The day of April 5th, 2004 had arrived. I was to be induced at 3.30pm that afternoon. Andrew and I dropped Kameron off at his parents place and then we made our way to the hospital to birth Lachlan. We arrived at the hospital early so we sat outside for a little while and about 3pm headed into the Birthing and Assessment Centre. I buzzed to be let in and when the door was opened I was greeted by a, “You’re a bit early aren’t you?”. We were shown to our labour room and as the doctor left I said to Andrew, “Well we are off to nice start aren’t we! I hope we don’t get her”.
Entering the delivery room to birth Lachlan
Around 3.25pm Terri who was to be our midwife for the night arrived. She seemed nice enough a bit strange and I found her to be a bit forgetful. She gave the impression like she was lost and didn’t know what she was doing. Anyway I put it to the back of my mind when she told me to get up on the bed so she could the fetal heart monitor going before getting the gels to be induced underway. Terri said she’d be back in 20mins and 35mins later she appeared. The monitoring looked excellent and she proceeded to induce me. After the gels were inserted I had to lay there for 45mins – 1hr, so Terri said at 5.15pm I could get up and go for a walk or whatever.
Laying on the bed I started to get period like cramps and Andrew asked how I was doing, so I explained that I felt how I felt like moments before I was induced for the 2nd time with Kameron. We both agreed then that it was doubtful I would need to be induced twice this time around. When 5.15pm hit I got dressed and we headed out to the car park to get the rest of my bags, send a few text messages etc.
About 5.45pm we came back in and I was starting to rock through contractions. My tea was waiting for me as we came back into the room. I was starving so I took the lid off to discover with horror that it was macaroni cheese. I am not a fan of pasta. I ate all my veggies and because I was so hungry managed to get down half the pasta. Andrew polished off the rest of it (which wasn’t a lot) and was still hungry as well. I asked him if he wanted me to ring mum who I knew was coming in at 7pm to bring some sandwiches for him. At 6.15pm I placed that call. Mum asked if she had to bring her labour bag and I told her nah probably not yet, but was having really strong Braxton Hicks contractions. Terri informed me that it was only Braxton Hicks.
After speaking to mum I went and laid back on the lounge in the labour room, as that is where I felt most comfortable. Terri came in and needed to do another fetal check and take my OBs so I had to get back up on the bed. Contractions were getting intense and just before 7pm, Andrew left to go and meet Mum and Colin, they were all in the ward about 5min later. Mum looked at me and she said, “I knew, see I brought my bag.” I told her the midwife said I wasn’t in labour and Mum gave me the, ‘yeah right,’ look.
I was breathing through contractions and they were about every 2-3 minutes apart lasting for around 40 seconds. At 7.30pm I buzzed for Terri and asked for pethidine cause she kept telling me I wasn’t in labour and I knew with Kameron that I never had an epidural until after my waters were broken.
Terri asked if I wanted to try the bath, so I agreed cause I had heard how it had helped a lot of girls in labour before. I went into the bath at 7.45pm and got out 15mins later after about 4 contractions and not being able to get comfortable. As I was getting out Terri came in and I told her I wanted that pethidine. She came what felt like an eternity later (probably only 5 – 10mins) and put it in. It was now 8pm and Terri felt my stomach through a contraction and once again said they were just bad tightening and I probably wasn’t in labour. The pethidine really didn’t too much apart from make me sleepy I still had to breathe through the really bad contractions and there were only about 2 contractions where I just let them pass without the need to breathe them out.
From about this point on I didn’t really note the times as I had my eyes shut most of the time. I know Terri wanted me to get up and walk around not long after I had the pethidine and she said, “If you want things to get going it is best to get up.” I never did make it out of that bed.
She had me rolled over on the side at one stage cause they kept loosing the baby’s heart beat when she put the fetal monitoring on me and while on my side I was actually crying out during contractions. I could hear Terri keep saying to me, “deep breaths, good girl,” and she said when I felt the peak of the contraction to relax and not keep tense as It would give me a longer break between them. I did as she said on the next contraction and she said, “that’s the way”.
I asked for an epidural and she did an internal to discover I was 7cm dilated. She needed me to roll me back onto my back cause she said she was going to break my waters. I asked again for an epidural and heard her say it was too late. In the back of my mind I was thinking but I had epidural after my waters were broken with Kameron. Why is it too late?? I put it down to being 7cm dilated already.
My waters were broken and I had to push. I said, “I need to push,” but nobody was at the bed at the time except for Mum and Andrew. I heard Terri say if you have to push then push. I had a Chinese girl next to me trying to do put a gelco in my hand for a drip and I heard Terri say, “No, it’s too late for that.”
I managed to open my eyes to see about 3 extra people in the room. On the next contraction I pushed, and I knew within myself I didn’t really have the energy. I screamed cause it did bloody hurt, I was told to keep pushing but I needed to breathe and my throat was extremely dry. Terri told me she had to cut to help the head, on my next push and scream the head was born. Terri told the other doctor that the cord was around his neck and she was trying to loosen it. I heard the doctor say on the next push he HAD to be born, otherwise I would need an emergency c-section because the heart rate was dropping dangerously low. With everything I had I gave birth on the very next push and Lachlan James was born at 10.18pm.
I still had to deliver the placenta but I was exhausted so that took a little while to come out. It finally did though and Terri commented on how small it was. Lachlan’s obs were taken and we were all surprised that he weighed more than what Kameron did. Lachlan was 48cm long, with a head circumference of 33cm and weighing in at 6lb 5oz or 2.860kg.
I was relived it was all over and kept bitching about how the midwife didn’t think I was in labour. I saw she had written in Lachlan’s blue book that my labour went for 4hrs and 6mins. So if Lachlan was born at 10.18pm, I was in labour from 6.12pm just minutes before I made that call to Mum asking for sandwiches for Andrew. I kept wondering and still do wonder why in the heck she kept saying I wasn’t because right up till 8pm she said I probably wasn’t.
I needed stitches because of my cut and it took forever – I had a student doing it she was bloody hopeless. It took so long that the very last stitch I began to feel. She was the same Chinese girl that was trying to put a gelco in my hand for a drip right as I needed to start pushing and I have since found out from mum after coming home was the reason I never got an epidural was cause that Chinese girl was meant to have done it and they had everything there to do it but she went off somewhere and never returned till it was too late.
I have also found out since coming home that Lachlan was blue and had to go onto oxygen and if I had needed that emergency c-section it was going to be done right then and there because there would have been no time to get us up into theatre as I was getting close to loosing Lachlan. Apparently they had people on standby to put local anaesthetics into my stomach.
This labour was very tough going and it has definitely put me off ever having any more children. I am glad that I didn’t have this type of labour the first time around with Kameron because if I had I doubt Lachlan would have ever been conceived. I can’t help but not think about what I was just minutes away from. It didn’t bother me at the time cause I just assumed I would go to theatre and not actually be cut open then and there, but I am trying not to dwell on it cause it didn’t happen. I managed to scream through that pain and push him out myself, and now we are both home and both doing really well.
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A recent study shows that ‘Pethidine significantly reduces active phase of labor duration’.
