Very late birth story of Poppy Louise 07/08/09 (V. Long) *UPDATED WITH PICS*

Armywife

Mummy to 2 beauties
Joined
Jan 18, 2009
Messages
4,385
Reaction score
0
After months of trying to decide whether a section or natural birth would be best due to issues with my back and SPD we decided to give natural a go. My due date being the 15th August i was to go in for induction on sunday 9th.

On monday 3rd August i had spent a busy day shopping with my hubby and walking on the beach to try and set things off naturally but with no luck, we settled down to watch tv with my usual raspberry leaf tea and bowl of fresh pineapple when hubby noticed how swollen my hands, feet and face had become, we thought nothing much of it until i developed a major headache at which point we went to delivery suite to be checked over. On arrival my blood pressure was fine and i had no protein in my wee but blood tests showed high levels of uric acid so i was kept in over night so they could monitor my progress. The following day my blood pressure had begun to creep up so they kept me in another night for observation. By wednesday 5th the uric acid in my blood had risen even more so the consultant said i would need to be induced. Before i knew what had happened she had given me a sweep, inserted gel and left the room without even an explination! I had to check with mw that i had in fact just been induced. I had - with no warning or questions.

The contractions began straight away, they felt like period pains only worse but i was coping with them well, at 5pm i was checked and found to be 2cm dilated - more than i thought as they'd said it would probably take 3 lots of gel. That night my hubby went home as things didn't seem to be progressing and i spent the night having baths, bouncing on the birthing ball and pacing the corridors.*

At 6.10am i stood to go to the loo and felt a pop followed by a gush of water and the most horrendous pain ever! I was in a private room so pressed my buzzer and told the mw 'I think my waters have gone!' then burst into tears and told her i couldn't do this and i'd changed my mind! If i'd known what was to come i'd have been even more adamant!

They checked and i was 3-4cm so they called hubby who had actually been sleeping in car anyway as we live 40 mins from hospital so he was there in minutes. They moved me from my room on the ward to what i can only describe as a store room! There were shelves of bandages, gloves-everything you can think of- and one old fashioned bed in the corner. By this point contractions were only a few minutes apart and lasting over a minute each, i was in so much pain i really felt i couldn't handle it and asked for some pain relief only to be told by mw that there was no room on delivery suite so i couldn't have any! I had to wait in the room i was in which was boiling hot, had no window to open and no fan either, I was so confused and scared i started crying again, the mw was very impatient and explained she was the only mw on the ward and as well as me there were 2 other women in labour waiting to go down, 20 new mums with babies and 15 pregnant ladies, the only help she had was from 2 student nurses. Hearing this i began to panic as i was told the only way i could safely have a natural birth was if i did so in hospital where an anethstatist (sp) would be on hand should i need an emergency section. After 11 *hours of being on the ward and unanble to move due to being hooked up to a drip (i have group B strep) and the monitor i was literally begging for pain relief, the mw relented and gave me half a shot of pethedine which seemed to hurt more than my bloody contractions, i called her a 'Mother F****r'! I wish i'd never had it now though as it made me sick and even more confused and didn't seem to help at all with my contractions.

After 3 hours without seeing a single person, my husband went out to tell them I was in a lot of pain, their reply? "yes, it's called labour.", they were eating biscuits and no one came to check on me. *14hrs after my waters broke a room on delivery finally became available so down i went praying to God i could still have an epidural. When i arrived they checked me and i was 7-8cm so just in time for an epidural, they beeped an anethstatist (sp) and gave me gas and air while i waited. G&A was fabby, didn't help with the pain but i felt so high in between contractions i wasn't bothered (which was strange because it was the one thing i swore i wouldn't even bother with!) ! The anethstatist turned up and inserted the epidural - which only worked down my right leg! He came back twice and gave me stronger doses but it still only worked down that leg. Mw suddenly asked how long it was since i'd had a wee so i told her it had been around 20 hours but i couldn't tell if i needed to wee or not! She emptied my bladder which was so unbelievably full she was amazed and said it could well have caused major complications (i believe someone got into trouble for this!). They were concerned about baby as her heart rate was dropping but they were pretty useless, choosing instead to take blood from her head every 30 mins - ouch!

