Feathers
Mum of 2
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- Jan 24, 2011
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I've finally gotten a few minutes to post up my birth story! Apologies if this is long and warning, my birth story was pretty traumatic.
A week before my due date exactly I had spent the Wednesday night with niggling pains and I have to be honest I was pretty keen to get the whole pregnancy over and done with. However nothing seemed really to be happening apart from period type pain so I went to sleep. Thursday morning I got up and then went back to bed until my OH had gone to work. As soon as he left I stood up and whoosh! My waters broke. I have to admit I was stood there wondering if I'd just wet myself, but the sheer amount of it seemed unlikely.
After grabbing towels etc and managing to get a maternity pad on, I phoned labor triage and was asked to come in so I called my OH who came home to take me. After examination and agreement that yes my waters had gone, I chose to go home and await labour until the next day. All through Thursday I was getting pains and contractions around 4 minutes apart and 30 seconds to 1 minute long but as soon as we were about to go in, they tailed off. My waters were still leaking all through this day which was rather uncomfy.
Friday morning came around after very little sleep and I went in for monitoring as baby didn't seem to be moving as much as usual. I was scheduled for an induction anyway on that day due to waters breaking the day before. Monitoring revealed that baby was quiet but didn't register the contraction pains I was feeling. At that point I was seriously wondering if I could cope with labour if this wasn't it because it hurt! I was kept in and induction was started with a pessary. They also gave me a stretch and sweep which made the pains even stronger although the machines still said I wasn't having contractions. Nor was baby moving much, although her heart was beating steadily. This carried on throughout the day and no-one seemed worried so we tried not to think about it although I brought it up several times to various midwives.
By 7pm I had been complaining about pains to the midwives but was told I wasn't in labour despite the fact they didn't examine me (due to infection they said). I was assured The monitors would not fail to pick up when I was in labour so I should stop thinking about it until they said. At around 9pm that night I was taken to a delivery room to be hooked up to a drip to kick start contractions. I got in the bath in the room whilst waiting for the drip to be set up and took some paracetamol for the pains. By around ten thirty I was in need of something stronger, bouncing away on the birth ball with regular contraction pains and my OH went outside and demanded someone come and examine me for the first time since 1pm that afternoon as I was sure if the pains were not contractions then something was wrong. I was 2-3cm dilated and finally they set up gas and air. Which made me feel sick but little else. I carried on (the machines STILL said I wasn't contracting) until midnight when I was given pethidine which made me sicker but nothing else really in terms of pain relief and again was examined and 5cm. Here my labour stalled. I was still having bad contraction pains that did not register, and was knackered to be honest after so long without sleep, but 5cm was all that was happening. The pains were every 2 minutes and lasting for over a minute. Monitors were attached to baby's head rather than my stomach since she wasn't moving much. I'll admit I wasn't totally calm by this point but was reassured everything was fine and normal.
I decided to take the epidural before they hooked me up to syntocin to get things going again. I had the epidural at 2am and was hooked up to the drip to get things moving. The next few hours were much more peaceful although the machines STILL said I was't contracting (and yet by 7am I was 10cm dilated- amazing for someone apparantly not contracting). By this point the midwife with me said that the monitor for contractions had to be faulty (you think?) since I had managed to dilate fully. At 8am I started pushing which was going well as some of the epidural had worn off so I could feel the contractions. I pushed for an hour, apparantly doing well although baby was still not moving much, I assumed this was normal. We were at the point where you could see the baby's head with each push. I was told everything was going well and she would soon be with us.
At this point my consultant came in. She examined me and tried to turn the baby who had twisted around slightly. My OH tells me that at this point lots of blood began to pour out of me but I didn't see it. I was pretty unaware but I was told I needed to go to theatre for an assisted delivery at 9am which I gave consent for. They whipped me down pretty fast and I was put in stirrups. The epidural was topped up so I was totally numb in case things went badly. No idea what happened with the ventouse but after only a few minutes the consultant said c-section now and suddenly everything moved even more quickly. I was told not to worry as they began the operation, my OH was with me and looked pretty stressed.
