Nightmare First Birth

[HuskyGirl]

Basically I got pre-eclampsia in week 39 so they had to induce me. Blood pressure high and 4+ protein on urine. I'd had a scan in the morning of the induction and they said she was 6 and a half pound but I had hardly any waters left. So they induced me. The first tablet didn't work so I had a second one inserted (ouch!!) At 11:53pm i got my first contraction, it hurt like hell, then 2 minutes later I got my next one, then the next one was 1 minute apart! No slow build up for me! I told the midwife and I got taken straight to the delivery room. They tried to break my waters but I didn't have any. I was told that the contractions were so painful because of the lack of waters. Then the fun started!

I started feeling that i needed to push and i couldn't stop it, after only 3 hours in labour. I was hooked up to a ECG and they said they were concerned because baby's heartrate was dropping very low everytime I had a contraction. They examined me and said that her head was coming out twisted and she was coming out too fast because of the angle. They kept telling me not to push but i couldn't stop it, so they put an epidural in thinking it would block the feelings of pushing but it didnt even kick in until half hour after she was born. They had to put a fetal heart clip onto her head and take a blood sample from the top of her head as they thought the cord was round her neck because her oxygen was low. Anyway there were about 5 doctors in there by now and people rushing around not telling me anything then one of the doctors ripped off her heart trace printout and told people to scrub up for an emergency section . While they did that he got out the ventous suction thing and was going to try and get her out fast. He needed to do an episiotomy because she was in trouble so chop, he cut me and it hurt, a lot!! The baby doctor said to me they'd have to take her away straight after to sort her out. They got her out in 4 pushes and took her away, she pood all over them and was fine, just small - 5lb 7oz. Then the doctor tried to take the placenta out but it came out in a very small piece, it had come apart in side me and was all "gritty" whatever that meant!! Anyway that meant the doctor had to manually remove it by putting his hand in and scooping around to get it all out, how pleasant!! I had already lost a litre of blood, but then i started bleeding more and they started panicing again, my blood pressure dropped to 40/35 from 180/104 and my body temp down to 30degrees, everything went black and dizzy and the next thing i know i was rigged up to 2 drips and told i had to stay in the delivery room being continuously monitored for 4 hours! I was so ill afterwards i couldn't even hold her but hubby held her next to me so i could see her. From the first contraction to the delivery was only 5 hours.We both got sent to the high dependency ward, being let out 6 days later, now i am on tablets for anemia and blood pressure control. Her Apgar was 5 and 10, she is fine. I could feel the pain of the stitches being done, the anethetist gave me another local injection that finally took effect. Struggling to breastfeed because i was too ill afterwards to even hold her so they had to bottle feed her, now she just wants bottles, have been expressing ok though so at least she still has the milk.

I have been struggling to come to terms with everything that happened but the most important thing is that we are both here and well.

Does anyone know why the placenta would do this as the Health Visitor says this is probably why she was so small.I am not a smoker and consider myself good health, is it just one of those things or could it happen again? And if I have another one would they be able to do more frequent scans to ensure the placenta was ok? Also if i had another one would i be at risk of bleeding too much again?

[unicorn]

Oh you poor, poor thing. What an awful experience- but as you say at least you are both ok.

Try and talk it through with the hospital, and whoever else, it sounds extremely traumatic and you need to take care of yourself.

Sorry I can't answer your questions, but am sure someone will be able to.

Just sending some {{{{ hugs}}

[dinosaur]

Hello HuskyGirl, I'm so sorry you've had such a very bad experience, but congratulations on your dd - as you say, the most important thing is that you are both here and well.

I really don't know whether this is relevant or not, but I had to have manual removal of placenta with DS2, which was a bit grim. However I managed to deliver the placenta naturally when I had my DS3. So I don't think you should automatically assume that you will have the same problems should you have another baby.

Hopefully Mears or someone else with more knowledge will see your post and respond, but I just wanted to say hi. Many women have posted on mumsnet about bad birth experiences and found it really helpful to get feedback from Mears and others. Please keep talking about it if it helps.

Dxxxxxx

[Cristina7]

Hi HuskyGirl and congratulations for your little one. The birth story sounds horrendous but I notice you're asking about a next time so it must have all been worth it overall. As time goes by and you get more enjoyment out of your little girl you might start forgetting the horrible bits. It sounds really awful but you've both made it through safely.

[HuskyGirl]

Dinosaur - good to hear that you managed to deliver the placenta normally next time, thats encouraging to hear!

unfortunately I couldn't discuss the events with the midwife, because as soon as I had been stabilised all of the midwives and doctors had to rush off to attend other births, the Royal Berks seemed to have run out of delivery rooms as there was one woman screaming in the corridor having to wait! I was left to be monitored by a care assistant who was actually very good.

