MSE Pregnancy Club Birth Stories

pisces_cat

and the next instalment......

DD2 October 2006

6pm, 10 days before due date, did I just pee myself or was that my waters going? OH says I’ll do anything to get out of cooking the tea! After a few more trickles decide it IS definitely my waters breaking! Wasn’t expecting to be early for some reason, only packed my bag that morning! No contractions but phone hospital they say to come in and be checked but there’s no rush so have dinner and put DD1 to bed then get taxi into MW led unit about 10ish, have first, very mild contraction on the way there. After some monitoring they send us home to get some rest and come back when contractions start for real.

Get home about 1am and manage to sleep for a couple of hours before contractions start to heat up, by 3 they are becoming regular and more painful but am determined to stay home as long as possible, wake OH about 5 starting to want pain relief and scared DD1 will wake up, don’t want to have to deal with her now, so about 5:30 we phone friend for a lift, he arrives in 5 mins flat and proceeds to drive to hospital at about 90mph!!! This really speeds up the contractions!

Get booked in and MW checks me over - only 5cms!! Am gutted, last time that meant I had about 7 hours to go! Can’t go through that again so ask for an epidural, MW says NO and walks out the room!!! Contractions start coming really quickly, OH tries to go out to the foyer to buy some juice between contractions but never gets further than the door! 15mins later midwife comes back,I say if I can’t have an epidural can I at least have some pethidine, she checks me again and says by the time she organises it, the baby will be born! Obviously I don’t believe her…..

Suddenly get this overwhelming urge to push!!! Never felt this way with DD1. Five minutes of swearing, grabbing OH’s arm so tightly it bleeds DD2 is born! Can’t believe it, yes it was painful, but it all felt so right, it was a wonderful birth, and no drugs, other than a bit of gas and air and no tears, just a small graze needing no stitches. When they handed her to me I actually said ‘No you see this can’t be my baby, I’ve still got hours to go’! I think I was in shock.

She was born at 7:20am and was 6lb 11oz

DS1 July 2009

After DD2 I was convinced I was going to be really early this time, but 9 days after due date and still nothing. Wake up at 6am back really hurts, oh its stopped, go back to sleep - ten past six, wake up back really hurts, oh it’s stopped, go back to sleep - twenty past six wake up back hurts ohhhh is this it?!! For the next couple of hours have back ache and mild irregular contractions, can’t quite decide if this is it or not.

About 11am contractions are becoming stronger and more regular, about every ten minutes and back really sore (never had back ache with the last two). Phone hospital, yes sounds like it is labour, no need to go in until the contractions get closer together and last longer.

12 o’clock everything slows down so go for a bath and the contractions stop completely stay in bath for ages, get out about 1 and suddenly contractions start again - every 7 minutes, lasting for about 2mins, this is definitely it!

Contractions still bearable so watch some TV with DD1, DD2 has a nap and OH goes out to the shop (can’t remember what for - but must have been important as worried things will speed up while he’s away). By 2pm contractions getting stronger and lasting longer so phone friend who is going to look after the girls, MIL also comes round in case we have to leave quickly as friend is at work an hour away.

3pm friend also arrives, contractions getting pretty painful and every 5mins, it’s all very bizarre, sitting in my living room with OH, friend, MIL and DDs having contractions, trying not to show how painful it is so as not to freak out girls.

3:30pm decide to go to hospital, more cos I don’t want an audience than that the contractions are unbearable. Waters still not broken.
Get booked in and MW says I’m 5cms, continues with internal through a contraction to try and break waters but they don’t. She says I can get changed then either have some g&a or walk about for a bit to try and speed things up, decide to try walking about BUT as soon as the exam is finished contractions get really strong and become pretty much constant - actually I think I will have that g&a after all!!! Never even get changed never mind walk about! After about 20mins of almost constant contraction feel the need to PUUUSH, MW does an exam and says am only 9cm and to try not to push. Get really confused at this point, can I push, how can I not push, HAVE to push, so she says just to go for it….. SCREEAAMM the place down (feel so sorry for whoever was in the room next to me!), mouth piece comes off the g&a so bite down on the next nearest thing (OH’s arm - whoops!). Waters break. More screaming, and at 5:01pm DS is born.
Again no tears, not even a graze, another great experience, although definitely the last!!!

got-it-spend-it

I only had my son four days ago, so thought I'd post this while it is fresh in my mind! It's quite long winded, but hopefully fairly positive! Before I start I should say that my birth plan was for MW led care, a water birth and gas and air :rotfl:......this was not how it turned out!

On Tuesday 17th November I went in for induction, as I was term+13. Arrived at 8:30am, was having mild contractions about ten minutes apart so they inserted a Prostin pessary to get things moving and told me to walk about and come back in six hours. Contractions continued and came every 5 minutes, by the time I was monitored six hours later they were happy and wanted to break my waters. However when the MW tried my cervix was still to posterior so she wasn't able to! Instead, they decided to leave it a couple of hours and see what happened. Nothing happened, so at 9:15pm they inserted another Prostin pessary.

