MSE Pregnancy Club Birth Stories

bigzippy

TeamLowe wrote: »

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with it all BigZ, glad mini zee is here happy and healthy

Just to say I *think* they told me that I had to have the injection for the third stage after the induction drip because the forced contractions increases the risk of heamoragging. Or something like that. I was still getting over the she being a he thing lol x

Yeah that sounds vaguely familiar

LannieDuck

I'm sure my birth story won't be all that relevant to anyone else, but it might be a bit of a curio :P

I felt absolutely fine all day Sunday (35+6), then at 3am started vomiting and couldn't keep anything down. I was also having shivers. By morning I'd had no sleep and was seriously dehydrated. Luckily I had my 36 week midwife appt booked for 9am, and it was with a Dr. He did a lot of checks on me and couldn't find anything wrong, except some elevated ketones in my urine. He said if I wasn't pregnant he would send me home, but as it was he'd like the maternity assessment centre to check me over.

So I went up to the hospital, feeling terrible. Was hooked up to a fetal monitor - baby was fine. I had bloods taken and the urine sample retested. Again, because of the ketones they decided to admit me and investigate further. I was transferred to labour ward (because of a lack of beds elsewhere) and monitored every hour or so.

Overnight I vomited again and my temperature spiked a couple of times quite badly. They gave me IV antibiotics and fluids for the dehydration. Eventually the next day they were ready to release me - they reckoned it was a viral illness that would burn itself out pretty quickly. Throughout this, baby had had a slightly elevated heartrate, so they put me back on the monitor while they waited for my OH to come and collect me.

I'd had some mild contractions the previous day, which they were totally unconcerned about, and I suddenly started having them again. Then I got a really strong, intense contraction in my lower right abdomen, and it wouldn't go away. It just got stronger. Over the next hour my OH arrived to find me in intense pain, with midwives and doctors debating what was going on with me - they didn't think I was in labour (my cervix was still elongated), but my tummy was definitely contracting. The doctors thought maybe it was my body pushing me into labour because of the infection, and it might all happen very quickly. I had G+A, and then pethidine. I think they must have drawn some more bloods, because at some point my bloodwork came back with a very high infection marker (a CRP of >200), and the doctors very tentatively suggested doing a c-section. Although the consultant later took credit for the decision to operate (:P), they were really unsure what to do because they didn't know what was causing the pain. I think because baby was 36+1 by this time they figured it was safer all around to get baby out and then work out what was wrong with me.

So I went in for an emergency c-section, which I hadn't been expecting at all (I had a normal delivery with DD1), and when they opened me up they found my abdomen was full of pus, and my appendix had burst. Baby Lily came out, I was put under a general anaesthetic for an appendectomy, and OH went with Lily to neonatal so she could be checked over.

I woke up a couple of hours later. Lily was fine, and on antibiotics to ensure she didn't contract anything from me. I was on IV antibiotics and morphine. We were kept in until Friday evening. Lily got a bit jaundiced and needed a UV lamp, but otherwise I think it all went as expected.

We did have a small blip - on the Sunday after leaving hospital my temperature spiked to 39.2, and we had to go to A&E. Lily was looking a bit yellow again, so my OH took her through the paediatric A&E to get checked out (she was fine). I had lots of bloods and swabs taken, and was eventually admitted again overnight for more IV antibiotics and fluid. I also had an abdominal CT scan. Everything came back normal.

So now we're back at home hoping my temperature controls itself and trying to get back to some semblance of normality :P I really couldn't have had a more different birth to DD1's if I'd tried.

faith2009uk

My birth story seems very boring in comparison with others

Saturday I had my show, as you may have read on the other board, and just had some mild contractions.

Sunday morning I felt the need for the loo and had my waters break just as I made it to the loo. So after a phone call to the birthing centre (where I was told I couldn't have a water birth as she was 2 days off 37 weeks at this point), I called the main hospital and was asked to come in for monitoring.

After a few hours of monitoring they agreed my waters had broke and I was found a bed on the MW led ward. After a very long day of mild contractions, which were now more intense, in the early hours of Monday they finally realised that I was actually further along then they thought, 6-7cm. So off we went to labour ward where I was offered an epidural. However our baby girl had other ideas and we found out I was fully dilated and she arrived maybe 5 1/2 hours later with just gas and air.

Luckily I only needed stitches and was allowed home a day later

faithhope

Finally got round to posting my birth story...

I had an elective section so I had to go into hospital at 6.45am after having taken antacids at home. Hubby was with me and was given theatre clothes to change into. Midwife, aneasthetist and surgeon all came round to see me pre-op then at 8am I walked to theatre.

