Birth Story, apologies, it's epic. In short I'm great at delivering babies... rubbish with placentas. :o
Thursday morning (13th) I went into work for a couple of hours to explain to the new maternity cover what I do. I left the office at 12:30 and went to the aquarium shop to buy some new fish. At 13:25 I got back in the car, shuffled, felt a Pop and a warm dampness! It would have taken a couple of hours for someone to get me, and I was only 7 minutes from home so with a fair amount of swearing and panic I drove home.
Got home shouted DH told him my waters had gone and he asked if I'd bought any bread!? 
I went to the toilet, realised there was blood in waters so phoned the labour ward. They told me to come straight in. I told them I'd be there asap but had to sort out childcare.
I phoned my Mum (35 miles away and doesn't drive) my Dad had gone out walking and wasn't due back for another hour. We decided to collect DD from school early and take her with us. My parents arrived at the hospital at 4:30 and took DD home. She was completely unphased by everything.
At hospital I went to the ante-natal ward and was put on the monitors for a couple of hours. Contractions were 4 minutes and getting stronger. But my blood pressure was sky high and they were worried about pre-eclampsia so had bloods taken. Pain was tolerable, I was talking through it, much to the amazement of other people in the room. Eventually I was examined and I was 3cm dilated, my fore waters were intact, it was the hind waters which had gone.
About 7pm we went through to the midwifery led room and my contractions went haywire. Anything between 3 and 10 minutes. I was writing them down to try to keep track. I was bouncing, walking, and pondering sleeping. At 10 I was examined again. I was 5cm dilated. More bouncing. Midnight I was given some painkillers and I got in the pool and started using the G&A, decided I didn't like the calming music, so we put the World Service on, and I bored DH by telling him the plot of the Sharpe book I'd been reading. :o Contractions still all over the place.
At 2:15am I was examined again. I was still 5cm dilated! So MW broke my waters, and things sped up! I had 2 ctx before I could get back in the pool, or get to the G&A! Ctx were then less than 4 mins apart and lasting for 3 mins. At one point MW asked if I wanted to get out of the pool to deliver. I asked how long pethidine took to kick in, she said 30 minutes and I said it wouldn't be that long. I later found out it was MW's first underwater birth. Not long after I felt like I thought I needed to push, but I remembered a MW from DD saying if I thought I might, then I didn't. When I needed to I'd have to push. Next contraction I HAD to push. I got a break for the next ctx. He was born on the next contractions in 4 pushes. It was 3:12am. The MW passed him to me and told me to look at what he was. A boy! They asked what he was called and I looked at DH, he said Seth! He'd hated the name all the way through, but he said I deserved to choose after that effort. I held Seth skin-to-skin and as he was obviously well they decided to do everything naturally and not cut the cord until it stopped pulsing which took about 10 minutes. I felt fantastic. Up to that point I'd felt so in control and the delivery was quite enjoyable, my body just took over and I knew what to do. After 30 minutes we were still waiting for the placenta to come away and I was bleeding a lot. I got out of the pool Seth had his first feed, and they gave me the injection to encourage the placenta to move, then both MW's tried to do a manual removal. (I was back on the G&A by this point) but still no luck so they had to move me to a delivery suite.
By this point I was very weak and it all gets a bit hazey. My notes say I lost 700ml of blood but they always underestimate. I was hooked up to fluids. Then someone called James a consultant introduced himself. I was thinking, "Very nice that you've introduced yourself. I don't care, just sort me out!" He had a go at removing my placenta. He was much rougher than the midwifes, but still couldn't remove it. DH apparently found it all too much and had to leave the room. James asked me if he wanted him to try a 2nd time. If that didn't work he'd have to take me through to theatre. I asked to get my breathe back, and whether he meant a caesarean. He said no, but they'd give me a spinal. I said to try again and this time it came away, much to the amazement of the midwifes, and relief from me. Apparently it was a 3cm section of placenta which had probably adhered to something other than the uterus wall and that was why it wouldn't come away. My placenta had been low lying but moved enough for a vaginal birth.
I had a second degree tear and needed 3 stitches so the midwife did that and then they left me to recover while the fluids went in. I must have slept because next thing it was 8am and someone came in to help me get washed and changed. Once dressed I moved over to a chair and they left me while I fed Seth again. They also said I would have to go up to the ward but because I worked for the Hospital Trust they were sorting me out a private room! (an absolute godsend) Seth fed for about 25 minutes, I think he would have fed for longer, but I had to stop as I was feeling faint. They'd told me to shout when I was done, but I couldn't. I slumped down in the chair and concentrated on staying concious and not dropping Seth. Thankfully about 5 minutes later the midwife came back to check on me, rescued Seth and I was helped into a wheelchair then into a recovery room where there was a bed. I was given lots of very sweet tea, toast & jam, and told to rest. My blood pressure had dropped through the floor.
A few hours later we were taken up to the ward. My blood results had come back and I was very aneamic. They said they'd take more blood the next morning, if my iron levels had gone up I'd be allowed home. If not I'd need a transfusion. My iron levels had dropped further next morning to about half what they should be. I really wasn't keen on having a transfusion as it meant I can't be a blood donor anymore, but DH talked some sense into me.
They struggled to get 2 units of blood for me, so I didn't start getting the blood until 5pm on the Saturday.
I needed 2 units of blood, so finally at 1am the transfusions were done and I could sleep. Tests were done again Sunday morning and my iron levels had increased, so I was allowed home in the afternoon 2 days after Seth had been born.