Ventouse delivery. Wondering why I never got C/Section (w/birth story)

[DaizyDoll]

Had my boy 2 years ago now . Terrible labour, waters went at 36 weeks at 6.00am .. went up to the hospital at 8.00am and my contractions strength were over 100 (strong for early labour). 10am and I was 5cm dialated.

Contractions started to slow down by 2-3pm so they put me on the drip at 5pm. From then on I was bed bound, contracting like a mother trucker .

I was very much a "mute" lady when I was in labour, I don't know why because I scream over a needle. So I was just lying there and wouldn't speak to anyone, I think I was just too concentrated on not "losing it". The pain started to get too much by 7pm and I got a pethedine jab (I apparantly tried to get off the bed and stuck my bum in the air telling them to just "jab me with the drugs" ).

The next part was blurry but I do remember feeling a little less intense and I was sat up on the bed with my OH rubbing my back and my mum wiping my legs with baby wipes to get my patchy fake tan off . Apparently at this point I was talking a lot of nonsense, talking about a leprechaun who's hiding a key and asking if I could get my hair straightened.

I remember the nurses who were with me all day coming in to tell me they will be swapping over now, I was very upset because I felt really comfortable with a young training nurse who was there. She was pretty much with me a lot of the time and all though she was only doing small things like checking my BP, she made me feel comfortable. She started to get upset because I was upset and told me if she never had to take the dogs out who've been in the house all day she'd have stayed. The new nurses came in and one of them was quite hostile and I started yelling at them that I didn't want them (I'm really not like that so I was pretty embarrassed when I remembered this).

The constant contracting continued for a few hours & the nurses coming in & out to see if I was ready to push.

By 8-9pm I was really fed up and I was contracting almost constantly. I started to feel really poorly by this point, not just in pain but majorly weak and faint. I don't exactly remember what happened with the pushing, If I told them I was ready to/If I just started doing it/If I was instructed to.

I started pushing around 9pm. I was pushing for around 40 minutes and I wasn't getting anywhere so the nurse stopped me. I stopped for around 10 minutes but continued to push. A doctor arrived by 10pmish and didn't do much apart from "watch" for 10 minutes. My mum told me that I really needed to give out strong pushes because every time I pushed the crown of babys head would show and after the contraction "go back in".

I was really not with it at this point, I remember it quite well, especially the feeling of total and utter weakness and exhaustion. I was pushing but getting no where, started to lose it and started crying because I knew at this point there was no way my body was able to get this baby out.

Question....
This is where I'm unsure why I never got an emergency C-section. Babies heart rate was dropping quite fast, they were talking (the nurses, my mum and doctor) and a C-section was discussed. The doctor said the baby was too far down for that. Now, I can see why that would be a problem but I have known for people to have an EMG C/S when in pushing stage and at this point it was very dangerous (with babys h/r dropping). Is it really dangerous to get a C-Section at this stage?

Anyway, the doctor gave me 2 cuts, I remember him saying "I'm going to make 2 small cuts now is that ok?" and I was fine with it and I didn't feel anything when he cut me. Being cut was one of my biggest fears, although I wasn't really glad I never felt anything, at this point I don't think any form of pain would have phased me with what I was feeling.

The doctor delivered my baby by ventouse at 11.01pm. He pulled out his head (which again, I didn't think was painful) and then I pushed out his body. His cord was wrapped around his neck twice, they cut it away and gave me baby for the whole of 5 seconds. A baby doctor was waiting in the corridor for around 20 minutes for him to arrive (b/c of his heart rate dropping) so they took my baby away. While he was away I gave birth to the placenta, which was kinda weird seeing it (although I only got a glimpse of it being thrown into a bowl lol).

I was distressed asking for my baby, if he was ok etc. He had been gone for only a minute or two but each second I was getting really distressed. My mum (who had been clam throughout everything) was asking how the baby is, if she could go into the room he's at etc. A minute more passes and the midwife brings my little baby in, wrapped in a towel and tells me I have a "beautiful, healthy boy who wants to see his mammy". We all burst into tears of joy & I get to properly hold him while the doctor is stitching me up.

