MSE Pregnancy Club Birth Stories

Sami_Bee

I'm starting this thread because we pregnant ladies find it comforting to know what really happens when you go into labour, be that everything going swimmingly or it involving mad rushes, lots of doctors and an emergency operation.
The money saving aspect is best described by Tia

tiamai_d wrote: »

Families. Working on the basis that women need to talk about the birth to get over it and if they don't it will cost you a fortune in counselling after your marrage falls apart. I knows this I got PTSD from having DS2 after folk told me to just be grateful that we were both ok and I stopped talking about it (till I ended up breaking down on a bloody bus (hate buses!)). Most insulting thing you can say to a woman who has had a traumatic birth... but I won't rant about that. Might do on the birth story thread

So please feel free to post the story of your little one's arrival into this world, all I ask is that you specify when the birth occurred - just the year will do, so we have a general idea if things are still as they were at the time of your story

EDIT: If you experienced a traumatic birth and would like some support please visit The Birth Trauma Association's Website

Sami_Bee

To get us started here a some of the recent births
vanilla - 6th May 2009
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21382725&postcount=2722

shellsuit - 9th May 2009
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21424331&postcount=3293

angela6834 - 12th May 2009 (32 weeks emergency c/s)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21879449&postcount=2950

Claire Jones - 14th May 2009
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21610805&postcount=136

sugarspunsister - 16th May 2009 (Emergency c/s)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21808187&postcount=2157

elle_gee - 17th May 2009(31 weeks emergency c/s)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21810975&postcount=2188

Mrs Tine - 22nd May 2009
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21835403&postcount=2505

3onitsway

I've copied and pasted mine from my original post! Thought we should have a nice simple, boring one on here!




Hello Ladies.

A very dazed 3onitsway here.

I last posted last night around 8.30 looking for news from Rmac - and mentioned i'd had niggly tightenings every 15 ish minutes but wasn't getting excited as i'd had them for a few nights now.

Anyway, i tried to go to bed about nine, but the pain woke me up every 10 minutes til around midnight - still niggly and not too painful.

Decided to get up and have a bath to see if that eased it, stayed in the bath til about half one, still niggly, not too bad.

Got out of the bath and they got more painful.

Phoned hospital for advice around 2.30 for advice - they said to come up and they'd check me over - so phoned mum to come and look after DS and DD, who were tucked up in bed.

I don't know why, but I was expecting to get to hospital and for them to tell me to bu66er off home and stop being dramatic!

Mum arrived, and off we went to the hospital, pains every 6 minutes on the way there, getting more painful, we arrived at 3.20am.

Got into hospital, they put monitor on tummy, and examined me to see what was happening - I was 9cm dilated :eek: .

Gas and air was given to me, and four painful pushes later, my beautiful little girl arrived at 4.02am, weighing 6lb 12 1/2oz.

It all happened too fast for the water birth i'd wanted - but it was still amazing, and i'm so proud of myself for doing it with just gas and air!

Baby and me were checked over and discharged - home by 6.30am. Driving home was surreal - we were looking at each other saying three hours ago, we were driving to the hospital, now we're driving home with a baby.

DD's face was a picture when she got up at around 8, and came downstairs to find a little sister in the living room! She asked 'who's is that?'!

Baby is as yet unamed - I think we've narrowed it down to two.
Name and photos to follow.

My_Fathers_Daughter

Mine is cut and pasted from the Word document that I typed it out on because it is so long-winded!!

Ladies – my very long and probably far too detailed birth story…

Went into the hospital to be induced at 9am on Thursday 12th – put me and baby on a monitor to check heart rate and level of contractions (not that there were any at that stage). Baby’s heart rate was high and erratic so ended up stuck on monitor for 2 ½ hours until he settled down.
12.20 had my first internal sweep and pectin tablet inserted – left on monitor for another 2 hours…some slight contractions but nothing to speak of. 18.30 had second internal and pectin inserted. Cervix softening and shortening, some contractions but not enough… Hubby sent home at 9.30pm and told to return on the Friday unless called in. A pretty sleepless night for both of us.

