like you know put a medication in my iv
to regulate my blood pressure um and that medication within 30 seconds
made me super nauseous i was like i'm feeling nauseous no no i'm like about to throw up
hey guys it's alice here back with another doula reacts to a birth vlog video
and today we are looking at amanda daniels birth vlog amanda and her partner have
agreed to let us use this video for a teaching tool and for us all to learn
from a real life birth so let's jump in hello my name is amanda and i'm currently 40 weeks pregnant
and a couple of days so going past your due date is really common especially if it's the first time
that you have given birth we're just patiently waiting for our baby boy um i was woken up at 3
a.m this morning with pretty heavy contractions um they were the first painful contractions that
i've felt so it was kind of exciting but also it looks like labor started overnight which is
very common this is good a lot of times people are woken up fighting them i can't go to target
um it's a very common time soon as that sun goes down it's really i'm missing a lot of times we see
most of everything is already packed luckily it's like that was 3 a.m which is crazy
all right fam now we're driving them it's like nathan and i are many hours later it is 4 30
ish walking is great in labor saturday december especially it's a beautiful day which it looks
like they have contractions that they're continuing for their birth they haven't
stopped their labor but they also haven't gotten any more consistent really painful um
what's going on i know this technique so we call this curb walking she doesn't have a great curb
in her area usually if it's a more distinct curve but she's trying making sure so curb
the reason behind it is to try to change up the pelvis help the baby move down anyone so you know
giving if you can imagine when you're on the curb you're sort of moving up with one side more than
the other so thumbs up great technique currently 6 19 p.m and the contractions are getting really
painful and a lot closer together um let me show you guys what this charger is okay like so so
they are it looks like the sunset it's later here about a minute long each
and about five minutes contractions getting closer together and painful that's a good sign
especially if um you know it's an hour drive back home so i am gonna start packing
hello um it is 3 44. i'm in a lot of pain we're on our way to the birthing center
i'm really nervous that they're going to turn us away because i'm not dilated enough
so it sounds like quite a bit of time passed between that last update and this
update before they went to the birthing center um hello so it's morning time now
um this is not the update that i thought i would be giving you guys but
nathan and i got to the birthing center at around 4 30 this morning and i was in a lot of pain
i was having contractions five minutes apart lasting for a minute for well over an hour and
when i got to the birthing center i was only three centimeters dilated
which was not good news because in order to be admitted i needed to be at least five to
six five to six centimeters so um they let me wait in the waiting room for a couple hours
just to hopefully progress after two hours i'd only progressed to four centimeters
luckily they still let me be admitted because i had shown progress um however once i was
admitted i just tried to like relax i took a shower i did everything i could to like
just really continue to progress and soften my cervix so that i can continue to dilate and um
i was not progressing after about two hours i was still at 44 centimeters so
at that point i started talking about options of like whether i wanted to go
back home and continue to labor at home or whether i wanted to go to the hospital
and just you know be induced there um and at this point i'm in so much pain nathan
and i have been up since for over 24 hours we woke up at 3 30. yesterday morning um
with really strong contractions i've been having contractions wow consistently for the past over 24
hours i'm in pain i'm tired i just want to have this baby i want to meet our son and although
this isn't what i had envisioned for my birth i
am happy that we have options and that ultimately this is a decision that i got to make
and i think it's the best decision for us because like i said i want to meet our son so
we're pulling up to the hospital now our midwife gets to come with us which is really nice
um she'll be there to deliver the baby where am i going and um yeah hopefully everything goes well
updated once we get so hard already let me just pause for a second so this is not uncommon a lot
of birth centers have different stipulations for whether or not you convert there so like
this birthing center it sounds like she needed to be making progress at least five centimeters
in order to stay at the birth center so they gave her the option they suggested she could
go home and labor there still or she could go to the hospital and um if you're not familiar the
hospital has options that birth center doesn't so hospitals have an option for epidurals they
have an option for pitocin to speed up labor to help contractions get stronger and those options
are not at a birth center so i imagine that she is going to the hospital maybe to take advantage of
some of the options that she doesn't have at the birth center and i know that her midwives she said
suggested that she or not suggested but gave her the option of going home but that is such a hard
route to take when you're already so tired and you don't you're already doing all that you can do you
know i feel like that's what i'm seeing like she's just she's just doing just giving her everything
so strong and um she just needs to take advantage of some tools that are available at the hospital
which is sounds like a great decision and i love i love that her midwife is able to come with her
that is not always the case when you transfer from a home birth or a birth center any out of
hospital birth into the hospital it really varies uh by where you live and your care provider so
in her case that's great so she already has someone that is familiar with her and and her care
which is very um good so yeah so on to the hospital it is we're
we're looking at for the sake of the health of our baby and the health of amanda and that's it
they're making the right decision for them it's very clear even if it's hard
even if it's hard today has been really emotional you've seen me get emotional already
um but it just hasn't been at all what i expected and i'm just learning that i have to get better at
surrender and trusting the lord because you know i don't have control of any of this stuff when i got
