MSE Pregnancy Club Birth Stories

tiamai_d

This is one of the bad stories, but as Sami quoted me saying, women do have to talk about the birth to get over it (Google if you don't beleive me).

DS1 was born in September 2001, 5 weeks early as I developed pre ecclampsia. He was induced, born after 12 hours of labour by ventouse, pretty nice labour to be honest.

DS2's birth story follows. He was born in April 2005 at 33 weeks.

I discovered I was pregnant very early with DS2 as I started throwing up less than a week after conception! Not a nice pregnancy. I had hyper-emesis till 24 weeks, SPD from about 20 weeks, cervical bleeding on and off from the start. And I just knew it would all end bad, I never thought I would actually see that baby alive to be honest. At night when I went for a pee I kept seeing blood all over a white floor even though we had a green carpet.

At 31 weeks the BP went up and protein appeared in my urine. Twice weekly trips to the day clinic until I was admitted when I was just shy of 33 weeks. I was admitted on a Friday. Plan was that I would stay there for 2 weeks on medication same as when I had DS1. Was given steroids and settled in for the long haul. Saturday I had a premature labour scare brought on by dehydration as I hadn't drank enough on the Friday (was nil by mouth for 5 hours till they decided I didn't have to be delivered there and then). Got through that by drinking 3 jugs of water!

Weekend was OK, BP crashed down low on the Saturday, but rose up to a normal level by the Sunday. Monday a doctor tried to send me home, but my own consultant has told me to tell them that HE said I was to stay in, plus I just knew I was better off there. Luckily I did stay in as things would have been very different had I went home.

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling fine, spent my 40mins on the monitor to check baby's heart, everything was looking good. Had breakfast at 8.30am, still felt fine.

9am arrived and my bump started to feel a bit uncomfortable. Put it down to the SPD at first, but as time went by I knew it wasn't SPD. My bump felt sore, baby hadn't moved since I was on the monitor. Imagine that someone has removed your bump and gave you one made of wood, that was how it felt. Tried explaining this to the midwives but they had a feel said everything felt fine and the 'trace' (of baby's heartbeat) had been fine. Advised to rest. Resting didn't help, walking didn't help. Went to visit a friend who had her baby the day before and was in the next ward at 11am and I was dancing about. My bump felt wrong. Again tried to get someone to listen to me but again I was fobbed off, this time told to have a bath.

Lay in the bath and got back out. It was painful lying down, the water did not help like it should for normal uterus/ligament/SPD pain etc. Lunch time arrived and I sat down to try and eat my salad, couldn't eat it couldn't sit down. Then I was told (and this part has went missing from my notes) that a doctor had had a look at me (my back was to the door of the day room where we ate) and said I looked fine.

I gave up and went to my room. Lay on the bed propped up with pillows and fell asleep. I woke up at 4pm and felt a bit better, less sore but feeling strange, tired and weak. Put it down to lack of food and too long a nap so went and ate my lunch that was in the fridge.

Then I was sat at the table reading a paper with my room mate and her DH. Felt a wetness and thought I had pee'd a liitle bit, so I calmly folded the paper and said 'just going to the loo'. As I got to the door I felt more 'pee' and wondered if my waters had broken, but my bump didn't feel lighter, in fact it felt solid and wooded again.

Sat down on the loo with a huge splash of liquid, looked up and saw a trail of blood from the door to the loo and that blood I had seen at night all over the white floor.

Panic welled up in me but suddenly some part of my mind kicked in with calm rational thought. My body was shaking and tears started streaming down my face (I went into shock) but in my head I thought 'OK, right, bleeding so, pull the red cord, then unlock the door'. Pulled the cord, got a wad of loo roll and unlocked the door. MW came in as I was sitting back down and I rather stupidly said 'I'm bleeding'. Her face went chalk white when she saw the floor and she ordered me to sit down, yelled for a wheelchair and as another MW brought in the chair, she helped me get a pad on and sit down on the wheelchair.

I was taken to my room, my sodden bottoms and knickers taken off, a fresh pad put between my legs and told to lie on the bed. The pain when I lay back was so bad I tried to sit back up and when a MW put her hands on my chest and pushed me back down I knew it was bad. They tried to find the foetal heart beat but failed.

