A birth story about an inverted uterus after delivering a surprise-gender baby. Words written by the laboring mother.
5:00 am – Head to Hospital
At 5:00 am on the morning of May 27th, we headed into Memorial Central Hospital in Colorado Springs for a scheduled induction. I was 39 weeks and 2 days. Due to my age (40, old) and the fact that this was an IVF baby, our OB recommended inducing in the 39th week. We met our nurse, I got a covid test and had two IVs started. I’d hemorrhaged and had placental retention in my previous delivery so they started two IVs from the get-go just in case I needed to get blood.
6:30 am – Start Pitocin
At 6:30 they started pitocin and I began labor already at 4.5 centimeters dilated. Once the contractions started to get painful, around 8:30, the anesthesiologist came and started my epidural without incident. Based on our previous labor experience, we’d anticipated that this is when we’d have time for a nap or a game of cards or maybe we’d even catch up on some Handmaid’s Tale, but just two hours later, I was really feeling those contractions and it was time to push. After just 8 minutes and 4 contractions, our surprise gender baby BOY had arrived! We were so shocked we had a boy! We were both so glad we’d decided to do a surprise. Learning he was a boy at delivery was a moment we’ll both cherish forever.
10:54 am – Inverted Uterus
As we snuggled our new little guy, we hoped we could avoid the trauma we’d experienced immediately following our daughter’s birth almost three years prior. We soon learned that wasn’t going to be the case. My placenta did come out this time, but it brought my uterus right along with it. I had what was called an inversion where my uterus turned inside out.
11:08 am – Room Floods with Attendants
Within seconds, the floor and our doctor were covered in blood and there were about 20 people, including 6 physicians in our room. They had only minutes to try to get my uterus back into place and hold or else I’d be rushed to the OR for an emergency hysterectomy.
11:48 am – Situation is Under Control
Thankfully, my OB was able to do just that and I was spared the OR experience. We didn’t come away from that unscathed though. I’d lost about a liter of blood, had an arterial line placed and had received two bags of both blood and plasma. I’d been informed I’d be headed to the ICU for recovery and my brand new son would not be able to accompany me there. In the chaos, I’d been asked to choose whether I wanted him to get donor milk or formula while in the nursery since we wouldn’t be together. And I’d been advised by my OB that it would be a really bad idea to ever attempt to deliver a baby again despite the fact that we have two very healthy frozen embryos in a lab awaiting their destiny.
I’d dreamed of having a pleasant afternoon snuggling my sweet new baby and that’s just not how I’ll remember the rest of that day. I mostly just felt grateful to be alive. As it turned out, there wasn’t any room in the ICU and so I was allowed to stay in the birth center with my son and husband and be followed by an ICU doctor overnight rather than move to the mom/baby unit like most families do. It’s not the delivery experience we’d imagined or hoped for, but nothing about the six years it took to build our family has gone according to plan. And it was all worth it for this amazing little man and his big sister, for whom we’d wanted for so long.
Have you experienced an inverted uterus after you gave birth to your baby? If so, please comment below about your experience.
If you are planning a birth in Colorado Springs, here’s a list of birth professionals that I have worked with personally and recommend.
