Episode 324 Hannah's VBAC with Thrombocytopenia + Partial Placenta Previa + Marginal Cord Insertion

The VBAC Link

Hannah is a VBAC mom and doula with Ebb and Flow Birth Co. located in Indiana.

Hannah’s first labor began very intensely. Her platelet levels were high enough for her to be able to get an epidural which she requested right away. She dilated to complete quickly, but after about 4 hours of pushing, baby just kept coming down and going back up with no progress. Hannah was exhausted and consented to a Cesarean. Unfortunately, her very effective epidural was not as effective during her surgery. It was painful. She required higher doses of medicine, hemorrhaged, and was so out of it that she remembers very little about her baby’s actual birth.

After the birth of her son, Hannah researched birth options and did all she could do ensure she’d never have another Cesarean. Her VBAC pregnancy included thrombocytopenia again, partial placenta previa (which completely resolved!), marginal cord insertion, and she was GBS+.

With a great team and supportive provider, Hannah was able to stay focused on her VBAC goal even with the curveballs thrown at her. She went into labor spontaneously, progressed quickly, and though her pushing stage mimicked the same patterns, with the help of her doula’s tips and freedom to move without an epidural, baby was able to descend and come right out!

Hannah's Doula Website

What is Thrombocytopenia?

ACH Publications

Platelet Transfusions Article

Needed Website

How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents

Full Transcript under Episode Details

Meagan: Welcome, welcome. I hope you guys are having an incredible day. We have a guest today who has a VBAC story with a whole bunch of different things added to her journey. She has thrombocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia, I always say that wrong, which means low platelet count. That is definitely something that is more unique. It’s a little bit more rare, but if you’ve ever been told that you have low platelet counts or thrombocytopenia, this is definitely going to be an episode for you to listen to.

She also had partial placenta previa and even marginal cord insertion. I am so excited for her to be sharing her story today. We do have a Review of the Week so I’m going to dive right into that and then we are going to get into her beautiful story.

This review was just left on Apple Podcasts recently and it said, “I recently discovered this amazing VBAC podcast and I’m absolutely hooked. The host is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about all things related to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care. Each episode is packed with insightful information, personal stories, and practical tips for expectant mothers and families. I love how they bring on guests and experts to cover a wide range of topics making each episode engaging and informative. Whether you’re a first-time mom or a seasoned parent, this podcast is a valuable resource and empowers and educates. I highly recommend tuning in and soaking up all the wisdom shared on The VBAC Link Podcast.”

I love this review and as always, I love them all. I love every single review, you guys. It is so amazing to get a notification in our inbox that a review has been left, so if you haven’t had a chance yet, please do so. Please leave us a review. Tell us what you think about The VBAC Link Podcast. You can do it on Apple Podcasts. You can rate us on Spotify or really wherever you listen to your podcasts. Or even Google– you can Google “The VBAC Link” and leave us a review there.

As I always say, these reviews truly warm my heart but they actually really help your community and these other Women of Strength find this podcast and these stories. I encourage you to leave a review and tell us what you think so someone else can find this episode as well.

Meagan: Well, welcome Hannah. Thank you so much for joining us. Seriously, you guys, I can’t tell you guys enough. Every time I have someone recording, I’m like, “Thank you for being here with me” because it takes a village and without all of your guys’ stories, this podcast wouldn’t be a thing. So thank you for being here, Hannah, and yeah. Feel free to share your stories. Tell the world what you feel like they need to know.

Hannah: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to share my story because both stories, I could talk about all day but also, I listened to your podcast consistently, constantly throughout the postpartum after I had my C-section and also during my VBAC pregnancy.

With our first, I didn’t really have a different plan other than what my friends and family had done. I had planned to go to the highly recommended hospital in my area with a random OB that I just chose.

The only real decision I knew I wanted specifically was that I knew I wanted to go unmedicated for my birth but I didn’t do anything other than general childbirth classes to actually prepare to birth unmedicated. I just assumed, “I’m going to go in and have a baby unmedicated and everything will be fine.”