Hubby sneaked in at 8.30am on the Friday morning (visiting doesn’t start til 11!!). At 9.45am the doctor came to examine me to see if it was possible to break my waters, she concluded that it was (2cm dilated) and said she would arrange for me to be sent up to delivery.

11.45am (yes – 2 hours later!!) I was taken up to delivery by the midwife. Waited whilst she arranged the room in the traditional style (bed in the middle, monitor one side, drip on the other side). Up on bed, IV inserted and doctors examined me again. I was asked if the junior doctor could break my waters, which I consented to. She had a go but couldn’t do it - as it turns out she was poking the top of Benjamin’s head and he has several cuts from her efforts (I can count 19 marks on his head a week later). The main doc had a go and my waters broke with such ferocity that they went all up his arm and soaked his armpit…he was less than impressed!!

I was put onto a drip to speed up contractions and make them stronger. Hooked up to monitor on my left and drip on my right and stuck on a bed (exactly what I didn’t want). Cue change of shift…

New midwife comes on, it’s her first day in delivery proper (she has been shadowing for a week or so) she is a nice young girl who has a calming air about her. She will be closely supervised by 2 of the maternity co-ordinators, one of whom is the lady who gave the waterbirth class I attended. When she introduced herself and asked for my birth plan (first time anyone had asked for it) I mentioned we had met before and she said that if she had known before they put me on the drip then there would have been a chance to do something about it! She said that now she knew what I wanted there were still some thing she could do. She moved the bed to the side of the room, got me a birthing ball to put next to the bed and hooked me up to a wireless monitor so I could move around and use the en-suite bathroom. It was then when I became obsessed with needing to poo (sorry far TMI coming) I couldn’t and every time I moved I was gushing waters and bleeding and things started to really get on top of me.

I started on the gas and air which made me feel dizzy and sick (think when you are uncontrollably p1ssed) and made me really thirsty. The contractions were getting much worse and I just wasn’t coping at all – I was absolutely obsessed by needing to poo and the mess that I was making as I moved around. The contractions made me feel like I needed to push but I knew I wasn’t dilated enough so I was ‘clenching’ through them and trying not to push. This was causing some swelling on one side of my cervix meaning that dilation was slowing. So, after much heartache and soul-searching I asked for an epidural (my worst fear). The co-ordinator suggested a mobile epidural so I could still move around and I agreed (although the moving around was distressing me).

At 7.55pm the anaesthetist came and ran me through the procedure. He was finishing at 8 so scrubbed up there and then and put the epidural in on the 2nd attempt. It seemed to make a bit of a difference so he left. I was examined by the docs who said they would give me until 1.30am and then would make a judgement as to whether they needed to do a C-section because of slow progress and the baby’s heart rate, which was still erratic.

The contractions got worse and worse and I was still using the gas and air to get through them (which I now know you shouldn’t need to do with an epidural). Dilation was very slow, baby was stressed, I was stressed and tired. Cue change of shift again.

New midwife was a bit more stern, old-fashioned sort. Said pretty much straight away that she wanted the anaesthetist to come and take a look at me because she wasn’t happy with the epidural. Old irish anaesthetist arrived, took one look at me and started preparing to sort me out, calling all the other people who had hooked me up idiots and b*stards for putting monitor and drip on separate sides etc! He was great, did me another epidural (non-mobile but I had hardly moved for hours because the mess upset me) which worked!! And he re-sited my IV so it was in a more comfortable and sensible position. At last things started to calm down and I could rest a bit. I could feel tightening but no pain from the contractions. To begin with I could use my legs a bit too. Hubby and I tried to rest for a while (MW dimmed the lights) with poor hubby propped against a cupboard resting his head on a towel.

Docs came back about 2.15am, examined me and said there was some progress, albeit slow and that they would let me continue to labour and see me again at 4.30am. I told hubby to go home for an hour and get a shower. He protested for a while but saw sense that we weren’t going anywhere fast, he was knackered and I was just going to rest. We only live 5 mins from the hospital so it made sense.

