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Original poster

Off your head in labour and....

67 replies

biscuiteer · 22/07/2023 21:54

...this happens ( insert your experience here): 'You see yourself floating mid air outside the hospital window looking in at yourself in the delivery room' 'among other stuff.
It was 10 years ago. The memory just popped into my head tonight and I realised that I've never questioned whether that is a normal labour experience when you're day 2-3 of an induced labour, on a drip, given diamorphine, gas and air. Wild..
What fuckery happened to you on all the drugs?

OP posts:
elliejjtiny · 23/07/2023 01:27

With dc1 I was pushing and his head was sliding back a bit after each push. I didn't realise that was normal so I shouted to the midwife (who was up by my head so nowhere near the business end) to stop pushing him back in as it really wasn't helping!

I was on morphine after having dc5 and I kept phoning dh up every couple of hours and telling him to put the bins out. It wasn't even bin day. A couple of years later I found the notebook I had been recording times of feeds in and there were several notes in very wobbly handwriting of what I wanted an to bring in from home. On all of them it said somewhere about putting the bins out! At some point I was in a side room and I started hallucinating and I thought I was in prison.

Mummy08m · 23/07/2023 01:29

HerAvatar · 23/07/2023 01:26

Combination of things, only 3 hours between arriving at hospital and delivery, awful midwife who insisted a bath was better than drugs and then disappeared to run it and didn't come back for almost 2 hours. By that time I'd descended into some kind of primal state, no break between contractions (found out later DD was back to back) and just curled up in a ball of pain. Then MW wanted to check me and attach monitors to see how DD was doing and promised gas and air when that was done but found I was 10cm and DD was in distress so then it was a mad dash to get her out and presumably too late for drugs.

Tbh no one seemed to give a shit about me or how much pain I was in, MW shouted at me at one point that I wasn't pushing hard enough and did I want my baby to die. The real kicker was they gave me a spinal to stitch me up afterwards, fat lot of good it was by then! Oh and then there were the lovely pair of (male, obviously) consultants who popped by 2 hours later to quickly scan my chart and say 'you do realise you'll likely be doubly incontinent from now on' before dropping my chart back and leaving again. I was on the ward for two days after that and the only food I got was what DH brought in at visiting time, I don't think anyone spoke to me the whole time I was there until discharge. The whole thing was bloody awful from start to finish so it seems very unfair I didn't even get any decent drugs out of it!

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My gosh this is so awful I'm so sorry. Really hope that hospital has reviewed and improved since then, that's so unacceptable

Groutyonehereagain · 23/07/2023 01:32

Pethidine made me vomit repeatedly. I couldn’t hold my baby at all, just a sick bowl. Wretched stuff. I had my third without any pain relief at all, nothing and it was amazing.

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HerAvatar · 23/07/2023 01:37

Mummy08m · 23/07/2023 01:29

My gosh this is so awful I'm so sorry. Really hope that hospital has reviewed and improved since then, that's so unacceptable

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They actually closed the maternity unit a couple of years later, probably for the best! It was a long time ago now (DD is 14) but was absolutely the reason I didn't have a second child which is a bit sad, I'd had 3 miscarriages before DD though so am just grateful I have her.

Otzi · 23/07/2023 01:39

I reckon it's the pethidine.

I thought I was in that James bond film where they go inside the mountain. I told dh that we had to get out of there and to go and get my coat. He said no so I told him to fuck off, that he was a shit spy and that I wanted my mum.

Original poster
biscuiteer · 23/07/2023 17:39

MetalRat · 23/07/2023 01:15

For my first, gas and air after being induced on syntocinon (too pigheaded for epidural.. v v bad idea…) - floated to the ceiling to witness myself in third person wailing my head off, zoomed out again to see the whole scene from above within a video editing software window. I’m calmly looking at the screen, scrubbing forward and back in time through the footage of my awful labour, first in slow-mo then super fast forward to the moment my DC arrives, which I witness first through the editing screen and then for the “second time” in the actual delivery room. straight out of a Hunter S Thompson scene… 🤯😬

second DC had to be induced on the synto again… sensibly took the epidural and had a lovely calm delivery 🥰

What the actual? This is the craziest thing I've ever read on MN!! I now feel like me floating outside the window like a scene from a vampire movie was pretty tame. I did tell the midwives to stop whispering into my fanny though. They were having some kind of conference down there for ages. ( again this may not be what really happened)

OP posts:
Original poster
biscuiteer · 23/07/2023 18:00

HerAvatar · 23/07/2023 01:37

They actually closed the maternity unit a couple of years later, probably for the best! It was a long time ago now (DD is 14) but was absolutely the reason I didn't have a second child which is a bit sad, I'd had 3 miscarriages before DD though so am just grateful I have her.