I didn’t do anything to prepare for that and my pregnancy was pretty uneventful. I was sick the entire time. I had borderline hyperemesis– not officially diagnosed, but I was very, very sick. The only other weird thing I guess that I wasn’t aware of before pregnancy was I had gestational thrombocytopenia where your blood platelet count gets lower.

Meagan: Yes. We just heard about this on a recent story and I had never even heard of that before.

Hannah: Yeah, I’ve had it with both of my pregnancies so I think my body just does that when I’m pregnant. The only thing that they had mentioned about that was there was a potential that you won’t be able to get an epidural if your platelets fall too low. I had wanted to go without an epidural anyway so I wasn’t really concerned about that, but again, I didn’t do much to prepare. At the end of my third trimester, around that 36-week mark, they had brought up, “Well, your baby is measuring potentially big.” They estimated him weighing 11 pounds. They were like, “If you want to schedule an induction at 39 weeks, you can. If not, that’s fine. It’s up to you.”

My OB was really great about just presenting options and not forcing things to happen. She did say, “You can schedule one of you want to but you don’t have to.” I did schedule an induction for 39+5 or something like that.

At 38 weeks and 39 weeks, I decided to get membrane sweeps. I got one at 38 weeks exactly and 39 weeks exactly. The day after I got my membrane sweep at 39 weeks, at 39+1, I went into labor. This was before my induction. I didn’t have to end up being induced, but my contractions that morning had started so fast and so hard that I was really thrown off. I was shocked because when I had talked to people, they said, “They’ll gradually build and they’ll gradually get closer together and stronger in intensity over a few days or whatever it may be.”

Mine started. It just hit me like a train. It was really bad so I called my husband. He was already at work that morning and I said, “We need to go to the hospital now. I need to get an epidural right away.” Because they were so intense, I just thought, I’m really far into labor, clearly.

We got to the hospital and we got into triage. They checked me and they were like, “Well, you’re about 3 centimeters.” I was just so annoyed. I was like, Okay. I’m only 3 centimeters. Whatever. We can stay because I’m obviously not coping well. I got an epidural right away as soon as we got back to be admitted. Thankfully my platelets were within range to get the epidural.

Meagan: That’s awesome. Did you get platelet transfusions at all during pregnancy?

Hannah: Nope. They just monitored them. They continued to decrease, but they didn’t drop below that epidural safety level but they were continually decreasing throughout my whole pregnancy.

Meagan: Got it. I was curious. I’m always wondering what people with low platelets do if they do transfusions or not. Do you remember what the low number was, like the safety number?

Hannah: Yeah, it kind of depends on the anesthesiologist, but for epidural specifically, they said anything below 100. I don’t remember the units. It’s like 100 something per milliliter or something like that. Anything below 100 would be considered not okay to have an epidural. Anything below 70 or 80 would risk people out of home birth which is another thing to consider. But yeah. Mine didn’t drop below that level. It was 105 when I checked into the hospital.

Meagan: Awesome. What’s crazy is that less than 1% of people even have this condition.

Hannah: Yeah, it’s very rare.

Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. Well, good. So you’re 105. You’re getting good. You’re clear to get an epidural.

Hannah: Yep. I get my epidural right away when we get back there and essentially, I just nap. My husband was really confused. He was like, “Well, I thought I was going to be doing more. I’m just sitting here,” because I just napped with a peanut ball between my legs. I progressed very, very quickly especially for a first-time mom and around 9 centimeters, I had been stuck at 9 centimeters basically not really long, but longer than I was for how fast I was progressing.

When my OB came in, she said, “If you want, we can break your water just to get you to that complete state so we can start pushing.” I was like, “Yeah, fine.” I didn’t really know a difference so she broke my water and then I got to 10 really, really quickly but I labored down for quite a while just because my OB was back and forth between seeing patients in clinic and then coming to see me because she comes to your birth whether she’s on call or not which is nice.

I labored down for a while and then started doing practice pushes or whatever with the nurse. My epidural was so strong. I felt absolutely nothing. I didn’t feel a sensation to push, an urge to push. I didn’t feel pressure– absolutely nothing. Me trying to push was not effective whatsoever. I pushed for about 4 hours before we ended up opting for a C-section because my son was just coming down and then going back up, coming down and going back up and of course, I was in that semi-reclined, pretty much on my back position so gravity wasn’t really helping me at all. He just was not coming out.

