Emily's Birth Story: A C-Section in a Pandemic

Post by guest writer: Emily Courtright

I will try to be as concise, but as detailed as possible. The day started out like any other day and I went to work. I was 37 weeks 2 days. I had been having some Braxton hicks but nothing that indicated labor was even remotely close and I was still feeling good. I went to my 37 week appointment (alone, thanks 2020). And the wrist cuff read a pretty damn high blood pressure. It should be noted I have “white coat syndrome” a big reason I chose not to deliver in a hospital so I’ve had multiple instances of moderately high readings only for it to go down shortly after. This time they read it manually for the second time and it was literally right on the dot to be marked as gestational hypertension (130/90) and this was the second reading. Gestational hypertension and signs of pre-eclampsia are conditions that do merit further evaluation and possible intervention.

I went to Fairview - Children’s Masonic as they have a midwife team there, to be monitored. The midwife at the birth center had notified them we would be arriving shortly after we went home and packed. It didn’t start off great, I was greeted in L&D