Jemima
Mother of One
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2008
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It has taken me weeks and weeks to write this. Sorry it's so long 
So, here goes...
It all started on Sunday 5th October. At around 6.30am, baby was moving loads and loads so I decided to get up and do a bit of housework. As I bent down to open the washing machine door, I felt a trickle down my right leg. When I checked it, it definitely wasnt wee (!) so I told my husband what was going on and we decided to go and have another lie down and store up some sleep in case this was the day.
When I woke up at 9.45am, I stood up out of the bed and felt a larger trickle, this time down both legs. I then telephoned the midwife unit, they told us to come in and get checked.
The midwife was a bit sceptical and said it was probably just a leak (first of all she said it was likely to just be discharge but I knew it wasnt). She hooked me up to the machine to check on baby and did an examination which I thought was a sweep but looking back at it now, I dont actually think it was! She said I was having some tightenings and was 1cm dilated. She then told us to go home and come back at 9pm to be checked again or sooner is I felt any pain.
At 9pm, we went back to the unit as arranged. Again, they hooked me up to the monitor and tracked the babys heart rate, contractions, etc. This showed that I was having contractions every 10 minutes but they werent painful so, again we were told to go home and, if things hadnt speeded up by the next morning, we were to come in for a scan to check the levels of amniotic fluid around the baby.
Off we went home again, and at around 1.30am, I started having proper contractions. The pain was all in by lower stomach at this point and I was finding it difficult to breathe through them so I started timing them and they were slightly irregular but were close to 4 minutes apart. I then telephoned the unit again, and the midwife told me to take a couple of paracetamol and make our way in. In the meantime, I went to the toilet and had my show. It was masses of jelly-like mucus with some blood. I thought Uh-oh. This is definitely it! So off we went, at around 3am, labour bags in the car and ready to rock and roll.
The midwife examined me when we got there. At this point I was really struggling with the pain and she said I was 2 cm dilated! I couldnt believe it as I honestly thought I would be around 5, the pain was so bad! Little did I know what was to come. She then carried out a membrane sweep and told me she was sure this would speed things up for us. At this point, it was around 4am and she said she would leave us there until 6 when she would examine me again. I didnt know how I was going to cope for another two hours with no pain relief but I didnt request any as I knew she wasnt giving me any for a good reason (i.e. to make it more effective when I really needed it). 6am came round and I asked for some gas and air as I didnt think I could cope anymore. She examined me and I was 4cm, good progress. They then checked the heartbeat and I could tell there was something not quite right as she was rummaging around for ages trying to find it. She then told me to get over onto my left side and she was then able to pick up a faint heartbeat. I was then told that we would have to be transferred to the main county hospital by ambulance and that my husband would have to follow in the car (at this point we were in a midwife led maternity unit). It was a very scary moment when the paramedics arrived to stretcher me off but I kept on using the gas and air to try and dull the pain.
The journey took around 20 minutes and every bump in the road was a real challenge. All I could think was that my husband wasnt with me and what he must have been going through following behind an ambulance with flashing lights, poor thing.
When we arrived at the main hospital, we were taken straight into delivery. It was around 6am at this point. I had to stay on my left side the whole time as they were worried about the heart rate dropping. One of the things that sticks in my mind is that we had packed a bag for the labour with all sorts of things in it, from water spray to Vaseline, flannels, change of clothes for my husband, towels, etc and it just sat in the corner unused. I was still wearing the top I had arrived at the hospital in, a bra and nothing else!
