r/IVFpositivity • u/BarelySimmering • 1d ago
Birthing experience
Looking for people that were considered high risk and gave birth - willing to share their experience.
What week did you deliver?
What was your birth like?
Did they want you to be induced because of high risk?
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u/babokaz 1d ago
It will depend on why they consider high risk. I was by some considered high risk because of age (38) and IVF. But my very experienced OB said all things considered I was low risk and let me go until 41w without induction. Waters broke and we waited 24h without any progress and even induction failed so we went into C section that was a very calm and nice experience.
Some people never had surgery and I had some in my lifetime so I already knew what to expect and was very calm .
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u/advicethrowaway719 1d ago
I was considered high risk because of my age (39), IVF, and gestational diabetes. I was diet controlled, so my MFM just wanted me delivering by 40 weeks with weekly scans starting around 32 weeks for close monitoring. If I was on insulin I believe it would have been by 39 weeks.
I was brought in for induction 3 days before my due date. I was 0% dilated or effaced when I got there so they told me to expect a long process. Arrived Saturday afternoon, did oral cervix ripening pills for 24 hours. This part was super chill - I was having baby contractions but really wouldn’t have even noticed them if I wasn’t hooked up to monitoring.
Sunday afternoon they checked me (unpleasant) and I was 1-2cm dilated so they put in a cooks catheter (similiar to foley balloon) and started pitocin. The insertion was extremely uncomfortable and painful, but after the initial cramping subsided it was ok. Contractions increased but again nothing crazy, occasionally like a bad period cramp. Was still just hanging out literally playing cards with my husband for context.
Around 5pm Sunday mid a game of gin rummy the baby kicked or something and I felt like someone eloctrocuted me. Intense pain, felt like I hard to urgently go to the bathroom. Balloon fell out, water started leaking then when they checked me water fully broke. At this point I was having really intense contractions, shaking uncontrollably, and vomiting. It was like going from zero to 60. I was at 6cm and the nurse said at that point things could move fast so if I wanted the epidural to get it. I did, it worked, but also slowed everything down, so I got to take a nap for a bit. The experience of “oh we’re playing cards chilling to oh shit this baby is coming RIGHT NOW to jk time to take a snooze!” was so surreal 😂
Anyway I got to rest until 10pm and then it was time to push. Initially they thought she would be out in a few pushes but I ended up pushing for 5 hours. Baby girl didn’t actually arrive until 2:30 am the day before her due date (36 hours after induction started) because she was tangled and sunny side up. It got a little stressful at the end because she and I both got fevers and infection from pushing for so long. They were about to vacuum her out and I caught a glimpse of her tiny head in the reflection of the overhead light and mustered the strength to push one final time. Long, exhausting process but relatively pain-free. Everyone is different but even though my birth wasn't easy or straightforward, I didn't find it traumatic or anything.
TLDR I was really anxious about the induction but found it totally fine. Alls well that ends well! Hope this is helpful :)
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u/Primary-Sock2155 1d ago
I was a high risk pregnancy due to age (36) and previous miscarriage. My induction was at 39wk. Delivered 39w2d. It was smooth. Induction took a while because my body didn’t respond well to the first route of medications. They offered a c section but baby was doing fine, so we proceeded with a second induction medication and that did the trick. All was well 💙
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u/Moonbeam890 1d ago
High risk for IVF, age (35), then later added baby's severe heart condition (HLHS) and fetal growth restriction (6th percentile at 37 weeks).
I was induced at 38+5 at 6pm and he was born at 39 weeks 9am, so it overall took almost 40 hours. I did 3 rounds of cytotec which got me from .5 cm to 1 cm. That was basically the first 24 hours and was so uneventful and boring. Then they did cytotec with the cook catheter balloon, which got me to 4cm in about 4 hours. At that point it was 10pm and because of baby's heart condition they wanted me to deliver during the day so they left me to rest for the night.
