Could someone read my account of my labour & delivery please? Bit confused.

[CagneyNLacey]

I had my second child 3 weeks ago. I went over by 2 weeks (again) and was booked in to be induced for 8pm on a Friday.

I started contractions at 3am on the friday morning, they were every 5-7 mins for 2-3 hours then stopped until til 6pm when they started again. I went along to induction app anyway at 8pm but contractions at this point started coming every 2 mins, continued every 1-2 mins for 3 hours but on examination I was only 2cms (was 2cm at sweeps 2 weeks and then a few days earlier). I was given codeine and diamorphine but it didnt relieve the pain at all.

At midnight my waters broke and I sort of felt baby 'drop' or something, the feeling made me vomit. Then I was bundled into a wheelchair and rushed to another room where I was told that I had gone from 2cm to 9cm in approx 20 mins. Baby's heartrate was 60 I think they said. I was prepped for a crash section and given a general anesthetic. I felt baby was about to be born as I went under and when I woke up I was told that baby had been delivered with forceps as things had moved so quickly. He is fine and I am ok.

But I dont understand why contractions were so close together yet I was only 2cms. Also, why pain relief didnt work at all. Also, if I was 9cm, why was I prepped for csection- wouldnt that mean baby was too far down for csection? Obviously, I appreciate that nobody can tell me specifically what happened in my case, but if anyone could hazard any guesses that'd be great.

Ps thanks for reading this far!

I am by no means an expert but irreguler contractions don't work effectivly for dilating the cervix, from what I know.
As for the pain relief, I have no idea but I've always suspected with my dd that the gas and air wasn't turned on because it was no where near as effective as it was with my second labour.
Prepping you for the c-section, they would have had to pull him back up the birth canal but it is possible to do.

Hiya. Part of your experience rings true with mine. I was 17 days overdue. Booked for induction and already in labour. Was hooked up to ctg having regular and REALLY strong contractions to the point of them piggybacking. After 16 hrs the mw was getting everything in order for me to push. Had an examination and I was only 1cm. Had syntocinon and got to 8 cm in 4 hrs but dd hr kept dipping to 50-60 bpm and hadnt really descended resulting in a emsc with a general.

I went through my notes with a midwife 2 wk ago (8 weeks after birth) and my biggest question was why was I having contractions like that but not dilating?! It just didn't make sense like my cervix just wasn't getting the message of what to do. The mw told me its one of the unknowns that they'll never be able to answer. Which quite frankly is very frustrating. As for the general which upsets me even more is that hr of 50-60 is dangerously low that if they'd got me prepped for a spinal it was 20-30 mins they just didn't have. Dd was one lucky baby. As for u having forceps and putting u under I don't know :-s but if you can deffo try n make an appt with a mw to go through it all just to put ur mind at ease

You can be fully dilated without the baby being too far down for cs. DS remained at -2 station (very high) throughout stage 2 of my labour (I was fully dilated), too high for instruments so I got a section.

My labour had some similarities to yours - from the very beginning the contractions were really close together and irregular (every 3-5 mins) but it took 12 hours or so til I was even 4cm dilated. Like you, I ended up with a forceps delivery (as well as a 4th degree tear and a distressed baby who wouldn't breathe but we're both fine now ). Things went so far from what we'd imagined, I did struggle with digesting it all for a good while. But our hospital allowed debriefing type appointments, where a gynaecologist went thru everything that happened answering all of my questions. Maybe your gp or midwife might be able to set up a similar appointment? It really helped me come to terms with the birth and also allowed us the opportunity to ask about future birth options if I got pregnant again.

Take care of yourself, you've been thru a lot. And congratulations on the birth of your little one.