Then I was being wheeled along the corridor to the delivery suite, 2 MW pushing the bed and 2 others holding open doors and yelling for people to stand back. Moved onto another bed with another monitor pressed against my bump to find the heart beat, still nothing. At some point DH was called and he walked in as a consultant wheeled in the mobile scanner. I looked at the screen and finally saw his little heart beating away, low hart rate but he was alive. That was when I closed my eyes and tried to just keep breathing. All I could think about was 'keep the oxygen going', slow steady breaths would keep him going. Took me a while to realise I was to get a section, don't know what I was thinking about when they said 'we need to get this baby out now', but I didn't realise that meant a section. Signed the sheet and then we had to wait for a room. 3 were being prepped and the first ready was mine. An anaesthetist had to be called in as we couldn't wait for the one who was there to finish with his patient and get to me.

Finally I was on that bed with the leg bands puffing up and the mask on, being told to count back, I'd feel heat in my throat and someone would press on my throat. Blackness descended.

I became aware of someone holding my hand squeezing it and someone calling my name. I managed to nod (I think) and squeeze the hand back (DH's). Later I woke again and saw people, doctors and nurses around me poking at wires coming out of me and at machines. I couldn't see the whole room, my vision was blurred at the edges. I tried to ask how the baby was, but to be honest at that point I didn't give a crap. I'd wake to see something, like the doctor who had my wrist and was trying to get a needle into it, he looked into my eyes and turned his back on me. I went back to sleep. I'd hear DH talking, one memorable time he was telling the mw about his cracked rib. I'd ask for a drink, take a sip out a straw and go back to sleep. Every time I woke there were too many people in the room and they all looked very serious, even 'Smiler' who was a lovely wee registrar I had gotten to know quite well, he always had a smile on his face but in that room he didn't smile once. It was him who put the needle in my artery and turned his back on me, something in the way he did it told me he didn't expect me to make it.

When I finally woke fully enough to actually talk, 2 days had passed since the section. I had a drip in the back of each hand to give me blood, plasma, fluids and medication to bring my BP down and a needle going into the side of my wrist to an artery to get my BP. A BP monitor was on each side of me, taking readings every 15 mins from both arms. My BP at it's highest was 240/180 and my heart rate was 122bpm. I was told I was very sick but getting better. There was a crash trolley next to my bed too.

Later that day I managed by sheer force of my stubborness to get off the bed and onto a chair. I fell asleep on the chair as soon as I sat down, but it felt so good to have achieved that!

Next day I had been awake more and more so I was allowed down to NICU to see my baby boy. Started to feel hot and sick going down, my vision was still tunnel vision and all I could see was the bottom half of the baby in his incubator. I wanted back up to my bed to sleep. Got back and had been moved out of the IC room into the observation 4 bed ward. I got sick that night, and vomited so forcefully that they tested me for meningitis. I also had a very nasty moment with the folk in the next bed. She had her partner and visitors with her and every time I started to fall asleep they would roar with laughter. MW asked how I was feeling and I said 'I'd be better if those ***** didn't keep waking me up every 5 **** minuets!'. The visitors were told to leave. I don't feel bad as your not supposed to have visitors in that ward let alone at that time of night and roaring with laughter!

The next day I felt better, was helped to the shower, couldn't raise my head as I was so dizzy I thought I'd pass out, but after my shower I got sitting in a chair and had some food and more yummy A+ blood. Felt so much better.

1 week after DS2 was born, I was in a private room on a different ward. DS2 was doing great, taking expressed breast milk and having a go at feeding from me too. He had spent 24 hours on a ventilator and a further 24 on CPAP, all of which I missed. He was a bit jaundiced, but given what he went through, very well. He weighed a massive 5lb12oz. I was getting better too, had a few problems (severe diarrhoea from antibiotics, very low blood counts, BP still raised, massive bruising) but they were getting better.