My daughter was born at 9.45am weighing 6lb 3 and wasn't breathing. I watched her get whipped away to the waiting doctors who got her breathing which took some time. The worry at that point was horrible because we didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that my baby wasn't breathing or making any sounds. Finally she was brought over to us as I was being stitched. Her breathing sounded terrible so we asked the doctors to look at her again but we were assured it was normal. The consultant who was stitching me up told me I had some pretty bad internal damage from removing her from so low down in my pelvis after the pushing and I'd lost lots of blood. That didn't matter to me because I was just focused on my lovely daughter Olivia who was looking rather the worse for wear but was still beautiful to me.
We were wheeled to recovery where I held her briefly, still worrying about the sound of her breathing which sounded like a bad asthma attack. The midwife tried to get her to latch on for breast feeding but this was not successful. We were quickly taken to the ward and within a few minutes Olivia was taken away and rushed to the SCBU for oxygen and placed in an incubator for tube feeding etc. At this point I had no idea what was happening with my baby, I just knew she had been taken away. We found out the next day that another minute or so and it would have been too late for her. This makes us feel incredibly lucky that the consultant moved so quickly, although I am sad it was necessary. My placenta had torn half away and there were large clots of blood inside me that had to be removed. Olivia's doctor looked at the heart traces from the entire day and was amazed that no-one had picked up on the fact that she wasn't moving much (something I had been pointing out all day) and was obviously distressed.
Olivia was kept on the SCBU for 2 weeks and I didn't get to hold her properly until she was 4 days old, then only for a minute or so. I was not able to touch her at all for the first couple of days as they took lumbar punctures for meningitis etc. Honestly it was the best and worst time of my life. I cried when I saw her on the drip with wires and tubes everywhere looking so small in the incubator. She was been diagnosed with severe laryngomalacia and bad reflux which had burnt all her throat until we began medicine for it so she was unable to feed. Her head was badly bruised and cut from the traumatic delivery which took several days to go down and required pain relief. She still has some scabs now from the cuts. Olivia also developed bad jaundice which required treatment. Im not sure I would ever want to go through that experience again, but I am glad we are all home safely. I think when the midwives and nurses and even doctors tell you it was a very traumatic birth then you know things didn't go well! It was a far cry from my planned water birth lol. She is worth it all though.
I'll add a few pictures later when I get around to uploading some
A week before my due date exactly I had spent the Wednesday night with niggling pains and I have to be honest I was pretty keen to get the whole pregnancy over and done with. However nothing seemed really to be happening apart from period type pain so I went to sleep. Thursday morning I got up and then went back to bed until my OH had gone to work. As soon as he left I stood up and whoosh! My waters broke. I have to admit I was stood there wondering if I'd just wet myself, but the sheer amount of it seemed unlikely.
After grabbing towels etc and managing to get a maternity pad on, I phoned labor triage and was asked to come in so I called my OH who came home to take me. After examination and agreement that yes my waters had gone, I chose to go home and await labour until the next day. All through Thursday I was getting pains and contractions around 4 minutes apart and 30 seconds to 1 minute long but as soon as we were about to go in, they tailed off. My waters were still leaking all through this day which was rather uncomfy.
Friday morning came around after very little sleep and I went in for monitoring as baby didn't seem to be moving as much as usual. I was scheduled for an induction anyway on that day due to waters breaking the day before. Monitoring revealed that baby was quiet but didn't register the contraction pains I was feeling. At that point I was seriously wondering if I could cope with labour if this wasn't it because it hurt! I was kept in and induction was started with a pessary. They also gave me a stretch and sweep which made the pains even stronger although the machines still said I wasn't having contractions. Nor was baby moving much, although her heart was beating steadily. This carried on throughout the day and no-one seemed worried so we tried not to think about it although I brought it up several times to various midwives.
