My second son was born a week ago. The delivery was ok - forceps, which was annoying but not the end of the world, but then afterwards had a huge post-partum haemorrhage, (not related to forceps) nearly died and lost more than 3 litres of blood and had to have several transfusions.
The next day, waking up in intensive care, feeling very battered and bruised but still delighted with our new little boy, he became groggy and unresponsive and started throwing up green bile. He was admitted to intensive care for 4 days with sepsis.
The final part of the story is that whilst the docs were kindly saving my life, something got knocked with the catheter which was in because of the epidural I needed for the forceps. This was discovered about 36 hours later by which time my bladder was overfilled with 1.5 litres of urine. I have been sent home with a catheter for 2 weeks to rest my bladder, after which we will 'test' what happens when I take it out. I gather permanent damage may have been done, and don't really understand the long term prognosis.
Good news is we are all home now, my son is absolutely fine. I am less so.
So - all this has a purpose other than a massive over share. I haven't been a member of mumsnet before, but feel I need to reach out wider than my current network of mum mates to get some insights. I was wondering;
- Has anyone got any experience of major blood loss? I lost 1.5 litres with first son and can say the way I feel now is completely different - several times a day I feel like I am dying, my chest hurts, I can't stand up. I am on iron and things but any ideas how long I will take to feel better? Is it normal that you feel better some days than others In a pretty random pattern?
- Breastfeeding after something like this. I have been breastfeeding my son since he came out of intensive care, milk is fine, he is a hungry boy and loving feeding. But I don't know if this is going to hamper my recovery given the pressure breastfeeding puts on the body. I need to think also of my older son who also needs his mum - if breastfeeding is going to slow my recovery, maybe I need to rethink.
- the catheter situation. Has anyone out there experienced s similar bladder injury during childbirth? What were your experiences? Has anyone experienced a quick recovery as I can only seem to find horror stories online and am not sure if the docs are being honest. Horror stories are ok too.
Thanks so much in advance for any insights xxx