Put a question to Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Education Minister

My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Welcome to the Mumsnet Birth Announcements forum, for announcing births and meeting others in our community. Visit our pregnancy resource hub for more information.

Birth announcements

Hello - MamaG here - thought I'd tell you my birth story.

79 replies

MamaG · 10/11/2008 10:28

5am on Tuesday 4th I woke up having a contraction. Having never gone into labour before (2 inductions) I laid there thinking "was that a strong BH?" - another one followed 30 mins later, then anohter so at 7am I woke DH. I told him he should still go to work as i might be a while yet - he informed me he was going nowhere . I rang my Mum who set off from Yorkshire to be babysitter and DH got the older DC off to school.

At about 11ish my contractions were 8-9 mins apart so we set off for hospital (1 hour drive away) and went straight to delivery suite. Things were going great - contracting reguarly, coping with the pain etc then decided to give the G&A a whirl. Found it really good this time (hated it before) and so carried on with that (at one point, leaning on DH and breathing the G&A in his ear with that HISS HISS noise, I growled at him "Luke I am your father" )

Anyhoo. Things seemed to be going well, but then nothing changed! Contractions still really regular but getting more painful. Decided to go in birthing pool at about 8pm but I felt cold and kept slipping around so I got out at 8.20pm! Decided I need epidural by this point, so that was put in at about 9.30 (v hazy on times, sorry). At 10.30ish I suddenly couldn't hear anything and my vision was blurred. I told DH he'd better get some help and the room was suddenly full of people - 2 bloody docs, 3 MWs and anaesthetist. BP had dropped right down. It was v scary and lasted for about 45mins. By the end of it, I had 2 drips in, BP beign taken every 5 minutes, a pulse thing on my finger, epidural in place and a clip on DS's head to monitor him - this was NOT the natural birth I'd envisioned!

At 11.30pm I suddenly felt all weird - I knew something was very wrong. Isaid to the MW "If we don't get this baby out soon, something really bad is going to happen, I don't mind if I have a CS but there is something wrong". She reasured me saying its ok, we're monitoring everything etc. Then put me on that drip that speeds up contractions - nothing. Huge doctor with hands like shovels had a hand up my fanjo, telling me to push wiht next contraction so he could feel baby. No bloody contraction came. When one did come, I pushed but he couldn't feel baby. I told him that something was wrong. Baby's heart rate started to drop a little, so they decided to do the CS. I cried a bit, but was glad as I had an awful sense of foreboding. Was wheeled down to theatre (just like on the telly!) and DH was in there with me. They injected the spinal block into my epidural thing but I could still feel everything on my right hand side so they told me they had to give me a general. DH was asked to leave, mask put on me and they said I might feel some presure on my neck - nurse pressed right down on my windpipe (God kn ows why) - it was awful. Saw the big needle loom towards teh epidural tube and had tears running down my face, then nothing until I woke up. Horrible experience really.

Turned out that DS2 (!) was back to back and had the cord wrapped around his neck 4 times and then it was in a knot - apparently even if he had moved down the birth canal we would never have delivered him naturally. Thank God he was CS - I knew something was wrong. Born at 5.52am on bonfire night (well, day)

Have staples in - looks like a zip.

Spent the day on a delivery suite with a MW working in the room. I'd lost far too much blood apparnetly and was a bit of a zombie - don't remember much about the day TBH.

On ward afterwards, huge baby not getting filled with my colostum, they kept asking me if they could top him up, I kept saying no, then one of hte MWs snapped at me "this baby is starving" so I let them - cried buckets when they took him away. Was v anaemic and had a blood transfusion whcih made me feel stronger. Transferred to MLU on Friday, they were fantastic - had a lovely side room with own loo and shower, MWs couldn't do enough for me and were v supportive. BF going better, he's currently feeding what seems like ALL Night but I'm hoping htat will settle down soon.

In a nutshell - 24 hours labour. Emergency CS under general. Huge DS2 (10lb 9oz) with lots of dark hair - gorgeous, healthy (has tongue tie - diagnosed by me thanks to reading one of marslady's threads a while back lol) but they're snipping on Thursday.

Harry James

OP posts:
themildmanneredsnotmonster · 10/11/2008 10:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fiveplusbump · 10/11/2008 10:33

Congratulations --I love his name .
Hope you feel better soon .

PeachyFizzesLikeADampSquibb · 10/11/2008 10:35

Oh Mamg congrats- and well don for having the sheer guts to demand help when it was needed.

