I had 30-40 sec contractions every 4-5 minutes for roughly 12 hours, but didn't dilate at all, not even to 3cms (apparently, I wasn't checking for myself ) . When they broke my waters there was meconium, so the decision was made to insert a drip to induce, but that included an epidural first. When they put the epi in, DS went into foetal distress, his heartrate just dropped with each contraction. They waited through about 4 contractions to see if his heartrate would stabilise, but it didn't, which worst 15 minutes of the whole experience cos it was so awful hearing the heartrate drop on the machine. So I was whisked in for an e- c/s.

I haven't any scientific knowledge to base this next bit on, but I blame my "failure" to dilate on the fact that they gave me pethidine to help me sleep, because it meant that for a few hours I gave up on the whole active birth concept (too spaced out on drugs, just wanted to sleep), and then I blame the epidural for his foetal distress. This could be completely wrong, it's just how I've rationalised it for myself to make me feel a bit better about it all.

In retrospect though, I wish I'd known a bit more about the whole c/s thing, I was so convinced that I'd manage a natural birth that I glossed over anything that mentioned c/s, so I was a little unprepared for some parts. So I think it's a wise idea to at least consider the possibility.

Having said all of that, I've tried not to dwell on it too much, because at the end of the day I got a healthy baby & a healthy me, which I was grateful for, as was my DF. And for me, the C/S wasn't a difficult thing to recover from, and it got me out of quite a lot of housework for a good 6 weeks