This caused the contractions to become more intense, but not a lot else so I was kept in overnight. I contracted every five minutes or so through the night, and at 1am put my Tens Machine on to help the pain and had some paracetamol. I didn't get much sleep, but was hopeful that by morning things my cervix would have become more accessible and they'd be able to break my waters.

Morning came, and another VE showed that the cervix was now more favourable but unfortunately the contractions subsided so it was decided I'd have another (third!) pessary to re-start them, then they'd break my waters after that. By this time I'd been in the Induction room for 2 days, six other ladies and been and gone off to labour ward and I was feeling pretty hacked off and pretty tired.

Anyhow, at about 3pm they broke my waters and I was 2cm dilated, which were had light meconium in them which meant the end of my hopes of a water birth and monitoring throughout the birth. I was gutted, to say the least, and had a little cry as constant monitoring was the one thing I had really wanted to avoid. However, I was still desperate to meet my baby (now 14 days late) so I pulled myself together and tried to get on with things. I was still using my Tens which was taking the edge off the contractions but they were pretty painful.


At this point it was hoped that having my waters broken would ramp up the contractions, but it didn't! At 7pm, four hours after they broke my waters I was still only 2cm dilated, so the decision was made to put me on a syntocin drip to really get things moving. At this point I was offered an epidural, which after a bit of crying, I accepted! Having to lie still and be monitored made the contractions much less managable, and I really didn't think I would cope when the syntocin kicked in.

The anaesthetist came and the whole process of having the epidural put in was totally managable. The local anaesthetic was no worse than a sting then the insertion of the tube was strange but not painful. The epidural kicked in quickly before the syntocin really started to work and it was so nice not to feel the contractions!

At about 7pm the scariest bit happened, as the MW became seriously concerned about the baby's heartbeat and went to get a consultant. While she was gone another MW came in, practically threw a gown at me and told me to put it on and gave me an ant-acid which she told me was all in preparation for theatre. At this point no-one had mentioned theatre at all, so this was pretty scary. Thankfully the consulant came and was eventually happy that baby's heartbeat was okay and that the 'blip' was just baby having some calm time and sucking his thumb!

To cut a long story short I stayed on the syntocin for 9 hours, with the dosage being gradually increased but my cervix never dilated more than the 2cm. At 3:30am the consultant came to see me and said that the only other option was a c-section and at this point I agreed. At 15 days overdue everyone was getting a little anxious and I was exhausted after 43 hours in various stages of labour and very little sleep. I hadn't eaten for 15 hours and just so wanted to meet my little one.

It all happened very quickly from there, and very soon I was wheeled down to theatre and my epidural was topped up. I was shaking uncontrollably which was horrible, but apparently a side effect of the epidural. Very quickly my baby appeared, was cleaned and then handed to Daddy! At this point I was in floods of tears as I was desperate to hold him but couldn't but at least I could see he was gorgeous.

It was uncomfortable whilst they dug around inside and stitched me up- not unbearable but not very nice. I also discovered that I had a nerve which the epidural had bypassed, so I did feel a couple of cuts at some points which wasn't nice, but by that point the anaesthetist said there was nothing they could do except give a GA which I so did not want, so I just gritted my teeth! My most vivid recollection of the whole thing is lying naked on the operating table while they checked me over at the end! I felt so vulnerable and exhausted, but also like I'd almost got there and was about to go and cuddle my son, which got me through it all.

Overall I cannot believe that it was so far away from my birth plan, but I do feel quite positive about the whole thing. Ultimately I have my very beautiful son, the care I received was excellent and I am now home and well!

bylromarha

May I join in?

Spud (DS) born 2004

Night before, we had friends round for dinner-we were having so much fun that they never left until 12am. I went to bed and G took up his postion on the sofa...he'd been spending quite a few nights there as my snoring was getting terrible towards the end of the pregnancy(or so he says, I think he didn't like the fact that he had less room in the bed!) 4am I woke up with tummy ache so I waddled off to the toilet. At 5am I was still lying awake as the pains were recurring and 2 trips to the toilet hadn't made them go away. I went downstairs with my TENS machine and awoke G to strap it on me. With a wierd look on his face, he did as I asked...later telling me the wierd look was due to the fact that he thought I was selfishly waking him up as I was bored and wanted company.

The pains slowly increased until they became every 5 minutes and G insisted I should ring the hospital. I, however, was desperate to wait at home until 8am as it was my niece's birthday and I had to ring her up to wish her a happy day. Memories of the time between 5am and 8am was watching BBC Breakfast, hanging onto the bannister for the more painful contractions and a really wierd shower where G hung around to ensure I was okay. I rang the hospital straight after I rang C, having had my sister telling me off for being bl**dy stupid waiting to ring C and to get myself off to the hospital. I rang delivery suite, described my contractions and they said "Sounds like you're progressing well and have got quite a way to go yet. You can come in if you want or you might want to stay at home for the next few hours." I chose to go in, and was grateful for my decisiveness a few hours later!