The nurse and my doctor had mentioned, “We think he’s asynclitic,” where his head was tilted to the side and he just wasn’t coming out. I was just exhausted and annoyed so we opted to have the C-section. That was really shocking to me. I was a little thrown off because C-section was never on my radar. It’s not something I really prepared for or thought about. I just thought, C-sections happen in emergencies. I was fine. My baby was fine. We were both stable and had no problems. It was just that I had been pushing for a long time so I felt really confused on why it was happening.

But the hard part for me was once the C-section started is when things really took a bad turn for me emotionally and physically. My epidural like I mentioned was super, super strong, but when the C-section started, I could feel a lot. I felt a lot of pain, not just the pressure they had mentioned. I was really, really in pain. I had told my husband, “There’s something wrong. I can feel way more than I believe I should be feeling.”

He told the anesthesiologist and they gave me some additional medication. I don’t know exactly what it was, but whatever they gave me, I fell asleep for a little bit. I wasn’t under general but I dozed off.

Meagan: Yeah, it made you sleepy.

Hannah: Yeah. I don’t remember when my son was born or meeting him or hearing him cry because I was just so out of it. When I woke up however long that was, time was just not in my mind at that moment, but I remember my husband saying, “Babe, it’s a boy,” because we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl. That’s all I really remember from the OR itself.

Then in recovery, in the recovery room, my blood pressure dropped. I was going hypotensive. I apparently had hemorrhaged more than they would have liked for a C-section which is understandable with low platelet counts so they were trying to get me stable because I was essentially on the verge of passing out. Everything was blurry and my main concern while all of this was happening was having my son breastfeed.

I told my husband, “They’re going to work on me. Just get him to nurse,” so he was holding my son to my chest so he could nurse while they were trying to stabilize me. It took them quite a while to get my blood pressure back up and to get everything fine, but thankfully, I didn’t need any transfusions or anything like that.

The whole postpartum experience, everything from C-section on was just really difficult to deal with and process at that point but that’s kind of how everything ended up with that one. Then I knew from then on if I had any other kids, this can’t happen again. I have to do something different.

Meagan: Did they talk to you about anything like, “Okay, for your next birth, if you choose to have one, you can have a VBAC”? Did they counsel you at all after that? I’m always curious if providers do.

Hannah: Yeah, so my OB specifically– I told her, I was like, “If I have more kids–”, because I had never heard the term VBAC. I didn’t know that was a thing. I just thought, Oh, you can have a C-section but you can go on to have kids vaginally later. I didn’t realize it was such a big deal until I started looking into it and asking around about it. At my postpartum appointment, I talked to my OB about it and she was like, “Well, yeah. That’s fine. There are no issues with that. You would be a great candidate for it.”

It was like, okay. That’s what’s going to happen if I have more kids. From postpartum on, I started researching.

Meagan: Awesome. So what did you find in your research?

Hannah: The first thing I did was look up obviously what VBAC was. I didn’t really know then I started listening to podcasts and reading and reading book and listening to stories. I came across your guys’ podcast which I honestly don’t know how I found it. It was 5 weeks postpartum and I had never really listened to podcasts before. I found it and I found several others and started listening.

Then one of the big things I looked at was, okay. What happened in my birth that potentially contributed to this? How can I avoid this in the future or make it a better experience?

One of the big things was that I got my hospital notes and my op report and everything from when we were in the hospital just to understand fully what happened because they don’t explain every single detail of what’s happening to you unfortunately in most circumstances. So I wanted to see all of the notes and everything that happened down to the minute that was in my chart which really helped me understand what happened, process it, and heal that.

Then for me, when I was looking at why I had my C-section and all of that, when I was looking at things about VBAC, it was like if these things happen to you like a failure to progress or the baby wouldn’t come out like CPD, the cephalic pelvis disproportion, then the chance of you having a VBAC are not great. I was like, Well, that’s discouraging.

