Has anyone had a natural birth after a first labour with induction pitocin?

[aliss]

How would you compare the contractions and experience? I was on pitocin for 3 days and it was pure hell and I'm traumatized from it. I'm weighing between a C-section or natural birth, please tell me how your 2nd natural experience was...?

 

[lozzy21]

I ended up having syntocinon once i got to 10cm and i found it no different to the other contractions but i dont think it realy worked too well for me.

 

[SmokyJoe78]

I'm planning to! Will let you know!
I've been told that the surges (contractions) with a natural birth are more gradual.... so if you coped with the artificially induced ones then you'll do well with your natural birth All I remember from being induced is the intensity of it and the fact that there was barely a rest between surges

 

[Emmea12uk]

I am having a hb after the first was three days of pitocin hell! I will let you know!

 

[Greta Chick]

Hi

My DS was induced with syntocinon (same as pitocin as far as I know) and the contractions once they got going were virtually on top of each other and intensely painful. I had no pain then all of a sudden virtual constant pain. He was born on dry land with a bit of gas and air.

DD1 was born after a spontaneous natural waterbirth and I didn't believe I was in labour with her. My contractions began in the early hours of the morning and gradually became stronger and more frequent throughout the morning. We got to the birth centre at 12.30pm where I was 5-6cm and DD1 was born at 1.17pm, 15 minutes after I got into the pool, 45 minutes after arriving at the birth centre.

DD2 was born on dry land at home after another spontaneous labour and delivery. I used natal hypnotherapy and didn't find the contractions painful at all, they were just strong and it felt like *really* strong pressure in my bum towards the end.

I would say a natural delivery is much more gradual than an induced one so you get time to get used to them so your body uses it's own endorphins much better.

xx

 

[NaturalMomma]

I did not have an induction with ds1, but I did get Pitocin after 15 hours of labor with ds1. The contractions with my homebirth were different. I was able to move and work with them, the pain always stayed managable and they weren't painful/intense until transition and that was the only time.

 

[Tegans Mama]

I had about 12 hours or so of labour without pit with Tegan, which was far far easier than it was once they put the drip on. I was coping very well with no pain relief before they started the drip, then once they did I felt like the baby was trying to rip its way out of my stomach

 

[Emmea12uk]

I was the same with the pit - coped well with no pain relief - almost happily until the drip started.

This time I am using hypno at home with a pool

 

[chuck]

Why were you needing the pit last time hun?

We're you induced or was it slow progress once labour started?

I only ask because if it were 3 days of he'll your body clearly ready for labour and neither was baby. If you wait it out and let labour happen it's unlikely you'll need it again your body knows what to do. Trust it.

 

[aliss]

Why were you needing the pit last time hun?

We're you induced or was it slow progress once labour started?

I only ask because if it were 3 days of he'll your body clearly ready for labour and neither was baby. If you wait it out and let labour happen it's unlikely you'll need it again your body knows what to do. Trust it.

Yeah I def. wasn't ready at all, I was 40+3 but my waters had leaked a few days and I was GBS+ so they said I needed induction.

I'm really struggling with the idea of ever having kids again and I love my OH but sometimes I think that I should leave him because I don't want to have another child

 

[Nikki_d72]

Why were you needing the pit last time hun?

We're you induced or was it slow progress once labour started?

I only ask because if it were 3 days of he'll your body clearly ready for labour and neither was baby. If you wait it out and let labour happen it's unlikely you'll need it again your body knows what to do. Trust it.

Yeah I def. wasn't ready at all, I was 40+3 but my waters had leaked a few days and I was GBS+ so they said I needed induction.

I'm really struggling with the idea of ever having kids again and I love my OH but sometimes I think that I should leave him because I don't want to have another child

Oh please don't let it affect you like that, that's awful!

I can fully understand you not wanting to have more after what you went through but it doesn't need to be like that. They could have just covered you with antibiotics and monitored your temp and amount of amniotic fluid left, they didn't need to give you pit/synto - it's more likely to distress the baby anyway, I don't know why they love the stuff so much, it's hellish stuff for the mother and the baby and simply doesn't work if the body is not ready.

Remember in future you don't have to agree to anything they suggest - they must get your informed consent, you can listen to their SUGGESTIONS (which is what they are, despite sounding like commands sometimes) and then say no thanks.