Driving to the hospital, I remember a lot of speed bumps as they weren't very pleasant mid contraction. I also recall G telling me to breathe lots...seems I was forgetting to, or maybe he was hating being helpless and was helping the best he could? We got to the hospital and I had to be monitored...I remember this being the most painful point of the labour as I had to lie down. Until this point I'd been walking through each contraction and it was really good for pain relief so to endure a contraction lying down, with a box strapped to my enormous tummy, was not fun. At the end of that 30 minutes I yelled for something to be sick into and promptly hurled into a kidney bowl...I was more concerned about apologising to the other lady in the room with me than listening to the midwife telling me it was a good sign as it was probably the "6cm sickies". She then gave me an internal and it turns out I was 8 cm dilated...which she said in a whispered voice as apparently the other woman in the room had been going for a good few hours by then and was progressing slowly.

I waddled to a delivery suite and on the way there my waters broke...which G spotted as a trail of water was following me...I didn't feel a thing! By this point it was 10am and I was grateful to have a little privacy...so 5 minutes later a midwife called Ann came and introduced herself and asked if her student Jody was permitted to stay. Ever the polite person "Of course, I don't mind, we all need to learn somewhere". Turns out Ann was only there for a meeting, but as the ward was so busy they asked her to dig in and help! Bless her, she really wasn't dressed for the occasion, light coloured trousers and a white shirt on.

Another 90 minutes of ever more painful and regular contractions made us reach the pushing stage. I remember asking Ann how I knew it was time to push and she said "you just know." I responded with "I think I'm ready then" and off we went! Butt in the air for all to see and the phonemenal primeval grunt that you only ever hear from women in labour.

Ann had kept offering me Gas and Air through it all, but I kept saying no as pressing the button on the TENS was fine and the standing and walking around worked pretty well too. By this point though, my legs were starting to give way and the TENS was permenantly on, so I intermittently explained these things to Ann. She came up with the great solution that the bed, being a new whizz bang thing the hospital had only recently taken delivery of, turned into a birthing chair, so I'd still be upright but my legs would have a break. So Jody and Ann, not being hospital based, began trying to figure out how to transform the bed...meanwhile I'mstanding up, grunting away as Spud made his way into the light. At the moment of his head coming out, I remember Ann telling Jody to grab a bean bag to place between my legs...they abandoned the bed chair at this point. Then out he slithered onto the bean bag to the sound of David Dickinson on Bargain Hunt...G told me to look down and meet Spud (real name used!) and I was crying "Please give me my glasses" as I couldn't see a thng. By the time I was able to see, Spud had been moved off the bean bag! I collapsed onto the beanbag, giving my legs a bit of life again...

...however...

...Jody had noticed some blood coming out and realised I was having a PPH...basically a big bleed. I needed to get onto the bed quickly so that I could be treated. I had no energy left to stand so was whinging that I couldn't. Jody was the boldest student I've ever known (having had teaching students, they're normally quite meek) and commanded me to get up and get on the bed, explaining exactly how it was going to happen and telling me what I had to do at every step. The crash team had arrived by this point so after I was on the bed, I was strapped into the stirrups (if only i were going on a horse race...), G was given Spud to make cry as he looked a bit blue still and the gas and air which I hadn't needed all through labour, was shoved into my mouth and the pain of a plastic scrapie thing where a baby had just been meant I breathed in so much gas and air I passed out. I vaguely recall people giving me instructions, but it was like the movies in that their voices seemed to go past my ear and it took me a while to process what they were saying...I finally knocked myself out and remember being in a white room having a chat with Jesus and telling him that G now had his son and He could take me to heaven now if He wanted to.

He didn't, so I slowly returned to consciousness, feeling very drunk. I remember waking up thinking "I've just had a really vivid dream that I had a baby", then hearing a baby crying and thinking "Maybe I did have a baby?" "Oh. My. Word. I've just had a baby"

An IV was set up for me and a colostomy bag put in. Mmmm, lovely. Apparently the floor was a mess with all the baby goo plus haemorrage, so I vaguely remember cleaners coming in. I definitely remember having a bed bath and a big giggle with the midwife doing it as she tried to put on my disposable paper pants that the pregnancy magazines tell you to buy...there was no give in them and bless her, she had to hoick them up my legs while I was in fits of laughter over the madness of the situation. She ended up ripping them and putting them vaguely in the right place. I had a midwife come check on me every 15 minutes for then next few hours to make sure I was okay, spud had his first feed and I sat watching Countdown and drinking tea while he went back to sleep.

We were finally taken up to a ward, and G stayed for a bit. Picture the scene, a happily married couple, their first born, just hours old, asleep next to them and the romantic phrase lovingly whispered "Darling, your bag's getting a bit full, shall I call someone to change it?" I didn't think I'd hear those words from him until my mid 70s at least.

