Questions about my birth experience

[EOOSTHOEK84]

Hi all,

So, I know I will probably never get an exact answer as to what happened during my labor and delivery, but I want to get some opinions and thoughts about it. It's a novel, just FYI.

Here goes:

I had a relatively easy, uneventful 9 months- no sickness, cravings, problems, etc. I had two cervical checks, one at 36 weeks and one at 38 weeks. I was 80% effaced and no dilation at 36 weeks and 80% effaced and a fingertip to 1 cm dilated at 38 weeks.

At 38 weeks, 6 days (a Saturday), I cleaned the house and finalized the nursery. I felt pretty good all day, nothing out of the ordinary. I had been having some pressure really low for weeks, but not much else. We went to bed around 11pm and I woke up to use the bathroom at 2 am. When I got back into bed, I feel asleep for maybe 10-15 minutes and then turned over onto my other side and felt a trickle. Not huge like a gush, but definitely a warm trickle. I went into the bathroom and had a wet spot of my pjs (see picture, if interested). I wiped and had some blood, pretty bright pink/red, but not a whole lot of it (see picture, if interested). No mucus at all. This startled me as I had NO bleeding AT ALL throughout my pregnancy. So, I woke up my hubby and discussed what to do. I planned to labor at home as long as possible, but the blood really got me nervous. I had a bit more blood when I used the bathroom the next time, but no more fluid that I could tell. So, I showered and did laundry and then headed to the hospital at 4 am. Hubby was nervous so we went

When I got there, the nurse checked me and I was about 1 cm dilated and no more fluid had come out, but still had a bit of spotting when I used the bathroom. She seemed doubtful that it was amniotic fluid because it had stopped coming out, but did seem somewhat perplexed when she had me cough. I'm guessing she saw some then. So, she did a test for it (the test where they lay the strip inside of you for a minute) and it came back positive for fluid and I was admitted. Oh, I also had no contractions at this point- that I could tell anyhow.

So, I got to my room and started walking around the halls for about 2 hours to try and get things going. I think I had mild contractions at this point, however, this may have been more in my head and was over thinking my pressure pains Nothing "hurt", I think I was just more aware of everything going on.

I got checked again a bit later (by a different person) and was 1-1.5 cm dilated (if I remember correctly). So, no more fluid, no more bleeding, and no substantial dilation increase. They wanted to start pitocin at this time, but I asked to hold off a bit. I was very much striving for a completely natural childbirth. I did end up getting pitocin a few hours later (I think around 10 hours after the trickle at home, but things still moved very slowly. Contractions were registering on the monitor now, pretty high too, but I really didn't feel them. I got checked again and was at 2 cm. At this time, the nurse said I had a full bag of water and wanted the doctor to come in and check. Oh, also, my doctor was out of town and I had an on-call doctor.

So, over the next few hours, the decision was made to break the bag of water. Oh man, what a gush! And it never stopped haha it would keep gushing randomly, usually with contractions, which really picked up at this point. I had 2 rounds of INTENSE contractions, all on top of each other, no break in-between, for about 30 minutes each round. One round was on the birthing ball, one in bed on all 4's. The whole team (nurse, doctor, doula) assumed this was transition due to the pain, length, and intensity of the contractions. I got checked again, and was only 4 cm dilated!

At this point, I was exhausted and frustrated, so I got an epidural on the advice of the medical team. They wouldn't let me labor in the tub due to
having pitocin and they hoped I would relax with the pain meds. Well, I did relax fortunately and ended up going to 9 cm in about 3-4 hours. They had me lay in various positions to speed up dilating the last cm. Within another half hour I started pushing. I think I pushed for about 1.5-2 hours total and delivered a beautiful baby girl. She did need NICU within our room because she wasn't very alert from being in the birth canal so long and also the cord was around her neck. Within minutes she was fine though. I also had a 2nd degree tear.

Everything was great until about 3-4 hours after birth. I had used the bathroom and was fine, but when I went the second time I started bleeding quite a bit. I asked my hubby to get a nurse just to check, when all of a sudden I started gushing blood and huge clots. About the size of a grapefruit each and the toilet was filled to the rim. The nurse actually looked scared when she came in and somewhat panicked while calling for back-up. I ended up getting very dizzy and somewhat fell onto the nurse for support so they brought in smelling salts to get me alert again. I was transferred back to my bed and about 6 nurses worked on me to get the clots out The pain of them pushing on my abdomen to expel the clots was worse than labor and delivery. They called my OB at this point (he was back in town and saw me about 2 hours after I delivered). His office is right next to the hospital so he ran over, literally. He seemed concerned as well as ordered another round of pitocin, which didn't work. I ended up having a D & C and bled lightly for about 6 weeks after birth. I ended up losing over half of my blood and had to have a stitch in my cervix. No placenta was retained.

From start to finish, it was 27 hours.

So, what happened? What do you think it was the night I felt the trickle? Was it my water breaking? What about the blood with it? Was I not ready to have the baby and was induced? Why the postpartum hemorrhage? My doctor never answered these questions for me, and I feel like I need some insight into my birth experience and why things happened the way they did. Just looking for thoughts and opinions.

 

[babyface15]

hi interesting birth story and I'm glad to hear you and lo were ok!
Perhaps you had a little pin prick hole in your bag of waters. Not sure what the bleeding before labor meant, but I believe induction is a risk factor for pph.

