Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/915948
LAST FEBRUARY, ROSABETH, a 36-year-old high school administrator, and her husband, David, who works in marketing and finance, received the news they longed for: They were going to have a baby. The couple from Fort Greene in Brooklyn, spent six years trying to conceive. Multiple attempts at in vitro fertilization (IVF) were unsuccessful, but finally, the treatment worked. The way Rosabeth conceived strengthened her desire for a natural birth. "It took so much medical intervention to get pregnant that I wanted as little as possible involved in my delivery," Rosabeth says. "I decided to work with a midwife after seeing a lot of my friends do the same. I liked midwifery's focus on the mother and success with vaginal delivery." After receiving close monitoring from her fertility doctor for most of the first trimester, Rosabeth transitioned to the care of a midwife around week 10. Her pregnancy progressed smoothly through the spring, summer and early fall. October 28, her due date, came and went with no sign that the baby was ready to enter the world. "I wanted to go into labor naturally, but the midwives and high-risk obstetrician/gynecologist I was seeing were concerned about letting me go past 41 weeks because IVF patients have a higher risk of problems with the placenta," Rosabeth says. "By November 6, I had reached 41 weeks and two days, so we decided to induce." A LENGTHY LABOR Rosabeth and David met their midwife and doula at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital around 8 p.m. on November 6. Almost as soon as Rosabeth received a medication to induce labor, she began having contractions at three-minute intervals. Her labor was off to a textbook start. One hour became three, then six, then 12, then 24. "The midwives broke my water about 24 hours after the contractions started," Rosabeth says. "My cervix was dilating slowly. After a day and a half of labor, I was dilated just five centimeters. Around noon on November 8, one of the midwives mentioned to David that a C-section might be necessary." The midwives who had been overseeing Rosabeth's labor in shifts recognized that the process had stalled. "Opting for a C-section is not something we do lightly or without a lot of consideration," says McKenna Eldh, C.M., a midwife at NYP Brooklyn Methodist who attended to Rosabeth during her labor. "If the mother and baby are both safe and healthy, we come to the conclusion to recommend C-section over several hours based on how the labor is progressing. In Rosabeth's case, everything came down to the fact that the baby was moving through the birth canal at an angle, almost ear-first, which is a poor position." Despite Rosabeth's long-standing desire for a natural birth and the plans she had made for it, she was not disappointed when she learned a C-section would be necessary. "My mind-set shifted," she says. "I was just really excited to meet my baby." WINTER 2018 W W W.N Y P.O RG / BRO OKLY N 14 T O U C H I N G B A S E