By 7pm I had been complaining about pains to the midwives but was told I wasn't in labour despite the fact they didn't examine me (due to infection they said). I was assured The monitors would not fail to pick up when I was in labour so I should stop thinking about it until they said. At around 9pm that night I was taken to a delivery room to be hooked up to a drip to kick start contractions. I got in the bath in the room whilst waiting for the drip to be set up and took some paracetamol for the pains. By around ten thirty I was in need of something stronger, bouncing away on the birth ball with regular contraction pains and my OH went outside and demanded someone come and examine me for the first time since 1pm that afternoon as I was sure if the pains were not contractions then something was wrong. I was 2-3cm dilated and finally they set up gas and air. Which made me feel sick but little else. I carried on (the machines STILL said I wasn't contracting) until midnight when I was given pethidine which made me sicker but nothing else really in terms of pain relief and again was examined and 5cm. Here my labour stalled. I was still having bad contraction pains that did not register, and was knackered to be honest after so long without sleep, but 5cm was all that was happening. The pains were every 2 minutes and lasting for over a minute. Monitors were attached to baby's head rather than my stomach since she wasn't moving much. I'll admit I wasn't totally calm by this point but was reassured everything was fine and normal.
I decided to take the epidural before they hooked me up to syntocin to get things going again. I had the epidural at 2am and was hooked up to the drip to get things moving. The next few hours were much more peaceful although the machines STILL said I was't contracting (and yet by 7am I was 10cm dilated- amazing for someone apparantly not contracting). By this point the midwife with me said that the monitor for contractions had to be faulty (you think?) since I had managed to dilate fully. At 8am I started pushing which was going well as some of the epidural had worn off so I could feel the contractions. I pushed for an hour, apparantly doing well although baby was still not moving much, I assumed this was normal. We were at the point where you could see the baby's head with each push. I was told everything was going well and she would soon be with us.
At this point my consultant came in. She examined me and tried to turn the baby who had twisted around slightly. My OH tells me that at this point lots of blood began to pour out of me but I didn't see it. I was pretty unaware but I was told I needed to go to theatre for an assisted delivery at 9am which I gave consent for. They whipped me down pretty fast and I was put in stirrups. The epidural was topped up so I was totally numb in case things went badly. No idea what happened with the ventouse but after only a few minutes the consultant said c-section now and suddenly everything moved even more quickly. I was told not to worry as they began the operation, my OH was with me and looked pretty stressed.
My daughter was born at 9.45am weighing 6lb 3 and wasn't breathing. I watched her get whipped away to the waiting doctors who got her breathing which took some time. The worry at that point was horrible because we didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that my baby wasn't breathing or making any sounds. Finally she was brought over to us as I was being stitched. Her breathing sounded terrible so we asked the doctors to look at her again but we were assured it was normal. The consultant who was stitching me up told me I had some pretty bad internal damage from removing her from so low down in my pelvis after the pushing and I'd lost lots of blood. That didn't matter to me because I was just focused on my lovely daughter Olivia who was looking rather the worse for wear but was still beautiful to me.
We were wheeled to recovery where I held her briefly, still worrying about the sound of her breathing which sounded like a bad asthma attack. The midwife tried to get her to latch on for breast feeding but this was not successful. We were quickly taken to the ward and within a few minutes Olivia was taken away and rushed to the SCBU for oxygen and placed in an incubator for tube feeding etc. At this point I had no idea what was happening with my baby, I just knew she had been taken away. We found out the next day that another minute or so and it would have been too late for her. This makes us feel incredibly lucky that the consultant moved so quickly, although I am sad it was necessary. My placenta had torn half away and there were large clots of blood inside me that had to be removed. Olivia's doctor looked at the heart traces from the entire day and was amazed that no-one had picked up on the fact that she wasn't moving much (something I had been pointing out all day) and was obviously distressed.
Olivia was kept on the SCBU for 2 weeks and I didn't get to hold her properly until she was 4 days old, then only for a minute or so. I was not able to touch her at all for the first couple of days as they took lumbar punctures for meningitis etc. Honestly it was the best and worst time of my life. I cried when I saw her on the drip with wires and tubes everywhere looking so small in the incubator. She was been diagnosed with severe laryngomalacia and bad reflux which had burnt all her throat until we began medicine for it so she was unable to feed. Her head was badly bruised and cut from the traumatic delivery which took several days to go down and required pain relief. She still has some scabs now from the cuts. Olivia also developed bad jaundice which required treatment. Im not sure I would ever want to go through that experience again, but I am glad we are all home safely. I think when the midwives and nurses and even doctors tell you it was a very traumatic birth then you know things didn't go well! It was a far cry from my planned water birth lol. She is worth it all though.
I'll add a few pictures later when I get around to uploading some
I hope both of your recovery is swift!