I remember the training nurse told me that with my baby being premature he will have vernix on his skin which is like a white liquid. She told me to feel it because it's the most softest thing I'd ever feel. I remember holding him and yes he did have a lot of vernix on him, I was rubbing his hands and belly and the vernix was indeed the most soft, weirdest thing I've ever felt. It looks quite thick and waxy but when feeling it, is the total opposite.

They weighed him, he was a healthy 6lb0 which is brilliant for him being a month early. The stitching up process was painful and lasted 40 minutes, mum & OH had a hold of the baby.

It was around 12am and I wanted to get some sleep, the nurses told me I needed to shower before going onto the maternity ward. I told them there was no way I had the energy to do that (this is whilst I am almost asleep). They weren't taking no for an answer, they told me I had stitched and I needed to protect myself against infection. Of course, they're motives where good but at the time I didn't care less, I wanted sleep and rest. They wheeled me to the shower room, one nurse undressed me and then sat me in the shower seat. She left and I had to turn the thing on myself, it was cold and I couldn't get it to warm up .. I started shouting for them and as I was shouting the sound of my voice and shower was becoming really faint an echoey. My vision was blurry so I literally crawled over to the wheel chair (naked ) and pulled the emergency puller. (IMO, I should not have been left on my own, they could have even asked my mum to come but she presumed they'd stay with me). I remember being rushed down the corridor and then remember lying back on the bed with an oxygen mask on and my mum and OH crying and upset. I had fainted due to no oxygen reaching my brain, I was anemic anyway and the blood loss from labour would have made it drastically worse.

My mum said to me a while after giving birth that she really thought she'd lost me when she seen my lifeless body in the wheelchair and the alarms going off. It must have been awful for her and OH, much worse for them than it was for me as I don't remember much.

I got 4 blood transfusions over 2 days and felt a lot better, baby had to get a canular put in because I had Strep B (which wasn't found out until after I gave birth). Baby had to go special care because his jaundice was getting bad and we spent 5 days in there, I was discharged but they had rooms on the ward for parents so I stayed with him and when he was off the billy bed he was in the room with me which was one of my best memories from the whole birth and hosptial stay.

We are both fine now, I have some anxiety problems since giving birth but that's about it.

Also, 3 weeks after having baby one of my midwives who followed my whole pregnancy but missed the birth, popped in to see him. I filled up when along with her was the young training nurse who asked if she could come and see me and the baby (as she had to go home a couple of hours before I had him but was there during most my labour). How sweet is that !

I'd like to hear your birth stories, especially ventouse delivery ones as I don't know anyone else who had one.

 

[LouLou78]

There are many factors to consider when contemplating a caesarian section and certainly one women being fully dilated and pushing isn't going to be the same as the next women who is fully dilated and pushing.

Factors include how low the head is. First timers can take anything from 1hr to 4hrs of pushing. Decelerations of a fetal heart doesn't necessarily mean fetal distress. The whole CTG would need to be taken into account not just the fact that the heart keeps dropping. It is quite common to have fetal heart decelerations during the pushing stages. The doctor must have felt that a Ventouse delivery can be acheived more safely for you and baby over a Caesarian. Certainly, a head has to be low enough for a Ventouse delivery and the head can be too low for a Caesarian section. Its about the whole picture. It sounded as though the head was approaching crowning so too low and dangerous to perform a caesarian. At that stage getting the head out of your pelvis when the head is as low as crowning via a caesarian would cause trauma and further distress and would delay to the baby being born and lead to real fetal distress. Even emergency caesarians take some time and simply a ventouse with a few pulls/pushes through a suction cup would see baby out quicker.

Like I say, dips are pretty common during pushing and certainly when the head is low enough, even with a bradycardia, with a head approaching crowning it would be quicker to perform a forceps or ventouse then a caesarian.

 

[DaizyDoll]

There are many factors to consider when contemplating a caesarian section and certainly one women being fully dilated and pushing isn't going to be the same as the next women who is fully dilated and pushing.