29 hours after my waters broke and 51 hours after my contractions started they checked and i was 10cm, they said as i couldn't move around they would leave me for another hour to allow the baby to descend more. However the babys heart rate was low and she appeared to be quite distressed so they explained it could well come to an emergency section.*

After an hour i began pushing, after 2 and a half hours of pushing nothing was happening and the baby was even more distressed, all of a sudden the room filled with people, there was 3 doctors for me, 3 for baby, 2 mw's and 2 anethstatists, they whipped my legs into stirrups and explained they were going to try forceps but they were prepping me for general anasthetic at the same time, i remember at one point the consultant had both her hands inside me trying to turn Poppy around. The dr gave me an episiotomy and told me to start pushing with next contraction. Still Poppy wasn't coming, they realised the cord was twice round her neck so they had to cut it whilst she was still inside me. ( there was a conversation between the consultant and registrar as the reg wanted to give me an ecs but the cons said it goes against their targets).

On 7th August at 14.40 after a 54 hour labour Poppy Louise was born weighing 6lb 10oz but the drama still wasn't over, she wasn't breathing they took her away to revive her, people were running everywhere, i was being sick, hubby was white as a sheet and it seemed like forever before i finally heard her cry - the most amazing sound ever! I had to go to theatre for an operation to fix all the damage as i had a 3rd degree tear as well as 2nd degree episiotomy and grazing. The doc said it was close to the most stitches she'd ever done - she described it as giving me a designer vagina! they had also fractured and displaced my pelvis with the forceps.

Since then Poppy has spent 6 weeks in hospital for operations as she had severe intestinal problems so she's only 7lb at 8 and a half weeks old but she's perfect and doing really really well. This is my birth story as i remember it, i may change a few things as hubby said i remember some things in the wrong order. There is currently an investigation ongoing into what happened to me during my labour as my midwife placed a complaint on my behalf as i was so traumatised after it.*
 

Attachments

  • poppy first.jpg
    poppy first.jpg
    79.3 KB · Views: 47
  • poppy&daddy.jpg
    poppy&daddy.jpg
    84.3 KB · Views: 85
  • poppy poorly.jpg
    poppy poorly.jpg
    88.6 KB · Views: 69
  • pop&i.jpg
    pop&i.jpg
    68.8 KB · Views: 112
  • poppysleeps.jpg
    poppysleeps.jpg
    104.7 KB · Views: 77
omg hunni - you had me in tears so happy your both ok now :) big huge :hug: xxxxx
 
Congratulations! Glad they were able to fit u in!!!
 
what an awfulexperience :( mine wasnt much better i cant even write my birth story :cry:

glad to hear poppys doing well.....and how r u ?x
 
Congratulations, sorry the birth wasn't straight forward but i'm sure she is worth it xx
 
Sooo proud of you hun! Your one tough cookie and so is Poppy by the sounds of it!!
Glad you are all well now though xxx
 
Sorry you had such a rough time, but good to hear you're both doing well now :hugs: congratulations!
 
bless you all, I'm glad she is here safe and well, and doing well after her op. xxx
 
oh my goodness what drama!! So glad it all worked out in the end and that she arrived safely but boy did she give you a fright!

Congratulations hon she's gorgeous (I've had a sneaky peek on facebook :D)

:hugs:
 
awww what a terrible experience, but so glad all is well, congratulations x
 
Congrats on your new baby and for being so brave!

I had Pyloric Stenosis when I was born and had an op at 6 weeks old, I hope Poppy's doing well now x
 
Roxy thats really good to know that you're all well now, Poppy is all better and doing really great, only lasting effect is that she needs Gaviscon with every feed xx
 
Oh hun, i cried reading your story. Im so glad you both are doing well now.
 
Poppy is gorgeous, that last photo is really stunning!! xxxx
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Members online

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,650,282
Messages
27,143,727
Members
255,746
Latest member
coco.g
Back
Top
monitoring_string = "c48fb0faa520c8dfff8c4deab485d3d2"
<-- Admiral -->