He went home for a sleep, in his own bed. I remember him coming back the following day and giving me a huge hug...he'd read in the pregnancy book what a PPH was and said he was glad that he didn't know whilst it was happening that it was a life threatening thing. We sat there (throughly bored TBH) until we were finally discharged the next day.

bylromarha

Swede (DD) born 2006

What can I say about her birth? 7.28am on a bright sunny day, born in the front seat of our Citroen Berlingo, on a dual carriageway, whilst G was driving at 90mph.

We moved house 2 weeks before the birth. G was working like a manic getting the house unpacked and liveable...I did what I could do in my enlarged state. G decided he was fed up with me being pregnant as Swede was now overdue, so we ordered a curry, I had a long hot bath, yes to your next question and we rang the friend who'd been for dinner the night before the previous birth...who by this point had a bit of a reputation for bringing on labour as they'd been the final visitors to 3 other pregnancies, not including Spud.

Morning of the birth, I woke up at 5.30am with a few twinges. Figured "here we go then", woke G and we pootled around the house getting final bits together for Spud as he'd need to go to friends house for the day. We woke Spud up at 6am explaining that his sister was coming today, gave him breakfast and got him dressed...all the time my contractions were not at all painful. We both showered and dressed and woke the babysitters at 6.30am asking them to have Spud for the day. They asked us to give them 30mins to become awake, which was fine with us as we still had a few bits to do like ring the hospital and tell them we were coming in. Again they asked if we wanted to come in, whilst stressing that it might be an idea to stay at home for another few hours whilst things progressed. We left the house at 7am, pausing for a picture of me being as pregnant as I was ever going to be for the final time with Spud cuddling the bump, and every now and then I had a thought "was that a contraction? Oh I think so"

We started getting in the car at 6.55am and whilst packing the boot, I had the first contraction where the pain was enough to make me stop and focus on my breathing. We arrived at the babysitters 10 minutes later and started settling Spud in and explaining his routine. And then the mother of all contractions hits! I double up in pain and grunt my way through it...being vaguely aware of G and babysitters general chit chat about Spud's day...then apologise most profusely for my behaviour. I tell G we need to make a swift exit, say goodbye to Spud, explaining that his new sister was hurting mummy by accident as she came out of my tummy to which he nodded "I know, bye". We run out of the door and another painful one hits as I'm getting into the car. G begins driving and the next contraction my waters broke. I remember braking at a roundabout after this and hearing the slosh slosh slosh as the gathered liquid in the drawer under the passenger seat continues moving whilst the car slows.

The next contraction began at the next roundabout and finshed a minute later. Having reached down for a feel at the end of the contraction, I yell at G "she's crowning, she's crowning, keep going, go go go" as he stops at a red light. Calmly he tells me "It's alright, breathe, come on breathe" "G, SHE'S COMING NOW MOVE" "Breathe, breathe".

I remove my underwear, quietly praising God that I chose to put a skirt on that morning and wait for the inevitable. G tells me a few hours later that at that point he thought I was being hysterical woman in labour and exaggerating things somewhat.

Next contraction, i raise myself up by pushing up on my hands, knowing that this would make space available for her head as it emerged. I remember the car violently jerking forward...G later telling me that he realised I was telling the truth when he bent down to change gear and saw his daughter looking up at him. He accelerated, G seeing that pulling over for the birth being a delay in reaching the hospital, and out came Swede at 90mph in more ways than one.

The logical part of my brain then kicked in...I removed the umbilical cord from around her neck, cleared out her mouth with my little finger to ensure there was no goo and held her on my body so that she'd stay warm. Began praying too, thanking God that all was well.

We arrived at the hospital about 5 minutes later, parking in the emergency space. I still giggle when I think about this next farce...G leaping out of the car and trying to get into the locked building by atempting to prise open the automatic doors with his bare hands. He failed. He ran round to the set of doors on the other side and attempted the same thing...so I could see the strain on his face as he attempted, and failed, to open the doors. (for future reference, there's a buzzer to press out of hours, but he was too distracted to see it) He ran back to the car and Mrs logical handed him her phone and her pregnancy notes, pointing to the delivery suite number to ring. He rang it and as he said "My wife's just had a baby" the delivery suite transferred his call up to the post natal ward 2 floors up, which we could hear ringing through the open windows. No-one answered, then they cut him off. So he began straining at the doors again...which miraculously opened as a midwife just coming off shift was leaving the building.

G rushed into the building to get help and the midwife looked at us parked in the emergency space and smiled...then did a double take as her brain processed the image she'd just seen. She walked to the door and asked "Are you alright there love?" What I really wanted to say was not very helpful and a bit sarcastic, so decided to go for the "Erm, not really" giggly polite response. Her first action was to pick up a towel sitting in the footwell and wrap it around Swede...I didn't have the heart to tell her that the towel she picked up was left in the car from the house move the previous week as the dog had sat on it as we transferred her in the car between old and new house. So my daughter as well as being born in the car was then covered in dog hair.

The crash team had arrived by this point with a wheelchair and proceeded to get me and Swede out of the car. Swede and I were still attached, so any ounce of dignity still remaining was lost in that car park as I was unable to show a genteel lady with legs together getting out of the car. Again, random amusing memory of a lone pantyliner floating on top of the mountain of baby liquids in the footwell. Glad I thought to put one on that day...don't know what I'd have done without it's absorbant properties.

