Birth Trauma and Future Birth

[poppylouie]

Hi

I am looking for advise and information if anyone can help or has been in a similar position.

I had my first baby a few years ago after being in labour for three days. I've tried to make sense of the the birth and have tried to get answers from professionals, but this has proven difficult.

I went to hospital when I was in established labour around 6-7cm after taking the descision to go as everyone seemed to think I was in the latent stage of labour still.

I progressed, was a bit slow and had my waters broken. Upon being fully dilated, my contractions went weak and I had no urge to push, was told to push for along while around 3hrs before been examined by a doctor.
Then going on a drip and trial of forceps.
Baby was born with a large swelling to the head, which was noted before delivery and this form a very large lump, took a while to resolve. We saw further health proffessionals about how it was caused, many different opitions and unable to rule out a fracture, but refused to xray. As everyone has a different opition, i am really scared to go through this again. I have an extreme worry that it could happen again if I become pregnant. The worry that the baby could be larger and cause more damage and no explaination of why it happened.
Baby was seen to be in the best postion, so why it suffered birth injury and how is still unknown.

Can anyone help with future births? I do not want to get pregnant and feel that everyone will keep dismissing me again.

Many Thanks

I had an extremely traumatic birth with my DD. We were both unwell after she was born, but she was not in any way as bad as your DC seems to have been.

I was and still am terrified of the labour, birth and immediate post natal period of my next DC, but before I became pregnant I went to see my GP who is really lovely and I had a long chat with her. She was really nice and sympathetic and reassured me that as soon as I became pregnant she would refer me to a consultant (which she did). She also rang the consultant personally after my referral to ensure that he took my fears seriously. I was terrified about meeting the consultant, but I saw him last week and he was really sympathetic and gave me some options for the birth and I have to go away and think about what I want to do.

Maybe if you speak to your GP as I did before you become pregnant she/he could do something similar for you. By talking to them before you become pregnant I think they will realise that it is a real concern for you and take you seriously. Good luck. x

I had a really traumatic time with DD and this time have fought hard (and succeeded) to get an elective c-section on psychological grounds, not the best option for everyone and certainly not an easy option but I felt the only option for me. Sorry you have had such a rough time

Thank you so much for your replies. I am already having counselling and seeing the GP as I still have real difficulty dealing with what happened.