Climbing while Pregnant: Labor and Delivery

What you’ll learn

Like everything else in pregnancy, I researched the heck out of labor & delivery. I quickly learned that there’s the textbook timeline and not a single mother I talked to experienced it.

Actual labors are as varied as snowflakes, and the textbook labor is as real as a unicorn.

What did immensely help me was hearing as many labor stories as I could. So here’s my story, everything on the table. If you’re pregnant, I hope this helps your arsenal of knowledge. If you’re male or not pregnant, I hope the details and uncomfortableness raise general awareness about labor so it’s not such a black box enigma in today’s society.

The textbook labor

• Early Labor. Lasts up to 12hrs, cervix dilates to 6cm, contractions are irregular 15-20min apart. You stay home for as much of this part as possible; hospitals will actually turn you away at this stage.
• Active Labor. Lasts up to 10hrs, cervix dilates from 6cm to 10cm, contractions are regular 3min apart. Hospitals will admit you in this phase.
• Pushing. Average ~2hrs, pop!

My birth plan

Birthing classes and pregnancy media will have you plan for eventualities like epidurals, episiotomies, cesareans, fentanyl, delayed cord clamping, pitocin, skin-to-skin. In reality, my birth plan boiled down to:

1. Avoid a cesarean at almost any cost
2. Go natural for as long as possible (no pitocin, fentanyl, epidural, etc.)
3. Have an open mind

My labor story

I was admitted for my entire labor. In a regular OB appointment 2 days before my due date, I bled 1/4 cup of blood on the exam room floor when the OB checked my cervix dilation. That, combined with an elevated diastolic blood pressure, prompted her to send me directly to Labor & Delivery.

I had contractions without dilation. By the time I got to the hospital 30 min later, I had regular contractions 3 min apart (that normally doesn’t happen until hours later in Active Labor) but I was only 1.5 cm dilated–my body was ramming a baby’s head through a closed door. I was admitted and spent my entire labor in the hospital.

So they put a balloon in my cervix. 6 hrs later, I hadn’t progressed at all. The OB inserted a water-filled balloon to sit on top of my cervix so that each uterine contraction put more pressure to induce dilation. It’s about as comfortable as it sounds.

My water broke and I got an epidural. 8 hrs of the balloon up my cervix (and boredom of a hospital room), my water broke, and my pain immediately went from a 4 to an 8 out of 10. My diastolic pressure spiking >100, so the OB strongly suggested an epidural to prevent me from seizing or having a stroke. I didn’t take Fentanyl (usually precedes an epidural) or Pitocin (usually proceeds an epidural).

I pushed too hard. 5 hrs after the epidural and 18 hrs after being admitted, I was dilated and ready to push. I pushed twice, and Jeremy’s face was priceless as he proclaimed, “keep going, Melodie, you got 2 inches of head out on that push!” And at the same time, the nurse’s said, “Don’t go so fast! The doctor is in another building finishing up a c-section!”

I watched it all in a wardrobe mirror. When the doctor asked if I wanted a mirror, I thought it’d be a dentist’s mirror, but they wheeled out a free-standing wardrobe mirror. Watching Baby’s birth through was amazing, something I’ll never forget. The doctor coached me to push 100%, short bursts of 50%, 80%, etc. 8 pushes later, under 30min, Ash was born! Yes, I stroked Baby’s head between my legs in between contractions. There’s some opportunities in life you need to seize.

In hindsight, I think the act of checking my cervix in that OB appointment induced my labor; had I just let nature take its course, my labor might have progressed “normally”. It’s like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle at play.

Post-partum recovery

• First few days: It was pretty rough and uncomfortable to sit–you’re bleeding heavily, you’re swollen, you’re exhausted, but it was manageable. You end up dealing with what you need to.
• Week 1 to 2: I was walking a couple miles a day; by 2 weeks, I was heading into the gym for light workouts and for sanity getting out of the house. It was pretty terrible with hormones, the torment of breast feeding, and adjusting in general. The gym helped immensely.
• Week 2 to 4: Slowly introduced bodyweight and dumbbell exercises. Felt my abdominals getting back!
• Week 4+: Reintroduced normal activities slowly, like climbing and kettlebells.

So did all that fitness training help?

Absolutely, and it’s my #1 recommendation to anyone during pregnancy if you can work out–even a little will help!

• Helps you with heartrate accelerations during labor. You average 20 contractions an hour (480 in 24 hrs!). You need stamina for the hardest pushing at the end.
• Helps your baby with heartrate accelerations. It’s a sign of fetal well-being when their heartrate accelerates for at least 15 sec during contractions; it shows they’re responsive, getting enough oxygen, and coping. Your baby “practices” this when you work out, esp in the 3rd trimester. It’s been shown that regular maternal exercise throughout gestation results in significantly lower fetal heartrate and increased heartrate variability (both positives).
• Helps you know how much to push. Despite being numb from the epidural, I instinctively knew what 50/80/100% effort was from years of climbing & weightlifting.
• Your abs are key to pushing. Functional workouts like climbing, squatting, and working out the transverse abdominals are key. You don’t push “like you’re pooping”–you push like you’re squatting, from your abs down.
• Recovery will be super fast, since your body is used to springing back. My theory is that if your body’s used to being worked out, broken down, and rebuilt, it’s used to “snapping back” to its norm. Recovering from labor is an extreme case, but your body’s used to rebuilding after trauma.