4.30am came and I was examined again – if they had offered me a C-section then I would have taken it in a flash…I almost asked for one. The contractions began to build up again and the epidural was starting to wear off every 40 mins or so needing a top-up. They said they would let me continue until 6am then make a decision. 6am came and I was nearly ready to push, the doc asked me about forceps assistance and I said I would probably need it (I had been in labour for over 12 hours by then). We started to push but I was struggling to feel contractions and my legs were heavy and numb so I ended up with my legs in stirrups pushing as and when the midwife told me – so far away from what I had imagined. I was doing okay when the doc came back to set up with the forceps but the baby was in distress so we agreed (hubby and I) that I should take whatever assistance was offered.

And so I had an episiotomy (my second worst fear) and Benjamin John was finally delivered with the help of a lady with metal salad tongs at 7.54am. Just the thought of hearing his first cry has me sat here in tears and as I have said to AF since I would go through all of it every day for the rest of my life for that first look into his eyes.

Things have not been easy for us both since either but I will tell you about that later – I am so sorry that this is such a long story but I wanted to tell you all because despite the fact that it all went ‘wrong’ and none of my simple birth plan actually happened, we got through it fine and it was worth every second in the end.

I hope that this helps the ladies that are worried about how they will get through it.



Edit: reading through it again and thinking about Benjamins first cries has me in floods of tears all over again over 10 weeks later. That was the moment that my life changed forever and I got to meet my beautiful, wonderful son - the best moment of my life.

emlou2009

what a good idea for a thread! this is mine from my original post but edited a bit with some hindsight.

i was 5 days overdue and it was wednesday when my MW decided to give me a sweep, which was horrible, she took great pleasure in waving her goo and bloody covered hand in front of my face and said it was the show and that she had touched the head so it wouldnt be long. she told me i'd probably need a pantyliner and that was it i was sent on my way, no warning of what to expect or anything! i then had painful but irregular contractions and bleeding til the saturday afternoon, soaking proper towels and making constant calls to the hospital panicking that it wasnt normal. i went in for monitoring on the friday and it was clear they thought i was making it up and wasting their time!

i think i went into proper labour on saturday afternoon, EDD+8, but i just assumed it was still the cramps caused by the sweep and i was still bleeding from it too, it didnt occur to me that it might actually have worked, i think i'd given up on the idea of ever giving birth by that point! it took a good few hours and OH to come home and tell me i was having a baby for me to believe it was happening! the contractions slowly got worse to the point i couldnt sit down, i had to pace, and then they got worse and to the point the only way i could cope with the contractions was to kneel on the floor and bury my head in the sofa. the contractions were still only 5 mins apart and lasting only 30 seconds and the hospital said i wasnt to go in yet, but i had a squinny and went in anyway cos i wanted some pain relief, but when we got to the hospital the stupid contractions stopped for half an hour!
they were just about to send me home when they started up again with a vengeance, i refused to go home so they examined me and found i was 5cm dilated which i found very pleasing. (i resisted the temptation to shout "HA, IN YOUR FACE!")
they gave me some tablets, dunno what they were but i threw them back up straight away so they didnt actually do anything! they wheeled in some gas and air for me which i've decided is the best stuff in the world, i had the radio on and was dancing around in my chair lol!!!

after a while the gas and air wasnt enough and i asked for pethidine, they told me it was too late and he would be here soon, this was at about 7am on the sunday, EDD+9, and at this point my waters promptly broke, they were full of meconium and i freaked out completely screaming at them to give me a c-section and get him out! they had to transfer me to a labour room rather than the birth centre room i was in, and to be honest i dont remember a lot after that, the only things i remember are the transfer when i was asked if i could possibly stop shouting in the corridor in case i upset some other mums, and me crying and saying that i couldnt do it which made OH cry.
apparantly they gave me a very small dose of pethidine after all and seth eventually made his way into the world at 11:05 showing no signs of distress after all thank god.
OH filled me in on the following bits as i cant remember then, but about 5 minutes before he was born i was apparantly trying to get OH to go and put some money on the car in the car park cos it had expired and when i was crowning i kept demanding to know what colour his hair was!

it took over a hour for the placenta to come out even though i had the injection, they all thought i was going to have to have it surgically removed and prepped me for surgery with a catheter cos it just wasnt going anywhere but it was ok in the end. it was absolute agony when they were all tugging at it, as bad as the later contractions if not worse!