I hope you can work though your feelings and seek advice and information here and elsewhere to enable you to move forward from the distress you obviously felt. have you spoken to your hubby about how traumatised you were and how you feel at the moment? He probably hated seeing you in so much pain and distress too, so he may be more understanding than you think, but at least he'd start to gain some understanding if you speak up. I've really only spoken to my DH about my true feelings after the c-section I ended up having with DD, I brushed a lot of it under the rug for a long time (it was 8 years ago!!) and I wish I'd made him understand before now, before that he would just say the "at least she's OK" line and I'd nod in agreement, even though I felt broken and useless.

I would reccommend getting your notes and reading them in the cold light of day - it can go a long way to seeing the motivation for many of the decisions that were made regarding our "care". ETA - You may also benefit from counselling, as it is possible you may be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it happens quite a lot after a traumatic birth and is less likely to be picked up than PND by doctors and health visitors. I hope you don't mind me suggesting that, it's just that it is quite common and often gets missed.

All the best, take care xx

 

[chuck]

I would highly recommend getting your notes and getting a debrief with a MW. It can't refund you you birth but it can help to u derstand what happened and why for that birth.


It all too easy and look back and think if I had only done X Y Z then this wouldn't have happened. But you need to come to terms with it accept that it happened (you can still hate every second of it) bug allow the experience to strenghten you not fill you with fear.

By having the experience you did it has led you here and dammit if we can't help you I'll be jiggered!

You should never have a child if you aren't in the right place emotionally and mentally with your partner. You need to work through those issues together.

What you can do us talk, talk to people about what happened and educate yourself about what can and does happen in birth, what you can do to get the best possible experience by knowing what you want and the rights that protect you and baby that too often go out of the window in busy hospitals.

Take a look at the GBS support thread stickied at the top of the page.

There have been a few threads about induction you can search for and in general induction is not needed especially for going 'over due' when people aren't even post dates.

Please go take a look at the birth trauma association we site ( they have a FB too) and speak to some other women who are working throug trauma.

I'll tell you one thing - you are allowed to feel like shit, you are allowed to feel bad and mourn the experience you weren't allowed. Sometimes it isn't enough that baby arrived safely. Sometimes we need more and yes it is selfish but we are allowed to be selfish for this.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I'll tell you one thing - you are allowed to feel like shit, you are allowed to feel bad and mourn the experience you weren't allowed. Sometimes it isn't enough that baby arrived safely. Sometimes we need more and yes it is selfish but we are allowed to be selfish for this.

Totally. Someone on another forum posted a link to this the other day which I thought said it well. https://womanuncensored.blogspot.com/2010/03/is-healthy-baby-all-that-matters.html

 

[aliss]

Thanks very much girls. Unfortunately no debrief available... I gave birth on the other side of the country and there's no way of getting back to there to discuss. I hate the hospital. I hate the doctors. I want nothing to do with them after what happened.

My ultimate fantasy... is to just have an unassisted birth. Of course, I have zero medical experience aside from OH knowing some advanced first aid rofl so that's out of the question. I had PND after the delivery (and as you might notice, wrote this thread after having a very very bad PND day, far & few between, but it was def. one).

Anyways, I feel robbed by the hospital, violated. I was so naive and unaware, I trusted them. I should not have. I also tore an abdominal muscle during labour and that made the pitocin contractions into pure agony.

I'm still not sure what to do...

 

[Nyn]

Hey hun, to answer your question: I have, and it was great!

I was induced with ds1 and it was very traumatic. I went from no pain to back to back contractions that were hell and I couldn't breathe, it was so awful. I had an epidural in the end and the birth was assisted with a ventouse and I had a HUGE episiotomy with so many stitches.. horrendous.

So for ds2 I decided on another route. To cut a long story short, I had 2 amazing midwives. Labored at home, labor started on it's own, and only went to the hospital when I was in transition. Okay, so the car ride was pretty hellish lol, but the birth was great. The midwives were calm and talked me through it and I had no medication and had no tears or episiotomy. I was walking an hour later to the loo by myself and checked out of the hospital the next day.

Good luck hun, I know it can be done and believe me my second birth really helped with the psychological healing from the first

 

[Nikki_d72]

Thanks very much girls. Unfortunately no debrief available... I gave birth on the other side of the country and there's no way of getting back to there to discuss. I hate the hospital. I hate the doctors. I want nothing to do with them after what happened.