Factors include how low the head is. First timers can take anything from 1hr to 4hrs of pushing. Decelerations of a fetal heart doesn't necessarily mean fetal distress. The whole CTG would need to be taken into account not just the fact that the heart keeps dropping. It is quite common to have fetal heart decelerations during the pushing stages. The doctor must have felt that a Ventouse delivery can be acheived more safely for you and baby over a Caesarian. Certainly, a head has to be low enough for a Ventouse delivery and the head can be too low for a Caesarian section. Its about the whole picture. It sounded as though the head was approaching crowning so too low and dangerous to perform a caesarian. At that stage getting the head out of your pelvis when the head is as low as crowning via a caesarian would cause trauma and further distress and would delay to the baby being born and lead to real fetal distress. Even emergency caesarians take some time and simply a ventouse with a few pulls/pushes through a suction cup would see baby out quicker.

Like I say, dips are pretty common during pushing and certainly when the head is low enough, even with a bradycardia, with a head approaching crowning it would be quicker to perform a forceps or ventouse then a caesarian.

Thanks hun, you explained it well to me. I was just sat wondering if it's opssible to do a C-section when the baby is almost crowning?! Would they do the cut where they'd normally do it in a non emergency C-section. I just remembering hoping that the Ventouse worked as then it would have been forceps and I remember panicking thinking if both of those don't work and I can't have a C/S then WTF am I going to do!

I don't know if he was distressed or not but his heart rate dropped around 60 (i think) and stayed like that for a while and then started dropping again, at this point he made 2 cuts!

 

[LouLou78]

Yes the initial thought by the Doctor would be to deliver by instrumental if it is safe to do so. But obviously if the Ventouse and Forceps then failed then yes a Caesarian would be indicated next. Which is why doctors perform a ventouse/forceps in theatre if they feel that it would be a difficult delivery or a chance it will be unsuccessful. Some times transferring to theatre is not necessary which is why they need to examine to indicate which position the baby is and how low the baby is etc before making this decision alongside what the fetal heart is doing.

 

[DaizyDoll]

I forgot to add to the initial thread, the doctor was lovely. He was pulling that ventouse thing for the life of him. He didn't actually speak much though, he said maybe 3 or 4 things to me (lol). "I'm going to make 2 cuts" .. "Push with your contraction" & the funniest one "Can I borrow your fan please".

LOL honest to god, the bloody cheek of him! I'm sat there with a fan beside me to cool me down. He was dripping with sweat when he was stitching me up because of this light he had shining down on my V (& his poor head). So he asks to borrow my bloody fan lol! My mum moved it so it was on us both but he started tweaking it slyly every now and then so it was on him hahaha!

 

[mummy2behull]

congratulations on the arrival of your baby. i had to have a forceps delivery because my LO's heart rate was dropping and at one point it dropped quite rapidly if that didn't work i would of had to have a caesarean luckily the forceps worked. did you get fully dilated before the ventouse was applied? i was 8cm when they got the forceps out.

 

[mummy2behull]

congratulations on the arrival of your baby. i had to have a forceps delivery because my LO's heart rate was dropping and at one point it dropped quite rapidly if that didn't work i would of had to have a caesarean luckily the forceps worked. did you get fully dilated before the ventouse was applied? i was 8cm when they got the forceps out.

sorry didnt read it properly i thought your LO was newborn x

 

[lynnikins]

i had a ventouse delivery with ds1, similar situation being totally exausted unable to do the final bit myself after such a long labour , i had just the one cut, and it turned out ds1 had his arm up over his face with his hand on the top of his head making his elbow in front of his nose making the head size bigger to push out which was why i was struggling with it.
it was all a bit of a blur really i remember him being put on my stomach for about 15 seconds then being taken out of the room to be checked and my OH went with him,
after getting stiched then they helped me to the shower and the student MW stayed with me and stopped me passing out ( only just ) DS1 had severe jaundice due to other problems and after less than 24 hours was in the Special care unit, i was recovering ok but still stayed in a week with him.

my anemia was missed in my second pregnancy and i did colapse and pass out following birth when i showered and i had a very long transfusion and had to stay in 2 nights not allowed out of bed by myself etc...... and wasnt allowed to use the stairs by myself when i got home it took 6 wks for my iron levels to be back to normal

 

[DaizyDoll]

i had a ventouse delivery with ds1, similar situation being totally exausted unable to do the final bit myself after such a long labour , i had just the one cut, and it turned out ds1 had his arm up over his face with his hand on the top of his head making his elbow in front of his nose making the head size bigger to push out which was why i was struggling with it.
it was all a bit of a blur really i remember him being put on my stomach for about 15 seconds then being taken out of the room to be checked and my OH went with him,
after getting stiched then they helped me to the shower and the student MW stayed with me and stopped me passing out ( only just ) DS1 had severe jaundice due to other problems and after less than 24 hours was in the Special care unit, i was recovering ok but still stayed in a week with him.

