Ashla
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Well at 39+6 I started getting contractions and thought this is it. But later that afternoon they fizzled out. I went for a walk, spent heaps of time on my hands and knees but nothing would bring them back. At 40+3 I had an appointment with my OB. Baby was doing well but I was not effaced or dilated. I explained to my OB that I wasn't comfortable going much past 41 weeks due to fear of a stillborn so we booked an induction for 41 weeks. At 40+4 I had a bloody show and had contractions all day long. I thought my body was finally gearing up for labour! I called the doctor and asked if we could postpone the induction until 41+2 just to give my body a real chance to go into labour naturally.
Well 41 weeks came and went. I was having a lot of contractions that were painful enough to make me want to lie down and made it hard to look after my toddler but they never really got going.
At 41+2 DH and I went to the hospital at 7am for my induction. I was nervous and sad it had to be this way, but I also wanted to hold my baby in my arms and know he or she was safe. After an hour of fetal monitoring, at 8am my OB broke my waters and I was hooked up to an oxytocin drip. The midwives had told me when they started the monitoring that I was already having contractions. They sounded very excited but I rained on their parade by telling them I'd been having them for 10 days already and nothing had happened! When the OB broke my waters he said that the baby was posterior and still hadn't engaged which made me feel I'd made the right decision about the induction. Without an induction, the baby obviously wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
By 8:30am, the contractions were coming thick and fast. I tried the fitball for a while but had too much pressure down below for it to be very comfortable. So I spent most of my labour on all fours on the bed. Because of the artificial oxytocin, I would have one contraction, then a break, then three contractions in a row, then a break. It was brutal and I remember telling my DH that it wasn't fair to not get a break between contractions and that I couldn't do this. At 10am I asked for some gas&air. By 10:30 the pain was unbearable and I asked to be checked. I was only 3cm
I remember at some point thinking I would ask for some Pethadine but I decided to hold off for a little while and never ended up getting it. At 12 noon I asked to be checked again and was devastated to hear I was only 8cm. I wanted to be done! About 5 minutes later I started saying I wanted to push and the midwives called my OB to tell him I was 8cm and it wouldn't be too long. At 12:10pm I told the midwives that I didn't care what they said, I was going to push and when they looked, my baby was crowning! They rushed to call the OB who was on the floor below us. All of a sudden the midwives who were still in the room told me urgently "stop pushing." The cord was around baby's neck. The midwife untangled the cord and with one more push my son was born and placed on my chest. The OB walked in just as my son was being put on my chest!
I spent about 10 minutes enjoying my son but then everything started to go wrong. My OB explained that I was bleeding quite a bit and that it was taking a long time to deliver the placenta. He said that normally they'd wait half an hour to see if the placenta would come out on its own but that I was losing too much blood for him to wait that long and that he needed to massage my tummy to try to help dislodge the placenta. It was definitely uncomfortable but I tried to just concentrate on my beautiful baby. After that, the nurses got very quiet and my son was taken off me. The OB kept massaging my stomach and the nurses were scooping up my blood with their hands and dropping it into these plastic medical dishes. Then the OB told me that they needed to stop the bleeding and so he needed to remove the placenta manually. An anesthetist was called in to give me a spinal block and the OB put his hand into my uterus and scraped the placenta off the uterine wall. Later the OB told me that some of the placenta must have grown into the uterine wall early in the pregnancy and only half of it had dislodged after the baby was born. The half that dislodged had torn off and my body kept pumping blood to the placenta which had caused the bleed.
The next few days were pretty tough. I couldn't get out of bed without fainting as I was so weak from blood loss and it was weeks before I could walk around at the shops etc.
I love my son so much- he is an absolute joy and I'm so glad I've got him even if I had to go through placenta accreta and a hemorrhage to get him. But I think I am done having children now. My OB says it is likely to happen again and that if I have more children, I'll need to have an epidural during labour so that if I hemorrhage again they can act quickly without having to wait for an anethetist.
Well 41 weeks came and went. I was having a lot of contractions that were painful enough to make me want to lie down and made it hard to look after my toddler but they never really got going.
At 41+2 DH and I went to the hospital at 7am for my induction. I was nervous and sad it had to be this way, but I also wanted to hold my baby in my arms and know he or she was safe. After an hour of fetal monitoring, at 8am my OB broke my waters and I was hooked up to an oxytocin drip. The midwives had told me when they started the monitoring that I was already having contractions. They sounded very excited but I rained on their parade by telling them I'd been having them for 10 days already and nothing had happened! When the OB broke my waters he said that the baby was posterior and still hadn't engaged which made me feel I'd made the right decision about the induction. Without an induction, the baby obviously wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
By 8:30am, the contractions were coming thick and fast. I tried the fitball for a while but had too much pressure down below for it to be very comfortable. So I spent most of my labour on all fours on the bed. Because of the artificial oxytocin, I would have one contraction, then a break, then three contractions in a row, then a break. It was brutal and I remember telling my DH that it wasn't fair to not get a break between contractions and that I couldn't do this. At 10am I asked for some gas&air. By 10:30 the pain was unbearable and I asked to be checked. I was only 3cm
I remember at some point thinking I would ask for some Pethadine but I decided to hold off for a little while and never ended up getting it. At 12 noon I asked to be checked again and was devastated to hear I was only 8cm. I wanted to be done! About 5 minutes later I started saying I wanted to push and the midwives called my OB to tell him I was 8cm and it wouldn't be too long. At 12:10pm I told the midwives that I didn't care what they said, I was going to push and when they looked, my baby was crowning! They rushed to call the OB who was on the floor below us. All of a sudden the midwives who were still in the room told me urgently "stop pushing." The cord was around baby's neck. The midwife untangled the cord and with one more push my son was born and placed on my chest. The OB walked in just as my son was being put on my chest!
I spent about 10 minutes enjoying my son but then everything started to go wrong. My OB explained that I was bleeding quite a bit and that it was taking a long time to deliver the placenta. He said that normally they'd wait half an hour to see if the placenta would come out on its own but that I was losing too much blood for him to wait that long and that he needed to massage my tummy to try to help dislodge the placenta. It was definitely uncomfortable but I tried to just concentrate on my beautiful baby. After that, the nurses got very quiet and my son was taken off me. The OB kept massaging my stomach and the nurses were scooping up my blood with their hands and dropping it into these plastic medical dishes. Then the OB told me that they needed to stop the bleeding and so he needed to remove the placenta manually. An anesthetist was called in to give me a spinal block and the OB put his hand into my uterus and scraped the placenta off the uterine wall. Later the OB told me that some of the placenta must have grown into the uterine wall early in the pregnancy and only half of it had dislodged after the baby was born. The half that dislodged had torn off and my body kept pumping blood to the placenta which had caused the bleed.
The next few days were pretty tough. I couldn't get out of bed without fainting as I was so weak from blood loss and it was weeks before I could walk around at the shops etc.
I love my son so much- he is an absolute joy and I'm so glad I've got him even if I had to go through placenta accreta and a hemorrhage to get him. But I think I am done having children now. My OB says it is likely to happen again and that if I have more children, I'll need to have an epidural during labour so that if I hemorrhage again they can act quickly without having to wait for an anethetist.