They wheeled us in, tidied us up...big cheap Asda underwear this time rather than paper pap made the tidying up job easier...and by 8.30am Swede had had her first feed and was asleep and G and I were ready to go home and onto church...then figured we'd be too early as everyone else wouldn't be there yet. We also figured that there wouldn't be room in the car for all 4 of us as 1 seat was rather out of action...

G spent a few hours that afternoon cleaning what he could...it was the hottest day of the year so far, so it wasn't the best smelling job for the poor boy. I decided to stay in for the night rather than return the following day for tests, plus keeping out of G's way let him get on with what he needed to do. I think the hospital were quietly pleased as they thought I was going to go into some sort of delayed shock...never did, only ever saw the funny side of it all.

So there we are. My 2 babies births. Yes I'd happily give birth again (though I'm not planning to ever again!) ...I find the pain a good one in a perverse way as each contraction takes you nearer holding your new child. Plus the feeling of achievement when they emerge is amazing and there's no other high like it. Not many people can say the crash team attended both their children's births, but i find it quite amusing. And G loves giving the advice to dad's to be to ensure they carry bin bags in their car. You may laugh, but I bet our friend now wishes he had taken that advice seriously, having had his daughter born in the car too...

sahararose

DD1 born June 1993, the hottest day of the year.

I woke up 2am 6 days before due date with twinges, which just became stronger, phoned hospital who advised to go in as it was my first pregnancy and I'd suffered seriously with high blood pressure for the majority of it. Everything seemed to take ages; ended up having the 'crochet needle' sweep to try to break my waters, but I was dilating SO slowly !! Things were so uneventful that hubby even went out to get some oatcakes at lunchtime because he was so hungry and it was so boring for him (yeah....not exactly a picnic for me either mate !!). I remember I was desperate for a poo and having to use a cardboard potty whilst still on the bed- not the most elegant of tasks. Then quite strong contractions, so I had an epidural, which only took on one side leaving me in agony on the other side. Eventually we got to about 7cm and the midwife asked for a senior doctor to come take a look at me, he said yes, no problems, just a long labour - they even said that it might take another 24 hours or so !! (this was at about 4.45pm !!!)

Suddeny at about 5pm everything changed. The pains went from strong to excruciating, the contractions were unbelievable, and I suddenly got to 10cm. The midwife yelled for help and DD1 almost shot out of me.....the doctor just getting there in time - 5.18pm. They handed my beautiful and very healthy DD to hubby who fed her her first bottle.

The funny side to this birth - they had to give me gas and air while they stitched me up, which was a really strange sensation. There I was legs akimbo, huge needles etc flying around my nether regions, and I was looking up at my hubby. They were all talking as is I wasn't there, so I kept squeezing out a rythym on his handto try to say ...I'm still here you know !! I started laughing because he just couldn't understand so they had to stop the procedure thinkng I was having a fit !!The midwife said that I was he only person they'd ever seen laughing whilest being stitched up !

DD2 - December 1998 - the COLDEST day of the year due Christmas Day (yeah - NOT going to happen), born 21st

Hubby went to have a shower at 7am, came in to me afterwards an asked why I had my bedside light on. I replied, 'so I can see the clock to time my contractions'. 'Oh', he said. and walked out again. Then he RAN back in shouting, 'OH !!! OH !!'. We arranged for my mum to come up and collect DD1 and made our way to the hospital, being in a lot of pain by this time - about 9am.

The midwives put me in progress telling me that I wasn't in labour. They attached the monitors to me that show contractions, it showed strong contrctions but not actually enough to do anything about apparently. I was crying for pain relief by this time, so they offered me half an aspirin. Eventually they gave me a shot of pethidine in my leg. This eased it a bit but made me sick. About an hour later my husband kept going to their office and demanding to see someone as I was in so much pain - they told him to go and sit down - his wife would have to wait !! There was no other woman in progress and I'd herd one midwife say that only one woman was in the labour ward, so they weren't exactly overworked.

Half an hour later a midwife offered to take me to the labour ward - bearing in mind that by now I'm screaming, doubled up etc. They got a child size wheelchair (I'm a large lady) I refused to get into it as Id get stuck. All of a sudden I felt the babies head crowning _ I shouted this to the midwife who told me to stop being overdramatic. Hubby pushed me back onto the bed....DD2's head appeared and then the rest of her....hubby getting to her before any midwife did. He stopped her being born on the floor.

My beautiful baby was healthy and totally gorgeous, born at 12.40pm. She lay in her incubator, big blue eyes actually wide open looking at me as they stitched me up (no pain relief).

The hospital had been repainted, and most external doors were left open to allow fumes to dissipate, so I was ordered to stay in hopsital with her for 7 days to make sure that her temperature stayed even. I refused and took her home, and we just kept the heating constant. I didn't sleep until Christmas Day evening at my mothers - I just flaked out after changing a nappy.