I'm sure i will have more, as we all would go through anything for them wouldn't we, i just need plenty of time to recover from this one first and see if anything could have been prevented.

Interesting though - i had about 7 palpitations over the course of the induction day from dr's, midwives and student everythings (!) and all but one really struggled to confirm her position, most thought she was breech then changed their minds, so she had adopted an awkward position from the start!!

she's getting bigger everyday, was a bit disheartening when all the other 4 babes on the ward were all quite earlier than her but all bigger than her, especially when they started talking about putting a feeding tube in. luckily she picked up and now feeding every 3-4hrs about 3.5oz. i just thank god that i'm a qualified nursery nurse and had some clue of how to do certain things for her as the staff afterwards on the ward were so rushed off their feet and understaffed they hardly had time for us at all. but thats another issue!

[starlover]

huskygirl.. so sorry to hear about your horrible experience!
I don't know much about placentas, but just wanted to comment on the breastfeeding thing.
My ds refused to feed for ages after he was born and ended up being given formula in hospital. He refused to latch on so I was expressing for him, and topping up with formula... we did this for a week, but I kept trying him at the breast every time he was hungry before resorting to the bottle.
And one day he just took it! He has been exclusively breastfed ever since! So, if you want to breastfeed then don't feel like you can't because it is possible!

[HuskyGirl]

Thanks starlover, thats what happened to me, expressing then top up. I am still trying to get her to latch on every feed, only thing is she has a very small mouth so when she does sort of latch on she only sucks the end of the nipple, despite several midwives in hospital trying to ram as much of my breast into her mouth as possible! She is an absolute pickle with her tongue too, it takes ages for her to drop it down so often she tries to suck but doesn't get anywhere. Have had good support from the Health Visitor re breastfeeding so hopefully persistance and growth will pay off eventually!

[starlover]

if she's trying to suck that's a good sign though! my ds wouldn't even do that to start with!
He also got v. cross with the midwives shoving my boob into his mouth when he opened it to cry!

Keep persevering though!

[Flossam]

Huskygirl, sorry you had such a bad time of it. Glad you are all home. I'm not a midwife, but pre-eclampsia is caused by the placenta, and I think this causes it to be gritty. It may not have been working as well as it could before the birth. Hopefully this will bump it up for Mears who is the fountain of all knowledge!

[HuskyGirl]

Thanks flossam, all my check ups were fine (well blood pressure and urine) up until the week 39 one when it all spiralled! We were a bit concerned however that my appointments were still 2 weeks apart even at this late stage and many people i'd spoken with seemed to have gone down to weekly appointments. So it could be that the pre-eclampsia had started after the week 37 check, therefor having 2 weeks to work away, surely that could account for a pound or so of weight? Oh well, she's surely making up for the weight now!!! Seems strange, I suppose i'll never know why the things happened and a lot worse things have happened to many people but it helps me if i try to make sense of it all, hopefully most people feel this way!

[collision]

HG...how awful...I got goosebumps just reading this. Glad you are home and you and dd are OK.

[Eulalia]

Huskygirl - Sorry to hear of your awful experience and hope you recover quickly. Congrats on your baby girl. My ds (first birth) was quite small, not as small as yours but was 6lbs 2oz and at 41+1 weeks was small for his gestational age. He was small throughout the whole pregnancy so I was glad he was late. Did any of the staff examine the placenta properly to check if it was pale ? a sign that it perhaps wasn?t working properly? My placenta was a little pale but that could have been because baby was overdue. It could be just that this time you were always going to have a small baby. My next baby was also late ? 42 weeks this time but she was huge in comparison ? 8lbs, 7oz so completely different.

I think all pregnancies are different but I?d talk to someone about this when you feel better so you are prepared for next time round.

Agree also on the breastfeeding thing, my son wouldn?t latch on properly till he was normal sized at about a month old and even then it took several more weeks till I got my supply going properly. Once he was bigger it was very easy.

[MandM]

HuskyGirl - sorry to hear about your experience, but glad that you and dd1 are both fine.

Just wanted to post as your story made me think so much of my first birth experience, which was also horrendous and also resulted in a beautiful dd called Marley (slightly different spelling, but same pronunciation!)

[HuskyGirl]

Eulalia - from what i remember the placenta was still quite rich in colour, i couldn't really see it from where i was laying but the next day a tennis ball sized piece came out whilst on the loo so i'm going by this!! Nice

[lunavix]

Sorry to hear about your awful birth, but congratulations on your dd