Abbie's Birth Story
I have to have a medicalised, monitored early induction type of labour due to a blood clotting issue. DD1's birth ended in 4 hours of pushing, failed ventouse and forceps in theatre 48 hours post induction beginning with what seemed like every doctor and midwife in the hospital present as she was also back to back and didn't turn. I had an epidural then which helped enormously until post birth when I suddenly hated it (restrictive as I had to keep it in for ages due to med interaction).
This time I knew the likelihood was that I would be refused an epidural as guidelines on my meds have changed since. I was up for trying but very nervous. My worries about c section also increased as it would probably be ga if I had to have a section.
At 10 am they examined me, couldn't break waters and put the prostin gel in. Nothing much other than back/bum/thigh pain resulted. At 4pm my consultant (who likes a challenge) used the CROCHET HOOK and my membranes were ruptured. Very light irregular contractions began. At 6pm I had been off meds for 24 hours and a decision needed to made between my meds (ruling out epidural) or an IV line of heparin during labour. My obstetrician and blood doctor spoke on the phone and plumped for my meds.
THE DRIP (syntocin) was then started at 7pm and they began to double the dose every half an hour. Contractions built but remained irregular and inefficient. I was hoping to last out without gas and air until 11pm when they were planning to rexamine me so I would know where I was before I gave into my pain relief option. From 9pm this started to get a lot harder and I developed mental games to get me through 15 min slots to then start again. At 10pm they started to notice decelerations in baby's heart rate. At 10.30pm I asked for gas and air and the doctor came in to see the heart rate issues. They decided to hang on and wait to see what happened. I was struggling to use the g and air properly (keep doing short shallow breaths and stopping it before peak) and contractions were really starting to get going. At 11.15pm they examined me - 5 blummin cm! I got disheartened then as it felt much more intense. I decided to try some diamorphine and at 11.30pm they injected it into my bottom promising that it would take effect in about 30 mins.
5 mins later I had the oddest feeling - like I needed to poo but it was like my rectal passage was the width of my entire body. I said (stupidly) that I needed to poo rather than push and noone really took much notice! I then announced I was going to push, midwife checked quickly and said to everyone to get going! Midwife and student (I was her first!) sat on bed and coached me through pushing. 9 mins later Abbie emerged as she basically plunged through entire pelvis and birth canal like a nuclear missile! She took 30 secs to cry due to shock but after lots of OBEM I could see she was pinking so although it was a wait it wasn't as bad as it could be.
Diamorphine kicked in just after that so placenta and perineal check were easy! I had a shallow second degree tear which I was told I could stitch or not - I went for not. Abbie was rooting and finding the nipple then and not long after began to suck and fed on and off for the next two hours whilst they sorted me out, did paper work and we transferred to post natal private room.
AMAZING. I know to many people it sounds horrible and medical but for someone like me who has no other option for labour it feels like I had a home birth in a pool!! I was so glad I felt the pushing stage this time - it is an incredible, intense (painful!) sensation. I am also proud of myself for doing 5-10 cm in 20 mins with THE DRIP on just gas and air :)