here i was having really painful contractions and if you know me at all you know that i'm all about
natural health and wellness and i had made the decision early on to deliver at a birthing center
and do it all natural and those plans changed really quickly when you know today happened
so we came to the hospital and i made the decision to get an epidural which is crazy
i never thought that that would even cross my mind and it did um and that's okay um
that is okay just to give myself that is okay absolutely use the tools you have but the crazy
thing you can see so smack your yellow piece right there that is just because of the puzzle the top
epidural i never take medication and so i just didn't know how my body would react
it was just really overwhelming the doctor was great or the anesthesiologist was great
everything went as it should have but immediately after the epidural my blood pressure dropped
significantly and so the nurses like scrambled and they like you know put a medication in my iv
to regulate my blood pressure and that medication within 30 seconds
made me super nauseous i was like i'm feeling nauseous no no i'm like about to throw up and then
i threw up um it was kind of gnarly and it just because i was already so scared of the epidural
it just really shook me um to like have my blood pressure drop and then give me another
medication and then that medication not sit well with me it was just like so much all at once
and oh my gosh i just broke down crying so much all at once
put that in a nutshell so let me pause it again the most common risk of an epidural
is that quick drop in blood pressure and sometimes that quick drop of blood pressure
requires that you have another medication to speed up your heart really well it raises
your heart rate to bring your blood pressure back up that whole situation can sometimes
cause people to get nauseous so like amanda said she got nauseous she threw up and it shook her
she said it was gnarly and wow what a great way to describe that i mean gnarly yeah i mean this when
this episode that she's talking about she doesn't give the exact time frame but i've seen it before
and it usually happens quickly like within the first 15 minutes 10 minutes after you get an
epidural if you're gonna have that reaction it happens or i i mean within the first hour let's
just say but it feels really quick because it's like oh no blood pressure's dropping
get medication feel sick all together kind of being gnarly a lot and she said it shook her so um
and then she mentions what a supportive partner she has in nathan and wow partners
that is a great time to really step in and make sure that you're close by make sure that you're
telling your partner that it's going to be okay getting through this hurdle and um you know
we'll get to the other side of it so whoa she's been through it she's got she's she's
strong she's dealing with some some you know challenges but we're still still moving forward
we're out right now she's gonna check in again at two o'clock it's currently 12 45 so she's
gonna be coming in a little bit over an hour to check if i've progressed and at that point if
i'm still at four centimeters and we'll talk about potentially getting pitocin or something like that
great
ah such good news sometimes getting an epidural is just the tool that you need to help your body
um get into a progress and progress through a good labor pattern how much do i love
okay i love this so much i'm a big believer in using music as a tool for labor nathan her
partner said that that was a special song for them amazing and the fact that he's fanning her is like
one of my favorites because favorite coping techniques you get so hot when
it's time to push and it looks like she's feeling quite an urge to push
i'm so close yeah that's great which can be hard sometimes when you have an
epidural that if you still feel that kind of pressure but it does usually help push
help you focus that pushing feeling i think it's really good example of how you can still feel
sensation you might still feel a sensation when you have um a lot of times people are very
confused about why am i feeling something now don't i have another girl but
it's hard to take away that feeling of the baby right there in the birth canal that pressure
it's usually more of a pressure he's going to come out with no chin and a beard are you ready
i love how nathan push push push is right there focused speaking encouraging not yelling
um it looks like maybe he has some washcloths over there on the side which i'm not believing as well
really great support i love seeing such great support oh notice the two women behind nathan
they are probably uh baby nurses that have come in for the delivery just for an extra
set of hands if there's anything wrong with the baby they're standing right there by the warmer
and they're really just waiting they they jump in after the baby's born and usually help assess the
baby and if there's any reason that the baby needs any kind of attention they'll be there
good job sweetie good job here comes this
good job three three three three soon give me a little punch
the midwife is giving some specific directions to help amanda push and not tear sweetie's
so there's the baby nurses that we saw
love i'm not even commenting on it because i'm mesmerized but she's skin to skin baby skin skin
um oh look bear nathan is cutting the cord great video of the forward cutting oh what a beautiful
baby i love that when the baby was born they had her gown pulled up right skinned skin and then a
nurse helped take her down off so that they could get that skin so important what a strong strong
birthing team great example thank you to amanda daniels for allowing us to witness such a
beautiful birth and learn from it as well because great example of dealing with challenges and just
rolling with them and and you know making the best of what you're given in labor and choosing
making making decisions that are right for you maybe before you had the baby before you went into
labor when you were thinking about it those might not have been the decisions you think you had made
would make but you've got to make the decisions at the time that you're going through it and you
know make make appropriate decisions at the time and that they did an awesome job at that so if you
want to see which i encourage you to do see the whole video from amanda daniels down below i've
got a link to her channel i have got a link to the original video and if you have not seen jessica
and chad's birth vlog i would love for you to check it out here and i'll see you guys next time
bye
you