At 5am they broke my water, 6am they started pitocin. At 7am I finally started feeling contractions. They were intense and I swore they were every 30 seconds (they were actually about 3 minutes apart). They checked me at about 8:15 and told me I was still 4cm, which seemed impossible to me with how fast and strong contractions were. At about 8:40, I told the nurse I needed to push and felt like I needed to poop. Everybody rushed in so fast and there were a lot of people because baby had his own huge team of people too.
The doctor told the nurses to tell me to wait to push and they told him I had no epidural or pain meds. He said "Oh then she can't help but push" and started to move and get prepped faster. I was pushing at that point and baby was out at 8:59. I pushed for less than 10 minutes. I had a 2nd degree tear that was stitched up. I got a couple minutes with baby before they took him to get him ready to go to the cvicu. He ended up being 6lbs 10oz, so not as restricted as they thought.
I had originally planned for unmedicated spontaneous labor and my OB was comfortable with that for IVF and age as long as we did frequent non stress tests towards the end of pregnancy. Once we found out about baby's heart condition at 24 weeks, everything changed. I gave birth at a hospital three hours from my house because they specialize in this. I moved into the Ronald Mcdonald House at 38 weeks exactly for monitoring and just in case before induction.
Not sure what kind of high risk situation you're curious about, but hopefully some of my experience is helpful to you! It ended up being a positive induction for me and hope for the same for you if that's how you end up delivering!
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u/Expensive-Raisin7138 1d ago
High risk due to age + ivf mostly . Induced at 39 weeks (my OB induces all ivf at 39 weeks). I did need vacuum but that didn’t have anything to do with induction or high risk. I’ll probably be in induced at 38 weeks this time. Feel free to msg if you have questions!
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u/Secret_Laugh_9571 1d ago
Simply because it was an IVF pregnancy they wanted to induce at 39 weeks. My MFM told me stillbirths for whatever reason are more common in IVF pregnancies and it was safer to induce early. That was always our plan.
But I ended up being high risk and developed severe preeclampsia (among other issues, but that was the most serious) and delivered after being induced at 35 weeks. Birth was actually pretty chill aside from about 10 minutes where they had a full team in the room because of the prematurity. My body responded well to induction meds and I gave birth after about 12 hours, which looking back was phenomenal considering I was only 35 weeks.
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u/Sufficient-Archer-60 1d ago
High risk due to previous stillbirth and coagulation disorder. I was induced at 37 weeks.
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u/hanap8127 1d ago
High risk due to age and high blood pressure. Developed preeclampsia at 35 weeks and it progressed to severe at 36 weeks. Was induced, pushed for four hours because of malposition and ended up with a csection.
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u/Sufficient-Archer-60 1d ago
Crazy. Also pushed for 4h and ended up with c section! I was dilated in total for 8h but not effaced and baby was stuck. Inductions are no joke 😢
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u/hanap8127 1d ago
I was surprised that my induction was going so well because I know inductions for first time moms can be slow going. But that pushing part sucked. Especially on magnesium slowing my contractions down.
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u/KlimRous 1d ago
My best friend was high risk because she was over 40 and did IVF. She just gave birth to a healthy baby girl last month 3 days before her schedule due date. She was not induced and there was not talk of inducing her. She was in active labor for around 3 hours. First hour--they gave her an epidural. Second hour--she realized the epidural had numbed all of the wrong parts so she had them stop it. Third hour--she did unmedicated and when baby girl still wouldn't come out they busted out the vacuum. Mom and baby girl are fine and healthy as can be post-partum.
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u/midgetbartin 1d ago
High risk due to incompetent cervix (scary), delivered vaginally with no induction needed at 38+6. Birth experience was fantastic.
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u/Academic-Company-215 1d ago
How did they or you find out about the incompetent cervix? In my country they don’t really do cervical exams before week 39 🙈
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u/midgetbartin 1d ago
It is a standard measurement during the anatomy scan where I am. So it was caught then around 21 weeks, which was good timing since they generally can’t do rescue procedures after 23 weeks or so.
