my VBAC induction saga :) very long!
we found out we were pregnant with a little surprise back in february which was a shock as it took a fertility specialist and 2 years of trying and 2 losses to get my 1st son. As like last time I was so sick and vomited all the way through. I was determined to have a natural birth this time as my 1st c section COULD have been avoided. So I did a lot of research and stood my ground, luckily all the doctors and midwives never once questioned my choice and I had a lot of support.
at 8 days overdue and no cervical changes I was getting stressed and my Ob suggested I try a foley catheter in the cervix to try and open it up and I agreed as long as I could go home and wait it out a few more days if it didn't work. He said it was fine as long as my membranes hadn't ruptured. so off we went to the hospital at 3pm and It was inserted by 7pm, I had to have the gas as my cervix was still so high and closed and it took him a good half an hour to get it done, before you judge the fact I already had the gas before active labour, there is a balloon with 80mls of water inside the cervix and another one with 80 mls of water pressing on the outside sitting in the vagina and they are supposed to press against each other to thin out the cervix and then when it falls out you should be 3-4cm dilated. WELL! I was contracting ALL night with 3 other women in the same room having inductions so it was a party of moaning and groaning and breathing through pain all night, both other ladies went off to birth suite and I was alone thinking it was going to be a repeat of last time. it was so painful I had endone and sat in the shower and walked around wishing my DF was here finally it was 5am and I couldn't take it anymore so I texted him to come up as I was a wreck, he snuck into the ward and sat with me, luckily my nurse was so lovely and didn't mind, she had been heating up hot packs for me all night and hadn't had a break the poor thing. about an hour later both ladies had come back to the ward already, one next to me had an emergency c section has her bubs heart rate had dropped and the other lady had a normal quick delivery and there I still was! the doctor finally came in about 1pm and took the awful thing out finally! and he said I was 2cm and he could break my waters, I refused and said I wanted to go home for the weekend and will come back at 42 weeks if nothing had happened. So we went home!
all weekend I had contractions at 5 mins apart, not terribly painful but enough to stop me in my tracks, woke up sunday morning with them 5 mins apart for 6 hours and a small gush of fluid so we sent my son of to his nans and by the time my DF got home they had stopped again and were about half an hour apart :( so another night of waiting and monday morning we went in at 7am as planned for AROM.
Got to birth suite and the strangest thing, the same 2 obs that had delivered my first son at a hospital 2 hours away were on! couldn't believe it, they had both transferred hospitals! I was so happy they were wonderful. so no change in cervix, still at 2cm! couldn't believe all that pain was for nothing! anyway, waters were broken, not much fluid he said so will prob leak out ewwww. He put a scalp clip on bub for monitoring as the CTG thingy wasn't staying put. over the next 2 hours contractions weren't getting worse but then I REALLY broke my waters and there was meconium in it :( I felt like everything was going against me and I was truly going to give up but midwife assured me it was ok, it just meant bub would need a baby dr in the room when he/she was born just incase. They then put up the syntocin which started the contractions off and they slowly increased it to the point where the pain was unbearable! I wasn't given the opportunity to walk around as I had drips and monitors stuck all over me, was horrible :( I tried the gas which helped for a while until they turned the syntocin up more! so I ended up with an epidural as I didn't care what I needed to get my vaginal delivery, so glad I did get it as it turns out it took 24 hours of syntocin to get my little one! I am sure I could have handled a natural labour, If I was able to move around and hop in the birth pool it may have helped but it was impossible with so many tubes and wires, so then I had also an epidural and a catheter to add to the scalp clip and the CTG and the IV cannulas! after 4 hours they checked me again and I was 4cm and 75% effaced. then the next 4 hours later I was 6cm and fully effaced! I was so happy! my poor DF was trying to get some sleep, I couldn't as bubs heartbeat was driving me insane, I wish I could have found the volume button! bub as having some decelerations at times but not enough to warrant a c section thankgod! it was still scary though. then at 4 am they checked me again and I was fully dilated! I started to cry as I never thought I would hear those words! the midwives did some cares on me and changed my sheets and get me off my bum for a bit! and then after that I started to feel awful back pain again, the epidural had dislodged during transition and I could feel every bit of it! WOW soooo THIS is what it feels like! then the pressure so back on the gas I went while they called the anaesthetist, I could feel my little one coming down but I never got the urge to push, either that or I don't remember as the gas really screwed with my head! lovely dr came in and said he can't fix the epidural as I was dilated but he could give me a fentanyl pump which I agreed to, but it was too late! coz then I started pushing, I couldn't tell when to push or how but somehow after 48mins I had given birth to a little (big) boy and he was put on my stomach and I saw a big head of hair, daddy cut the cord and the baby dr had to do a little resus on him as he had meconium aspiration. I couldn't believe I had just pushed him out! it seemed like 5 mins ago he was in there! that gas does crazy stuff! I had placenta delivered quickly as I had a big bleed and midwives pushing on my belly and they said I had to push out a clot! apparently they could feel it in there, it came out eventually and the bleeding started to stop. Tried to give a little breastfeed but it wasn't working out as I was so faint and just wanted a shower! only had one small tear with no stitches was so pleased! I gave birth lying on my side with one leg up in stirrups and midwife said its good coz it opens up the pelvis, must have worked! I must say I didn't get that big rush of relief and endorphins when he was born, dunno if it was coz of the drugs or exhaustion but I was still in a lot of pain for some reason and was so hot and sweaty! I had a little cry when he was born, I just can't really remember much which is my big regret. But I am so happy I didn't have a c section. I feel like I belong to a special group now and I can walk around and think to myself "hey I have given birth" Medicated or not I did what I had to to get my son here and I couldn't be more proud. Yes I would have loved a natural labour and non medicated birth but I would have never forgiven myself if my son had been stillborn due to being post term. Oh and we didn't know what we were having was such a surprise I thought I would have a little girl. He as 4.4kg and 53cm long! then we went to maternity ward, I had to have another bag of that bloody syntocin as I was still bleeding a lot and they wanted my uterus to start contracting quicker to stop the bleeding. I also found out I had pushed so hard that my catheter, balloon and all, was pushed out! no wonder I was so sore down there! we all went home the next day after lunch :) I think no birth is perfect and we just have to focus on all the positive points. There is always next time to go into labour on my own!
thankyou for reading!
