Induced but no gas and air!

[gemma97]

Has anyone else experienced any of this....

I was given my first prostin at 7pm and when I complained of discomfort at midnight I was given codidramol and tomazopam which sent me to sleep until 4am when I woke up in agony. (1st baby so I figured this was labour)
4am given more codidramol-put on monitor
5am contractions every 3 minutes, whining in pain so they gave me pethidine as there was no gas and air on the ward! (it was, in fact a postnatal ward where there is little need for such things, the antenatal ward was closed due to staffing shortages)
I begged the staff to call dh, who had been sent home for the night, which they eventually did at 6.30 am. It was awful being on my own and occassionally someone came past and said "Try and breathe it away....."
7am It became apparent that I could not be moved on to labour ward because there were no beds. dh arrived so at least I wasn't alone
8.15am Finally a mw came to move me to labour ward and gave me the choice of walking or a wheelchair. I could not sit down so I had to walk. I was then given the choice of the lift or the stairs........ I shared the lift with some builders who also had to endure a huge contraction and me whining "I need a poo!" as I stood, hanging around dh's neck.
8.30 am arrived in delivery room, begging MW for an epidural. She propped me up on some pillows, as I stood next to the bed and handed me a mouthpiece. The effect was amazing, but still can't figure out why it took over 4 hours for me to get that gas and air!

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I didn't get gas and air for a while after being induced - I walked and breathed it through the best I could. After I had pethedine did I get gas and air but it would have been about 7 hours after the pains stated. Can't tell you why though sorry.

hi helsi, i was walking and breathing too but i was told i had to go to bed at midnight which was awful because all I had to think about was the pain. I wonder whether they don't want you to have gas and air 'too early'?
I think I'm frustrated because if I'd gone naturally I reckon they would have given gas and air straight away! Just a thought.

could it have something to do with delaying dilation?

I had the gel at 7pm and pains didn't start til 3am so I was walking around etc until I could no longer bear it at about 9am and had pethidine then gas and air started about 11am.

When I was induced for the second time the ward was so understaffed that I didn't even get so much as a paracetemol tablet before eventually being moved to the delivery room. I asked, was told the MW would be back "in a minute", waited an hour, asked again - and so it went on for nearly 4 hours. Thankfully I was given an epidural as soon as I arrived at the delivery room but until then it was excruciatingly painful.

Hi Gemma97,
I had a similar experience, I was induced with prostaglandin, then left alone on a post natel ward because the delivery suite got too busy. I had no midwife or gas & air, only got pethadine after hours of painful contractions and reaching 9cms. Eventually got moved to the delivery suite, given more drugs to slow down my contractions, others to speed them up again, an epidural and ended up with a c section for no apparent reason. Now I'm pregnant again, and dreading the birth.

I was induced too and never offered gas and air throughout a 23 hour labour, despite having painful contractions every 2 minutes right from the start. Agony! I had one pethidine injection, but nothing after that wore off until 10 hours later when I finally got the epidural I'd been asking for, and ended up with an emergency C-section. With hindsight, I wish I'd been more assertive and really pushed for gas and air, but you feel very vulnerable at the time especially when it's your first baby.

gemma97,
apart from the MWs not being able to get you to the delivery ward earlier, its not advisable to start on the G&A too early. If you're only up to 3 or 4cms dilated you've got (potentially) many hours ahead of you & to be sucking on G&A for 6 or more hours is very tiring indeed. Other forms of pain relief are often recommended in the early stages to get you through.

Hi Gemma.
Me too! Contractions started hard as soon as waters broke (about 8 hours after first pessary). I was on a post natal ward as well and remember feeling really embarrassed about moaning and groaning because of the others in the ward! I didn't want to disturb them. There was no pain relief apart from having a bath. I remember feeling very alone and wanting my hubby who had also been sent home for the night. Also remember trying to clean the bath while having a contraction because I didn't want to leave a mess! Was certainly not how I imagined childbirth to be.

Having just written that has made me realise quite how much it affected me. After 2 and a half years the feeling of isolation is still there. Has certainly made me think about a home birth next time. If there ever is a next time I think its good to talk about your feelings and only wish I'd discovered Mumsnet before.

I arrived at hospital 3-4cm dilated after waters broke..contractions every few minutes and was put onto an ante natal ward (labour ward was full) and offered a sleeping tablet but no pain relief - spent a lot of time pacing up and down and breathing (moo-ing) the pain away..but even when finally transferred to labour ward I wasn't offered G and A and wasn't in any fit state to think about asking - contractions too close together.....
When I got pg with my second child I had panic attacks at the thought of going through that again, and actually had the second baby at a different hospital because of it.

Hmmm - this all sounds familiar. After 2 lots of prostin I was sent to the postnatal ward and dh was sent home as visiting hours had finished. They told me that the chance of me going into labour was miniscule and I should sleep (ha) and they would break my waters in the morning. Of course I went into labour, and was left for hours with excrutiating contractions and no one with me. I eventually got a pethadine injection (I thing all the swearing at the midwives swung it) and was moved to labour suite a few hours later at 6cms and having one permanant contraction. I was too late for epidural, and MWs said Gas & Air might slow things down, so I did pushing stage with no pain relief. I was gutted that DH wasn't with me for the contracting bit of labour, as that was the worst bit for me - pushing was easy in comparison.