Then the consultant who delivered the baby came in. He told me that I had a placentral abruption, had a 10cm clot behind the placenta, my clotting factors were at 9 when they should be 500. I developed full ecclampsia after the birth, my heart was tachycardic and I was at constant risk of heart attack, my liver and kidneys were failing and quite frankly he had no idea how I survived. He said DS2 had an agpar of 0 at birth, 0 at 5 mins, 1 at 10mins and 3 at 15mins. Babies usually die in that situation. Another baby would be suicide so don't do it. It wasn't medicine that saved my life, he had no idea what had done that, but I was very, very lucky.

Then he left. I was alone in my little room, DH not due up for another hour and I was left with those words. A year later I broke down and was diagnosed with PTSD.

At 8 months old DS2 was diagnosed with 'some degree of brain damage'. At 2 years he was diagnosed with right sided hemiplegic cerbral palsy due to oxygen starvation at the time of, or leading up to his birth.

And in January this year I discovered the lil lady here, even though I had a minera coil. But her story is not done yet. And this has been a very long post.

skintchick

THanks for that Tia. Has made me well up. (And I don;t do crying!) Thank you for sharing it.

scruffy96uk

Ok I'll try and make it brief
Birth 25 Dec 07 due date 16 Jan 08

My waters broke 5.30am 24 Dec I had to fone hospital and go get checked as I had cholestasis. All was well I was 2cm dilated so I was sent home.
No contractions until late afternoon I was still out walking the dog at 6pm. Contractions started coming more often I wasn't really timimg as I still felt fine. Was at my folks house they went to their christmas eve church service so Hubby and I went for a drive as I was becoming fidgity. Went home after that hubby put his head down while I had a very very long shower he woke everytime I was having contractions asked if I was ok and went back to sleep although he did say " wake me up when it's time to go to the hospital" Which I did at 6.30am (xmas day). I did it with gas, air and a lot of pushing and oooohing and ahhhhing, I needed to be cut so was given an anesthetic downthere which wasn't pleasant. Only wasn't plain sailing as I needed constant monitoring due to condition but with the help of kiwi ventouse (left a temporary egg on her head) little Ellie was born at 10.04am christmas day. I got stitched up which I felt as the anesthetic hadn't worked properly they did offer to inject more but I refused and just let them get on with the stitches so I could hold baba once finished
It was quick and easy:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
We were in hospital a week as she had a chest infection and she was overdosed with antibiotics so was monitored closely for the toxin levels in her little body.

tiamai_d

I need to add something.

After DS2 was born I was told by well meaning friends, family and DH that I should just think myself lucky that we were both here, safe and well. You should never that. Of course I knew we were lucky and of course I was grateful that we were both still here, but that doesn't make what we went through any easier to deal with. If I had been in a car crash I would have gotten more understanding from people. But birth has a thing attatched to it that it is natural and therefore, non traumatic. Well sometimes it is traumatic, and getting a lovely baby doesn't erase the trauma.

I kept how I was feeling to myself for a year. That year was spent with me constantly thinking about what happened and wondering why I couldn't 'just get over it' like everyone said I should. If I mentioned how I felt about the birth, I was told I just had post natal depression.

Due to the lack of support from my husband, we split up. To me, he had failed me by not giving me the support I needed.

Luckily we had marrage councilling which was when I was finally able to talk about the birth and how it had affected me. DH realised that while he thought he was helping me, he was doing it in the wrong way. I needed to talk about it to begin to get over it. I'm so glad we went to councilling or we would not be as strong as we are now.

That's why I said that talking about what happened is money saving.

There is a website for those of us who didn't have the expected birth we planned, http://www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/

but I hope to see many, many more happy stories than bad ones. And I will stop talking now too!! But this has helped me a lot tonight, been having a bad few days thinking about all this and the upcoming birth of teh lil lady here, so hope you will forgive me!

