about the risks. Luckily my nurse was amazing throughout the entire process, holding my hands as I was having intense contractions and trying to stay still for the epidural placement. I don’t remember having much pain when I got the epidural and I’m not sure if that’s because it wasn’t that painful or because the contractions were so intense they masked the pain. At that point nothing compared to the pain from the contractions.

Just a few minutes after the epidural was placed the pain got less intense and I remember thinking it was like a miracle. For the next hour or two I actually felt a lot better.

And then the pain came back…

It was almost as bad as the hour or so from when my water broke to when I got the epidural. My nurse helped get me repositioned but with each turn the pain got worse and worse and I kept pressing my pain button. At one point the contractions got so intense – so long and close together and painful that Tatum’s heart rate dropped to the 70s-80s (the safe rate is 110-160). I knew this was a risk with getting induced and that it can be fairly common, but of course I was still really anxious when it happened. My nurse called a bunch of people in the room to help flip me back and forth on my sides to help bring her heart rate back up. They stopped the Pitocin I had to get a medication injected in my arm to slow down the contractions because the other interventions weren’t working enough. This was probably the scariest part of the whole day. Luckily soon after I got the medicine her heart rate went back up but the pain was still there.