Show quote history

I'm sorry too.
My first labour was awful but who knows if tripping made it any better or worse.

I should have known when we first got into a free room. Almost straight away a very cheerful woman came in, said hello and sat down breezilyon the chair opposite my bed and just started chatting...she got comfy and stayed for a good half hour She asked what we were having and when she heard it was a boy she started to tell us both about the 8 miscarriages she had over the years and that all were boys -and that she just couldn't keep a boy -'they just wouldn't stick'...I swear her words -but she had 3 girls in the end so, that was life...Really chatty and like some gossipy soap character. Wearing hospital clothes but I couldn't tell what her job was and I thought she was a midwife. She talked at us and talked at us as I tried to unpack all the calming room scents, bath gel, meditation CD... until I just sat there on the bed defeated and wondering what this woman was doing in the room but too bloody polite to ask. I found myself being a sympathetic ear WHILE ABOUT TO HAVE A BABY, which I think encouraged her to go on even more. She eventually left and I had my 3 day labour. As we left to go home 5 days later I did ask at the nurse station who she was and the midwife said. "oh that's 'some name', yes she's a character!" I asked if she a midwife and they laughed and told me she was a cleaner.

OP posts:
PurpleChrayne · 23/07/2023 18:32

Gas and air plus epidural did something weird to me. A doctor walked in and I was convinced he was a man I knew named Lev Stephenson. I kept asking if he was him, becoming more and more insistent.

verabarbleen · 23/07/2023 18:57

My mum said she went down a black tunnel with stars all around calling the name she had chosen for me. She then chose to call my (now ) name and a star floated to her and the next thing she knew I was born! Drugs are crazy! 😂

user1471538283 · 23/07/2023 19:04

I got up mid labour and got to the door announcing that's that was it, I was going home. I had to be led back to finish giving birth ...

Apparently I was also very polite to everyone.

ThePatriarchyIsNotAboutHorses · 23/07/2023 19:10

First labour - pethidene, hated it, maybe me a zombie and didn’t stop the pain, just stopped me handling it. I had a similar reaction to morphine the one time I have had it.

Second labour was drug free barring a paracetamol and it was much better and also much faster - that may be connected and the speed might be the crucial factor.

I also paced the corridors in labour two and that definitely helped.

AuntieJune · 23/07/2023 19:14

Pethidine is bonkers stuff. First I hugged the anaesthetist, then I went in the loo and just stared into my own eyes in the mirror for a long time feeling like I was at a party but also giving birth. Then the spewing started.

gonetogreece · 23/07/2023 19:14

Gas and Air and pethidine as well. Went from barely in labour to needing to push very fast. I was shocking, SCREAMING HELP SHES IS TRYING TO KILL ME @ the midwife about my birth partner and I mean horror movie type screaming. The pushing took 37 seconds. I looked at my baby and said wow what lovely brown eyes (they were blue) pucked excorsist style everywhere and then fainted.

Pyjamasleeveprincess · 23/07/2023 19:19

First time around thought pethidine was a good idea. Apparently I told the midwife that getting the baby in was more fun than getting it out, DH was a <very bad word> and I was going to divorce him and marry the midwife because she wasn't a <very rude word> like my husband. It also made me vomit fairly continuously.

Second time around my birth plan had 2 things on it. No pethidine. Don't offer it to me and if I ask for it don't give it to me. The second thing was decent antiemetics from the get go. Surprisingly enough, things were a lot peaceful the second time around.

BoobyDazzler · 23/07/2023 19:19

I was convinced the lovely Eastern European doctor doing my stitches was this guy.