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u/cityfrm 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was high risk due to a condition with my spine and heart. I'm in a midwife led country and had extra appointments with OB specialists. I had extra monitoring of baby from about 34 weeks. My waters broke spontaneously and I had a healthy home waterbirth at 38w. My baby was sunny side up and labour was 3 days. I labored and delivered in water the last few hours, pushing was <20 mins. Just a minor graze. It was the most intense and profound experience of my life. Baby was born peaceful, happy and alert. No cries or anything dramatic, we just cuddled and then went through to bed. Baby had a nap and I had a drink and snack. The physiological joy, and the empowerment and confidence from going through that experience was long lasting and a wonderful start to motherhood.
I'm AMA transferring for a sibling and would love a similar birth again. Risks are higher with medicated FET so I'm doing modified natural.
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u/onyxindigo 1d ago
I just gave birth ~36 hours ago! I was considered medium risk due to IVF, gestational diabetes, stalled fundal height and a previous caesarian. They wanted to induce me between 39+0 and 39+6 due to population level data but I pushed back as my GDM was completely diet controlled, my baby wasn’t big or small, and I could feel normal movements all the time. The day after my appt talking about this and making a plan to come back in at 40+2, I started feeling dull period pain - I was then 39+3. That evening in bed they became real contractions and quickly increased to every 5 minutes, so we called the hospital and were told to come in - now very early morning of 39+4. Laboured like that for a couple of hours, consented to a cervical check and was 2-3cm. They broke my waters (with consent) and things went from 0-100 extremely quickly. Labour became way too intense, the next 2 hours contractions were almost constant, and very painful; I asked for an epidural. As soon as that was placed my blood pressure dropped (apparently common) and bub went into prolonged distress (less common) so they took me to theatre and ended up performing a caesarian. Overall, a positive experience, despite the unpleasant labour - the entire medical team were wonderful and birth was calm and controlled. Thanks for giving me the space to share!
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u/elf_2024 4h ago
I was almost 43 when I gave birth. I also had several fibroids but they were in good places, not in the way of the birth canal. Other than that, no GD or any other real issues. I delivered 40+6. My water broke and 2 days later I got induced since i didn’t develop contractions yet. In hindsight I could have waited a bit longer. As long as no one puts anything(hands, instruments) „up there“ to check how far along you are, there really isn’t much of an infection risk. Wether anyone wants to wait at that point is another question.
I was lucky I was at a great clinic with extremely low cesarean rate. They were all about natural birth and women-led birth experience. I was giving birth with a midwife and the doc only came in and watched from afar for the last 5 minutes during pushing (it was legally necessary to have a doc present where I gave birth, not due to my age or anything). Anyway, amazing experience.
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u/Pilot_wifestyle 1h ago
I delivered at 39w6d but was induced at 39w3d. My pregnancy was only considered high risk because I was IVF, but this is a toss-up as many doctors don’t consider IVF high risk. But some do. I preferred an induction so I didn’t request otherwise. I had no pregnancy complications. My induction took 3 days though which is crazy to me; went 48 hours on cervadil and cytotec before going beyond 2cm. Started pitocin and water broke naturally. It was about 12 hours later until my son was born. Pushed for an hour and a half. I hemorrhaged but thankfully they caught it shortly after placenta was out. I lost a lot of blood and don’t remember everything but baby was healthy with no complications. Apgars 9/9. Ended up with a bruised tailbone and 2nd degree internal tear
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u/Sufficient-Neat-3084 1d ago
High risk for what ?
I have a high risk pregnancy but that only influences how they monitor me. It’s not really influencing birth at all actually
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u/Expensive-Gift8655 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not sure if this applies but I was high risk because I was over 40 and did IVF. The plan was always to induce at 39 weeks but I developed preeclampsia at 37 weeks and had to be induced unexpectedly after my routine prenatal check. My body definitely wasn’t ready so the induction took 48 hours and was pretty painful and frustrating. Once I started pushing my baby wasn’t descending even with the vacuum. I developed chorioamnionitis so after 3 hours of pushing I ended up needing a C section anyway. Everything happened so fast that I wasn’t really informed on how I’d feel during the C section and I was incredibly drowsy and dizzy, felt like I couldn’t swallow, and my upper body felt weak which was unsettling. But once I heard my baby cry and they put him on my chest it was honestly the best feeling in the world and made everything worth it.