Then the more I got to the research, the more I realized that my birth specifically was likely a cascade of interventions starting with my epidural for me. That’s how I personally feel. Some people would say that’s not the case but that’s how I personally feel. I knew going into my next pregnancy that I would do things drastically differently to set myself up for the best possible chances of having that VBAC.

Meagan: Yeah. I love that. It sounds like you were starting in all of the right places.

Hannah: Yep.

Meagan: So baby number two–

Hannah: Yeah. We decided. 8 months postpartum, I was like, “Let’s have another baby.” I feel like with both my pregnancies and both my postpartum, around that time, I just get baby fever and then I am thankful that I don’t get pregnant at that time. We got pregnant with my daughter about 20ish months after I had my son.

That wasn’t specifically chosen for VBAC intervals or anything like that. We just weren’t ready to have another kid yet. So I got pregnant with her and I had interviewed doulas before we even conceived because in my area, they book up really, really fast, especially the more experienced ones. I specifically looked for a doula who had a lot of experience supporting VBAC.

Then I also looked into different birth location options. I had first looked into a birth center and out-of-hospital birth center, but where I am in Indiana, it’s illegal and against the law to have a VBAC in a free-standing birth center. I was upset about that at first, but then I looked into some home birth midwives as well as hospital providers.

Home birth midwives– the only one I could find in my general close area was about two hours away and the ones who were closer to me wouldn’t support a primary VBAC so if you had never had a vaginal birth either before your C-section or had a VBAC before, they wouldn’t support you which was really discouraging.

With how fast my labor progressed the first time around, I just didn’t want to travel that far for appointments or having my midwife have to travel that far for the birth because you just never know how fast it’s going to be.

The thing about my first birth, my OB was amazing. She was not the type of OB who would try to coerce you to do anything. She was always very supportive of whatever I decided to do. She was very supportive of VBAC but I did also interview some hospital providers, some midwives, some other OBs and ultimately, I decided to stay with my OB because I felt really comfortable with her. I felt confident in her. She had no stipulations surrounding VBAC at all. The only other OB I did interview was an OB who would do vaginal breech birth because that’s one thing my OB would not do and I was like, If I have a breech baby, I’m not having a C-section so I’ll go to this other OB if that ends up being the case.

Meagan: Okay, you’re in Indiana.

Hannah: The Indianapolis area.

Meagan: Did you find it hard to find that provider?

Hannah: Yes and no. Yes because he’s the only one in our area who supports vaginal breech and no because my doula and a network of doulas who I converse with now all recommended him because they know that he’s the only one in the area who would do it.

Meagan: Do you care to share his name just in case we have someone breech listening?

Hannah: Yes, so his name is Dr. James Webb and he’s on the verge of retiring.

Meagan: No! That’s the problem.

Hannah: Yeah. He is very particular about what hospitals he’ll deliver at and all of that, but he is the only one currently in our area who will do it so if he doesn’t happen to be retired at the time of this episode coming out, you can look into him as an option.

Meagan: Yeah, awesome. That is the hardest part is we are seeing so many people who do supportive breech VBAC or just breech in general are retiring. They are closing doors and that’s the hardest part.

Okay, sorry. So you did an interview with him.

Hannah: Yes. I had him as a backup just in case baby did end up being breech. Then my pregnancy again in general was fine. I had gestational thrombocytopenia again. I was not as sick the second time around which I was very, very thankful for.

The only other weird things that came up were I was GBS+. I was negative for my first pregnancy and then I had a partial placenta previa at one point which at first concerned me but then once I realized that they usually resolve as your uterus grows, then I wasn’t too concerned about ending up with another C-section because of that.

I also, my baby was breech at one point.

Meagan: Oh my goodness.

Hannah: I know. I was like, All of the things that could happen did happen. But I didn’t let it discourage me. I just kept going on and doing what I needed to do. The big difference in my preparation that I did the second time around because I knew for my VBAC I wanted to be as low intervention as possible. I knew I wanted to go unmedicated. I had my doula so I took a program called HypnoBabies which is a type of hypnobirth for those who may not know. It’s a medical-grade hypnosis so I consistently practiced with that throughout my whole pregnancy. I did some breathwork and progressive relaxation videos and stuff like that to make sure I was really mentally prepared to go unmedicated because I feel like that aspect of birth is so much more mental than it is physical. That’s where I really wanted to be prepared for that part.