my anemia was missed in my second pregnancy and i did colapse and pass out following birth when i showered and i had a very long transfusion and had to stay in 2 nights not allowed out of bed by myself etc...... and wasnt allowed to use the stairs by myself when i got home it took 6 wks for my iron levels to be back to normal

WOW! A lot of that was exactly like my birth. Isn't it funny we both fainted in the shower after birth? I guess it's because it was the first time we'd have got on our feet after labour so it pushed our bodies to the limit! I'm quite traumatized by it all, mainly the pushing stage and the fainting bit and it's really shaken me up enough to worry like mad when we try for #2 next year! I would however, do it all again as traumatizing as it was, just to get my baby! I know I'll be worrying my whole pregnancy. How are you mentally after it all? Are you scared to give birth again?

 

[DaizyDoll]

Also forgot to add - 3 weeks after having baby one of my midwives who followed my whole pregnancy but missed the birth, popped in to see him. I filled up when along with her was the young training nurse who asked if she could come and see me and the baby (as she had to go home a couple of hours before I had him but was there during most my labour). How sweet is that !

 

[lynnikins]

with my second son then i wasnt scared about labour i was adamant that it would go better for me and even though i was induced i got the gel then stayed upright 98% of my labour to get him right down nice and quick i didnt lie back on the bed ( couldnt due to bad SPD )and all examinations were done on my side and i gave birth on my side too, i got up and used the bath in labour to help and my labour was under 8 hours from my induction, they didnt realise how anemic i was till after birth when i looked whiter than the sheets and that was when the drama began lol, this time im planning a homebirth and know my body can do it caus i only pushed 7 times with EJ and went from 5/6cm to delivery in under an hour. im hoping being less stressed will help this labour on even faster and i wont have the problem of my DH nearly missing it again ( he had gone home since it was night time and only got back just in time )

 

[chuck]

You have to remember that despite being cut a vaginal birth is better an safer for you and baby, if babies head was that visible they would have been very far down and a ventouse would have better than giving you major abdominal surgery physically.

 

[LouLou78]

Ah that is lovely Daizy Doll. x

 

[teal]

My delivery was a forceps delivery due to distress and I was advised it was quicker to have an emergency forceps delivery than a section. I was terrified of forceps and started saying no when the doctor mentioned it but she reassured me and was confident my baby would be safe and she was right xx

 

[Blah11]

I think the first place where the docs went wrong was when they hooked you up to a drip. I hate the whole '1cm an hour' rule. its total tosh. Sometimes contractions do stop during the day and they get stronger again when its night time.

sounds awful anyway I think for your next baby you should look into a home birth. It sounds like you were coping great until they discovered you weren't progressing at the rate THEY'D like

 

[chuck]

Good ol failure to wait.

I fucking HATE the way we're supposed to labour by the book.

 

[DaizyDoll]

I think the first place where the docs went wrong was when they hooked you up to a drip. I hate the whole '1cm an hour' rule. its total tosh. Sometimes contractions do stop during the day and they get stronger again when its night time.

sounds awful anyway I think for your next baby you should look into a home birth. It sounds like you were coping great until they discovered you weren't progressing at the rate THEY'D like

Thinking about it, you are totally right. They kept banging on about them slowing down and that my waters have been burst for 12 hours. I told them that from the books I've read that 12 hours is fine but they wanted to get my contractions starting up again. They worded it like it would have been dangerous if I didn't and that my baby would be born by 8pm (he was born at 11pm btw).

I was walking around all day, coping and talking to everyone. Sat on my ball and dealing with the contractions. I didn't feel I needed pain relief because my body was pacing it well & felt my brain and body were in sync. They slowed down and were 15 minutes apart but started to become 10 minutes yet they STILL hooked me up to that drip and from that moment on, everything became messy, my mind and body were not in sync and it was overwhelming. I got a pethedine jab and I honestly don't think I'd have asked for it if they never hooked me up.