I finally have a minute to sit down and write my story. Some of you know how stressful the end of my pregnancy was so I am hoping that writing this down will help me move past the trauma. My pregnancy until 32 weeks was going along really well, apart from the usual anemia and muscle aches & pains. At my 29 weeks appointment my fundal height was 32cms. At 32 weeks my fundal height was 32cms so my doctor ordered an ultrasound to see what was happening. It was discovered that my baby was in the frank breech position so the doctors assumed the unchanged fundal height was because they were now only measuring the baby from bum to the top of his head and not his feet. I was no worried at this point but at my 34 weeks appointment my baby was still frank breech so the ‘turn that baby’ operation began. I booked in for weekly acupuncture and moxibustion and twice weekly appointments with a chiropractor trained in the Webster technique. I also began searching the turning babies website and began laying upside down on my ironing board! At 36 weeks the baby was still frank breech and I was starting to worry about the possibility of a Cesar and the reason behind my baby still being breech. I continued with all of my turning babies techniques and went along to an ultrasound at 38 weeks where my baby was still breech. I had an appointment with my obstetrician 2 days later but received a phone call from her the following day. She had organized for me to have a blood test to check the baby’s placenta and to have another scan to check his growth that afternoon as it was discovered my baby had barely grown since 32 weeks. She also sent me up to the hospital for some monitoring. I was put on the monitors straight away and his heart rate was steady at 110... And baby was head down but still very high!! I was admitted to hospital, as they were worried about his growth and the lack of movements from my baby. I was told the doctors would work out a plan for me the following morning. I was upset that my partner and mum had to leave and was worried sick so I didn’t get much sleep.
The following morning the doctors came around to see me. They did an internal and my cervix was still fully closed so they decided the best course of action was to insert some gel but they were too busy on the ward to do that yet. They decided to insert the gel at 4pm that day. They put me on the monitors for an hour that morning and bubs was doing ok. At 3pm they monitored my again for another hour before inserting the gel. Once it was inserted we decided to go for a walk and see if we could start anything ourselves. We walked up and down stairs and around the hospital for a few hours. At about 7pm I felt my first little contraction. The contractions starting coming semi regularly at about 3-4mins apart but were only lasting about 20-30 seconds and were easily managed by me concentrating and breathing through them. The doctors came in and put me on the monitors at about 7pm and offered me panadine forte, which I declined. The contractions continued in this matter till around 11pm when they decided not to give me another lot of gel and gave me a sleeping tablet and some panadine forte. They sent my partner & mum home but told them to stay by the phones and be back by 8am. The following morning the nurse told me that the ward was really busy again overnight and it wasn’t looking good for me to be induced that day. I was still contracting and had hardly any sleep and was absolutely devastated. Then all of a sudden my favourite midwife came in and told me to pack my stuff – they were inducing me in half an hour around in the labour ward!
Around at the labour ward I was given an internal and I was 2cms dilated. I was having 3 contractions in every 10 minutes but they were only lasting 40 seconds each. The doctor broke my water and there was only a small gush. I was then hooked up to a saline drip and the Pitocin drip was started off on the lowest dose at 10:30am. I looked at my midwife and told her that no matter what I said during labour, I did not want an epidural. I had birthed a posterior baby with an 18-hour labour previously and I was not having drugs with this labour either! I knew I could do it! The contractions gradually got stronger and I managed by leaning over the bed and rocking my hips. I felt the very familiar feeling of a posterior by about 11am and needed my lower back massaged during each contraction. I began having 4 contractions every ten minutes and official labour started at exactly 12pm! By this stage I was sitting on the ball with my mum on one side, my partner on the other who was trying to keep me upright and give me his fingers to squeeze at the same time and my midwife digging her knuckles into my back every contraction! Every few contractions I would have a huge gush of fluid that would end up in a puddle on the floor. I began crying and shaking through contractions but when I felt like I was loosing control I could close my eyes and calm myself back down. I was constantly squeezing either my mums or my partners fingers and kept getting angry at my partner because he kept trying to give me his whole hand when all I wanted was his fingers! I told my midwife that I could handle all of the pain in my front but the pain in my back was now shooting down my legs and was becoming unbearable. She went to see if she could give