Meagan: Mhmm, nice job. Hypnobirthing is really common here in Utah. I wouldn’t even say common but a favorite education course and we actually have a blog about it because so many people love it. It really can put you in such a great head space.

Hannah: Yeah. I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but what was more beneficial for me was that I didn’t just go through the course in the last 6 weeks of pregnancy or something like that. I consistently practiced throughout my entire pregnancy to make sure it became a habit or something that I was normally used to doing.

I did that primarily to prepare for birthing unmedicated and then I also did pelvic floor therapy to help with my C-section scar and my ability to push because pushing was such a difficult time for me the first time around. I really wanted to know what muscles to use and how to actively engage and push if I needed to.

Meagan: Awesome.

Hannah: I did a lot of different things to prepare the second time around. But then at the end of pregnancy, I did not get any cervical checks. I didn’t get any sweeps because I knew it would just mess with my head space. It would discourage me if I was dilated or wasn’t dilated and I knew that my dilation wouldn’t determine when I was going into labor. I didn’t schedule an induction either. I was just going to wait for my baby to come when they wanted to come and my OB was fine with that which was great.

The only thing I did do was– I didn’t have to end up doing this, but if I went past 41 weeks, I was going to get non-stress tests. But we were find waiting for things to happen.

I went into labor spontaneously at 40+2 and– oh, I forgot to mention. Sorry, I’ll back up.

I did have a marginal cord insertion with this baby too so all of the things where the cord was on the side of the placenta instead of the center. The issue there could potentially be a lack of blood and nutrient flow to the baby which could cause growth issues.

Meagan: IUGR, yeah.

Hannah: We did monitor that a little bit more, but there were no issues with her growth or her percentile or anything like that so that was never a concern of her being too small or too big or anything like that.

But I went into labor the morning of 40+2 and it didn’t start how I expected or anything like my first labor. I had excessive bleeding and no contractions. I was really confused. I was like, Why am I bleeding so much? It was more blood than I felt comfortable with. A lot of times you have a bloody show or something like that with your mucus plug, but this was filling pads. I called my doula. I called my doctor and they were both like, “Yes, just go in.” My plan was to labor at home as long as possible, but because it started that way, I was like, Okay, I’m going to the hospital.

Meagan: Mhmm, and the previa had completely resolved?

Hannah: Yes. Yes. It was still low-lying, but it wasn’t covering the cervix at all. With the amount of blood, I was like, Well, this is a little concerning. I did go into the hospital right away and went to triage because their main concern was a placental abruption with how much I was bleeding.

Meagan: That’s one of the things I was thinking too. Could it be a placenta thing?

Hannah: They put the monitors on us. They checked everything and we were both fine. There were no issues. The bleeding ended up resolving and they couldn’t exactly tell where it was coming from. At the time, I was about 4 centimeters dilated when we got to triage and I had planned because we were both fine, I was like, Well, I’m going to go back home then, but we had to stay to be monitored for about an hour just to make sure nothing else came up or things didn’t take a turn or something like that.

Within that hour, I had already began to dilate more. I was already 5 centimeters and at that time, I started feeling contractions so I decided, Okay, we’ll just stay. We’re already here. With the bleeding, I felt a little bit more concerned so we just stayed. I told my doula I would just text her and keep her updated. We got back to be admitted and because I was GBS+, I did choose to get the antibiotics. I got that round of antibiotics and then had them unhook the IV because I wanted to be as mobile and as free as possible.

Thankfully, my hospital had wireless monitors so I was able to move around. I didn’t have to tote around a monitor or be stuck to the bed or anything like that. After the antibiotics went through, I was going to lay down and listen to my Hypnobabies tracks and just rest because my contractions weren’t intense or anything like that.

