Running head: Labor of Love

Labor of Love: My son’s birth story.
Laura B.
Instructor: Corey Knight
April 14th 2014

Labor of love: My son’s birth story.
Every child has a birth story. While some are dramatic and filled with emotions, others come with simple deliveries and emotions of love. My son’s birth story comes somewhere in between.
On Thanksgiving, 2006 I found out that I was expecting a child. This wasn’t my first child, as my first had resulted in a miscarriage a year earlier. I was scared and nervous but at the same time I was overwhelmed with happiness. The first four months, which were the worst for me, or so I thought, went by without any major problems. I had the occasional morning sickness, and what I thought was normal pregnancy dizziness. I worked as a Med-Tech at Countryside assisted living, where I passed out medications and did the normal CNA work, bed baths and linen changes. One evening, a resident had passed out, and we had to call EMS to come and get her. I had gotten overly hot and the room had started to spin on me. After sitting down awhile, I felt better but decided I needed to call my OBGYN the next day, just as a precaution and let them know what had happened.
The following day, I called my OBGYN who told me he was sure everything was fine, but to air on the side of caution, he wanted me to have an echocardiogram done the following morning. I went into the hospital the following day, not expecting anything to come out of this silly test, and to be sent home. After the echocardiogram tech finished the exam, she told me if anything showed up, my doctor would call me later in the week to notify me and for me to have a good day. That evening, the phone rang and my heart dropped as I saw it was my OBGYN office calling me, after hours. “Laura, the results of your echo showed that you have Pulmonary Hypertension.” I sat down, trying to take in everything he was telling me but all the while thinking to myself, “Am I okay? Is the baby going to be okay? What next?” Pulmonary Hypertension is a type of blood pressure that affects the arteries in the lungs and right side of the heart. (Mayo Clinic) He referred me out to an High risk OBGYN in a neighboring city, telling me they would continue to follow me for my normal OB care but I would be in better hands delivering from a high risk OB doctor.
The following week, I had researched and googled the term “Pulmonary Hypertension” in pregnancy and it was very scary. I met with my new, ‘high risk’ OBGYN, Dr. Maybe. We joked about his name but he immediately made me feel at ease. He suggested I go to a Cardiologist and Pulmonologist throughout my pregnancy for their opinions and to help guide him to make the best delivery options for me. So, each week I had appointments with several different doctors and my son’s birth plan came into place. I had several other test ran, which I passed with flying colors, except my echo where my Pulmonary Hypertension range was in the 50’s, normal range is 25-30. I was going to be admitted into the hospital on September 10th, 2007 to get my IV and medications started up in advance. The following morning at 6:00am, they woke me up and took me down to the OR recovery rooms, where I would be closely monitored throughout my labor. I was allowed one visitor at a time, had no TV and my view was of the nurses’ station. The anesthesiologist came in around 7:00 am and inserted my epidural and an Arterial line. The arterial line was so they could measure my blood pressure, and heart rate 24/7, so they would know if I started to decline. The anesthesiologist informed me, that because of my ‘condition’ I wouldn’t receive the initial dose of medication a normal pregnant woman would receive,