Survey about how you feel about your birth + if you used drugs- please help!!

[sarah85]

Hey girls.

So from you I need:
Did you use any drugs in your birth?
Did you have complications during your birth?
Did you experience any feelings of dissapointment, disempowerment and traumatisation?

Thanks so much for all your help in advance!!

Hi Ella,
I ended up being induced at 40+5 (there were a few reasons, some of which I look back now and think they were irrelevant...i.e. my Ob wasn't going to be on-call the weeknd we were going in to - if I had my time over I'd say "so what?", also, my bub had quite a large head - ended up being 39.5cm )

Short story:
Drugs - gel on cervix, syntocin (sp?) drip, gas and epidural.
Complications - 3rd degree tear (bub was 8lb 15oz), approx 1L PPH
Feelings - While I was so excited about my baby, I was also so fatigued from the PPH that I struggled to cope. I had feelings of resentment to the other mothers on the ward who had "easy" labours, and as I had been too "out of it" to care for my daughter for the first few days I began to feel incompetent (like I'd never be able to bath her, change her nappy etc). Took a LONG time for me to feel better, stronger etc, even with a double dose iron supplement, and then I developed PND, which may or may not have happened anyway.

If you need more info or clarification let me know.

[jackrose]

Birth 1: Hospital, Midwives, long labour, c-sect delivery d/t maternal exhaustion
Did you use any drugs in your birth? yes, gas, sleeping tablet, epidural, syntocin
Did you have complications during your birth? baby hr dropping when syntocin used.
Did you experience any feelings of dissapointment, disempowerment and traumatisation? Not so much, I actually felt empowered during the labour, but maybe a bit disengaged during the 'birth'. I was pretty resigned to the outcome of csect as I felt it was a decision I made in the end and I could see the labour was going no where as it was. I was very disappointed in the repercussions of the csect - challenges breast feeding, problems with scar healing, problems bonding etc. That took me a long time to work through

Birth 2: Home, independant midwives, short labour, natural birth (VBAC)
Did you use any drugs in your birth? None
Did you have complications during your birth? None
Did you experience any feelings of dissapointment, disempowerment and traumatisation? Hell No! Joyous, empowering, positive. It certainly helped being away from the medical model in my opinion!

[KimmyF]

Baby Number 1
Went in to labour at home the night I was due, laboured at home and was quite comfortable
Did you use any drugs in your birth? Yes Gas only for a short time in first stage, nothing during second stage
Did you have complications during your birth? Yes, DS was semi posterior and had his hand and arm above his head so head arm and shoulder were coming all at once, I had an episiotomy and ventouse delivery, then had to secondary PPH and a haemotoma (sp) and needed to be rushed to theatre and afterwards i had 2 blood transfusions.
Did you experience any feelings of dissapointment, disempowerment and traumatisation? yes I thought all the complications were my fault as towards the end before all the interventions I told the doctor that something wasn't right and they wouldn't listen to me and I got quite upset and then coudn't relax and I felt because I couldn't relax thats why the other complications occured. Once the doctor agreed something wasn't right I felt things were out of my control and things were being done to me rather than for me, but perhaps it was just that particular doctor. I could go on and on about how traumatic DS birth was but you get the general idea

Baby number 2
Went in to labour 6 days past due date I had had 2 sessions of acupuncture and had been attending a Hypno birthing course to prepare for labour by the time I got to hospital I was already 8cm dialated
Did you use any drugs in your birth? None
Did you have complications during your birth? Actual birth was fine, my thrid stage was heavily managed due to my past history of PPH I ended up having a primary PPH but didn't need to go to theatre or be transfused and I had a seconde degree tear which needed stitches
Did you experience any feelings of dissapointment, disempowerment and traumatisation? This was the birth experience I really wanted, I was a little disappointed that I had another PPH but it was no where near as bad as my previous birth. i felt totally in control and empowered the whole way through I only had midwives present and even then they were really only observing and checking on me until DD was ready to arrive



Hope this helps

[berrme]

DS1: I had PE and and was induced at 38 weeks. BP jest kept going up so despite my body labouring well I had to have an emercency c/s.
Drugs: gel on cervix. Lots of bp meds. Pethadine. Spinal when taken to theatre. Magnesium sulphate and morphine after c/s.
Complications: PE
Feelings: yes I was disappointed because I hadn't wanted it to go the way it did, but I was OK with the drugs and interventions as I was kept in the picture and felt that it was justified in the best interests of both me and bub. I recovered fine, bonded well with bub and was able to bf... so besides a scar I was OK. Knew that I wanted it to be different next time though.

DS2: VBAC. No PE until post birth. AROM at 8cm.
Drugs: Gas. Local while tear being repaired.
Complications: None besides a 2nd degree tear.
Feelings: Over the moon. I got my vaginal delivery. I knew I didn't want an epidural but my goal was never to be drug free as such.