Everything was explained really well to me and I felt reassured that I was in safe hands. The spinal anaesthetic felt a bit weird at first - my backside felt really warm and it spread down my legs. After that I felt nothing, not even the lightest touch.

They rotated the bed to the left and put up supports so I wouldn't fall out. This was because otherwise there would be pressure on a main vein and the womb. A screen was put up and hubby stroked my hair while they went to work. In no time my little son was held up to me screaming his head off and doing a fountain of pee over me!

They then took him to check him out, weigh him etc. then he was placed in a blanket on my chest while they finished the op. One of the team took a lovely pic of me, DH and DS. The three of us then went back to the ward together.

I have had 3 babies, the previous 2 being vaginal deliveries. The elective section was definitely the best experience by far, even with the longer recovery time and I have a very neat, thin scar.

sunshine81

I wanted to post this because I now know birth is NOTHING like OBEM!

Went in for induction at 41+5. After baby being monitored for 30 minutes to get baseline measurements a pessary was inserted at 10am friday, it's tiny but on a long rubber looking string. It was a bit uncomfortable but no more than a sweep. The waiting game began! Baby was then monitored for another 30 minutes to check he wasn't reacting badly to the induction.

At 12:30pm I had a first contraction, they continued throughout the day fairly mildly every 10 minutes, and didn't really change through the day despite walks etc. At about 7pm I was examined and while the pain of contractions was increasing and baby's head was low the cervix was still fairly thick. I was monitored again and kept on for a couple of hours as his heart rate kept disappearing during contractions. Agreed to have codeine and paracetamol at this point, and put the TENS machine on.

We decided to try and get some sleep about 11:30pm... Woke up about 1am, turned over and POP my waters went. The weirdest feeling ever! They went all over the bed, the floor, and every time I moved it seemed to gush out more! Dignity well out the window.... Was put back on the monitor, and as his heart rate kept dipping at the start of each contraction I was moved to delivery suite at 5am.

Delivery suite found my cervix to be soft and I was 3cm dilated, they decided to put a clip on baby's head to keep constant monitoring of his heart beat and put in a drip to speed up contractions. Contractions were getting stronger so agreed to diamorphine which helped for a couple of hours, but then they got so strong I pleaded for an epidural... Something I was adamant I was not having!!

This continued all day, gradually progressing and by 11pm I was fully dilated. They said to give it an hour for baby's head to move down then I could start pushing. However after half an hour there were some mutterings about baby's heartbeat dropping and not coming back up. I don't remember anyone coming in the room but fairly quickly my legs were up in stirrups, there was about 10 different people at my bottom end and I was told I had to push as hard as I could and they would pull with forceps and cut me to get him out fast.

Contractions typically seemed to slow but he came out in three contractions, checked by a paediatrician and deemed perfect! I, however was not, having lost 2 litres of blood I all but passed out. I was put on oxygen and given drips that the midwives stood there squashing the bags to get them in faster as my BP was on the floor, something like 70/42. Apparently I was white and it took a while to recover, needing a blood transfusion and now I'm on iron tablets as my levels dropped from my usual 12-15 to just 6. I'm still very weak 5 days on and have an infection in the episiotomy which isn't helping.
But we will get there!

I know some of this story is a post birth story, but I wanted to share as I thought once I'd given birth I'd be back to 'normal' and have found it hard to recover as I never anticipated problems with me, so felt it important to share x

Lara44

I had been having braxton hicks for a while and on Monday night I had some period type pains with them. I checked our last minute plans just in case this was it! Went to sleep and kept getting woken by pains every hour or so. Finally at 4:30am I couldn't sleep any longer and woke OH.

Contractions were so uneven all day, getting closer together and then further apart. I was using the Tens machine which was great. When I was having 2 in 10 minutes we called the birth centre, who wanted me to stay home until contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting at least 1 minute. In the early evening contractions stopped altogether and I was gutted. Then they came back much stronger and finally reached the 3 minute mark, so we went to the birth centre at 7pm. Got examined there and was found to be only 1cm and sent back home! I cried in the taxi that so much time and so many contractions had achieved so little. But contractions got a lot stronger at home, and at 10:30pm we went back in and I was 7cm dilated.