No apology was ever forthcoming from the hospital and we were just glad to be out of there. But I'm so glad that my amazing hubby was there with me every step of the way.

xx

aless02

Okey-doke, here we go - I'll try and not get TOO wordy!

Number 1, I'd always had this crazy hunch that I'd have a little boy on Christmas day. Not a premonition as such, but just...something.

Ironically, I was watching babies-being-born television at just past 6pm on Christmas day (DH was playing with his shiny new computer game) when literally felt this crazy wet sensation and ran the 3 steps to the bathroom where it all came out in a huge gush. I had been quite crampy all afternoon, but nothing that really gave me an indication of what was to follow, since for several days I'd been getting cramps in the later afternoon to have them amount to nothing.

Told DH my waters went and really they continued to leak quite badly (gross, but basically coming out in little gushes every time I walked or moved around) - to combat this, I took a long shower. Had some intense cramping in the shower, but again I wasn't really feeling like we were in contraction mode yet.

After the shower, I started getting really annoyed as I couldn't leave the bathroom since leaking could not be contained by pads. "Cramps" were starting to get more painful quite quickly and sitting on the toilet (the only place I felt 'safe') was growing uncomfortable quite quickly. It starts blurring here, but basically DH figures out I'm going into proper labour (it had been maybe 1 hr since waters broke at this point?) and starts sorting out the flat. We call the MW to tell her that waters have gone but haven't had a chance to time things yet. We start timing and they're coming thick and fast...prolly already every 4-5 min at this point but not HUGELY painful. At this point, I am quite sick (trust me, if I had known I was going to have a baby that night, I would not have had a gigantic Christmas dinner!) and just really really want to move away from the bathroom as nothing in there was remotely comfortable. Also, it felt like I was just constantly in pain...in between contractions it still hurt quite a lot so just wanted to find SOME sort of position that I could stick to.

Finally wound up sitting on wad of towels on the edge of the bed - this still hurt but seemed the best for now....was sick again. I think I made us wait about 2 hrs from 1st phone call to 2nd phone call to MW to say that we more than definitely reached their threshold of 3 in 10 for 1 hour. I didn't want to be that person who called too early and then was only 2cm! Pain was quite high by the time she got to our house maybe 30 min later - I was just breathing through it and trying to shut out the world with every contraction. Had tried to do the calcium-for-pain relief (took the 1st dose) but really couldn't move around the house due to leaking waters (DH was already doing so much I didn't wanna ask him). MW arrived and was really really hard for her to exam me (hard for me because lying back was intensely painful even in-between contractions). When she did, I was 6-7 cm!! :eek: BP was a wee bit high, but luckily it had been high at booking so I was just borderline okay.

She advised we leave for the hospital ASAP, and we did (honestly, I didn't want to at that point, as putting pants on seemed a task beyond me). Roads were lovely and clear, thank God. About halfway through the journey, started getting some mega pressure down below...and I knew what that meant!!

From that point on, I almost don't remember much b/c it was soooo hard to function through the pain of the contractions+intense pressure. Honestly don't know HOW I got from car, across the road, and then through endless hospital corridors, up the lift and into birth centre. Seriously I felt like that baby was going to end up on the hospital floor somewhere, it was that bad.

MW was already there, as she had gone straight from our house and the birth pool was filling up. I think everyone knew how close I was (but didn't say anything outloud so as not to scare me) as luckily they seemed to appreciate my urgency to get into that damned pool! Luckily it only took like 5 min from when we dumped our stuff in the room. I flung my clothes off and practically dived in - it was like heaven and with the next contraction I started pushing (at first they tried to get me on hands & knees, but the pool wasn't full enough and did not feel good, so I wound up sitting on my bum, just leaning back in the pool). Think I went through 5-7 contractions of some pushing (which actually felt good after holding it so long) before they did a fetal heart monitor. It was really slow (dunno what it was, but even in my non-coherent state I could its slowness) so the 2nd MW who had come in for the birth said that if I didn't get baby's head out in the next contraction I'd have to get out of the pool. Apparently I made such a horrified face (and thought to myself, HELL NO!) and when the next one came, I made damn sure I pushed with every last ounce of effort. And luckily his head popped out (it had been going in and out before that)! There was a weird longggg pause before the next contraction for the shoulders (so long that they told me to tweak my nipple to bring it on), but it finally came and he slid on out. I don't even remember being told to catch him & bring him up - it was all instictual and just felt sooooo surreal. DH sobbed like a baby, bless him and I held our little boy on my chest. He softly cried almost straight away and was lovely. Was born at 11:39pm on Christmas Day - a 5.5 hour labour!! :eek:

The MWs clamped the cord, DH cut. He then took the baby so I could get out of the pool (so weird having the cord dangling out of you) to do the placenta. Baby did a massive poo (lol) TWICE while DH held him. Placenta came after around 30 min, I think. Then waddled across the hallway from the pool room to my hospital room.