me some sterile water injections but unfortunately the hospital wouldn’t allow her to as it wasn’t policy! The contractions were now not bottoming out before the next one would start and I felt like I was loosing control. As I was connected the monitors the entire time I could hear his heart beat starting to drop with every contraction and it was making it so hard to concentrate on getting through the contractions as I was worrying about my baby. I needed to zone out and get into my own world but the constant monitoring was making this impossible. His heartbeat dropped during a contraction and my midwife asked me to get on the bed and get on my side. As I was in the middle of a contraction and my back felt like it was going to break, this was almost impossible. I finally got on my side and his heart rate was still low so she made me roll over. It gradually picked back up but she wanted me to stay on my side for a few contractions while she went and got the head midwife. The head midwife looked at the trace and said that since it was recovering after the contractions he was ok in there. I asked her to be examined as I was thinking about having some gas but wanted to see how close I was. She examined me and I was 7cms but very stretchy. Then his heart rate dropped again to around 80. I was told to get back on my side and my midwife went to get the head midwife again to look at the trace. I told my mum that I was starting to loose control and wanted an epidural. As I had asked for one constantly during my last labour but was only really asking for something else to concentrate on rather than the pain she didn’t know if I was serious. The head midwife came back in and said the same as before. I was still starting to loose it and was still saying I wanted the epidural. The head midwife told me I would get to 10cms very quickly as it was my third birth and to hold out on the pain relief and left. My midwife wasn’t happy with this and went and got a doctor to look at the trace. The doctor did an internal to attach a scalp clip to the baby as she thought the 80 heart rate might have been mine. When I heard her tell my midwife I was 7cms I broke down. I was expecting to be around 9 or 10 and starting screaming and crying. All of a sudden I heard his heart rate was so low and the doctor, who was still in the room, hit the buzzer. Nurses and doctors came running in and I looked up and saw more than 10 people. My midwife was trying her hardest to calm me down and kept asking me if I was pushing. All of a sudden I was lifting my back and bum off the bed and pushing with everything I had. The doctor said I was 9cms with a lip. I was screaming at them to get his out and I heard the doctor say “where are the forceps’ and when she was told they weren’t there yet I watched her go inside of me with both hands. She looked over to a nurse and told her to get a pediatrician. I was still screaming at them to get him out when there was no longer any noise. He had no heart beat. She pulled her hands out and performed an episiotomy. She went back in with her hands and pulled him down, tearing my cervix as she did it. She then attached the vacuum and out he came, straight onto my chest. They gave him a rub and he started to cry – the best noise I have ever heard. I was completely exhausted by this stage and couldn’t even lift my hands to cuddle him. They asked my partner to cut the cord and I look up at the man I love, with tears in his eyes and his hands shaking and watched him cut the cord. I looked down at my beautiful baby and fell instantly in love.
The doctors were pushing down on my belly and told me they had to get the placenta out straight away. They delivered the injection and were pushing on my belly while pulling on the cord. It was incredibly painful and it took them 8 minutes to get it out. Finally it was all over – or so I thought. Then the stitching began, both internal and external. It took them about 20 minutes to stitch me up. When they were finished I was still gushing blood and they realized I had clumps inside me. The doctor went back in with her hands and pulled out the clumps and they hung a drip to get my uterus to clamp down. I lost about 450ml of blood and felt very dizzy. I finally got to give my baby his first feed and he fed for over an hour. Once he was finished I wanted to have a shower. I was light headed and vomited while in the shower but was beginning to feel better. I was home later that night, as I wanted to see my other children who had been with their Grumpa for the last few days. By the time I got home they were both asleep so my partner, my new baby and I all went to bed together and sleep together for our first night at home. I felt pure joy seeing the older kids meet the new baby and the love my partner had for his baby (it was our first child together, my partners first child).
That sounds terrifying. Keep cuddling that beautiful new baby of yours and I hope your healing process doesn't take too long. And congratulations on bringing him safely into the world.
Thank you for writing this great birth story. Sounds like you had a really scary time of it. So glad to hear everything got resolved quite easily in the end and you were both ok!
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Smith Alexander - A traumatic labour!
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