The lovely midwife ran the pool and I got in and laboured in there also using gas and air which felt amazing. It took hours to get to the pushing stage, and I did get quite panicked at times. At around 2am I started to lose contractions a bit and I was ready for sleep, especially on the gas and air. I had to get things moving so I got out of the pool and laboured on dry land, on all fours and finally, standing up. I was really having to focus hard on maintaining the contractions. After what felt like years the baby was finally delivered. The delivery of the head didn't go so well despite mine and the midwife's best efforts and I got a bad second degree tear. That meant there was some urgency to the delivery of the placenta, and time spent getting stitches. So I didn't get as much skin to skin as I'd have liked, but OH got lots anyway.

I got a bit freaked out by having stitches, and it has taken me a while to get my head around it. Things seem to be healing well but I don't feel at all back to normal physically (like Sunshine), I guess it will take some time.

Apart from the tear it was so nice to give birth standing up, as I just looked down and saw my baby and I got to tell everyone he was a boy, and I really loved that. The birth centre do delayed cord clamping and natural delivery of the placenta, all of which were no problem and didn't feel weird. We were busy having skin to skin and breastfeeding which was really special, if a bit rushed.

freebiequennie

Congratulations Lara just wanted to say I have an almost 4yr old little boy called robin and haven't heard anyone else use the name.

Number 2 due in Nov so still deciding on names

skintchick

I thought I'd post the birth story of Gabriel James

Gabriel’s birth story

I was convinced that I would give birth before 40 weeks, so as week 39 went on I wondered if I’d actually got it wrong. Every time I visited my neighbour I hopped on her scales and weighed myself as I have read that you drop about 4lbs just before going into labour.

On July 25, at 39+3, I weighed myself and discovered I’d gone from 75kg to 73kg, which I found encouraging. The next day I had diarrhoea, and also my daughter commented that the milk my left breast had been producing for most of my pregnancy (both had turned to colostrum at 14 weeks then the left one had turned back to milk in response to her continued feeding on it) had become colostrum again. I knew that this was another sign of impending labour, because the baby needs colostrum and the body prioritises the baby over the older child.

So I was excited. And the day after that, 39+5, I began having contractions at about 5am. I wasn’t sure if it was true labour, because with my first baby my waters went before the contractions started, so I carried on with my day although they were getting quite strong, then decided to get my mum to come as she was going to look after my five-year-old while I laboured.

Unfortunately, when she and my dad arrived in the early evening, and my daughter got excited about seeing them, my labour slowed and then stalled. I was exhausted so went to bed at 8.30pm, still contracting occasionally, but overnight it died off completely and I felt really silly.

However, at 10am the next day my contractions began again and were very strong almost immediately. I laboured on my own although my husband worked from home, until I couldn’t cope any more, and at about 3pm I went in to him and interrupted his work call by saying “You need to stop now and call Leanne (my doula)” before going to the toilet and having yet another strong contraction.

I had been too scared to do anything active during the early labour as I knew I was going to labour fast and I didn’t want it to be too fast. So I watched TV and went online and just generally sat around having contractions.

I had talked to Leanne during the day and she felt that my contractions were strong because my baby was on my right hand side, and to be born they ideally need to be on the left. She said it was probably turning and that they turn the long way round via your back, and so the contractions were probably strong because that was happening.

By the time Leanne arrived at 4pm I was already exhausted and feeling like I couldn’t continue, which wasn’t good. I actually felt quite tearful. I had phoned the hospital and they had told me I needed to be having three contractions in ten minutes before they would send a midwife, but I was having them every 4-5 minutes and they were strong, and I felt I was close to birth.

At 4.30 I called again and lied, so they would send someone out, and the first midwife arrived at 5.15pm. By the time she arrived, I was in severe pain with the contractions, which were no closer together but much stronger, and had been sick a few times.

I had been kneeling while labouring but my SPD was painful and I began standing up but putting my weight on my hands on a footstool during contractions. I was vocalising a lot and as soon as I could I tried the gas and air but it made my mouth dry and I felt sick but the pain was no better.

I could hear the first midwife on the phone to the second one, and I don’t think I was supposed to hear her say “I think the baby will be here before you are” and then I started to panic a bit as I knew the second midwife had the diamorphine, and I wasn’t going to be able to have it as she was going to be too late.

I also heard the midwife (who incidentally was the amazing independent midwife Liz Nightingale doing some NHS hours) say to someone “she sounds like she’s transitioning” so I knew I’d been right to lie to the hospital and that birth was very close.

The contractions were all in the front of my lower stomach, and very painful, almost unbearable. At one point I got hysterical as I felt I really could not cope any more, which I guess was transition, and then I was pushing.

