Sazzle84
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Our beautiful daughter Freya Rose was born at 2103hrs on Monday 8th October 2012.
My labour was long and somewhat complicated/traumatic but wanted to share it as a positive story in spite of the difficulties we were faced with...I know a lot of women are terrified of labour but hope that by reading how I feel about my labour it will help some of those women feel positive about theirs.
So on Sunday morning (07/10/12) I went to the midwife for a sweep as I was overdue (41 weeks). Sweep performed and had a lot of bloody show which surprised me because I thought I had already lost my plug...just shows how much there is!!! Sweep was absolutely fine and not in the least bit uncomfortable which I was relieved about as I had heard some scary tales about the pain etc!
By 2345hrs on Sunday night my contractions started. It wasn't a gradual thing, no 'is it or isn't it?' feelings...they were unmistakeable and almost like someone flicked a switch that started them off! I woke my husband at midnight on Monday and we began timing the contractions. They were very difficult as there wasn't any pattern or regularity to them as such but each contraction was lasting longer than 30 seconds at a time, sometimes they were 7/8 mins abpart sometimes they were only 1 min apart! I had a bath which seemed to help initially but the benefits of the water wore off as the bath cooled and I became tense so out the bath and I just had to pace the floor.
After speaking to the labour ward at the hospital we finally made the journey after labouring at home for a little over 4 hours, we arrived at the hospital at 4am.
I was examined and told that I was 4cm dialiated and very close to 5cm so I wouldn't be sent home due to the distances involved etc. I was there to deliver my baby!
I was taken into my delivery room and hooked up to the gas & air which at first I found to be unhelpful as it made me gag but I got used to working the machine and the benefits were instant. I still had to pace the floor though, there was no way I could sit down or remain still.
A few more hours passed and the pain began to intensify and the gas and air became less effective so I was given a pehidine injection. This really helped me cope and I was then able to use a birthing ball which kept me calm. I was beginning to get exhausted from walking around constantly for the previous 7 hours so the ball was a god send!
I was examined again and my cervix had dialated to 7 cm so it had been slow going and it seemed that I was likely to be in for the long haul. My baby was positioned with her back to my side so was in an awkward position.
Several more hours and another pethidine injection passed and my cervix had stopped dialating at 8cm...i was stuck! My waters were broken in the hope that this would get me going again however it was unsuccessful so I was then placed on the hormone drip to induce my labour. From this point on I was no longer free to move around as my baby had to be constantly monitored using a band over my bump.
Eventually, my contractions became more unbearable so I asked for another pethidine...here's the kicker...I wasn't allowed any more as I had already had 2 injections of pethidine and that is all they were allowed to give me! If I had of known there was a restriction on it I would have tried to wait a bit longer before going down that route.
I felt like I was really starting to struggle so asked for an epidural...I felt exhausted, hungry (I was told I couldn't eat enything) and scared and this seemed like the only way I could stand any chance of coping with the remainder of my labour. I was put off and put off, the midwives tried to placate me with finding out if they could get a 3rd dose of pethidine authorised, I was permitted the 3rd dose but as I remained in this stage of labour for such a long time, the dose wore off and I hadn't even reached the pushing phase so the epidural issue came up again.
I was told that I couldn't have an epidural because the person who did them was in surgery so basically it was down to me and some pretty ineffective gas and air...
Eventually I reached 10cm and the pushing began....
I was told I wasn't to scream/make noise as it meant that I was not pushing effectively, I felt angry that I wasn't able to do what I felt necessary to get me through the pain.
I was pushing for about 1 hour and then the consultant was called as progress was not being made very quickly. Apparantly they don't like you to be pushing for too long as it can cause distress to the baby. The consultant agreed to allow me to push for another hour and 30mins as she felt the baby was very close to being born.
This time passed and still no baby so the consultant decided that the baby needed to be delivered imminently and they opted to try a ventouse.
The doctor doing the ventouse had to examine were the baby's head was and where to attach the cap which basically meant that they had to push past the head to feel ears neck, face etc....this REALLY hurt.
Cap attached and I got the urge to push again...FINALLY with a small amount of help from the ventouse, baby Freya was born at 2103hrs some 21 hours after my contractions began.
My placenta was delivered and almost immediately I experienced a heavy blood loss so my baby was taken from me and given to my husband to hold and the doctors set to work, I felt attacked from all sides as I had lines put in both hands with drips set up to try to stem the bleeding and the doctor got to work stiching my tear...there was no time for any pain relieving injections to take effect so I found this whole part excruciating....more than my whole labour and delivery of my baby.
In essence I felt that I had a pretty rough time of it BUT the point of me telling this birth story in all its glory was to reassure women who were scared of labour so let me try to do so....
I went through a 21 hour labour than involved little to no pain relief when it mattered, my baby was lying in an awkward position, I had my waters broken and an effective induction of labour once the progress stalled, I then had a ventouse delivery and a heavy PV bleed afterwards...would I do it again?!...TOMORROW IF I HAD TO! NOTHING could take the shine off knowing that my baby had arrived safely and I would have done it over and over again if I had to to get to see my baby girl. She was worth ANY pain that I could have endured. Bottom line...you can do it!