skintsaver_2

my dd was born in april 06, the day that i was due the midwife came out to give me a sweep and told me i was already 2cm dilated which i thought was great as she said i should have her soon, my dd was back to back so was told it was going to be a more painful labour than usual but i thought lets just get on with it i wanna see my baby:D
So labour started on a sunday was having pain every ten mins all day and night so took some painkillers and went to bed, didnt sleep very well but on monday pain was coming and going so didnt go to hospital, had a little show as well so was getting more excited but still no baby and no sleep,
went to hospital on tuesday daytime and was 3cm so they sent me back home and said take paracetamol, very tired already and things hadnt even started then:rolleyes:
Went back to hospital wednesday and was told i was 4cm go home and come back later, finally at 11.30pm my pain was every 6 mins so went back to hospital and was 5cm and they were keeping me in :j
Was coping really well with the pain just having gas and air but was extremely tired with not sleeping, also fell of birth ball because of the gas and air,
Anyway at 3pm on the the thurs i was 8cm and had been for 2 hours with pain every min, midwife gave me an epidural which did not worked as i could still walk around, was then given a drip to speed up labour but my blood pressure dropped through the floor and babys heartbeat slowed down so it was decided i need an emergency c-section
Off to theatre i went and was given another two epidurals bbut i could still move my legs, then was given a spinal thing(cant think of the name but i think a spinal tap) altogether had three lots of that but it finally worked:T
Not long later my beautiful daughter was born but 2 mins after she arrived i could feel pain in my stomach and move my toes so i had to have general anesethic.
When i woke up i was told the surgeon thought she had cut one of the tubes to my kidneys so i would have to have an iodine injuection to scan my body for leaks but turns out i was allergic and was sick for hours after:mad:
then to top it all off i suffered with terrible post natal depression which lasted 2 years
But even thought i went through all this i would do it again as every time i look at my daughter i know it was all worth it:D
Also my partner was with me through out all this and was brilliant throught out

moggitymog

What a fab thread, my story is as follows.......
Woke up wed 19th June 2002 felt fine was 6 days overdue and had a hosp. appointment to arrange to be induced, went for a wee and there was loads of mucus stuff(made me feel bit queasy), anyway dbf came home from work as planned for 3.30pm appointment, saw midwife who told me I was 2.5cm dilated (I had no idea), and would have my baby within next few days. We went home and i was feeling "odd" , I then had a huge pain in my back so decided to lie down, 10mins later had another pain in my back (I did not know these were contractions, I was expecting the "painless tightenings" which they tell you about), 7 mins later next one then 5mins then 2mins, this was when i realised i was in labour.
Got in the car dbf hit every pot hole, on the way to lincoln hospital realised it was kicking out time at lincolnshire show, traffic jams everywhere (all contractions 2 mins), took us 1.5 hours to reach the hospital, (usually 20mins), when we arrived dbf dropped me off and told me he would "see me up there" and bu**ered off to park the car!
Staff were lovely but did not think I needed an epidural, I had to make it quite clear I was having an epidural, and eventually got one. DD was born at 0058hrs on the thursday morning, 8lb5oz, the only problem with having the epidural was that it slowed down my contractions, therefore took longer to give birth but i was glad not to have the pain after the traumatic journey to the hospital.

listerofsmeg_2

Tia... wow.

I wish you best of luck for your next baby. You are a very strong person to have been through all that.

smithyjules

Well then here goes!
My DD is 2 and a bit and was born 24th December 2006 (yep xmas eve!)

I was due on the 11th Jan and had just finished work a few days before xmas. We had not long previously moved into a new flat and had our first grown up (ish) dinner party planned for 8 people plus us on Sat 23rd December.

Well sat morning arrived and i nipped to the loo and there was a small amount of discharge streaked with red. Phoned hospital, they said it was a show and to ring them back when i started having contractions.

Off we went into town to collect the huge piece of pork we had ordered from the butchers, i had my first contraction outside what was then the smallest pub in Britain.OH kept saying "maybe we should cancel dinner??" I was having none of it as i was determined not to waste all the food we had brought!!!Very MS!!

Plodded along throughout the day, peeling, chopping, preparing the table, still having contractions but just little cramps really.

Friends arrived at 7pm.I was having regular contractions by then but i didn't want to tell anybody!!!My close friend was there and she too was pregnant and terrified of giving birth so i didn't want to show it hurt and upset her! Ate dinner, kept going off to "check things" in the kitchen (ie bending over double trying to do the breathing thing) and then going to the loo (was i the only one who did about 6million poo's before I'd even got to the hospital??think i was terrified of doing it at the birth so did it in the privacy of my own home!

During this time my OH kept tryng to ask me if i was alright and giving me knowing looks bless him!(even when people were arriving he kept saying "it's not too late to call it off you know").