The next few hours seemed to pass in a blur of contractions, and I remember the midwife examining me and saying I was 6cm dilated and it would be a few more hours yet. I just thought I couldnt handle the pain anymore and every contraction came with the urge to push but I was told I couldnt push and that I should breathe through the pain very difficult I have to say! I had a few different people come in to examine me over the next couple of hours and the midwife decided to try and move the lip of my cervix back over the babys head to get things moving. This was a wee bit painful but I knew that it would help with the progress. In the meantime, I was put on a drip. I dont really know what this was for, I assume to try and hurry things along as I certainly wasnt dehydrated - I was drinking tonnes of water through a straw throughout. My waters were leaking throughout and I am horrified to admit that I did a few poohs during the labour. I wasnt that bothered though, as the midwife just kept scooping them up and whisking them away to avoid embarrassing me! She said we were still looking at another three hours or so at this point and I thought I really couldnt handle the pain anymore and I told the midwife this. So, she said she would look at some other options for pain relief for me and off she went. Then when she returned, she was looking at the monitor and there was obviously a problem as she went away to call another midwife. She then said that she was going to have to call in the consultant as the babys heartbeat had dropped and they needed to get her out quickly. Five minutes later, there were two consultants, a doctor and three midwives in the room and I was told they were going to have to use forceps and ventouse to get the baby out quickly. Whilst all this was going on, I was getting an incredible urge to push and was told to go ahead and push when I felt like it. In the meantime, my legs were put in stirrups and the consultant told me they were going to have to perform an episiotomy. I had written in my notes that I really did NOT want this to happen but I honestly didnt care by this point. The pain was just so overwhelming and my concerns for the baby were so great that I just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. So, they anaesthetised the area and cut me during one of the contractions and I didnt feel a thing.
I just kept pushing when they told me to and panting when they advised me to pant and about 15 minutes later at 13.07pm and on her due date, the baby emerged the colour of a broad bean and was whisked away. I could just see her out of the corner of my eye and could see some movement but I couldnt hear any noise. I looked over at my husband and he was looking at the floor (I think he was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the preceded commotion He later told me that he had felt like leaving the room at one point as it was so intense!) She then started to whimper a bit and I called over to see if everything was okay. They then brought her over to us and the midwife asked my husband to look what the sex was (I had written in my notes that I wanted him to announce what it was) but he just sat there staring at the baby with a tear in his eye so I looked and, for some reason, I was so shocked to see that it was a girl! She weighed 8lb 3ozs. She was grunting for the first 10 minutes so the paediatrician told us to leave her alone in her cot for an hour to calm down, after which she was fine.
I was then stitched up while I continued to use the gas and air. It didnt hurt that much and to be honest, you are so overwhelmed by the whole thing that you wouldnt notice if someone chopped your leg off!
So, thats it. As the weeks have gone by and the memory has faded, it doesnt feel like quite as much of a trauma as it did straight afterwards but Im not sure if Ill be rushing to do it again just yet but she is a treasure.
So, here goes...
It all started on Sunday 5th October. At around 6.30am, baby was moving loads and loads so I decided to get up and do a bit of housework. As I bent down to open the washing machine door, I felt a trickle down my right leg. When I checked it, it definitely wasnt wee (!) so I told my husband what was going on and we decided to go and have another lie down and store up some sleep in case this was the day.
When I woke up at 9.45am, I stood up out of the bed and felt a larger trickle, this time down both legs. I then telephoned the midwife unit, they told us to come in and get checked.
The midwife was a bit sceptical and said it was probably just a leak (first of all she said it was likely to just be discharge but I knew it wasnt). She hooked me up to the machine to check on baby and did an examination which I thought was a sweep but looking back at it now, I dont actually think it was! She said I was having some tightenings and was 1cm dilated. She then told us to go home and come back at 9pm to be checked again or sooner is I felt any pain.
At 9pm, we went back to the unit as arranged. Again, they hooked me up to the monitor and tracked the babys heart rate, contractions, etc. This showed that I was having contractions every 10 minutes but they werent painful so, again we were told to go home and, if things hadnt speeded up by the next morning, we were to come in for a scan to check the levels of amniotic fluid around the baby.
Off we went home again, and at around 1.30am, I started having proper contractions. The pain was all in by lower stomach at this point and I was finding it difficult to breathe through them so I started timing them and they were slightly irregular but were close to 4 minutes apart. I then telephoned the unit again, and the midwife told me to take a couple of paracetamol and make our way in. In the meantime, I went to the toilet and had my show. It was masses of jelly-like mucus with some blood. I thought Uh-oh. This is definitely it! So off we went, at around 3am, labour bags in the car and ready to rock and roll.
