I am writing this for therapeutic purposes more than anything...
My waters broke on Monday 3rd November at 2pm and I rang the hospital and they told me to come in. They had a quick monitor check and said I could be induced now or wait 24 hours for nature to take its course and if nothing had happened then I was to come in "for a scan and to see how things were going". I had strep B but this is apparently the procedure with or without strep B.
I went home and at about 10pm the contractions started, slowly at first but they continued over the next 18 hours, I managed to get an hours sleep... they went from an hour apart to as close as 5 mins and got pretty intense but they started to get less frequent and less painful in the last few hours. I had arranged to go back to the hospital for 2pm on the Tuesday so I did so.
I was expecting no intervention since I had been having contractions, but the doctor and midwives insisted that I should be induced because there was a danger of infection for the baby otherwise, so I agreed. I really didnt want to be induced having heard it was more painful.
They put me on the induction drip and started the dosage low but doubled it every half hour. I managed with just the tens and breathing for about 1.5 hours, then went onto gas and air and after about 3 hours I asked for an epidural.
They stopped the drip because they didnt think I would stay still enough for the epidural otherwise. They had one go putting the epidural in but ended up drawing blood, so had another go. (I really hate needles BTW!!) They were eventually satisfied so started up the drip again, they started it at the strength at which they had turned it off, rather than building it up again... unfortunately the epidural hadn't worked AT ALL. I had been off the drip (so not used to the pain) for about an hour I think. I told them I was in pain and asked then begged them to switch off the drip until they got the epidural sorted but they refused saying they couldnt stop the drip and they would try a top-up of the epidural instead - this apparently only took the consent of the head midwife to do so and they were having a change of shift so she couldn't OK it yet... in the end I said "As a patient I'm asking you to turn off the drip" - I think they got the litigious thread of the conversation and finally got a more senior midwife in who said "She is entitled to pain relief if she's asked for it, turn off the drip for now" HURRAH!
By this time, my BP is THROUGH THE ROOF. I have a history of hypertension and my mum had pre-eclampsia. They got another anaesthetist to me who tested to see if the epidural had worked by spraying a cold spray on me and confirmed it had had no effect at all (why not do this in the first place???) He said he could give me a strong top up to see if that worked or give me another epidural and there was no guarantee it would work if the other hadn't. He gave me the top up (no effect) and got a blood test to see if I was up to the second epidural and said it would be half an hour before the results came back.
By this time my contractions had started again on their own so they gave me some pethedine (admittedly with my consent but I was at the end of my tether). As I had predicted and put in my birth plan pethedine completely knocked me out (codeine knocks me out!!), I was virtually comatose, I couldn't respond to anything they asked. By the time I came round again though, I was 8cm dilated.
I pushed on the remains of the pethedine, they didnt give me any more gas and air because they said it wouldnt help. I could not feel a pushing sensation, just a contraction, so I just pushed when the contraction started. They seemed pretty impressed with my progress but unfortunately my BP had climbed so the top line was now at 190, and appparently you are at risk of a stroke over 160 - they had been telling DH this for the past few hours but only told me at the end. They told me I needed a forceps delivery because they couldnt let me push any longer as I may have a stroke - the next second I had another contraction and they told me to push!!!! I asked them for a bit more time to push because I wanted to do it myself, they said it would probably only be 5 or 6 pushes but they couldnt risk my doing it.
I had a forceps delivery and had an epistomology and a second degree tear.
DD was born at 2.30am on the Wednesday morning, 12 hours after the induction drip had started and 36 hours after my waters broke. She weighed 6lb 15. I couldnt hold her for 1.5 hours because of the stitching but DH held her and I could see her.
THAT'S NOT THE END OF IT!!!
(TMI ALERT!) When the placenta was delivered, it was accompanied with a gush of 2 litres of blood within the space of about 5 seconds - they know it was 2L cos they mopped it up from the floor to see how much of a transfusion I needed!!! The reason this happened was when the placenta comes away it leaves a small wound and because my BP was so high, the blood just found the hole and came through. The normal blood loss on delivery is 500 ml.
I had to have a blood transfusion and am still on iron tablets for the resulting anaemia. They left me in the room in which I laboured for the following few days on pre-eclampsia drugs, I couldnt drink for 24 hours, I was stuck to the bed with a catheter for at least 24 hours.
The whole thing has left me completely traumatised and going from being certain I wanted another child to being not sure I could do it.
I feel better for doing that!!