The last ones to leave were my close friend and her husband who later told us they knew something wasn't right but couldn't put their finger on it!!lol.

It was then that it all started to happen (think i had kept my knees together all eve!). Contractions got stronger.called hospital and they said the classic "take some paracetamol and get some sleep" (that phrase cracks me up!).went to bed but eventually OH turned the light on and said well we might as well get up as i kept turning my phone on to check the time of contractions which lit up the whole room!

got in the bath and lay there for what seemed like hours with OH on sofa cusions asleep on the floor next to me holding my hand.we both dozed during this time waking to squeeze hands during the painful bits and top up with piping hot water (very good!). Got out of the bath for a wee and had a bleed so rang hospital who said to come in. By then this was 4 am xmas eve.

Got to the hospital and brought a 500ml bottle of water. I wouldn't let go of that water for love nor money after that! at one point i shouted at OH in a menacing voice "where is my WATER???" he replied "it's in your hand dear".marvelous!

i laboured in my lower back which wasn't helpful as i had a damaged disc already. I took one puff of gas and air and slung it out as it didn't work quick enough!Hate injections so i didn't want any pethadine epidural etc. I apparently scooted right to the back on the bed to get away from the crowning bit!and i tried using a pillow to stop her coming out too. My Oh who had promised faithfully to not look, DID and told me to feel the head.he put my hand down there and i touched it (apparently) but to this day deny all knowledge!Very odd business!

Anyhow a few pushes, a lot of stinging and she was born at 8.06am xmas eve.At which point prudish me ripped off my nighty and demanded her on my chest!!!

Then came the grim part...stitches...dear god this was worse than pushing a head out!i had 7 with some of those inside. they gave a local anasthetic and gas and air which terrified me once it got going (but i do hate being drunk too!) as i was trying to talk and tell them i could still feel it but no one seemed to hear me ( like i was in a bubble).I afterwards found out that OH felt awful during this time as he could hear me clearly but there was nothing he could do but hold my hand.

We have a real giggle with our friend when we relive that night (apart from the stitches!!), it helped me to be open about it and to laugh about it too. DD was nearly 3 weeks early and made a grunting noise when born (like snoring) and as they were worried about infection so we ended up in for 4 days all over xmas. She was fine though and a very contented baby.

If i could give anyone a tip though...Put lavender oil in the bath to soothe stitches and smother your down belows with vasaline before weeing-this works a treat as long as you don't miss any bits and do it thick enough!!lol!Oh yes and having a bottle of water really helped me (for some bizarre reason), the reason i mentioned the 500ml bottle size earlier was because my OH refilled that bottle more than 6 times during 4 hours!thats over 3 litres...nevermind 8 glasses a day eh!

Natalie6999

I had my DS in January 2004.

my due date was 7 February 2004, Two weeks before I went to see the midwife & after being prodded & poked, fell when getting off the bed as my jeans had got caught on the bed brake managing to break two fingers.

I had been fairly stressed as my DH had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerocis on Christmas Eve, he had begun treatment & was adapting to being in a wheelchair as the attack had taken use of his legs, we were visiting the hospital twice a week for treatment & physiotherapy.

On the Thursday night I noticed that my rings were getting tight & my feet were swelling up, so I decided to go to the Doctors on the Friday morning. When the Doctor saw how swollen I was, she tried to persuade me to go into hospital but I refused as I felt I couldn't leave my DH, so as a compromise I was ordered to bed to rest with the Midwife visiting the next morning to check my BP which at that time was 145/110.

Next morning my BP was no better, I was ordered to stay in bed & the midwife would return at tea time to check my BP again, when she returned she made me go to the hospital to be monitored & to my horror I was admitted to be induced. I was given the usual internal & prostin gel to try & start things off at 8.00 on the saturday night, everyone was sent home & I spent a very lonely night on the labour ward, I cried most of the night as I had never been in hospital before & was scared stiff. On the sunday morning the gel was repeated & after lunch I was sent to a ward as the midwife led wing was closing for the afternoon as I was the only one on it.