My labour was long and somewhat complicated/traumatic but wanted to share it as a positive story in spite of the difficulties we were faced with...I know a lot of women are terrified of labour but hope that by reading how I feel about my labour it will help some of those women feel positive about theirs.
So on Sunday morning (07/10/12) I went to the midwife for a sweep as I was overdue (41 weeks). Sweep performed and had a lot of bloody show which surprised me because I thought I had already lost my plug...just shows how much there is!!! Sweep was absolutely fine and not in the least bit uncomfortable which I was relieved about as I had heard some scary tales about the pain etc!
By 2345hrs on Sunday night my contractions started. It wasn't a gradual thing, no 'is it or isn't it?' feelings...they were unmistakeable and almost like someone flicked a switch that started them off! I woke my husband at midnight on Monday and we began timing the contractions. They were very difficult as there wasn't any pattern or regularity to them as such but each contraction was lasting longer than 30 seconds at a time, sometimes they were 7/8 mins abpart sometimes they were only 1 min apart! I had a bath which seemed to help initially but the benefits of the water wore off as the bath cooled and I became tense so out the bath and I just had to pace the floor.
After speaking to the labour ward at the hospital we finally made the journey after labouring at home for a little over 4 hours, we arrived at the hospital at 4am.
I was examined and told that I was 4cm dialiated and very close to 5cm so I wouldn't be sent home due to the distances involved etc. I was there to deliver my baby!
I was taken into my delivery room and hooked up to the gas & air which at first I found to be unhelpful as it made me gag but I got used to working the machine and the benefits were instant. I still had to pace the floor though, there was no way I could sit down or remain still.
A few more hours passed and the pain began to intensify and the gas and air became less effective so I was given a pehidine injection. This really helped me cope and I was then able to use a birthing ball which kept me calm. I was beginning to get exhausted from walking around constantly for the previous 7 hours so the ball was a god send!
I was examined again and my cervix had dialated to 7 cm so it had been slow going and it seemed that I was likely to be in for the long haul. My baby was positioned with her back to my side so was in an awkward position.
Several more hours and another pethidine injection passed and my cervix had stopped dialating at 8cm...i was stuck! My waters were broken in the hope that this would get me going again however it was unsuccessful so I was then placed on the hormone drip to induce my labour. From this point on I was no longer free to move around as my baby had to be constantly monitored using a band over my bump.
Eventually, my contractions became more unbearable so I asked for another pethidine...here's the kicker...I wasn't allowed any more as I had already had 2 injections of pethidine and that is all they were allowed to give me! If I had of known there was a restriction on it I would have tried to wait a bit longer before going down that route.
I felt like I was really starting to struggle so asked for an epidural...I felt exhausted, hungry (I was told I couldn't eat enything) and scared and this seemed like the only way I could stand any chance of coping with the remainder of my labour. I was put off and put off, the midwives tried to placate me with finding out if they could get a 3rd dose of pethidine authorised, I was permitted the 3rd dose but as I remained in this stage of labour for such a long time, the dose wore off and I hadn't even reached the pushing phase so the epidural issue came up again.
I was told that I couldn't have an epidural because the person who did them was in surgery so basically it was down to me and some pretty ineffective gas and air...
Eventually I reached 10cm and the pushing began....
I was told I wasn't to scream/make noise as it meant that I was not pushing effectively, I felt angry that I wasn't able to do what I felt necessary to get me through the pain.
I was pushing for about 1 hour and then the consultant was called as progress was not being made very quickly. Apparantly they don't like you to be pushing for too long as it can cause distress to the baby. The consultant agreed to allow me to push for another hour and 30mins as she felt the baby was very close to being born.
This time passed and still no baby so the consultant decided that the baby needed to be delivered imminently and they opted to try a ventouse.
The doctor doing the ventouse had to examine were the baby's head was and where to attach the cap which basically meant that they had to push past the head to feel ears neck, face etc....this REALLY hurt.
Cap attached and I got the urge to push again...FINALLY with a small amount of help from the ventouse, baby Freya was born at 2103hrs some 21 hours after my contractions began.
My placenta was delivered and almost immediately I experienced a heavy blood loss so my baby was taken from me and given to my husband to hold and the doctors set to work, I felt attacked from all sides as I had lines put in both hands with drips set up to try to stem the bleeding and the doctor got to work stiching my tear...there was no time for any pain relieving injections to take effect so I found this whole part excruciating....more than my whole labour and delivery of my baby.
In essence I felt that I had a pretty rough time of it BUT the point of me telling this birth story in all its glory was to reassure women who were scared of labour so let me try to do so....
I went through a 21 hour labour than involved little to no pain relief when it mattered, my baby was lying in an awkward position, I had my waters broken and an effective induction of labour once the progress stalled, I then had a ventouse delivery and a heavy PV bleed afterwards...would I do it again?!...TOMORROW IF I HAD TO! NOTHING could take the shine off knowing that my baby had arrived safely and I would have done it over and over again if I had to to get to see my baby girl. She was worth ANY pain that I could have endured. Bottom line...you can do it!