I was super, super uncomfortable laying down. I needed to be up and moving. I tried and I was just annoyed with my headphones and annoyed with the tracks and everything. I was like, I need to be up and moving.

At that point, I was getting ready to get up and my water broke on its own which was different for me because it did not break on its own with my previous birth. My water broke and again, I was around 5 or 6 centimeters at this time. It was definitely my water and they made sure. It was gushing out so it was definitely my water.

After that point, I just felt like I needed to be on the toilet. I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet and my husband got me cool washcloths and was wrapping my shoulders. I was just swaying back and forth on the toilet.

Quickly, within 30 minutes, I was getting hot and sweaty. I was shaking. I was doing the horse-lip breathing and my doula wasn’t there yet. I had texted her right before I went to the bathroom to tell her, “Things are getting more intense. You should probably head this way.” I hadn’t been there more than 2 hours so she was like, “Okay, yes. Okay, things are picking up. I’ll be on my way.”

When I was on the toilet and I was starting to sweat and shake, I was clearly in transition. I knew that in my mind. My nurse knew that. My husband realized that. At that time, I was like, “I need an epidural.” I told my husband that and he was like, “But you’re doing so well. Let’s wait for Julie (my doula) to get there and see what she suggests.” I just felt like I couldn’t do it.

Then my nurse was really great about just leaving us alone and letting us do our thing. She came into the bathroom to check on us like I said about 30 minutes later. I told her, “I think I need an epidural.” At this time, I did not have an IV hooked up. She had mentioned, “Well, it’s at least going to take 20 minutes to get the fluids in you to even be able to do an epidural.”

She knew and she was clearly trying to stall me.

Meagan: Yeah, I was going to say, I think that nurse knew something you didn’t know.

Hannah: Yes. Looking back in my mind, I knew but I was just in denial. I didn’t really want the epidural but at that moment when you are in transition, you’re just like, I can’t do this. Two minutes later, my doula walks in and I told her the same thing, “I think I need the epidural.” She was like, “How long have you been on the toilet? Have you switched positions lately?” I said, “Well, now I’ve been here about 30-45 minutes.” She said, “Let’s try getting in the shower and see if that just helps things ease up or change or whatever.”

I was so reluctant to get off the toilet because I was so comfortable and in my zone but I did. I got in the shower and as soon as I stood up and got in the shower, I was bearing down and pushing. I was hanging onto my husband’s neck and my doula was putting water on my back and the nurse heard me grunting and bearing down and she came in and was like, “Are you complete? We need to make sure you’re complete just to make sure you’re not pushing against a not complete cervix.”

That was one of my concerns too. I was unmedicated so I felt the urge to push obviously, but I didn’t want to be in that case where my cervix would swell or something like that. But I was complete and I had just a slight lip or whatever. My doula just suggested maybe we get on hands and knees to help relieve that lip or get in a different position to even everything out.

I got on the bed and got on hands and knees. At this point, I’m just pushing. My body is pushing. I have no control over it. It’s happening regardless of whether my cervix is complete or not. I was on hands and knees sitting on the back of the bed. My husband was cooling me down with washcloths and rubbing my back. My doula was doing the same and taking pictures and watching me push to see how baby’s movement was.

I pushed on hands and knees for about 10 minutes and again, my baby was coming down and coming back up and coming down and coming back up which was discouraging because that’s what happened the last time. Then my doula said, “How about we try a squat to see if that helps with gravity working in getting your baby out?” I was so tired at this time. I was like, “There’s no way I can hold myself up in a squat. This is not going to happen.”

But we got the squat bar. I got in the squat. My doula and my husband were both supporting me. Within 5 minutes, probably two or three pushes, my baby was out. We didn’t know again if it was a girl or a boy. She came out so fast and my doula was trying to get me to do the blow breathing to control and slow the pushing but I was not. I was like, “Get this baby out,” because I knew pushing was going to be the hard part for me to get past because it was four hours with my C-section baby. My doula knew that as well so she was trying to give me that extra support to make pushing a good experience.

