Labor began on a Sunday, contractions intensified and after over an hour of consistent contractions, Jeannette and her husband began their journey to hospital. Jeannette labored in triage for 7ish hours before getting formally admitted to labor and delivery. This would be the hardest part of labor for Jeannette as those contractions intensified and she was required to stay in the hospital bed in a small room that did not have a mobile monitor she could wear to monitor both contractions and baby’s heartbeat to roam freely. Handling the contractions bed bound were challenging and intense. Jeannette was determined to handle them utilizing all of her learned coping skills. Once she was dilated close to a 4, she was finally formally admitted. She utilized hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, practiced breathing, meditations, and visualizations strategies during labor with her husband as her birthing support partner. She struggled to progress after nearly 16 hours of labor. At this point, she felt discouraged and weary. At the 16th hour mark, she consented to the epidural, hoping it could be successfully placed despite having a lower lumbar scoliosis diagnosis. The epidural was successfully placed and after consenting to the breaking of her water and support of pitocin, she progressed to full effacement and dilation after about 2 hours and then began pushing. She pushed for 40 minutes and soon welcomed her son, Lucas Cole into the world, weighing 7 lb 15 oz and 20 inches long on Tuesday evening, February 28th, 2023. The “second birth” or birth of her placenta was traumatic for Jeannette as it resulted in post delivery placental abruption due to undiagnosed marginal cord insertion. The midwife and nursing staff worked to retrieve and piece together all of her placenta to ensure nothing was retained and would cause further complications or surgery. The placental root was abnormally thin and looped as opposed to being centered with a strong root, despite this miss, Lucas grew healthily throughout the pregnancy and was born without any complications. Jeannette shares her story in hopes to bring awareness to often missed placental abnormalities in pregnancy such as marginal cord insertion and its impacts on pregnancy and birth.
Jeannette Chase Bio
Jeannette is a first time mom living in Virginia Beach, Virginia with her high school sweetheart now husband, Hudson, and their 11 month old baby boy, Lucas. They love living near the beach and getting outside together as a family. Jeannette works in the public school system and provides speech-language therapy to young children and Hudson is a geospatial engineer. Jeannette has a private instagram you can reach her under the name of jeannette.m.chase.
Resources
- Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth: Birth Stories Portion
- Meditation Mama on Spotify for pregnancy, postpartum, motherhood, etc.
- The Birth Hour Podcast: Immerse yourself in Uplifting Birth stories, familiarize yourself with things you are curious or concerned about.
- Online Birth course and breastfeeding courses: Injoy Health Education.
- Local IBCLC for breastfeeding support.
Aeroflow Breastpumps
Today’s episode is sponsored by Aeroflow Breastpumps. Aeroflow has helped millions of new and expecting parents discover the breastfeeding and postpartum essentials covered by their insurance including breast pumps, maternity compression, and lactation education & support.
They take care of everything – including all paperwork, working with your insurance company, and explaining your options to get these free essentials shipped straight to your door. Aeroflow offers all major breast pump brands including Medela, Spectra, Motif, Lansinoh, Ameda, Elvie, Willow and more.
All you have to do is go to the Aeroflow Breastpumps website and fill out their free and easy Qualify Through Insurance form. Be sure to go to aeroflowbreastpumps.com/birthhour so they will know we sent you! Bonus — use the promo code “BIRTHHOUR15” in their online shop for 15% off all supplies and accessories.
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