The midwife examined me when we got there. At this point I was really struggling with the pain and she said I was 2 cm dilated! I couldnt believe it as I honestly thought I would be around 5, the pain was so bad! Little did I know what was to come. She then carried out a membrane sweep and told me she was sure this would speed things up for us. At this point, it was around 4am and she said she would leave us there until 6 when she would examine me again. I didnt know how I was going to cope for another two hours with no pain relief but I didnt request any as I knew she wasnt giving me any for a good reason (i.e. to make it more effective when I really needed it). 6am came round and I asked for some gas and air as I didnt think I could cope anymore. She examined me and I was 4cm, good progress. They then checked the heartbeat and I could tell there was something not quite right as she was rummaging around for ages trying to find it. She then told me to get over onto my left side and she was then able to pick up a faint heartbeat. I was then told that we would have to be transferred to the main county hospital by ambulance and that my husband would have to follow in the car (at this point we were in a midwife led maternity unit). It was a very scary moment when the paramedics arrived to stretcher me off but I kept on using the gas and air to try and dull the pain.
The journey took around 20 minutes and every bump in the road was a real challenge. All I could think was that my husband wasnt with me and what he must have been going through following behind an ambulance with flashing lights, poor thing.
When we arrived at the main hospital, we were taken straight into delivery. It was around 6am at this point. I had to stay on my left side the whole time as they were worried about the heart rate dropping. One of the things that sticks in my mind is that we had packed a bag for the labour with all sorts of things in it, from water spray to Vaseline, flannels, change of clothes for my husband, towels, etc and it just sat in the corner unused. I was still wearing the top I had arrived at the hospital in, a bra and nothing else!
The next few hours seemed to pass in a blur of contractions, and I remember the midwife examining me and saying I was 6cm dilated and it would be a few more hours yet. I just thought I couldnt handle the pain anymore and every contraction came with the urge to push but I was told I couldnt push and that I should breathe through the pain very difficult I have to say! I had a few different people come in to examine me over the next couple of hours and the midwife decided to try and move the lip of my cervix back over the babys head to get things moving. This was a wee bit painful but I knew that it would help with the progress. In the meantime, I was put on a drip. I dont really know what this was for, I assume to try and hurry things along as I certainly wasnt dehydrated - I was drinking tonnes of water through a straw throughout. My waters were leaking throughout and I am horrified to admit that I did a few poohs during the labour. I wasnt that bothered though, as the midwife just kept scooping them up and whisking them away to avoid embarrassing me! She said we were still looking at another three hours or so at this point and I thought I really couldnt handle the pain anymore and I told the midwife this. So, she said she would look at some other options for pain relief for me and off she went. Then when she returned, she was looking at the monitor and there was obviously a problem as she went away to call another midwife. She then said that she was going to have to call in the consultant as the babys heartbeat had dropped and they needed to get her out quickly. Five minutes later, there were two consultants, a doctor and three midwives in the room and I was told they were going to have to use forceps and ventouse to get the baby out quickly. Whilst all this was going on, I was getting an incredible urge to push and was told to go ahead and push when I felt like it. In the meantime, my legs were put in stirrups and the consultant told me they were going to have to perform an episiotomy. I had written in my notes that I really did NOT want this to happen but I honestly didnt care by this point. The pain was just so overwhelming and my concerns for the baby were so great that I just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. So, they anaesthetised the area and cut me during one of the contractions and I didnt feel a thing.
I just kept pushing when they told me to and panting when they advised me to pant and about 15 minutes later at 13.07pm and on her due date, the baby emerged the colour of a broad bean and was whisked away. I could just see her out of the corner of my eye and could see some movement but I couldnt hear any noise. I looked over at my husband and he was looking at the floor (I think he was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the preceded commotion He later told me that he had felt like leaving the room at one point as it was so intense!) She then started to whimper a bit and I called over to see if everything was okay. They then brought her over to us and the midwife asked my husband to look what the sex was (I had written in my notes that I wanted him to announce what it was) but he just sat there staring at the baby with a tear in his eye so I looked and, for some reason, I was so shocked to see that it was a girl! She weighed 8lb 3ozs. She was grunting for the first 10 minutes so the paediatrician told us to leave her alone in her cot for an hour to calm down, after which she was fine.
I was then stitched up while I continued to use the gas and air. It didnt hurt that much and to be honest, you are so overwhelmed by the whole thing that you wouldnt notice if someone chopped your leg off!
So, thats it. As the weeks have gone by and the memory has faded, it doesnt feel like quite as much of a trauma as it did straight afterwards but Im not sure if Ill be rushing to do it again just yet but she is a treasure.
