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Childbirth

My "Awful" Birth Story

48 replies

SpringChicken · 12/08/2004 15:35

Hi All, Mears suggested writing everything down about my birth experience so thought i would take her advice and bore you all to tears with it.... here goes.

Water broke 4am Thursday 15th July - rang delivery suite at hospital who said i had to go in so they could confirm waters definitely had broken. Arrived at hopital at 4.30 after DH doing his hair, me ironing his clothes and stopping off at the petrol station for a snack on the way )
Midwife checked me over and confirmed waters had gone but as i wasn't having any contractions could go home.

By 6am contractions were coming every 15 mins or so but only lasting about 20 seconds - stayed at home throughout the morning being entertained by DP, BIL, SIL and MIL - contractions started coming every 4-5 mins lasting 1 min so decided to get off to hospital as advised by midwife.

Arrived at hospital to find i was only 1 cm dialted so they sent me home again - by the time i got to the front door of the hospital was in complete agony and they were comign every 2-3 mins. Got home and put tens machine on but contractions were coming thick and fast - every 2 mins lasting 1 min - so back off to the hospital we went (after about 45 of trying to cope).

Arrived back at the hospital again at about 4.30 ish to looks of "oh no, not you again" from the midwives!
Midwife wouldn't examine me again as it was too soon since last examination so instead she thrust the gas and air at me and told me to use that.
Was making me feel sick and dizzy so gave up on that after about half hour - got to 8pm and contractions were still every 2 mins lasting 1 min so midwife finally examined me - was only 2 cm dialted so was told i must be over exaggerating and things would get much much worse - T'riffic!
By 10p.m couldn't take much more so asked for pethedine (which i had sworn i didn't want)- helped me cope with the contractions better by making me sleep in between.
By 12 midnight was examined again and was 4 cm so begged for an epidural which was all done by 1am - then had 5 hours of bliss - by 6am was fully dilated but not ready to push as Evies head wasn't down enough - decided to start pushing at 7am then midwives swapped shifts at 7.15 and i was given the biggest bitch on 2 legs
She completely ignored me, whilst i was pushing she was chatting away to her student about someone she knew that had chicken pox and left DP to help me all by himself. When she did actually speak to me all she said was "Labour is meant to be hard work you know, that's why it's called labour"................I then proceeded to tell DP (Very loudly) that if he didn't get her out of the room i was likely to swing for her.

After 2 hours of pushing i eventually got the midwife to get the obsteotrician (i think) to come and talk to me - they decided they would do a ventouse delivery. 55 mins later DD was born and delivered on to me then rushed away becuase she was wasn't breathing.

I was screaming at someone to tell me if she was OK because she wasn't breathing or crying but everyone completely ignored me - eventually she started breathing - scored very low on her agpar test.
She was born at 9.55am Friday 16th July and we were left in the room without anyone coming in to check on us until 1pm. I evenutally went to find a midwife to ask them to take my epidural and my drip out so i could have a shower then got taken up to the ward at 2.45.

Had to stay in over night so they could monitor Evie as they thought she may have an ear infection - we were discharged Saturday evening.

By Monday lunch time we were back in the hospital as she had jaundice and had to go under a UV Lamp. Was told they would do a blood test at 7p.m to see if it had improved but it hadn't so she had to go under again and they done another blood test at 3.00 and she finally allowed to come out.
They repeated the blood test again at 3.pm the next day (my birthday) and then finally lt us home.
I'm not even going to go into the abysmal care we received when we got back into the hospital as this post is way too long already but all in all we had an awful experience and i don't doubt for one second that most people receive the same level of care............or was it just because of my age (maybe i am an easy target)!
I have written a letter of complaint, just deciding who is the best person to send it to.

Anyway, thanks for reading (if you got this far) - Mears was right, it feels much better getting that off my chest

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Beetroot · 12/08/2004 15:38

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clairabelle · 12/08/2004 15:41

Really feel for you SC, so sorry to hear you had a bad time. Send your letter to the complaints manager with cc to head of midwifery services and chief executive of the hospital. Not acceotable attitudes to my mind. If it's any consolation I had a similar experience with dd ( and I worked there!) but ds' s birth 9 months ago was fantastic as I told my midwife all about it from the offset and she was excellent all the way through. Keep talking about it though and get it off your chest.