Hi all, thanks for your messages, it is a real reaasurance to meet people who have been throught the same kind of thing. I had seen a LOT of discovery health progs before my labour and they all seemed to get gas and air straight away and certainly weren't whincing away in a darkened room with 7 other ladies and their babies trying to sleep/feed etc.

I guess I should have said that when I got to delivery I was 8 centimetres and soon after started making a low grrrrr sound which seemed to come from deep inside. MW spent the next 30 minutes trying to encourage me not to push til I became fully dilated and I have a fuzzy memory of someone trying to remove my TENS (It was interfering with baby's monitor...oh yes and I put the TENS on MYSELF in the middle of the night in the dark as there was noone to help me) and then canulate me ....I was thrashing about a bit so there had to be several attempts. Then they were concerned about baby's heart rate so they stuck a monitor on her head and that took three attempts. Dd finally arrived at 9.45am and after a few minutes of people running in and out of the room, suction and oxygen, she finally cried. It was wierd dh and I just sat there on the bed as doctors and midwives ran around, and suddenly everything was ok again.
We then had a bit of time to ourselves before they stitched me up...I will never forget that local anaesthetic...........I know I'd just had a baby but ouch!
i gave Dd her first breastfeed in the delivery room, she went straight on but a few minutes later I had to take her off so that we could be moved out and the next people moved in. We never really got going with it after that...maybe it's all connected.
I hope this doesn't sound like a whinge, I believe that most of the people who cared for me did everything they could with the resources available. I don't really know what I expected but I look back with a sense of horror and disappointment. I know I shouldn't be dwelling on it but it has helped to write it down.
PS Dd is beautiful and worth every bit!

Congratulations on your new dd.

So sorry about the more traumatic bits of the birth. I think you're doing the right thing writing it down and trying to make sense of it all.

Look after yourselves. x

sounds like a s**t experience to me. i think you should complain which is making me wonder why i have not put it down my own in writing yet as mine is not so different.

I'm sorry to hear about all your experiences but I'm glad it's not just me. It's funny, re-reading my posts it reads like it all happened just yesterday but it's actually 9 months ago. Still so vivid....whatever happened to 'you'll forget all about it when you see the baby'.

I don't think I want to go through it again. I have spoken to dh and he thinks that dd will be fine as an only child but then I feel selfish and sad for dd. Perhaps I will change my mind...

Message withdrawn

i was induced at 6pm and woke up a 11pm with strong contractions i was given paracetamol! which i thought was a bloody cheek!

There was i at 1am bent over the table crying in pain with contractions every 3 mins whilst the ward staff were jabbering on about me not ordering my next days dinner!

I didnt get gas and air untill 8am the next morning. i was miffed

I really wish I had been more assertive but I went all wimpish and scared and don't remember having a choice about anything. I think it would have helped to have helt a bit more in control.

In was on gas and air from about 2pm on the saturday-and that mouthpiece didnt leave my mouth till i started pushing- (they took it away from me, despite my protests!) -which was about 1.30 sunday morning...so..about 11 hrs on g+a........it was loveelllllllllyyyyy stuff

It's f888cking awful isn't it? I can't trust myself on threads like these tbh. I wasn't induced but went in because I felt things were starting (just over a week early) and I wanted - and was booked in for - a caesarian.
I was painfully examined, told I wasn't in labour but also told not to go home. Dh was sent home and I was dumped in a dark room and left alone ALL night. I was given two f88888cking paracetamol. PARACETAMOL! I was in absolute agony, bleeding and terrified. I can't even talk about this without crying. I had had placenta praevia with ds and I honestly thought that I, my baby or even both of us might die. I really thought that dd was in danger. The midwives could give a flying F*ck about me. I was sobbing and begging them to help me and they wouldn't even look at me.
Worst experience of my life.
I hate them all.

Same thing happened to me. They told me i wasn't far enough gone to go the delivery room, so i had to scream through it. I finally got to the delivery room half an hour before i had ds, and could only have gas and air then, but it was too late by then. I was ready to push. I had pethidine and that was it. In the hospital i was at, if you're not 3 cms you're not 'allowed' to go to go to a delivery room.

You guys are amazing for getting through these dreadful experiences. There seem to be some individuals in some maternity departments who don't care about women at all. I know that there are a lot who do but it seems (from my limited research!) that the mean ones come out at night!
My psychiatrist (bad pnd)used to be an obstetrician and told me about a really mean midwife he once knew...apparently she was horrible to everyone, including him. Anyway, he got to deliver her baby and lets just say what goes around comes around!

I can't actually believe what I have been reading am so sorry so many of you had bad experiences. sallycinnamon just wanted to say go ahead with home birth because if in the end you do have to transfer to hospital you are treated as a priority for some reason. I had a midwife with me pretty much throughout when transferred to hospital to have contractions speeded up - don't know if that is a coincidednce also while at home you have 2 midwives with you. I hated the Gas and air as it goes and regret using it, it left me feeling out of control and gave me a cough which burst one of my stitches. Epidural was amasing when i finally gave in and took one.