Crohn's Disease & Pregnancy: Labor & Delivery

As a Crohn’s patient, I had some extra worries rattling around in my head prior to experiencing childbirth for the first time. I recently wrote about creating a detailed birth plan document, which included a lot of specific information in an easily readable way for my care team. Being a decade into this Crohn’s disease life, I know that preparing for the unexpected is of utmost importance, and it was the only way that I was going to be able to stay calm, rational, content and even safe while I was in labor, delivering my daughter, and recovering from said spectacle.

I had this plan completed, reviewed by my providers, printed, copied and stored in my hospital bag fairly early, which was ideal when my water broke at 35 weeks pregnant. After a little preparation, my husband and I calmly headed to the hospital, and I thought about so many things during the 35-minute car ride there...

Thoughts going through my head as I went into labor

I thought about how this was the first hospitalization in the history of my life I’d been able to essentially plan for. I thought about how this was the first hospitalization in the history of my life that I was excited for (& that I’d soon be meeting my daughter!!). And most importantly to me, I thought about how this was my first hospitalization in just over 15 months - which in it of itself was something I’d been celebrating as my Crohn’s disease remission status had become more and more real.

The first thing I did upon arriving at the hospital in labor was hand a copy of this plan to the nurses in the triage room. To be honest, I loved knowing what to expect during this process. After a few hours, I was admitted to the hospital on the labor and delivery ward full of optimism, hope, nerves, and fairly consistent contractions.

My labor and delivery experience

Instead of detailing my daughter's birth story here, I want to talk about the highlights of my labor and delivery experience as an IBD patient. First, I knew going in that the hospital staff wanted to place a peripheral IV rather than using my power port, and this made me incredibly nervous. I have very unreliable veins, and so requesting the anesthesiology team place the IV with the use of the vein finder rather than the delivery nurse made me feel less stressed. I also felt grateful that I’ve had hundreds of IV’s in my life due to my IBD - something many new moms to be are actually very uneasy about.

Next, I made sure the hospital knew which medications and pain management techniques were going to be compatible with my health history and that those options were available if and when I asked for them. My life with Crohn’s disease has made me stronger in the level of pain I’m able to handle, but having options available to me was important in keeping my labor experience on the tolerable side of things.

Because of my early labor status, my doctor did not have the results of my Group B swab yet, which meant I required an antibiotic prior to delivery for the safety of my baby. However, due to my complicated history of antibiotic-induced c-diff, this also required me to take an additional medication at the time of antibiotic administration, and for a full 12 days afterward. These were critical details for my nurses and doctors during labor and delivery, as I was actually terrified of getting c-diff postpartum. (Thank goodness we were able to avoid this.)

Communication with the doctors and nurses

Finally, I talked at length with the delivering doctor about how my daughter was going to come out of my body, about the risks and plan for vaginal tearing, concerning bleeding, and failure to deliver the placenta naturally. Having the doctor know about my concerns, not just as a new mom to be, but also as a Crohn’s disease patient was really important to me. These details allowed me to be fully present during my labor and delivery experience and the arrival of my daughter, (which took more energy, strength, and focus than I ever imagined possible) all while knowing that we would both remain safe & hopefully as healthy as possible and that my IBD would not derail this experience or its aftermath for either of us...

After my daughter (and my placenta) were delivered, my second-degree tear was stitched, and it was determined that I did not need a blood transfusion, I let out the deepest breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. I was so unbelievably grateful to get through my pregnancy, labor, and delivery with really minimal issues in the grand scheme of things, and I couldn’t believe how well my doctors and nurses had helped prevent any avoidable Crohn’s disease issues.

As an IBD patient who has become a new mom, I’d love to hear what other pieces of information impacted your successful labor and delivery experience below!