🙈

Off your head in labour and....
Jojobees · 23/07/2023 19:24

I was v high on the gas and air, I’d asked for an epidural and by the time the anaesthetist came I was well on my way to delivering.
Time was a blur, and apparently a good half an hour after he’d been and gone I decided to tell him he was no use to me and that he could fuck off, and I’d deliver this baby myself- and promptly did.

EnglishMuffins · 23/07/2023 19:28

I farted in the anaesthetist’s face as he inserted my cannula then whilst he was still stood there I turned to DH and and asked “did I just let rip in that fit doctor’s face?”
also felt like the room was spinning and I was floating up to the ceiling. My baby’s heartbeat also sounded incredibly fast to me and I kept asking if it was ok , it was perfectly fine and normal but sounded a million beats per minute to me..
love gas & air. Just like being insanely drunk 🙃

Elderflower14 · 23/07/2023 19:36

I had an interesting time on and off in hospital with ds2... I lost ds1 when he was born prematurely so I was treated very carefully.. I developed pre eclampsia so was on bed rest for a week. This coincided with Euro 96 Semi Final. I persuaded the midwife to wheel me down to the tv room where I watched with another pregnant lady. The midwives kept coming in wanting to take my blood pressure... I said I'd have it done at the end of the match. Southgate of course missed the penalty and I got wheeled back to bed. The midwifes face when she took my BP was a picture. I had a pyramid in the middle of my lovely straight line. The mw drew a line with an asterix and wrote EURO 96 PENALTY SHOOT OUT next to it!! 🤣
I was allowed home for a week and the came in for an induction. I had the cricket on and nothing happened for two days. On the Wednesday the registrar broke my waters. I got very invested in the cricket and every time a wicket fell I was "YESSSSSSSS!" The midwives kept thinking I was in pain and to shut me up I was wheeled into the delivery room. I kept sending DH or the mw out to.find out the score.
I had an induction and swore a lot at DH. Ds2 arrived via ventouse and peed all over the registrar.
Two hours later I was taken very ill. Black vomit and black diorreah. Ds2 was put in the nursery and I spent all night rushing to the loo with a sick bowl and drip.
I was eventually allowed to leave the next afternoon. Not before my consultant came to see us. He had left word that we weren't to leave until he had seen us. He looked after us so well bless him.

gonetogreece · 23/07/2023 19:37

One of the moments that still make me cringe is around 3 days after giving birth my dad walked into my front room to find me crawling on my hands and knees stark bolllock naked and screaming at him...

"It must have been twins I can feel another head coming out, call a fucking ambulance!"

It was the contractions you get a few days later and your organs are moving back to the right places, nobody warned me.

mumto4boys16 · 23/07/2023 19:40

I was sure my midwives were laughing and singing 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts' in the same was zazu sung it in the lion king - neither actually happened

Apricotton · 23/07/2023 19:51

I only had gas and air but kept having incredibly ‘funny’ thoughts about things. I was thinking I was oh so witty and observant and a comedy genius and kept thinking that I’ll have to tell people later. After I’d given birth, I couldn’t remember a thing. I very much doubt that any of my ‘thoughts’ were remotely amusing.

PenisFlyTrap · 23/07/2023 19:54

I passed out from the pain and woke up speaking Finnish. I'd been studying Finnish during my pregnancy for boring reasons I won't get into so not exactly inexplicable but really freaked out DH and the midwife

TappingTed · 23/07/2023 19:58

I was a prisoner of war being tortured during my labour (back to back, stuck and huge baby)

I kept screaming “I don’t know!” As I was sure I was being interrogated… and didn’t know the answers and wanted them to stop torturing me.

SlideandPolka · 23/07/2023 20:03

I haemorrhaged after an CS and it all went wrong, and everyone was working on me and I was lying there thinking what a beautiful colour my blood was and that I was going to die admiring my own blood. I remember even thinking about My Blood as a Farrow and Ball paint colour.

Then they saved me and I freaked out about six weeks later.

LMNT · 23/07/2023 20:05

I had pethidine and gas and air first and I was convinced we were in the simpsons. Everything looked like a cartoon. Then the anaesthetist arrived to give me an epidural because I was off my tits. I thought he was Homer Simpson and started laughing telling DH that Homer was giving me an epidural.

MORTIFYING