this is the worst bit aboiut the whole birth experience for me: i remember in the seconds after he was born craning my neck to try and see him and only being able to see the top of a very purple head at the end of the bed while the cord was clamped, but because of the meconium he was whisked away before i could hold him. i deeply regret this as i still feel that while he has definitely bonded with me, i often feel like i havent with him or that i love him because i have to, IYSWIM. the tests were all carried out behind a screen so i couldnt see him still, he was about 10 mins old when he was finally brought to me. then he was given to OH to dress while i had the placenta and after that put straight in his cot, and then i was sent for a bath. i really dont remember a lot about the afternoon, i went into shock and had the shakes, couldnt eat and didnt actually cuddle him for the first time since that first cuddle until i'd had a few hours sleep.

LucyB-Bride_to_Be

Hi Ladies,
My labour was awful...this might be a bit of a long post so i apologise in advance!
My DS was born in april 07 i was 4 days over my due date when my contractions started on the wed morning, i had no idea i was in labour and even when i rang the maternity ward and they said it sounded like i was i still didn't believe them! Anyhow the contractions on the wed were quite far apart and the midwife i spoke to said come into hospital when theyre between 1 and 5 mins apart, so i stayed at home all day until the night time when they we're getting quite close so i took myself off to hospital. I stayed in for a couple of hours then they sent me home as for some reason my co0ntractions were being really irregular some being a min apart some being 5-10mins apart, so off we went back home. I was in crippling agony with them at this point but i stayed at home till the thurs eve until i couldn't physically cope with the pain anymore. When i got back to the hospital they said i was 5cm dilated so they would keep me in. They gave me lots of different drugs i can't honestly remember what as i felt so out of it especially with the gas & air as well. They hooked me upto the monitor to try and find baby's heartbeat and they couldn't find it so had to put this wire thing onto his head to track his heartbeat ( i've no idea what this was called or how it worked!) Come fri morning and still no sign of baby wanting to come out they decided to break my waters, it was the most weirdest feeling ever lol. A couple of hours later i started getting the urge to push but they then found out that my son had his head tilted backwards instead of tilted down so i couldnt push as it would have ruptured my womb putting me and baby at risk, so at this point they started discussing surgery and asked me to sign the consent forms in case they needed to take me in a couple of hours. Ten minutes later the anethetist came into the room to tell me i would be going straight into surgery and wheeled me off down the corridor ( i lter found out that he had told me OH that if they hadnt taken me in when they did then me and baby might have not made it) Then then gave me a spinal anestetic and Jake was born at 1pm fri afternoon by forceps. As they had cut me while they were trying to get him out they had to stitch me back up so they let my Oh cut the cord and hold Jake while they were sorting me out! Even though through all the pain hearing Jakes first cry brought tears to my eyes! I swore after that i would never have another child but 2years down the line i'm considering it! I hope my story hasn't scared any of you. You've just got to remember that every labour is different and yours might be plain sailing Sorry for the extremely long post but my god it feels good to actually tell someone about it apart from OH i've never told anyone how bad it actually was! Good luck with all your pregnancies

Evansangel

What a fantastic idea sami! Though reading some of these im turning into a bit of a wimp

lol.

I cant handle pain haha x

listerofsmeg_2

Here goes...

1 week before due date, 1am, my waters broke. At first I thought I'd wet myself so I got out of bed, all huffy, woke up OH, said I had to change the sheets. Then more came... had a sniff, didn't smell like wee. Figured out I was going into labour.

We rang the birthing centre where I was booked in, and they said leave it a few hours and then ring back. So I tried to go back to sleep. One hour later, contractions were starting and it was too painful to be in bed lying down. So I got up and made OH some sandwiches. I left them on the table.

Around 4 am, the pain was so bad we drove to the birthing centre. They examined me and said I wasn't in labour yet because I was only 1-3cm dilated. Never mind the fact that the pain was excruciating, and I was soaking (there was A LOT of water, I lost 20lbs giving birth!). They said to have a bath, and breakfast and come back at 8am.

We drove to 24hr Tesco on the way home to get food for breakfast. I sat in the car while my OH went in. By the time he was back, I had started pushing (about 45mins after being sent home by birthing centre). I never said anything though because I thought you were only meant to start pushing when you were told to. I just couldn't control it and I thought I was being 'naughty'.