Sounds like a scary experience but so glad you all came out OK. baby will slow down on the feeding bt it does take a bit- up to six weeks isn't unusual. It's ahrd work but as you well know by now it all flies past so quickly that its worth it.

Fab name (have a Harry myself, wel, a harold but you do what you can to keep the FIL happy ) and he sounds utterly gorgeous.

scorpio1 · 10/11/2008 10:37

You poor thing MamaG - but you got him in the end!

Keep up with your BF well done after all of that!

Fabby name too.

ShowOfHands · 10/11/2008 10:37

Oh you poor thing. What a frightening time for you.

You should be very proud of yourself. I bet he's just lovely.

StarlightMcKenzie · 10/11/2008 10:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Twiga · 10/11/2008 10:46

Many congratulations on Harry's safe arrival . Sounds like you really went through the mill but so glad the outcome was good. Sending you lots of good wishes for a swift and relaxed recovery - hope everyone spoils you rotten after all that.

littlelapin · 10/11/2008 10:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Saturn74 · 10/11/2008 10:46

Wow, you've been through a lot, MamaG.
Congratulations on your lovely new boy.
So glad to hear that all is well with you and Harry.
xx

witchandchips · 10/11/2008 10:49

oh what a nightmare! even though you've got your lovely boy
When it all settles it might be worth seeing if someone (sympathetic) can go through your notes with you. The midwife at at VBAC clinic did this with us 3.6 years after the event + even at this late stage it is like a huge cloud of depression and anxiety has lifted (and I did not think before i was that bothered)

think of you
witch
x

expatinscotland · 10/11/2008 10:53

Congratulations, MamaG!

I'm so glad you're recovering well.

Think wee Struan may have tongue tie as well but no one checked nad no support and nipples ripped to shreds so we moved to formula when he was 2 days old.

Glad it's going better for you and your wee man .

mishymoo · 10/11/2008 11:00

Wow what a journey! Glad you're all okay now! Congratulations and welcome to Harry James

guyFAwkesreQuiem · 10/11/2008 11:01

oh my goodness what a nightmare!

But glad that your little(?) boy arrived safely

MrsMattie · 10/11/2008 11:04

Hey MamaG. Glad you and your DS are OK.

'Dr' Mattie prescribes buckets of rest, tea and cuddles for you for several weeks.

Good luck xxx

Flamesparrow · 10/11/2008 11:05

@ your labour

pmsl @ "Luke I am your father"

Welcome Harry James

elkiedee · 10/11/2008 11:09

Congratulations on Harry's arrival, how scary that with all that monitoring you still had to impress on them that something was wrong, but thank goodness you realised. Good luck with the feeding.

ladytophamhatt · 10/11/2008 11:21

Great news MamaG, sounds bloody scary though.

Harry James if a great name, my DS1 and a few other MN boys have the same name

CantSleepWontSleep · 10/11/2008 11:28

Well that sounds like fun .
Happy that Harry James' safe arrival was worth it .

belgo · 10/11/2008 11:36

Well done MamaG! It does sound horrendous though. It's very interesting to here about your sense of foreboding - I think our instincts can tell us a lot about how well the birth is going.

I hope you recover very soon and get plenty of rest, and enjoy being with your new baby.

Lovely names

Sawyer64 · 10/11/2008 11:44

Congratulations and welcome to Harry James.

(They pressed on your windpipe,for what they call "Crash Induction",just means you hadn't been starved for surgery ie. 4-6 hours,so they want to make sure nothing pops up from your stomach.)

So glad it was all ok,but pretty scary I would imagine.

MmeLindt · 10/11/2008 11:47

Congratulations and welcome to Harry James. I love the name.

Hope you recover soon, I had emergency CS so I know what the scary part feels like. Thank God you trusted your instincts and they listened to you.

Lizzylou · 10/11/2008 12:00

Big Congrats, sounds like you did brilliantly despite difficult circumstances.

My Harry (middle name Thomas, my first love was called James so couldn't go there ) had the cord round his neck and had a knot in it, v scary.

Hope you feel OK, welcome to Harry your bouncing baby boy.

Buda · 10/11/2008 12:03

Many congratulations MamaG. Sorry it was so traumatic though. Not tempted to call him Luke then??

Harry James is a fab name.

FimboGotAxed · 10/11/2008 12:22

How scarey MamaG. Hope you are recovering well.

Congratulations on Harry James

sweetkitty · 10/11/2008 12:35

oh MamaG poor you what an experience you must feel like you have been hit with a train

Glad you are both feeling better and his tongue tie is getting sorted out.

Lovely names too

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.