Birth Story: Working through Tough Decisions and All the Outcomes with Confidence with Whitni Synakiewicz
Show Notes:
[1:30] Our Reviewer of the Week, Amelia R. P., said: "My baby is eight months now she is beautiful thriving and wonderful!! Had a water birth can’t recommend them enough!! We had to deal with a tongue tie but as soon as that was cared for my baby was nursing well!!! Please try to get a dentist on who does those procedures it makes the biggest difference in the world!!!!!"
[2:20] Our guest is a MEB student and mama, Whitni, who jokes that if she could do pregnancy as a full time as a job, she would! She adored her pregnancy. She now has a sweet, almost one year old baby boy named, Hudson. At the time this episode was recorded, Whitni was 20 weeks pregnant with her second baby boy. She lives in the panhandle of Florida.
[3:41] Whitni shares about her pregnancy experience. She had regular cycles and knew the day after her missed period that she was pregnant. Since they had just moved, she Googled a provider and went with who looked nice. (This was before she found the MEB podcast!) Her provider saw that Whitni was 4'11" and immediately told her that she was going to have a C-Section. By that time, Whitni had found the MEB podcast and knew this provider was not who she wanted. She had a birth plan by 9 weeks and was told no to everything by her provider. She told herself that if everything looked good at the 20 week ultrasound, she would switch providers. And she did! Her husband wanted a hospital birth and she wanted a home birth. They compromised and went with a midwife at the hospital.
[7:17] She found out that she had velementous cord insertion (VCI), which is when the umbilical cord isn't inserted into the placenta, but it's actually inserted into the membrane.
[9:59] Whitni was sent to a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor for extra monitoring. Less than 1% of women experience VCI. She also dealt with gestational diabetes and low iron.
[10:30] Whitni shares about a bad situation she had with one of the MFM doctors around 30 weeks. She said that thankfully she was very confident from the course and the podcast about advocating for myself. She very boldly said, "You stop, sir. I need a moment. Let me gather my thoughts before you continue." Her doctor was very taken aback. She told him: "You are dealing with a first time mom who is in a very scary situation, and my husband is not here right now. I need a moment." Thankfully, he was really respectful of it, and he left the room. She thanks Stephanie for the confidence to advocate for herself because of what she had learned.
[11:51] Whitni kept her midwife throughout her appointments with her MFM doctor.
[12:21] What was it like as you and your husband worked through the pregnancy and even through the birth course? Whitni responded, "Like most men, he wasn't overly invested in the week by week development of the eyelashes, the fingernails, the toenails of the baby. He was like, 'Can I feel him yet?' He was more interested in how can I interact with baby and that kind of translated into birth prep. He was like, 'Let me know when you're pushing.' They compromised and did a weekly birth course date night where they would cook dinner, sit down on the couch, and go through like a course together. Some of it, he was like, 'Can you do this without me? This is not important.' But once they got into the hands on activities, what does birth look like, what is transition, how is the baby progressing through the pelvis, what do contractions look like, and what is his role in contractions, he was all in!
[15:40] They also did prep work like roleplaying in the living room and trying counterpressure and trying different movements. They practiced communicating, and her husband also took a huge interest into the birth plan, especially with being a little bit more high risk. He became very educated on the potential interventions we'd face, the side effects of some of the drugs we may be offered. He was really supportive. She also walked a lot, tried to eat healthy, and upped her protein intake. She had a birth playlist, birth affirmation cards, listened to birth stories and the podcast.
[19:43] Whitni walks us through induction talks with her provider. Her provider was worried about blood flow to the baby. She was fine taking it week by week, but wanted Whitni to be prepared for a possible induction.
[26:13] They were a little worried that baby wasn't getting blood flow since it was super low. The providers pulled up baby's last three growth scans and noticed that his growth had completely plateaued. Her midwife encouraged her to get him out, and mentioned if she wanted a vaginal birth, as opposed to a C-Section, they may need to help get him out. At her next appointment, her blood pressure was really high. She and her husband talked it over and it just really felt right. She did not want to be the one who goes in for an elective induction or elective C section because she wanted her natural birth. But based off of all the factors, with the diabetes, the low iron, baby's placenta, her blood pressure, there was a lot that could go wrong. They ultimately decided to be induced at 39 weeks, 2 days.
[26:15] Whitni starts talking about her birth experience. She walks through being induced with the Cervadil, catheter, and Pitocin. After a few hours, she thought her water broke, but she ended up dilating so fast that her cervix tore. She didn't want to get into the tub and didn't like the shower. She wanted to bounce on her ball and walk around. Her water broke and she was at 8 cm. After a few hours, she was on her hands and knees pushing. Her nurse helped re-position to her right side. They lost his heart rate for a bit on the monitors and told her she HAD to push. He came out with his umbilical cord death gripped in his hand, and it was pressed against his cheek, which is why they lost the the heart rate because he was cutting off his own supply.
[42:17] She said: "It was humbling, scary, validating, so many emotions to be like, 'Okay, well, no one was lying to us. You know, no one was trying to fear monger us about how severe this condition was.' And it validated, saying yes to some of those extra interventions that were hopefully not going to have to do with this pregnancy like extra scans, monitoring, and induction. But definitely, it was like, 'Wow, what could have changed in an instant if we didn't have a great team of providers, if we wouldn't have listened to our intuition?' God's protection over us in our pregnancy was really humbling."
[44:07] Best advice for moms and dads: "
For moms, it's do enough research, but not too much, just enough that you feel confident. I think the best thing that I did for myself was educate, educate, educate. So that when I was faced with making a decision, no matter how big, no matter how small, I left that decision and I didn't second guess it. There's not one thing I would change about our birth, our birth plan, our decision. Don't let anyone make you feel crazy, don't let anyone make you feel like you don't know your body or your baby, because you do. You don't need a PhD in medical terminology or anything like that to know what's best for you and your baby. Just be confident! Between the podcast and the course, and all the other resources I brought in that we didn't even have time to talk about today, that was my big, biggest win.
For partners, trust the woman birthing your baby. You may not agree with where she wants to give birth or how she wants to, but be open to seeing it, and support her to achieve her best birth. Some women will do it seven times and for some women they're gonna do it once. Don't use the excuse let's do it this way on this one and the next way on the other one. Trust her that she knows her body and how she can give birth and really just encourage her because women are amazing. The entire time, you're growing a human, you're birthing the human, and then afterwards you're taking care of the tiny human. You're incredible. Birth partners, trust her and help her out in any way she can.
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