I kept on getting niggles & had started to bleed a little, eventually I was taken back to the labour ward to have my waters broken, I knew that this was going to be painful as the midwife gave me the gas & air to hold, she started by giving me a sweep which was excruciatingly painful, I screamed the place down & then she broke my waters. Within about 20 minutes I was turning the air blue as I couldn't handle the pain which had hit me like a ton of bricks, despite putting in my birth plan that I didn't want an epidural, I was begging for one whick took over 2 hours to arrive as the anaesthetist was in theatre, once I had the epidural in I relaxed & managed to dose & read for the rest of the night except for when the Doctor came in to up the drip to get my contractions going, by morning I was only 2cm dilated but the Doctor just kept on doubling the amount of symetrine I was getting, by 4.00pm I was 8cm dilated & the midwife told me that I would probably be able to start pushing in about an hour, but when that hour passed I had gone back to 7cm & the doctor insisted that I needed an emergency c-section, I begged for longer but he refused & practically forced me to sign the consent form, my mum came into theatre with me, my epidural was topped up & the Doctor proceeded to operate, I was shaking so much that he had to ask me to stay still, baby Thomas Andrew Atkin was born at 6.22pm, I didn't get to see him until they had done all of the checks.

When they handed him to me all I could see was a massive pair of blue eyes from this creature that looked like ET. I heard the Doctor ask for help as I was haemoraging & there seemed to be loads of activity down at the business end, we had to wait for someone to come in & mop the floor as it was covered in my blood. I was taken to High Dependancy & was begging for a drink, but was only allowed a medicine cupful every hour as they thought my kidneys were in danger of failing, I had full blown eclampsia & for the next two days was closely monitored & given medication to help my kidneys & lower my BP which was 180/125.

After 2 days I was allowed onto the normal ward, plonked in a room & rarely saw any of the medical staff, I had a new baby that I struggled to pick up, felt nothing for & didn't know how to care for properly. I spent most of the days in tears, begging anyone who came in to dicharge me & let me go home. On the Friday I asked to see a Doctor & insisted that they discharge me as I wasn't receiving any care, I felt that I would be better off at home where I would have family to help care for Thomas & I & I wouldn't be worrying about my DH who was extremely ill yet struggled in every day to see us.

It took almost a month at home for my BP to return to anything like normal, I suffered terible post natal depression that has taken almost 4 years to go away, if someone had sat down with me & explained what went wrong, maybe I wouldn't have suffered for so long. I blamed myself for not standing up to the doctors & insisting on being helped to have a normal delivery, I felt a failiure.

I am almost crying typing this as this is the first time I have put down what happened & how I really feel about it, it took almost 6 months before I really felt anything like love for Thomas & still feel guilty for this.

I love him more than words can ever explain now but feel cheated about the 6 months I couldn't bond with him.

money_maker_3

OK here goes
DD born November 2002
This is another of the not so great births, but with that in mind I'm due in 3 weeks do mustnt have been that bad :rotfl:

I was 41 + 3 and was to go into hospital on Monday night at 10pm for induction. All day on the Monday I was in quite a lot of pain in my left leg and had mentioned it to my OH and the MW but both thought it was just the weight of the baby pushing down and it would be all over soon and not to worry about it.
My mum took me and OH to the hospital (neither of us drive) and got me checked in. As it was lights out time, my mum wasnt allowed to stay, so she went home, but OH was allowed to stay with me till I got the prep gel which I was told would be about 10.30 or so. They took me down at midnight !!

I was lying on my back with OH holding my hand and was told to put my legs in the stirrups so the MW could check me, and I just screamed in agony !!
She looked at me like there was a screw loose and said she hadnt even touched me yet, I said it was my leg, but she seemed to dismiss it quite quickly and proceeded to ram her finger right in there (sorry:o). Whole thing took about 10 mins and was taken back up to the maternity ward. OH was told to go home and he could come back at visiting time the next day. I was given 2 paracetemol as I was complaining about the pain in my leg, and was told that I needed to sleep as I would be taken down at 7am to be induced.

