First of all, I would like to thank both Dr. Worth & Dr. Mussalli, my wonderful doula Shara, and the great nurses at St. Vincent’s. My successful VBAC could not have happened without their warm support.
I had a strong wish (like an iron) to have a VBAC from day one. At the same time, it was surprising to find out how difficult it is to get to the right doctor; a doctor who respects the patient’s decision, a doctor who is willing to support VBAC. It was Shara, my doula, who kindly referred me to Dr. Worth’s practice. I knew right away at my first consultation with Dr. Worth that she is the doctor that I had been looking for. Like many of Dr. Worth’s patients, I transferred to Village Obstetrics late in my pregnancy, at 26 weeks.
A 36-hour labor and delivery turned out to be a long one; however, it was the most wonderful experience I’ve ever had in my whole life.
My progressive labor started when I had a water leak at 6 am in the morning. Luckily, I had an appointment with Dr. Worth on the same day who told me I am already 1 cm dilated and immediately need to go to the hospital for an exam. After the exam around 1 pm, I begged if I could go home to get myself ready and say good-bye to my daughter. Both Dr. Worth and Dr. Mussalli were so generous and actually let me go…!
As promised, I was back at the hospital at 6 pm. The external fetal monitoring result was showing that I was having a weak labor. Six hours passed with no major progress when Dr. Worth suggested I take a low doze of Pitocin and switch to internal monitoring. The labor did intensify after that but was still manageable without an epidural. It became 6 to 7 cm dilated around 5 am (the next day) when the nurses and Dr. Worth suddenly ran into the room with a strained look saying the baby’s heart beat slowed down. I could tell they were doing everything they can to increase the heart rate. The worst scenario of C-section even came up to save the baby. It was the most frightening moment in my life imagining that my baby is in danger. The good thing was the heart beat came back shortly, thanks to everyone’s effort. The bad thing was that my contraction stopped probably due to such an unexpected extreme situation.
Dr. Worth and Dr. Mussalli were patient enough to give me some time to let the process go naturally. However, several hours passed with little progress and it was almost noon time. Without any sleep, I was getting exhausted, both physically and mentally. Again, Dr. Worth and Dr. Mussalli suggested I go for Pitocin with an epidural (or IV type of pain killer) to speed things up. Epidural was not my choice, but without it, I was not sure if I could endure the intense process all over again. I was too tired to make any decision. It was Dr. Mussalli who gave me the last bit of my strength and calmly said, “Believe in yourself. Don’t lose your confidence as you can do it.” I chose to go for a slightly higher doze of Pitocin without any pain medication unless necessary.
After I made up my mind, everything went fast. By the time I realized, it was already 10 cm dilated and time to push…! At 3:24 pm on March 6 came out our dearest baby boy Joe. I would never forget the precious moment and all the strong yet warm support I got from everyone throughout the whole pregnant/labor/delivery process.
Thank you again.
N & M