Well, there are lots of averages in childbirth but somebody has to be at either end of the scale to make an average in the first place! Looks like you were just not average.
Lots of women have contractions that don't comply with the gradual build up and regular timing of textbooks. Those contractions may or may not be effective. A cervix can change dilatation in seconds, never mind 20minutes and this is why every woman should be treated as an individual.
To answer your questions, codeine and diamorphine don't work for everyone. They make some people spaced out or more relaxed but don't do much for the pain. For others they are the best thing ever. You just can't predict until you try it. It sounds like you progressed rapidly and that can make babies heart rate respond by decelerating as in your case. If the fetal heart stayed at 60 they had no option but to go for CS if you were only 9cm. You don't mention the station of the head (how high or low it was) but that also plays a significant factor in the decision making.
When they put you to sleep they would probably have put a catheter in and would have seen baby was making an entrance vaginally. Obviously with you asleep and unable to push they had to help get baby out quickly and ventouse needs you to push too so forceps would be the only quick, safe option for your baby in that situation.
Hope that helps but do go for a debrief at your own hospital if you need to know exactly what happened. They are usually very good.

Effective labour depends on three things working harmoniously together- the powers (ie. contractions) the passenger (the baby- size, weight, position of baby's body and head) and the passages (your pelvis mainly)- any one of these things on their own, or several combined, can lead to delays or complications in labour.

Everybody is different and as much as doctors would have us believe, not everyone's body works in the same way, particularly when it comes to labour and birth.

It is difficult to speculate, as we weren't present for your birth and don't have access to your labour records, but we do know that progressing quickly in labour can cause heart rate changes in the baby- this can happen particularly in women who have had babies before, as the baby descends quickly on to the pelvic floor. Compression of the fetal head during labour and birth can cause the heart-rate to drop- this has a phsiological purpose in that the baby releases adrenaline in response and the baby is often therefore more awake post-birth, ready to bond with the mother and breastfeed. Well-grown, full term babies often have no problem coping with this descent and can quickly recover their heartbeat, however some babies, in the absence of other factors, don't cope very well and that is when the birth ought to be expedited- a low heart rate for longer than 10 minutes (in a well grown, term baby) means the baby can suffer from oxygen deprivation. When the heart rate has been down for 3 minutes, this is classed as a bradycardia, and preparation for birth, in whichever method, needs to be made.

Caesarean sections can happen when a mother is fully dilated. They can even (though rarely) happen when the baby's head has already been born. If the cervix isn't completely open, the baby cannot descend, even though, particularly in women who have had babies before, cervixes tend to open faster.

As said above every woman is different so pain relief that works for one person won't work for another. There is also not set or defined rate for cervial dilatation (though many hospitals 'prefer' you to dilate 1cm from 4cm onwards an hour and say you're defective if you don't)- having a vaginal examination only gives you what dilatation you are at that set moment in time- you can be fully dilated 20 minutes later, or 2 weeks later- labour and birth is very unpredictable, particularly in women having subsequent babies (which could explain the quick nature of your birth and why the decision was made for a forceps and not a caesarean section).

I am sorry that you did not have the best experience, and hope you are both recovering well. Please don't feel as if you have to be 'greateful' or any other expected emotion regarding your experience- your emotions are your own and the way you feel about your experience is always valid. What happened would be regarded as a traumatic experience by anyone, professional or mother alike, but it is important that you process it as you see fit.

I highly recommend a birth 'debrief'. Many hospitals offer this as a specific service but some do not- either way you are entitled to one- you could ring the main labour ward or contact the head of midwifery- they will always point you in the right direction. The service will offer you an opportunity to ask further questions, see your labour notes and process what happened, though you may not feel ready for this for several weeks, months, or even years.

Sending you lots of love- and ofcourse many congratulations!! xx

Gosh, thank you everyone for your replies, made me cry a bit . I cant respond to individual posts as on a crappy tablet but, really, thank you for taking the time to respond. I will read through the replies again once i've thought it all over.

I did consider asking for a debrief but feel like as we are both ok it might be seen as unnecessary but I keep getting flashes of what might have happened if I hadnt turned up for induction appointment. I also keep reliving the feeling and pain of my baby about to be born as the anaesthetic took effect, I can remember pressure on my neck and being held still by theatre staff as I went under. Hmmmmm, Maybe it would help to discuss it with hospital afterall.

Thank you again, I'll re read later when I get a chance and can think it through properly

Go for the debrief with a list of things you need clarified. It usually helps make more sense of what happened. The pressure on your neck is called crichoid pressure and it is to help prevent your stomach contents coming up and going into your lungs, totally normal but unnerving if you are even a fraction aware. And the staff hold onto you because the drugs can make you twitch violently and they don't want you to fall off the theatre table!

