Was this labour?

[furfoxsake]

Back in June I had DD2. The circumstances around the birth were very strange, but things got worse when she was born and she was seriously ill, so the stuff with the birth kind of went off my radar. I was supposed to have a debrief about the birth but with everything that happened it never happened (I had to move to a different town with her for 2 months so she could get specialist treatment) and I don't suppose it ever will now. When I tell people about the birth they say "are you sure it wasn't labour?" and I don't think it was but I don't actually know.

The history is that with DD1 I had a ELCS as she was breech. It all went smoothly at 39wks. With DD2 I was going for a vbac but then at 37wks got cold feet and decided to go for ELCS too and was awaiting an appt at the hospital. However on the morning of 37+4 I awoke with a stitch that got worse as the day went on. By lunchtime I was crying in agony (I've got a high pain threshold generally). I had a MW appt anyway and DH had to drive me to it, by this time I could barely walk. The MW referred me to hospital. I was examined by various people and when they touched anywhere on my abdomen it was agony - to my shame I slapped away the hand of one poor doctor. It was a constant pain, not what I thought labour would be like, and it was as if it was on the outside not the inside iyswim.

Long story short my heart rate was so high and so was the baby's that I had an EMCS an hour later. The hospital never came to any conclusion - they thought it might be placental abruption or ruptured scar from previous section, but nobody really knew.

So really I just want to know if this was labour or not, if it was then its not how I'd been led to believe it would be! I don't know if DD's subsequent illness was linked to the birth or if it was all a coincidence. I'm starting to wonder if I was in labour all along and had just got it all wrong!

I'm so sorry the birth of your DD2 was so scary and she was so ill afterwards. Hope she is doing well now

It all sounds confusing. For me, labour pain was intermittent and felt initially like period pain and eventually like huge pressure in my vagina, almost a crushing pain or like I was being split in two. It was very much an internal rather than an external pain, and between contractions I wasn't in pain and could even sleep (albeit for two minutes at a time

I think your experience, if you were in labour, sounds atypical. Maybe you were in labour but something was wrong too? I suppose pain is subjective and every labour is different. I wouldn't feel guilty about slapping the Dr's hand, btw, they will have experienced much worse I reckon.

I would definitely ask for a birth debrief to try to make sense of it all. You can have them for years afterwards so you would certainly be in the timeframe. You can contact your maternity unit or ask your HV or GP how to arrange it. I think it's really important to make peace with how you gave birth (if that doesn't sound too wanky!)

Hi op what happened to you does not sound like labour at all.
I am a midwife and constant pain is a warning sign that all is not well, an abruption or the scar beginning to " give" sound much more likely.
Why don't you ask to go through your notes with a midwife or obstetrician.
The operation notes in particular may shed some light on what happened.
Good luck. X