"If THIS isn't labour, I'm in BIG FUCKING TROUBLE.....I want to see a doctor. RIGHT NOW!"
This, screeched at the two midwives who kept telling me to get off the bed, nip down to the day room, take a shower.... They said I wasn't yet in labour as my waters hadn't broken. There was apparently NO NEED to call my husband yet as there was hours to go.....(I'd been induced and in their opinion, the process could take up to 12 hours to get going fully). Less than one hour later, all hell broke loose when my son arrived. There was no time for any pain relief....
"You are not taking this off me...now, fuck off and leave me alone!". This delightful mouthful to my poor husband said with the gas and air mouthpiece clenched between my teeth, as he, under the midwife's instruction, tried to take it off me as she said I was "getting high". All my preplanned pain relief had been abandoned as it was "too late" when they found that I was about to deliver.....
Later, on the ward, the hospital admin lady came to apologise. For the effing shambles it was, and for the faulty gas and air.....apparently, it wasn't working from the wall. So, I wasn't so much HIGH as a kite....I was in bleedin' agony.
Good old NHS.