I let it fly and I was like, “Nope. This baby is coming out now. I don’t care how fast she comes out. I don’t care if I tear or whatever. I just need to get her out.” So she did. She came out and it was so funny because I had the squat bar and I was trying to pull her to my chest. My doula had even mentioned this in our prenatal prep. If you use the squat bar, the umbilical cord is still going to be attached so go under the bar and not over the bar.

I tried to go over the bar of course. They were trying to get me all untangled and stuff but I was so happy she had come out that I didn’t even look to see if she was a boy or a girl. I just forgot to check.

She was a girl and we were so, so happy and so excited. I was just in disbelief that I had done it. It happened so fast that I didn’t really have time to process what was happening. It was 4.5 hours total.

Meagan: Oh my gosh.

Hannah: Yeah. From the first contraction I felt– so not when the bleeding started, but from the first contractions I felt to when she was born was 4.5 hours.

Meagan: Holy smokes.

Hannah: Yeah, that’s almost a precipitous birth and I don’t know what just happened. It was just a rollercoaster and intense with no breaks whatsoever. But we were so excited. So excited.

Meagan: I bet. Oh my gosh. When you said almost precipitous labor, to me, that is still very precipitous. 4 hours really from the start to the end, that is so fast. I have had a couple of clients like that. Sometimes I’m just like, “How does your cervix just do that?” Because from a mom who had a 42-hour long labor, it’s like, what?

We envy a lot of you precipitous birthers, however, I will point out that when precipitous birth happens, it’s typically super intense.

Hannah: Yes and you don’t have a break. It’s just constant intensity.

Meagan: Yes. It’s so hard because people have said, “Oh, I’d rather have a fast labor than a long labor.” It goes both ways. They want a fast labor, but I’m like, you have to know that it is very, very, very intense.

It usually starts right out of the gate. When I say right out of the gate, I can picture a rodeo with a cowboy on a bull and the second the gate opens, the bull is just bucking, right?

Hannah: Yes, because as soon as–

Meagan: That is what reminds me of precipitous labor.

Hannah: As soon as I felt contractions, I went from feeling nothing that morning to feeling like my whole body was contracting. It was just very intense so I don’t know. I think both have their pros and cons, long labors and short labors.

Meagan: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I’m glad. Precipitous labor for a first baby is common from what I have seen in the doula world of supporting hundreds of babies and lots of moms with precipitous labor. It is common to happen the next time. So even if you didn’t have bleeding, you probably would have gone in sooner rather than later too.

Hannah: Or I would have ended up with a car baby because if I hadn’t been bleeding, I would not have gone to the hospital. I would have been fine. My plan was to labor at home as long as possible.

Meagan: So you could have had a car baby or a front door baby.

Hannah: Yeah, or just somewhere that is not in the hospital baby because it was too fast.

Meagan: Yes. Oh my gosh. You are amazing and it is interesting. I’m so curious. Did the doctors say why they think that you developed low platelets? Do you have that normally?

Hannah: No, I don’t.

Meagan: You said gestational so I’m like, She must be meaning just during pregnancy.

Hannah: Yes. Some people have it in general without being pregnant. Other people develop it just when they are pregnant. They don’t really know exactly why. I think there are things you can do to help that and help increase those platelet levels other than getting transfusions or whatever, but they didn’t really know why. I mean, I’ll be interested to see if I have a third to see if I have it again, but I think it’s just what my body chooses to do.

Meagan: Yeah. Interesting. Well, I’m so happy for you. Huge congratulations.

Hannah: Thank you.

Meagan: I don’t know if you’re going to have a third, but I assume you’ll probably have a wild ride as well and you’ll have to let us know how it goes if you decide in the future to have one.

Hannah: Yeah. It will probably be the wildcard.

Meagan: I know. You know, that does happen. I swear baby number three– in fact actually, it was my very first doula client that I attended. I was shadowing a birth doula because I was brand new and this mom had precipitous labors and baby number three took 15 hours. She was like, “No. No. No. Why is this happening? What is going on here? No.” The whole labor, she was like, “I don’t like this. This keeps going.” So you never know. Baby number three also could be a labor wildcard. You never know.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Hannah: Yes. Thank you so much for having me.

Closing

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