Zoe's Story

A week before my due date, I went to my doctor's appointment. The doctors were monitoring my blood pressure, which was teetering to the point of being dangerously high. I had also gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy, but the main concern was my blood pressure.

They took my blood pressure and felt it was necessary to induce me. I had the option to wait since my pressure wasn't dangerous, but they felt it would be safer for me as well as for the baby if I were to be induced soon. So I was scheduled to have an induction the following day.

At 6 p.m. I went into the hospital. I had medicine placed on my cervix to dilate it. After many hours of pain, I was given pain medicine that helped a little. Then, around 6 a.m. the next morning, they started me on Pitocin. I was feeling a lot of cramping by then, much more so than the previous night. At that point the doctor came in and decided to break my bag of water. Most people had told me that didn't hurt, but it hurt so badly! The cramping became even worse than before.

I was in horrendous pain, and I decided to go with an epidural. At 11 a.m. I was given one and I fell asleep. I woke up an hour later to feel the pain coming back again. They had given me a catheter so I wouldn't have to get up and down a lot to go the bathroom. I wasn't allowed to walk around because of being induced, so I had to lie down in bed. The pressure was unbearable and I begged them to take the catheter out. The epidural stopped working and I endured the most extreme pain I have ever felt in my life.

They then decided since I was in so much pain to give me a spinal block. After what seemed like hours and so many drugs, the anesthesiologist came in and tried to numb me. I was sitting there and told her, "Stop, I have to push!” I lay back and indeed, the baby was coming. My cervix lip had not fully gone over the baby's head, so my doctor reached up and pulled my cervix over her head.

After two hours of pushing, the baby felt like she was never going to come out! I suddenly had tremendous pain in my head, and my vision became blurry. The doctors went out of the room and told my mom that they were concerned about me, but because the baby was so far down, they didn't feel a C-Section would be appropriate. I was exhausted and refused to push. My boyfriend was beside me and told me I was almost there, just to push through it all. My head hurt, my bottom hurt, I couldn't see, but darn it, I was going to push out this baby!

After another hour of pushing, my darling Zoe was born, on May 22 2002, at 9:14 pm. John, my boyfriend, got to cut the cord; they placed her on my stomach and I got to feel her for the first time. I will never forget that feeling! John said later that they held her upside down and her back was towards him, so it took him a full minute after they put her on my stomach before he realized she was a girl!

After 27 hours of labor, including pushing, all the pain, anguish, and tears, I look back on this event in my life and realize I would do it all again! My daughter is the best thing that ever happened to me. Everyday I see her grow, learn, do new things; I do not look back on her birth as bad, but as a gift.