I could no longer stand as I was physically exhausted, so I lay on my left side to deliver. I was pushing hard, with the second midwife (who did arrive before the birth at least) hold my leg up, but it felt like the baby wasn’t coming. I heard someone say “check if the cord’s round the neck” and Liz said it wasn’t, but baby wasn’t coming.

The second midwife was urging me to push but I didn’t want to push without a contraction so I was holding a finger up between my legs to try and say I would do it in a minute, then I pushed again and heard Liz say “the baby’s in the sac, that’s very lucky. Baby’s coming”.

It felt like the baby was stuck half in and half out for ages, but in the end I was actually pushing for nine minutes, with a labour of three-and-a-half hours total, it just felt like much longer pushing because he was in the sac and it was so hard to push him out.

As his head came out the membranes tore, releasing the pressure, and after two more contractions his body was born in a big slither. My daughter came and had a look but she said “too much blood!” and ran back out again to my mum. The midwife passed him up through my legs and I pulled my top off and lay next to him so he could breastfeed and he latched on and had a feed there and then.

As he did my daughter came back in and looked to tell us what he was, as that was her job we’d agreed beforehand, and she was so excited to tell us it was a boy. I moved to lean against the sofa, and we did delayed cord clamping before my mum cut the cord (because my daughter didn’t want to).

After he fed, he was taken and weighed while I moved to the sofa to rest and wait to deliver the placenta. I had no idea how long it took at the time. Liz was very patient and kept asking if I felt ready, but I didn’t for ages, and eventually I did and I stood up and pushed and out it came. Later I found out it had been about 90 minutes waiting, which in hospital would have made them very twitchy!

Liz checked the placenta over, then checked me for tears and said I had no tearing at all which was great. I had also only lost 100ml of blood.

I then had a shower and got dressed, then fed Gabriel (as yet unnamed) again and we had some family pictures taken.

During the labour I honestly felt I couldn’t do it. It was so painful and so overwhelming that even three weeks later I feel quite tearful about it, and really cannot imagine ever doing it again. I didn’t feel like that after Lilia despite her birth also being quick and intense.

We named him Gabriel James, and he was born in the sac at 6.56pm on 28 July 2014, weighing 6lbs 15oz and with APGARS of 10 and 10. My labour was three-and-a-half hours with nine minutes pushing.

Bluebell1000

It’s unusual I think that a birth actually goes to plan, but I thought you might like to know that it can happen, as this one did! Ben was born at 1.10pm on 10th September weighing 7lb 11oz, at 39+4.

I had a homebirth going against medical advice. DS1 had been born at home but then we transferred in for retained placenta and I needed a transfusion. The other risk factor was group B Step which had been detected in my urine sample at 12 weeks pg, and treated with antibiotics. Standard policy here is that any signs of GBS means a hospital birth with antibiotics as a precaution. After considering the risks I decided to stay home and not have antibiotics, but that was very much my personal choice and not something that everyone may feel comfortable with.

I started having some contractions at 12 midnight. After an hour or so of on/off sleep, I got up and read a book before going back to bed at about 5am, getting maybe another hour of sleep between contractions. I’d had twinges before but these were clearly more consistent and stronger than I’d had in the previous few weeks, and didn’t stop when I walked around. We got up around 7.30 with DS1 and got him ready for the childminders, though he got rather more morning tv than usual to make it a bit easier! Contractions were getting a bit stronger but feeling manageable at this point.

By 10.30 I started timing, and they were still 5-7 mins apart. I was pretty sure there was still some way to go, but starting to find the pain harder to deal with – not able to talk through them at all. For a home birth, here you ring the hospital first. So called them about 11am. They then asked the community midwife office to call me back, which was about 11.15 by then. The midwife office asked if I was having a show (no) or if waters had gone (also no) and didn’t seem overly concerned. They did hear me having a contraction though and agreed to send the on call midwife out. She then called to see how i was before setting off.
About 11.50 I had a bit of a panic as I felt damp. Thinking it was waters, I had a look to find bright red blood. Called the midwife back who said she was only a few mins away. She said that she’d need to see how dilated I was to work out if that was normal or not. At that point I was 5-6 cm dilated In one direction and 2-3 cm in the other, and she was very reassuring that the blood was from my cervix, and was actually part of a show. Loads of red mucous and some blood kept appearing after that, apparently this can happen with pressure on the cervix.

She didn’t have a delivery pack with her, and asked if I could wait until her colleague was able to join us at 1pm. This meant no gas and air, so I said no and asked if she could go and get it, as I felt that I really needed more pain relief then. Still thinking there was some way to go… but everything moved very swiftly from there!