Overall, perineum stayed in tact but needed a few stitches for some 'grazes' (so I guess 1st degree tears?) on other parts. Did have some bleeding problems about 2 hrs after birth and almost passed out when they got me out of bed to pee, but it all got resolved in the end.

The little baby obviously just HAD to get himself out by Christmas! Lovely...our little boy is sooo cute.

(I could go on for ages about the after-bit, too, but I think this is already massive enough!!)

In hindsight, I wish we had gone in a lot sooner as obviously dealing with transition while trying to be in a car and then walk to birth centre was sheer torture. Also, I got to use gas & air when I got the stitches and that would've been niiiiiice during labour! Yes it went insanely quick, but we could've called the MW at least an hr sooner...oh well! The worst part at home was not being to able to try labouring in different positions b/c of waters constantly leaking everywhere - next time I'm stocking up on old shower curtains to spread on the floors!

BeenieCat

Baby girl born on 21st December 2009 at 41+2 weeks pregnant.

My pregnancy was very problem-free except for splitting with my partner who then moved away, and not having a lot of support elsewhere so 2 days before my due date i had a midwife appointment and said i wanted a home birth, so that i could relax a little. I'd been panicking about being in hospital alone and not having anyone to look after my 6 yr old son, and feeding my pets!! So the midwife set the wheels in motion but said i couldn't have any pethidine ordered as it was too short notice!

So after all that rushing round getting myself prepared for a home birth, i ended up going 9 days over and resigning myself to being induced which i was planning to flatly refuse until 43 weeks Lol!

I woke up at about 4am feeling uncomfortable but assumed i had overdone it on the Sunday dinner or something, as it wasn't really painful. I got out of bed anyway and went downstairs to get a drink. Then i realised the twinges had come and gone a few times and couldn't this possibly be it?! I logged onto my laptop to time my contractions with a timer website, and posted on here at 4:22am that i was having twinges.

Contractions were 3 mins apart straight away, so i wasn't convinced lol - i thought they'd be less regular than that to begin with. I phoned my mother anyway just in case and she said she'd ring a taxi and come over just in case. (Wasn't relying on her tho cos she's a 'drinker').

Felt like a lifetime til she came so while i waited i kept going to sit on the toilet to convince myself i just needed a poo and this wasn't really it (lol). Even though i was actually over the moon because i didn't want to be induced!! It reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaally hurt when i sat on the loo, so i thought i'd run a bath and see if that made it any easier. By this point they were bearable, and much better when i walked around, i could just breathe through them.

So i got in the bath and my mother arrived at about 5am, and she gave me a bottle of fresh orange to see if it would help me go to the loo (i had told her i might just be a bit constipated and not actually in labour haha). I didn't think the bath helped at all, as the pain wasn't even that bad.

Soon after she got there i realised they were getting painful and asked her to ring the labour ward, who said they'd ring the on-call midwife and call us back. Well the next 10 minutes felt like 17 hours because i made her ring them back, convinced they'd forgot about us, i had no idea it had only been 10 minutes. I kept thinking they'd take ages as my waters hadn't broken so they might think i'm not in labour.
I remember my mother telling them on the phone that it was my 2nd baby and my first labour was very quick (under 2hrs), nice touch i thought to make them hurry up :rotfl:

I think the midwife got there at about 5:45 although i'm not sure. I was still in the bath and everytime i stood up to get out the contraction came back, even if i'd just let one pass, just i sat back down!! I remember the midwife saying i better get out of the bath and i kept thinking why is she being nasty i can't move lol.

Eventually i got out and wrapped a towel around me, laid on my bed and asked for the gas and air which was downstairs where the porter had left it. Mw told me i would have to go downstairs if i wanted to use the gas and air as she couldn't bring it up as it was too big??:eek: I really needed it at this point but there was no way i was giving birth on my living room floor!!!
So i promptly shouted "Mammmm she said i can't have the gas i neeeeeed it now go get it' LOL. So mw agreed to bring it up with her help :rolleyes:. At first i was just using it a little, as contractions came, but very soon they were so close together that i couldn't stop breathing it or it was agony.

My waters still hadn't broken and mw checked me, OMG this hurt 100 times more than the contractions, i was scooting up the bed away from her and she kept asking if i was having a contraction as i was practically eating the gas mouthpiece while she did it but i couldn't even respond to that. As it turns out i was already 9cm dilated :eek: I remember feeling quite proud i'd got to 9cm without the gas. She said my waters were bulging and as soon as they popped the baby would be out. Then she rang the 2nd midwife and she told my mother to stay on hand as she didn't think 2nd mw would arrive in time and may need her help.

The next few contractions were so intense, i wanted to ask her to break my waters because i felt like the pressure from them was causing so much pain, but i was scared to let go of the gas!

Then my waters popped and feeling them pouring out was like heaven, but i knew my body was ready to start some serious pushing but i was trying my best no to, cos i knew it was going to hurt LOL. I think my body did most of the pushing on its own, i was just going with the flow. Then the mw said 'okay the head is coming so if you don't want to tear you must not push when i say'. I was so focused on avoiding stitches i managed to do as i was told, and one big push later and the best feeling ever came when the rest of her body came sliding out at 6:44am weighing 7lb 3oz!! No stitches needed, just a few grazes, which i'm glad about as i had quite a few with my first!