My ultimate fantasy... is to just have an unassisted birth. Of course, I have zero medical experience aside from OH knowing some advanced first aid rofl so that's out of the question. I had PND after the delivery (and as you might notice, wrote this thread after having a very very bad PND day, far & few between, but it was def. one).

Anyways, I feel robbed by the hospital, violated. I was so naive and unaware, I trusted them. I should not have. I also tore an abdominal muscle during labour and that made the pitocin contractions into pure agony.

I'm still not sure what to do...

I'm pretty sure you can get your notes sent to you from wherever, you wouldn't need to actually go there, then you could debreif with a local midwife, maybe someone in your area could recommend you one? I'm sure they would do it for you - anyone in the UK have any ideas on this? Otherwise a councillor could help you through it and if you read enough about natural birth you may be able to decipher enough yourself to understand what happened and why.

I fully understand you never wanting to go back there, I feel much the same and that's why I'm going for a homebirth with a great homebirth midwife this time, to make the whole thing as different as possible. I felt broken for years (8) until I got my notes, read a whole heap of natural birth stuff and was able to understand what went wrong and how the system failed me, so I was able to get angry instead of feeling useless and plan to make everything different this time around. I cn usually talk about it without crying now!

PND is much more common after a traumatic birth too, as is PTSD, have you had a chance to look over the website Chuck posted about? I only say that as I know PTSD is often missed and misdiagnosed as PND.

Hope you are OK and keep talking to us, I've learned loads off these ladies on here. xxx

 

[aliss]

Thanks very much I have a few complications to deal with... 1 is that I'm in Canada, not the UK unfortunately, and home births are not accepted outside a 35km radius of the birthing centre (which is about 40km away, ugh). There is only 1 in this entire province of 2 million people, outrageously. You UK ladies are quite blessed in that sense. 2 is that I've phoned the hospital for my notes and they kept hanging up on me (!) so I will have to try again. I will do so tomorrow, I think I need to. There is talk around here of 'illegal' or black market midwifery and I might look into it.

As for PTSD, I do think I have some form of it. I've been through a lot, I have experienced sexual assault once and I have also been robbed at knifepoint. Neither experience was as bad as my labour. The labour and birth of my son was more violating and traumatizing than anything I've experienced before. That's not to demean those other instances, but to show how hard it has been to deal with. I'm not an overly sensitive person, I've been a 911 operator for around 7 years and believe me, I've seen or heard it all, but this, I seriously don't see myself 'getting over' anytime soon.

I think about it 24/7, it upsets me at random moments, I got angry when people said "congrats". I still do. I get angry when people say "oh well at least he's alive" (he had severe shoulder dystocia and collarbone fracture), well, yes I am grateful but I'm also sure this wouldn't have happened had it not been for the crap leading up to it!

 

[Nikki_d72]

Hi Aliss, Yip, I've just realised that you aren't in the UK, sorry about that.

Here's a wee blog that may resonate with you, about the "you have a healthy baby" line - ot pertains to cesaerean but can equally apply to any traumatic birth. https://birthingbeautifulideas.com/?p=142

I'm sorry that you went through this and the other rotten things that have happened to you, you are obviously very strong, so as you may not "get over it", you may be able to process it through counselling and move forward, so it is not so much in the forefront of your mind and ruling your feelings, so to speak. As far as I'm aware, getting grief coming back at you at random moments and flashbacks are some of the signs of PTSD.

I can't beleive you only have one birthcentre! I thought Canada had quite a good system, too. Do you know anyone who lives 5k nearer, to get you in the zone, whose house you could "borrow"? That might be a bit nuts but you are so close to being able to get what you want without having to pay for it privately and illegally....How much would they charge, do you know? My only worry about doing the black market thing would be if you had to transfer (most unlikely), what would happen then, would you be left on your own? Or are they allowed to act as "doulas" within the hospital or birthing centre?

 

[aliss]

There is a great system back in British Columbia where I am from but here in Quebec it is very much old school/catholic church run hospitals, freaking dark ages (sorry). I'm considering discussing with OH the possibility of the Farm in Tennessee if you are familiar.

Thanks very much for the link

 

[Nikki_d72]

Ina May Gaskin's farm?? Ow I'd be green with envy at that one! That would be brilliant! Now if THAT option was there I'd definitely take it!! be worth saving for - or a trip home to BC?

No problem, I've just read that blog again and there is a big bit in the middle which is solely about C-section, just skim past it and the bit at the end makes good sense, I think. xx