3.01am I woke up in excrutiating pain :mad:, buzzed for a MW and she came, looked at me, took my BP and told me that I was only 1cm and that the contractions wouldnt hurt that much yet and to get some sleep.
3.17 again with the pain, but decided not to say anything as I felt like I was being a nuisance and must just have a really low pain theshold. This kept going every 6 mins from then on in and after 7 contractions, I demanded some pain relief and for them to phone my OH.
I was told that as the pain was in my leg and not my bump or back then it probably wasnt labour, just cramp:eek: but I was crying at this point so they agreed to take me down to the labour suite as no one else was there and gave me a shot of pehadine, but refused to phone OH as they said I was no where near ready and he needed his sleep!!
At around 4.45 am I was in so much pain, gas and air and pethadine were not working and I was crying and screaming uncontrolably with the pain in my leg every time I had a contraction, but by now the pain was also in my back. I was checked again and was told that I was 3 cms but everything was fine and OH was called so would be in soon. (He had to wake his Dad to get a lift into the hospital at that time in the morning !!) They gave me something to try to slow the contractions down, as by now they were coming every 2 mins and I wasnt getting time to breath between then, but was dutifully sick as soon as they gave me it !! I only had 3 nighties in with me and was on number 2 already.

A new MW came in and asked me to try to move off the bed and see if we could get things going, but every time I tried to move I felt as though my leg was going to pop out of its socket and started swearing profoundly at the poor woman who, give her some credit, shouted back !!! She finally agreed to let me stay on the bed and told me to use more of the gas and air.
This sent me a little mad, and I started giving directions to someone in a car and then got really upset as I thought I had got him lost and OH had to tell me that the man had phoned to say thanks and he had got there safely, just to calm me down !!

At about 8am ish, they brought me and OH some tea and toast and I was sick again, so was now on my last nightie, but that only lasted 10 mins as I was given another pethadine and was sick again and had to finsh the whole thing in a very flattering hospital gown (very sexy in the photos afterwards !!) The consultant finally came to check me around 9.30 and agreed that at 4cms my waters were going to be broken for me and that I would feel a bit of pressure, well that is an understatement !! Gush like niagra falls would be more accurate :rotfl:

To be honest the next few hours ae a bit of a blur as by now I had 6 shots of pethadine and was high as a kite on gas and air, but all I can vividly remember is the pain in my leg and no one paying any attention to it other than my OH who was getting whiter by the minute !!
I went through 4 shift changes and had 3 different consultants check me and all were happy with the way I was and did not want to intervene, however the last consultant finally decided that they would put a monitor on the baby as I had started to leak a little blood (not a lot at this point). My OH was asked if we had considered a section if it was needed and he said we would do whatever I wanted, I screamed yes at the top of my voice :rotfl:

I was introduced to the anethatist and told he would set everything up so that if it was needed I would be ready to go, this was around midday, and I then blacked out about an hour after that. Was rushed into theatre as Jasmines heart rate had dropped and I had started to bleed with a vengence !!
OH was rushed out to get changed into his scrubs and I was asked to sign consent forms in between blacking out phases. I had no idea what I was signing for !!
I remeber asking to kiss the guy that made the pain go away and OH laughing at me. I saw DD for about 2 seconds after she was born and thats it.

4 and a half hours later I woke up with 2 drips in either arm and no baby. I am sorry to say that baby not being there was not the first thing I noticed though, it was the relief that the pain in my leg had gone !! I really didnt have a clue what was going on around me and had to ask where I was. I had had a severe heamorrage and had lost more than a significant amount of blood ( I later found out my blood level was 6.1:eek:)
I was wheeled to the maternity ward and all of mine and OHs family were there and I got to see Jasmine for the first time, but I really wasnt with it, so everyone left me to get some sleep.

The next day I got to speak to the consultant who said that they nearly lost me as they couldnt find the source of the bleed and couldnt stop it, and the reason my leg hurt so much was because baby had turned away from the birth canal and was pushing against the side of my pelvis instead !!! How the hell did they not notice that ????????

Anyway after 6 days in hospital and 4 blood transfusions me and bubs were allowed home, but it took me nearly 4 weeks to heal properly and I got quite bad PND afterwards. Jasmine has always been fine, but I felt as though I let her down in the way she was brought into the world.

But as I say, I am having another one in 3 weeks by elective c section this time and have been on double iron to keep my blood levels up incase I heamorrage again, but lets hope that doesnt happen !!

Oh God, that was a lot longer that I intended - sorry