Midwife returned at 12.30 and the G&A really helped. I was labouring on the floor in the living room then, on an old duvet. We had a birth pool but I’d had a feeling before baby arrived that there wouldn’t be time to get it filled. She re-checked dilation at 12.45 and waters were really bulging and I was pretty much dilated. Waters went with a pop at 1pm and I immediately wanted to push. I got onto all fours as I’d had a 2nd degree perineal tear with ds1 and didn’t want to put too much strain on that area if possible. DH supported my front half as best he could. When his head came out he started crying immediately, it was a very odd sensation when the rest of him was still inside! Didn’t take long before the rest of him was out. Midwife caught him and passed him straight underneath me so DH and I could say hello. It was a lovely moment and was both got a bit teary. We had a cuddle and Ben had a feed before his cord was cut.

At a home birth a second midwife is usually present – she arrived 10 mins after ben did! She’d have bought the G&A if I’d said that was ok when asked earlier, so glad I said no and asked midwife 1 to get it!
I had been intending a fully natural 3rd stage. The strength of the contractions surprised me, and I was back on the g&a as it was getting quite painful. The midwife did help with my consent – a gentle pull on the cord and it came free.

After another long breastfeed I tried to get up, but was feeling quite dizzy. She was very understanding and didn’t push me into getting up too soon. I lost about 500ml blood, which is the same as with ds1.

Midwife did have to leave just after 4pm but I still wasn’t up and about at that point. Someone else came in at about 5pm to check on me, I’d just made it to the shower by that point but only by crawling there. She was worried I was very cold, so got me bundled up on the sofa with heat packs and blankets, and stayed for an hour or so until she was sure I was ok. Almost had a hospital transfer as she was so concerned, but managed to avoid it!

I had a couple of small 1st degree tears, which weren’t stitched. Weeing is sore but happily my perineum escaped this time, I’m sure it was the different position that helped. I’m still quite wobbly today but recovering pretty quickly really, and being well looked after by dh

The only part of my birth plan that didn’t happen was the cup of tea afterwards – I changed my mind and just finished the lucazade bottle instead, while eating a bar of chocolate. The midwives appreciated the tea though.

The strength of the pains afterwards surprised me, especially when feeding, but apparently they’re often worse after a second baby. They are definitely reducing the bleedng faster than with ds1 so not really complaining!
As for the gbs risk… we’ve kept an eye on Ben and he’s showing no signs of an infection. The vast majority would become ill within 24 hours if it's going to happen, so we are happy that for us it worked out fine.

Official labour timings were 2 hr 5 min 1st stage, 5 min 2nd stage, 24 min 3rd stage. Speedy!

See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=50481225&postcount=221 for DS1's birth story if you are interested.

credit_crunch

finally getting around to sharing this - 6 weeks on :eek:
sorry in advance for rambling on!!

so here it goes....
finished work at 38 weeks, woke the following morning, assuming i was 'leaking' as i was walking down the stairs, but it was in fact my waters breaking. i didnt get a gush or hear a pop, they trickled throuought the day.
i rang the MLU and they asked me to come up to be examined. They confirmed my waters had broken & they started to check my blood pressure. I had no pain what so ever at this stage.
my blood pressure was too high to stay in the MLU so I was asked to go another hospital to have my bp monitored, if it didnt drop they would admit me. My feet and legs were swollen too which I assumed was due to the weather & a little fluid.

after 3 hours in the hospital they were happy to let me go home, and I was told to return at 7am the following day to be induced.

Now for the induction....
It was awful! I had the pessary & was 1cm dilated. BP was still high so was given tablets to help this. Pains started around 3/4pm & were similar to strong period pains, and I asked for co codamol. I cant swallow tablets so they gave me a morphine injection as they were too busy to soluble tablets.
Injection did nothing for the pain, made me woozy & I vomitted!
Things seem to take off from there & I was moved to another ward & all of a sudden was surrounded by midwives, hooked up to 2 different drips & was fitted with a catheter.
at around 8pm i was given gas & air & was almost 9cm dilated so was transferred to delivery.
Baby boy wasborn at 9:27pm weighing 5lb 11oz. I had a second degree tear so had some stitches.
Home after 3 days & baby is gaining weight well. Turns out I had pre eclampsia & one of the drips was to stop me having seizures as baby could have been starved of oxygen.

would do it all again in a heart beat!

i didnt have a birth plan other than i didnt want epidural or remi injections. OH cut the cord & i was very lucky to have my mum & my husband with me for the whole labour.