Have a debrief! My labour and CS weren't half as dramatic as yours but it was really beneficial to have a senior mw go through my notes and acknowledge it wasn't the easiest birth, it really was like aweight being lifted.

Congratulations on the baby!

I think that's what I found most beneficial Alan, just to have someone official say to me that it was a difficult labour. Do go Cagney. It doesn't have to be straightaway - I think my appointment was 4 months after our DS had been born (even tho I requested the debrief before we'd even left the hospital). And get someone to babysit for an hour so you can concentrate.

I didn't get round to arranging mine for nearly a year! I wish I'd gone earlier, I think I underestimated the effects of parts of the birth on me.

I don't know if you would like a third child, OP, but I know I was really worried about getting pregnant again after my first birth despite being keen for another baby. the MW discussed options for 'next time' which made DC2 seem like a nice thing rather than something to be scared of.

OK, so obviously I don't know hat actually happened in your labour, but from a distance here's my interpretation of what could of happened. During the first part of a labour the baby doesn't 'move down' particularly. It stays in the womb and puts pressure on the cervix which helps the cervix dilate. The cervix (the neck bit of the womb) is about 2cms long and like a very thick polo mint, it has a hole in the middle. For your baby to be able to come out the minty thick bit had to thin right down so that the hole in the middle bit has to expand out to 10cms.

For some women (you being one it seems) their bodies approach to labour is to take little bites at it. SO you have a few hours of contractions - quite regular ones - then it all stops. The next day perhaps a similar pattern and so on, until finally it's ready. Then for those women often their body just goes for it! All contractions are doing something, even if we can't 'see' what it is. SO it's likely that although the hole in the middle of your cervix was at 2cms for a long time, what your contractions were doing were making the 'mint' part of your cervix thinner & thinner so that once it was ready the hole could quickly go from 2cms to 9cms.

As LullabelleStar said (fab post BTW) often babies don't like this swift progression and their heart rate drops accordingly. This makes medical professionals very nervous, but the more we understand about babies life in the womb the more it seems that it's a natural mechanism that will actually protect & help baby as lbS described.

the 2nd part of your labour was very swift, and though I really hesitate to say this it does sound to me as though your medial team over-reacted a tad. Giving you a GA for a crash Cs when you could feel that the baby was about to be born sounds cause for further questioning to me. But I wasn't there, so shouldn't speculate perhaps?

You don't say, but did you have any medication to aid the induction? If so then that could also have a bearing on why your body laboured as it did. I suspect, but obviously it's pure speculation on my part, that if you hadn't gone for the induction, then your contractions would have become stronger and you'd have gone to hospital at some point then had your baby, probably very quickly. I don't think you were ever putting your baby at any risk at all.

Definitely get a birth debrief, but perhaps in a couple of weeks when you're not so hormone befuddled and can take it in better?

Enjoy your little one ,and congratulations & well done! :)

Sorry, only just got a chance to come back to this - 4 week old and 17 month old keeping me busy. Meant to say thank you to those who shared their birth experiences as well as those explaikned what probably happened during my labour. I really appreciate it, it's helped me start to process it.

Missismac, I didnt have anything to induce me in the end. And yes, it does seem that the GA and near CS were a bit of an overreaction, my son was born about ten mins after I had GA. But I suppose I have no idea what should and shouldnt happen in those circs but I do feel that I wasnt listened to. Ah well, all is ok I suppose! Dont think I'll be having anymore kids though

Right, haven't read previous answers so forgive me if I'm repeating.

Irregular contractions won't normally dilate your cervix but will soften and shorten it, hence why you were still 2cm when examined. When its your 2nd or more baby its not unsual to dilate very suddenly towards the end.

Prepping you for a section at 9cm is sensible. If the last cm of cervix hadn't gone then a foceps wouldn't have been possible. Its very likely (as you proved) that the last cm would go very quickly as it was your 2nd baby but if they hadn't prepped you for a lscs and then you'd still been 9cm it could have been a problem.

The question is whether they were reacted too quickly to the drop in FH, should they have checked you again before the GA rather than after the GA? And without having been there its very diffiicult to say. Hope you're OK. Ask if they offer a debrief service at the hospital to help you understand why they did what they did.