I have decided to finally write up my birth story, 8 months after baby was born! The birth did not go to plan, I ended up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and PND because of it and my therapist has suggested that writing my story may help.
Baby was due on the 10th June 2010 but he was late and was born on the 19th June 48 hours after my 2nd sweep. I woke up in the morning and was having 'braxton hicks', an hour after I woke up I was having regular contractions about 6mins apart, painful enough that I had to stand up and walk around. Within an hour the contractions were 2mins apart, very painful and I had been sick. I phoned the birth centre where I was due to give birth and they told me to come in straight away. I had 4 or 5 contractions between the car park and the birth centre with people staring and wishing me luck
Got to hospital about 12 noon and the midwife examined me and said I was only 2-3cm dilated, I was gutted! I asked for some gas and air and it really helped me concentrate on breathing and gave me something to bite on during a contraction (As I was in a birth centre I had a limited choice of pain relief, the hospital also can't carry out c-sections or episiotomies) I really wanted a water birth so asked to get in to the pool ... it was awful! It seemed to make my pain worse and I felt like Shamoo in Seaworld thrashing around
I got out and the midwife examined me again, I was 7cm dilated after just an hour! 
I kind of went in to my own world and didn't notice what was going on around me, I was in pain but the gas and air made me feel like I just didn't care! An hour later I told the midwife I needed to push, she laughed and said not yet, until she examined me and I was 10cm! She was shocked how quickly the labour was progressing as this was my first baby. I started pushing, with no pain relief, but baby wasn't budging. Midwife had me on all fours, on a birthing ball, on a birthing stool, on the bed with legs pushed up to my chest but baby was stuck. During this time she was monitoring baby's heartbeat after every contraction as he was having decelerations. I had been pushing for 2 hours and baby's heart had stopped twice but restarted. The midwife phoned an ambulance as baby was obviously struggling and she thought he may have turned back to back in the birth canal.
The ambulance arrived and I had a blue light transfer to the hospital 20mins away, all the time I wasn't allowed to push! Got to the hospital and the room was full of nurses, doctors and midwives, which made me panic. One of the midwives shouted at me that I had to start pushing properly, I was so annoyed, what had I been doing for 2 hours knowing that my baby was struggling?
The doctor gave me an episiotomy and pulled baby out with Ventouse. He wasn't breathing and was blue ... they took him away for 15mins and I was sure he was dead. I was getting stitched up and just wanted to see my baby ... thankfully he came back to me and was fine! His apgar score was 5, but his brain had not been starved of oxygen.
So baby was born at 6pm and weighed 8lb 10oz
Recovery was not good, my stitches got infected and I had an open wound for 4-5 weeks, was on antibiotics for 6 weeks and could barely walk. I was breastfeeding and got mastitis twice too ... but would I do it all again? Hell yes!
Well done if you read it all
Baby was due on the 10th June 2010 but he was late and was born on the 19th June 48 hours after my 2nd sweep. I woke up in the morning and was having 'braxton hicks', an hour after I woke up I was having regular contractions about 6mins apart, painful enough that I had to stand up and walk around. Within an hour the contractions were 2mins apart, very painful and I had been sick. I phoned the birth centre where I was due to give birth and they told me to come in straight away. I had 4 or 5 contractions between the car park and the birth centre with people staring and wishing me luck
Got to hospital about 12 noon and the midwife examined me and said I was only 2-3cm dilated, I was gutted! I asked for some gas and air and it really helped me concentrate on breathing and gave me something to bite on during a contraction (As I was in a birth centre I had a limited choice of pain relief, the hospital also can't carry out c-sections or episiotomies) I really wanted a water birth so asked to get in to the pool ... it was awful! It seemed to make my pain worse and I felt like Shamoo in Seaworld thrashing around
I got out and the midwife examined me again, I was 7cm dilated after just an hour! I kind of went in to my own world and didn't notice what was going on around me, I was in pain but the gas and air made me feel like I just didn't care! An hour later I told the midwife I needed to push, she laughed and said not yet, until she examined me and I was 10cm! She was shocked how quickly the labour was progressing as this was my first baby. I started pushing, with no pain relief, but baby wasn't budging. Midwife had me on all fours, on a birthing ball, on a birthing stool, on the bed with legs pushed up to my chest but baby was stuck. During this time she was monitoring baby's heartbeat after every contraction as he was having decelerations. I had been pushing for 2 hours and baby's heart had stopped twice but restarted. The midwife phoned an ambulance as baby was obviously struggling and she thought he may have turned back to back in the birth canal. The ambulance arrived and I had a blue light transfer to the hospital 20mins away, all the time I wasn't allowed to push! Got to the hospital and the room was full of nurses, doctors and midwives, which made me panic. One of the midwives shouted at me that I had to start pushing properly, I was so annoyed, what had I been doing for 2 hours knowing that my baby was struggling?
The doctor gave me an episiotomy and pulled baby out with Ventouse. He wasn't breathing and was blue ... they took him away for 15mins and I was sure he was dead. I was getting stitched up and just wanted to see my baby ... thankfully he came back to me and was fine! His apgar score was 5, but his brain had not been starved of oxygen. So baby was born at 6pm and weighed 8lb 10oz
Recovery was not good, my stitches got infected and I had an open wound for 4-5 weeks, was on antibiotics for 6 weeks and could barely walk. I was breastfeeding and got mastitis twice too ... but would I do it all again? Hell yes!
Well done if you read it all
Thanks!
