Delivery Options

Daisy is my third child. Together, my husband and I have four children between us, Carter is 17 and a senior in high school, Zoe is 4 and is in her second and final year of preschool and Teddy, our blond haired, blue eyed boy is 2.

My pregnancy with Daisy was very normal, except that she didn't move much. In fact, it was the easiest of my pregnancies. I gained the least amount of weight of the three, and was the most active. I did become concerned about Daisy's lack of movement, and had multiple NST (Non Stress Tests) in my last trimester. I underwent all the typical tests, excluding an amnio. Tom was vocal about not wanting to risk the pregnancy by doing an amnio. I didn't even give it a thought, if he felt strongly about it then I wouldn't do it. I did undergo the first trimester screening, which measures the nucal fold at the back of the baby's neck. As a result, I went down to Sacramento twice in two weeks and was eventually told that my risk factors for having a child with certain identified chromosomal defects, such as Downs and Trisomy, was that of a 20 year old. Good enough for me, I thought. As a result, I worried very little.

As my due date came closer, I became more and more anxious to have our child. We didn't know the sex, but we all thought (I'm not sure why) that we were going to have a girl. During the last week of my pregnancy (week 40), we learned that Daisy was breech. She wasn't breech the week before, I think that I can recall the day that she flipped because there was a flurry of movement from her over a 4 hour period - such a flurry that I recall that I thought "At last, this child is really moving. Good, very good!" My midwife suspected a breech presentation and so over to hospital I walked, alone as my husband, Tom, was home with our children. The nurse placed the cool gel on my tummy and applied the ultrasound wand. She quickly found the heartbeat, and then proceeded to look for the head. She was quiet, and looked at me and said, "there's the head" - and clearly it wasn't in the correct position. I remember I felt disappointed, and a little alarmed. These types of things don't happen to me.

As I waited for my midwife to come over, I was placed on monitors to check the baby's heartrate. Everything was fine. Lisa, my midwife who also delivered both of my other children, was calming and sweet. She told me that we would attempt to flip the baby - a version is what it is called. We scheduled it for the following day and Lisa gave me tips on how to crawl around at home with my rear in the air to encourage this child to flip on her own. She also told me that my choices were to try to flip the baby, but I could attempt to deliver in the breech presentation - although this is not recommended. Given that I have a family that depends and relies on me, and knowing the dangers of delivery in the breech presentation, I decided that I couldn't and wouldn't risk it. If this dear child did not move back to the head down position, I knew that I would be faced with a C-section.

Let me say, this is the one fear that I have always had. With each pregnancy I have been fearful of needing a C-section. The thought of having my baby cut out from my body sent shivers of fear and dread through my body. I don't take medications, and pain medications particularly do a number of me. I had two natural births, with no pain medications. Teddy was induced, but still, I pushed him out into the world just as I had done with Zoe and I had planned to do the same with this child. I was looking forward to the experience, the joy of the accomplishment and holding my little baby in my arms afterwords, as the hormones from childbirth rushed through us both - cementing the bond that we had been establishing for the last nine months as the baby experienced my voice, my swaying body and my being. A C-section??? No, this is not at all what I planned on or wanted, but apparently was going to be a likely possibility.

The version was scheduled for the next day.