When we got home I got in the bath. I don't know how long I stayed there, but I pushed more and more and eventually OH noticed from the noises I made and got me out and dressed me.

It took me 20 minutes to walk from the house to the car because I kept having to stop to push with each contraction.

He drove like a lunatic to the local hospital, where a wheelchair was found and I was taken up to the labour ward. When we got there, my daughter's head had started crowning.

25 minutes later, with a bit of gas and air... she was out!

Then I had terrible after pains. I still felt like I was in labour for a while afterwards and I didn't really bond with my baby for a little while because of it. I'm told next time I can ask for some medication for that.

A while later OH starts complaining he didn't have enough sandwiches. Turned out the cat had eaten half of them when I left them on the table!

This was in 2007. We're planning another baby now.

Pleaseadvise

I've only posted in Mortgages before but would like to share my birth story anyway if it's ok! It involves an emergency caesarean but everyone is safe and untraumatised!

I had identical twins in late 2000. At 37 weeks pregnant I suffered some bleeding, the hospital couldn't tell me why, but there was no damage to the babies. Still when they offered induction a few days later, after my scare I was quick to agree.

I went in one evening and was given a pessary, my husband went home as we were told probably nothing would happen until morning. Then my waters went with a huge gush, and the midwife phoned my husband, who came back. But next morning I still wasn't having contractions, so at 10.45 am I was put on a drip, and 2 of those horrible tight belts to monitor the babies.

Contractions started straight away. There were several midwives around and I was told even more people wanted to come in with machines in case the babies needed special care, but when I asked if these others could wait outside, they agreed.

I hadn't planned to use any breathing exercises, but I found myself concentrating on slow breathing anyway. It really helped with the pain and I was angry when people kept disrupting my concentration to ask me things, mostly 'Do you want an epidural?' 'Are you sure you don't want that epidural?':rolleyes:

After a while the pain was worse and I asked for gas and air. This disrupted my helpful breathing and didn't really help much with the pain. With the unpleasant dizziness it caused too, I really wish I hadn't bothered.

People were still nagging about the epidural and so I agreed mainly to shut them up and also because I thought the pain would get much much worse. However before it could be arranged I realised I was getting an urge to push. The midwife checked me and hurried out to get her colleagues, calling 'We're having these babies now!'

There were 3 midwives, a registrar, my husband and I there when I gave birth to the first twin. It was easy. I thought, 'I can easily do that again and in half an hour they'll all have gone and it will just be the four of us.';) (She weighed 5lb 1.5oz, and was born at noon - labour of an hour and a quarter.)

However on my next push a small hand and foot came into the world. Oops! The human pelvis can't give birth to a live child sideways.
The registrar pushed the limbs back inside and made strenuous efforts to turn my second baby from the inside. I don't know if she was going for headfirst or feet first but either way, it didn't work. I was still just on the gas and air but to be honest it wasn't that painful, nor was I terrified, but if I was going to have a caesarean I wanted them to get on with it!

When it became clear the internal version wasn't working, they pushed me down the corridor to the operating theatre. As I remember the surgeon and anaesthetist both introduced themselves, which was polite but odd. Then I had the general anaesthetic and knew no more until I woke up, in some pain but mostly freezing cold. Both the girls were fine. Second twin weighed 5lb 4.5oz and was born 27 minutes after her sister.

I was not upset about the caesarean at all. It's a shame they weren't both born vaginally but I am confident every effort was made that could be without endangering twin2.

The second twin cried more and was harder to comfort than her sister for the first few weeks, perhaps because of the trauma of being manhandled before birth (she had bruises) but there were no longterm effects and she was soon just as happy a baby as her sister. They were a bit small but neither needed any special care and we all left hospital on the third day.

jackomdj

What a good thread...I can let you know my 2 labour stories....