 

[babyface15]

oh I see you didn't have too much blood, perhaps it was because of the internal exams?

 

[melfy77]

Sounds like my birth story, but I was lucky it only lasted 10 hours. When I was 38+4 i woke up at 2am to pee and felt something leak down there. I checked and it wasn't urine, so laid down, stood up, coughed, but nothing came out so I thought it was just normal discharge. I went back to sleep. I got up at 8 and same thing happened. We decided to go to the hospital ''just in case''. The test came back positive, and I wasn't really leaking any fluid. So yes I had a leak, but a small one. They admitted me and started me on antibiotics since I tested positive for Strep B. I had no contraction so I was given oxytocin (nasty stuff lol) at 2 pm. DD was born at 1 am after 25 minutes of pushing

So maybe the leak wasn't big enough to trigger the labor? But they still want us to be induced because there's a risk of infection. That's my theory...

 

[EOOSTHOEK84]

I always wonder if my water actually broke or if I was leaking. And why did I have blood? Why no contractions? My baby was only 6 lb 4 oz and everyone assumed she would be between 8-10. I had a lot of fluid haha I always wonder if I could've stayed home longer or even went home before they broke my water.

 

[melfy77]

Well your membranes ruptured, so your waters did brake. But depending where the rupture is will determine how big of a ''gush'' you'll have. But I have no idea about the blood though

It's hard to know exactly how the labor is triggered, but the baby decides. So if the baby still has enough fluid, there's no need for him to come out right away, but again, there's always a risk of infection...labor is such an interesting thing

 

[readynwilling]

sounds to me your body was gearing up (could have been a few days yet still tho) and when you went to the hospital they basically induced you. You probably did the right thing by going to the hospital, especially if LO needed NICU time from being in birth canal for so long - what would have happened if he was stuck in there for DAYS?? Whether the induction caused the PPH or if it would have happened regardless you'll probably never know - its something that happens sometimes.

Don't beat yourself up about it - you and baby are now healthy and thats whats important

 

[MindUtopia]

It sounds like it was your waters starting to go in the beginning. The little bit of blood you saw at home is normal and often happens when your plug or waters go. I had the same after my waters went but before contractions started. If you want my honest opinion, where things probably went wrong was going into hospital too early because you were worried about what you saw. You probably would have dilated naturally much quicker at home without all that poking and prodding (and might even have been, your body can actually un-dilate under stress, so you can go from 7cm back to 2cm).

I also wouldn't have let them start the Pitocin. You still had plenty of time (at least 24 hours by some recommendations but you can always decline, some people go weeks after some leaking as long as fluid levels are monitored) and it sounds like it made things too painful and intense too quickly. The augmentation of your labour probably is what made it unbearable (not using pain relief after pitocin would be really rough, I had a totally natural birth but I don't think I could cope with that). As for the bleeding after birth, I'd see if you can get a hold of your notes and try to understand what your doctors think happened. I did pass some large clots (size of an apple) just after birth before the placenta was delivered which can be normal, but so far after birth and with that much blood loss, I'd ask if they'd class that as a postpartum hemorrhage. PPH can sometimes happen for no obvious reason, but it's 80% more likely if you've had pitocin. Unfortunately, it's something they don't tell you when they're pressuring you with a drip and telling you about all the bad things that could happen if you don't induce.

Not sure that's helpful, but hopefully helps you have perspective on it all. It definitely sounds like your body was trying to do the right thing, but a little too much tinkering and not enough support for you to birth naturally probably messed up the process a bit. Glad you are okay though and you have a healthy little girl to show for it!

 

[babyface15]

omg how quick you forget hey?

the blood before is totally normal, probable you're plug coming away or the beginnings of your show. I had bleeding and spotting for several days before I went into labor lol

 

[melfy77]

It sounds like it was your waters starting to go in the beginning. The little bit of blood you saw at home is normal and often happens when your plug or waters go. I had the same after my waters went but before contractions started. If you want my honest opinion, where things probably went wrong was going into hospital too early because you were worried about what you saw. You probably would have dilated naturally much quicker at home without all that poking and prodding (and might even have been, your body can actually un-dilate under stress, so you can go from 7cm back to 2cm).

I also wouldn't have let them start the Pitocin. You still had plenty of time (at least 24 hours by some recommendations but you can always decline, some people go weeks after some leaking as long as fluid levels are monitored) and it sounds like it made things too painful and intense too quickly. The augmentation of your labour probably is what made it unbearable (not using pain relief after pitocin would be really rough, I had a totally natural birth but I don't think I could cope with that). As for the bleeding after birth, I'd see if you can get a hold of your notes and try to understand what your doctors think happened. I did pass some large clots (size of an apple) just after birth before the placenta was delivered which can be normal, but so far after birth and with that much blood loss, I'd ask if they'd class that as a postpartum hemorrhage. PPH can sometimes happen for no obvious reason, but it's 80% more likely if you've had pitocin. Unfortunately, it's something they don't tell you when they're pressuring you with a drip and telling you about all the bad things that could happen if you don't induce.

Not sure that's helpful, but hopefully helps you have perspective on it all. It definitely sounds like your body was trying to do the right thing, but a little too much tinkering and not enough support for you to birth naturally probably messed up the process a bit. Glad you are okay though and you have a healthy little girl to show for it!

I know in my case when they started it it's been at least 12 hours, but when i really think about it, this so-called discharge which turned out to be fluid, pretty sure it started a few days before I actually went to the hospital.