Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Welcome Baby Max

LEDE: Giving birth is one of the great unknowns. Even though Sarah had the birth books, took the classes and talked to friends with children, all she knew for sure is that giving birth would be a mystery. Getting to the birth of baby Max took her on a surprising journey. She had to deal with gestational diabetes, pre-term labor, and 5 weeks of bed rest before the big day. Sarah Baughn (pronounced Bon) takes us along for the ride in this audio diary.

ACT 1
TRACK 5 SARAH TALKING

:05 It’s about 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday may 19th, and lying here in bed :23 having a lot of cramping and a few contractions here and there so in the back of my mind I’m wondering oh is this going to be the day.

4:20 I don’t know what this birth may look like because of having 4:22 gestational diabetes, because of having had all this pre-term labor I had sort of made peace with the birth being anything. You know could be a natural birth, could be emergency c-section, it could be induced, it could be anything.

5:30 maybe thinking about birth might just be too challenging, I don’t know, I don’t know.

ACT 2
TRACK 4 BABY HEARTBEAT, ERIC, SARAH AND WENGA AT HOSPITAL

TK 4 :01 - :04 baby heartbeat on fetal monitor FADE
3:01 It’s Tuesday may 18 and Eric and I are here in Alta Bates hospital and we’re in antepartum testing and this is our regular Tuesday appointment, to come in and have the baby’s heartbeat monitored to make sure he’s doing ok

12:48 (W) looks great. (E) Anything else to say about this readout? 12:53 (W) Happy, active baby, with a few mild contractions. (S) I didn’t even feel them. (W) No predictions. (E) No predictions, huh? (W) No predictions. (S) I’m not feeling a thing. (W) You don’t feel these? I mean, looks very mild. TK 4 :01 - :04 baby heartbeat on fetal monitor FADE

ACT 3
TRACK 7 - SARAH ON BIRTH

:20 (yawn) it’s Thursday june 3 it’s about 6 o’clock in the morning and I am at 39 weeks in pregnancy.

1:23 I’ve been told that if I don’t have this baby by next Wednesday, I’ll be induced, it means going into the hospital and having an IV of pitocin put in or something like that. And in that case there’ll definitely be a baby here in less than a week.

ACT 4
TRACK 16 CHECKING IN TO HOSPITAL

Hallway ambi FADE
3:56 Hi. Hi. You going to labor? Today! Finally (laughter) I know that’s good. 4:08 who would have thunk it? Never We told you you’re comin’ over here soon. They’re going to induce me. He needs a sticker cause he’s special. Take a right and a left and good luck 4:24
TK 16 5:00 walking down hall FADE

ACT 5
TRACK 9 SARAH TALKING ABOUT MAX’S BIRTH

1:15 so the nurse put an IV in and she then started the pitocin and about 30 seconds into it, I had a massive contraction. 1:17 I had two monitors on me, I had a fetal heartbeat monitor and a contraction monitor, I started to say to the nurse, “I’m having a contraction, I’m having a contraction” and she was holding the fetal heartbeat monitor in place and she started moving it around.

1:43 I was in the midst of the contraction so I didn’t quite realize that she wasn’t picking up a heartbeat for the baby, and then she found the heartbeat but it was very slow. And at that point she hit a button on the wall and a voice came over and said “do you need help?” and she said “yes” 2:00 and that’s when I knew I was going to have a pretty unusual birth.

ACT 6
:01 - :05 machine pinging, breathing FADE
TRACK 15 IN RECOVERY ROOM IMMEDIATELY AFTER BIRTH
:26 (E) Hello my love, hello my mother moaning you’re a mom.

:37 it is june 4th, (breathing) our boy was born at 5:17 p.m. seven pounds four ounces, 19 and ¾ inches. :55 (E) mom’s happy (S) mom’s really wacky, (E) mom’s really wacky right now. We’ll go over and see baby in a minute. (breathing) You did great, (breathing) we had to go c-section, just a couple of minutes after they put the pitocin in (S) not just any C-section, emergency c-section (E) well, very very rapid (S) (slurring) rapid c-section (E laughs).

ACT 7
TRACK 10 SARAH TALKING ABOUT C-SECTIONS AND MAX’S BIRTH

:37 In the moment, while we were dealing with the baby’s heartbeat and everything, I refused to get scared. For one second I thought, ‘oh this might not turn out well’ but overall I stayed really calm, and when the baby came I was just delighted. :55 I said to my OB afterwards, you know I could look on this as a really bad experience and say oh this was traumatic and not what I wanted but instead I chose to look at it as a really positive, joyful experience (AMBI 1 The Dish #19 sneak) because although we had some stress and turmoil in having the baby get through safely, the end result is exactly what everybody wants which is a healthy baby and healthy mommy. So it was really great. And it was just extraordinary. My husband was delighted I didn’t have to go through labor. So that’s the story of Max’s birth.

(5:51)