I spent hours having contractions and was only 1cm dilated, why?

[urbancowgirl]

Hello,

I am dwelling a bit on the birth of my DD, at the time I was just thankful to have a healthy baby but as I start contemplating trying for DC2 I want to understand more of what happened.

After being overdue I started contractions whilst I was waiting for induction but was only 1cm dilated. After many painful hours (shared room with other inducees trying to muffle contraction related screaming, cold showers that were supposed to relax me, G and A, epidural) I eventually had an ECS as was still only 1cm dilated and DD was distressed.

Please share experiences of similar situations and VBAC attempts for subsequent DC . . . .

I think Dvc talks sense.

My baby was back to back - I wasn't stressed it afraid particularly - so I think it was physiological for me.

thanks for sharing all the experiences, I think I fall somewhere between the ´being tense´and ´the baby in the wrong place´ hypothesis

I have my notes but don´t understand them as I gave birth in another country! I have a good doctor though and before I start trying for another DC I think I´ll have a proper chat about what happened and what is likely to happen next time as I think otherwise it will just bug me all the way though (even with lovely pregnancy hormones!)

I totally agree with Yuleing - I read them all and had hypnobirthing CDs, felt very relaxed, was in early labour for four days - still didn't get past 4cm. Sometimes I think people just aren't physically capable of giving birth naturally - hence the very high mortality rates previously for giving birth.

I felt twice as bad for a nanosecond, as not only had I 'failed to progress', but I kept then being told it was because I was not relaxed enough/was scared etc. This simply was not true.

I forgot hydration! - can also make a difference. This is quite a good summary (with US bias).

Also worth looking at spinningbabies.com and doing some exercises - getting baby into good position can make a bi difference.

Not being able to birth naturally doesn't really make sense from a biological POV.

I was never told that I was scared or not relaxed (would have actually needed a midwife in the room with me for more than 10 seconds at a time for that) but I might have punched someone if they had done

I often wondered if my pain threshold was just crap or if what I had wasn't really contractions? All I know is that I was unable to sleep when they sent me home because the contractions were making me jump off the bed. when I got back to hospital I was still only 1.5 cm dilated. Sometimes there is just nothing anyone can do and no technique that can help to make you dilate faster.

I had similar, wasn't induced as I was already having very strong contractions every 4 minutes so syntocin not appropriate and they tried several times to rupture the membranes but couldn't. DD was 17 days overdue and a scan showed there was no amniotic fluid left - it had all been reabsorbed.

At most I was 1cm dilated. DD was only ever 2/5 engaged. I've no idea about position as in head tilt, but certainly her head was enormous - it's tracked above 98th centile since birth, whereas her overall weight and height has tracked around 25th centile or below. I ended up with EMCS for fetal distress. I was actually pretty relaxed about everything, if a little fed up, right up until the moment her HR plummeted; that was the first time I actually got really worried. DD was luckily generally fine when born though notes showed that umbilical arterial pH was low so she was already suffering oxygen/nutrient deprivation, she had torticollis and plagiocephaly and required a year's physio, and had/has severe reflux which is thought to be related.

I'm now 37+w pregnant. I have an ELCS scheduled for a fortnight's time (absolutely no way going over the due date, both the ob cons and I were in agreement on that!) but I wanted to leave it to the last minute, again with full agreement, so if I do go into labour spontaneously before then I'll be allowed trial of labour but with close observation and early intervention. I was warned that it is unlikely I'll go into labour spontaneously before the due date, given I went over 42 weeks last time, and also that it's highly probable that an attempted VBAC would end in EMCS. My own personal view is that if I do go into labour before 40w, the situation is already so different that I won't have any psychological baggage and I don't have much to lose by trying in these circumstances. Besides, there's a big difference between EMCS because they're not taking any chances and a crash c/s because you're about to lose the baby... for a start, they've promised they'll have time to get the anaesthetic in this time, so that would be nice.

Anyway, at my appointment last week, this baby was already 4/5 engaged - so I figure that's far greater progress than DD ever made. I'm definitely going down the curry/long walks route to see if that helps bring on labour and avoid the ELCS, but at the same time it's really comforting to know that there's a backstop and they're not going to let the pregnancy progress to the point of oligohydramnios, cord compression and fetal distress again.

Doesn't have to be the same second time around, don't let the bad memories haunt you!

"Not being able to birth naturally doesn't really make sense from a biological POV."

If we'd been left to do it naturally, we would most likely have both died in childbirth. :(

Back to back baby, premature rupture of membranes causing risk of infection, non dilation of cervix over 48 hours etc, requirement for forceps, severe blood loss etc.

Also 74 hours from waters to birth = an extremely tired woman.

Ah Hairy, I recognise you now Awesome, think I've managed to offend two SILs in one thread. The other two aren't on MN so I might just drop them a quick email calling them fat or something.

Just to be clear I'm not saying it's a labouring woman's "fault" if she doesn't dilate. I also think it's crap that it's called failure to progress. But I do think that we're set up medically and culturally to struggle wtih natural childbirth. Culturally we believe it's teh most painful thing we'll ever go through, that's got to have an effect.

I'm not offended

I know lots of women who have had lovely natural birth experiences but I do think luck plays a big part in the whole thing.

I found birth painful but I expected it to be painful and the techniques I learned through hypobirthing, the nct and so on really helped me deal with the pain. What I wasn't too keen on was the 3+ days of contractions, no sleep, the infection which left me unable to pee and the fact that the maternity unit was packed so I was left for long periods of time with no one checking how far dilated I was. I got to 6 cms with no one offering me gas and air (I did have pethidine, wish I hadn't) and then went from 6-10 after being whisked up to the CLU because the baby was in distress. I loved 6 - 10, it was amazing. Gas and air is amazing. I would do it again but hopefully without the prep for C-section, spinal block, episiotoy and forceps

Not offended either not at all!

I'm under no illusions that in times gone by or under a less progressive medical regime both my son and I would've died, so to tell me I just need to read a book is insulting.

And you're not even my SIL! ;)

OP, I never got past 1cm, I try and look on the bright side, "honeymoon fresh" I believe is the term. I'm having an elcs on Monday. No regrets! Thank goodness I'm not passing on my shoddy cervix to any daughters!

I agree with Haggis it's bad enough having a hard labour without people implying it was all because you didn't relax enough

In my case I had horrendous contractions every 60 seconds for almost 24 hours, still didn't dilate past 2 cm. My waters had broken but DS was not engaged and in a bad position, also he was enormous. I had an EMCS and the surgeon said he never would have come out naturally. I have slight issues with my pelvis but I don't know how much that contributed to everything.

OP can you get your notes translated? They may give you some more clues as to whether there were physiological problems and that would probably help you decide going forward.

Jolly good re SILs and I apologise if I've offended anyone else, but that's going to be slightly less awkward for me over pub lunch on Friday

I did try to clarify above that I don't consider it anyone's "fault" for not relaxing (or dilating) and I don't think that reading a book is going to guarantee anyone a perfect birth (unfortunately!) but I do think it's a good starting point for starting to unravel some of the reasons why OP may have had the experience she did.