Oct 2004.
At the end of Sept, about 2 weeks before I was due babies head became engaged. OH was working in Iraq & first baby syndrome he was worried it may arrive soon so arranged to come home. 10th Oct, due date came & went... did lots of walking, gardening & all the usual things plus a few sweeps.... 23rd Oct arrived & my waters broke around lunch time...just a general trickle & not very much pain, put a towel in & sat on a towel. I called the hospital & they said to go in at 8pm. Hospital at 8pm, they examined me & said I had to come back at (I think) about 7am if I had not gone in before. Went home, had a bath, pains started increasing. 10pm I went to bed to try to get some sleep, pains got really bad & was leaning on my hands & knees on the floor, started being sick (now that is something they don't tell you about!).
12pm pains increased & we went to hospital. They tried to get me onto the bed to check me but it hurt soooo much to stand up! They did a check & took me through to the labour room. At this point I was kneeling down on the floor with my head on the bed, midwife put pillow under my knees to make it comfortable.
2am midwife told me I should have some extra pain relief, baby was back to back which was why it was so much more painful. Gas & air was just making me sick! I asked her what she thought I needed & she said that she thought I would end up having an epidural anyway so we said lets just go for that.

2:15am the guy came to do the epidural, he had bed head & looked half asleep, he missed the vein on my arm first time & got the plaster stuck (great he was going to put a big needle in my back!) but he was great!

8am OH went down for breakfast, the night had been easy except I was getting a pain in my side!

3pm the specialist was called in as baby had got stuck & not moved down for about 30mins. She was quite offhand with the midwife & said to just keep going.

4pm Ellie arrived. No stitches needed. Even though I had an epidural I could feel the sensation of needing to push, which was good.

8pm sorry going to be too much info here. I needed a wee...still did not have use of my legs & the nursing assistant got a wheelchair to take me to the toilet. As she lifted me off the wheelchair there was a pool of blood, I went to pull my pants down with OH holding me up & a huge blood clot splatted on the floor making blood go everywhere. I sat on the toilet with OH & the nursing assistant mopping up the bloody mess!!!!

I will post this then do DD no 2's birth story!!!

Nicky

jackomdj

Still with me? DD no 2's story - this does go on a bit!

March 2007.
Katie was due on 3rd March. The following week I saw the midwife who gave me a sweep, she said babies head was so low she could have broken the waters easily, also I was already a couple of cm dilated.
I had to go to the hospital on the Friday (getting baby regularly monitored as my blood pressure was high), they did another sweep & said the same, still a couple of cm dilated (still no labour pains though)
On the Sunday I had a bath & usually baby would kick like anything as soon as I went in the warm water, no movement so I called the hospital who said to go in. As soon as I arrived at the hospital she started wriggling again. They did another sweep & said I was 3cm dilated. Wanted me to go to day assesment on the Monday.
Monday, day assesment, did wee test & they were worried as blood in wee until I told them about sweep. They did another sweep & said I was jumping to about 5cm dilated.
Tuesday 12th, putting DD to bed & picked her up my waters went with a gush. Felt like I was going for the biggest wee ever! Called hospital & they said to go in, got eldest out & drove her to our friends & on to the hospital (could not go into friends as I was still gushing)
Arrived at hospital & got to maternity ward, trousers were dripping wet even though I have 2 towels in! They checked me & even though I was not in pain they said to OH not to go home as when it happened they thought it would be quick as baby was so low.
Got put in a room, OH was luying on 3 uneven chairs, I was on the bed but running to the toilet every 20 mins to change the towel as it was getting drenched.
Next morning OH went down for breakfast & I ate mine, still no pains so got dressed & started walking around the hospital. & walking & walking...
Lunchtime...by now I had a few of the midwives looking at me as I was a bit of an oddity, baby was very low, I was very dilated but no pains at all...they said how unusual I was!
5pm I was told that I had to start getting ready to go through to the labour ward as my waters had been broken for so long they needed to give me some antibiotics for the baby. They said as I would be attached to the antibiotics they would give me some stuff to get the labour progressing.
Labour came on quickly! Tens machine got racked up from nothing to full in 30 mins. Said I needed a poo & midwife said she would look as it may be baby & it was.... a few pushes & babies head was 1/2 way out - then the contraction stopped & she told me to stop pushing (that hurt!), a bit more & Katie arrived.

We had to stay in hospital an extra day as she did not get enough antibiotics before being born & they wanted to keep an eye on her.

Hope this helps someone!
Nicky