Scared about no pain relief

[Ozziehoffy]

I asked a lot of questions about the constant monitoring. Whilst it is normal protocol in most hospitals to do constant monitoring in a VBAC...you are allowed to discuss this with them. When I first arrived at the birth suite I was only about 1 min apart in contractions and they just wanted to check bubs HB but I wasn't going to have to leave it on if I didn't want to if it showed all was good...I must say that I am SO SO GLAD that I had that initial monitoring because it showed he was in fetal distress...due to my waters not breaking, they were bulging in front of him and he couldn't move and there was a lot of pressure which resulted in them breaking my waters which showed meconium. Apparently the reason they do like to monitor a VBAC is that the first sign of problems will come from your baby and because I didn't want internals and intervention they possibly would not have come across his distress early enough to have got him out safely if I'd refused the monitoring. If all had been ok, then I wouldn't have been stuck to the bed either, they were happy for me to move around. Up until that point for me standing up and leaning forward over something or with my hands on my knees was the most comfortable through each contraction.

I stayed at home for as long as possible (and this was a first time labour), but I actually progressed so fast that my labour was only 3 1/2 hours and I was at the hospital only just over approx. 40 mins before he was born. I felt like pushing before we even left home which I told them cos I think they could tell anyway that I felt like that, so I think that started to raise some concern for them with the added distress his HB was showing. I think I'm starting to ramble, but I guess bottom line of what I'm trying to say is it's important to be flexible to the idea of maybe having to change the direction in which you have to go with your birthing