My son was in bed through all of this and he walked in at the second baby's body slid out of me to see her being put onto my chest, which was brill He also caught sight of the placenta as she pulled it out and his face was a picture :rotfl: He couldn't take his eyes off it. The 2nd mw walked in before this point and cleaned up baby and weighed her etc.

Omg this was a long post, considering the labour was only about 2.5hrs!! :rotfl:

elle_gee

Sami_Bee wrote: »

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

Just to round off the story a bit.. Rhys finally came home at 8wks 2days old, five days before his due date. Other than problems with his kidneys (thankfully mild and a lot less worrying than first anticipated), he is developing absolutely normally, the doctors are astounded and I'm the proudest mum ever having just celebrated the Christmas we thought we might never have

Thankyou everyone for sharing your stories.. they give me hope for the next one!

elastigirl

I went in for my elective caesarean section at 7.30 on the 14th of December. I had slept really well the night before which surprised me as I had been feel really nervous a few days before but I didn’t have any nerves at all on the day there wasn’t any time for any.

As soon as I got there I was taken into a private room and was told that this was going to be my room for the length of my stay so I un packed a little before the midwife came back and did my obs She left the room while I gowned up and I was taken down to theatre straight the way. Hubby quickly scrubbed up as I wanted him in the room while I had the spinal. I had a cannula placed in my hand which didn’t hurt but due to the blood thinning injection I had the day before when the anaesthetist did it, he couldn’t cap it in time and blood poured from my hand, went all over the floor and him and my brand new slippers.

The spinal was the worse part of it all. I had a local to numb the area before the spinal which was fine but un beknown to me a student was attempting to do it. I was quite annoyed after I found out as I felt I should have been told and given the option of refusing him as I had previous problems with failed epidurals and a painful back ever since my first birth. It was so painful I felt him hit bone, I had a Sharpe pain down my leg and they had to give me 3 more local injections of aesthetic it hurt so much they couldn’t believe I wasn’t even going numb to have the spinal done. After about 15 minutes of him trying at least 3 times to my knowledge without any luck the anaesthetist took over and got the spinal in one go.
It was so weird as my legs went straight the way and they shouted at hubby to move out the way quick as they needed to get my legs on the table I think they thought I was going to fall off. My gown was used as a screen so I couldn’t see the op then they placed another one up so hubby couldn’t see which was a shame as he wanted to film the baby as he came out. I didn’t feel any rummaging or pulling like they say you may feel. It was all so quick within 5 minutes baby harry was born at 9.50am and was all ready being checked over and cleaned up. Hubby wanted to cut the cord but it all happen so fast he didn’t get the chance. The midwifs bought him over for daddy to cuddle while I was closed up.

After about 15 minutes, harry and daddy went to the recovery room and waited for at least 45 minutes for me as I had to have an injection in my stomach and it took a long time to find the correct place to do it with the ultra sound machine again I think it took so long as they let the student do it. As I was being wheeled away they noticed I was bleeding so I had to stay in theatre and had a drip in my other hand to stop the bleeding.
I was finally taken to the recovery room for a big mummy cuddle and feed. It all sounds a bit of a hassle but it really was a positive experience compared to my last birth.

goldrush1984

Ive been reading some awful labour experiences, and just want to share mine with you all, which by the way WAS GREAT!
I know you all think im probablly mad, but both labours were of course painful and indeed not the most dignified things in the world but the end results were and still are amazing!

Ill tell you about my most recent...28/12/09 I was 12 days overdue and at that point actually starting to get fed up especially after 2 sweeps. Was booked in to have an epidural last monday at 0900, was taken into my own small but decent room straight away. Was told to relax and take a walk for a couple of hours as my waters had broken that morning. Got back to the ward with still no sign of labour, was eventually put on a drip at 1300 to start contractions, again with no signs, just a load of water gushing everytime I moved, laughed etc, a bit gutted I had to stay on the bed, but had to be done. Midwife shift changed, which was great, I actually had something in common with this one! The speed of the drip was increased dramatically and at 1700 ish my contractions started. Layed off the gas and air till 1745 ish, to make sure I got the full effects at the right time!!! Love that stuff!!!!!! Mu drip was turned off not long after as my contractions were every min or so, it was pain then a drunk feeling continuously, quite annoying!! I was examined and only 6cm dilated, 10 mins later I felt a huge urge to push, midwife was convinced I didnt need to, until she had a proper look, panicked, got her pack together and called for help. Next minute Benjamin was born at 1842 weighing in at a hefty 9lb 14oz. Just unfortunate my partner couldnt cut the cord, what I didnt realise is that he had swallowed muconium and his heart rate dropped dramatically.
All on gas and air, no screaming, just shocked it happened so quick in the end..that s the way to do it!!
I must say the worst part is the placenta, it s uncomfortable and a pain waiting for it!!!!