Labour pain - can anyone explain (long)

[lunalovegood84]

I've posted on here a fair bit about my labour - I never talk about it IRL except occasionally to DH, so I suppose it's my outlet. Apologies if this is the millionth post you've seen from me on the subject.

I was induced at 40+13 by pessary around 5pm. Period pains started around 9pm and continued through the night. I was 4cm dilated at 11pm and 5cm at about 6am. I got my TENS machine on quickly and had some paracetamol.

The pain got worse if I lay down so I spent the entire night sitting or bouncing on a ball. However, it was never all that bad. I mean I winced throughout and felt miserable and sorry for myself but I've been in similar/worse pain with earache, sore throat, that kind of thing.

At 8am I was to get my waters broken and casually strolled down to the delivery room chatting away to the midwife etc, was examined and was 9cm dilated! I don't really understand this and from the reaction of the midwife and doctor neither did they as I was acting so normal and not in a huge amount of pain.

The next part is a bit fuzzy but after my waters had broken there was no progress in the next couple of hours so the syntocinon drip was started. It was turned up to 12 when the pain got really bad. As far as I remember it was a continuous pain - either that or incredibly close contractions with a bad pain underlying them. There was no respite at all in between. I ended up being on the drip for 5-6 more hours in a huge amount of pain. It felt like the bones of my pelvis were being ripped apart. During this time I was told that the baby was back to back; they pulled me into position dangling upright over the back of the bed where I stayed the whole time.

It was like torture. I went from someone chatting away normally and my usual self to screaming like a banshee the entire time. Nobody really talked much to me, or helped me change position, or explained anything to me (I have vague memories of them explaining things to DH). I was too out of it to speak much; I couldn't operate the TENS or tell anyone to so it buzzed away at full strength the entire time on my back. I remember the midwife acting pleased that I was now properly in pain, "it's not called labour for nothing". So was the doctor when she visited.

I did ask scream for an epidural at one point. To their credit the anaesthetist arrived promptly but then something on the monitor made them think my contractions were picking up and that delivery was imminent and I didn't get the epidural.

Anyway the end result was baby did not descend, I refused Kielland forceps and had a c section. Baby was 11 and a half pounds, all healthy afterwards.

I never had a birth debrief so I think that's why I have some unanswered questions:
How could I not have been in very much pain at 9cm dilated?
Why was I then in constant agony on the synto drip? Could this have been baby crushing nerves (I found this explanation on someone else's birth story)?
Shouldn't hcps be a bit more concerned that someone completely stoical up to 9cm, with waters broken and everything, then becomes off her head with pain? Rather than being seemingly pleased? Surely this was an indication of a problem?
Shouldn't the midwife have suggested/helped me change position e.g. all fours instead of talking rubbish, making DH toast and filling out endless fucking paperwork?
Could the fact that my waters were broken with a back to back baby be the cause of the failure to descend? Should positioning have been checked before this took place?

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Oh boy was the second labour easy in comparison. It wasn't painless, but each contraction was only a minute long and none of them eye-bulgingly painful. When the midwife suggested some gas and air I said "sure, why not" but wasn't desperate for it.

Whereas the pain I had from the crushed nerves was like a hot knife being jammed into my pelvic floor area and being twisted.

The epidural was weird. I had been on gas and air, which kept me sane. I asked for the epidural when the synto was suggested. An anaesthetist came in and said: It's the end of my shift, though" and the midwife growled at him to do it before he goes. He did it and I felt a pleasantly warm sensation in my feet.

I was given a boost button and told to push that whenever I felt I needed to top it up, but it would only top up if ten minutes had passed since the last one.

Fine.

boost (wait) boost (wait) boost. etc and still the abdominal pain continued. My feet were numb and my knees. The searing pain was gone too but each contraction was still kinda smarting, especially on my left side. It was taking the edge off things but after a few hours I asked the midwife whether I could have the gas and air back please. The look on her face said it all. I wasn't supposed to want it.

She called in the anaesthetist again (a new chap - shift change) and he spotted that the needle had come out so re-sited it. He came back with a canister of cold spray to check its effectiveness. I was only numb to mid-thigh.

He topped it up from a small bottle of fentanyl and that brought the numbness slightly higher but still, I could feel every contraction. He explained that the fentanyl trickles down the epidural cavity but there isn't much control as to where it goes. It can just trickle to one side, giving uneven coverage, for example. Or in my case was too low.

He offered to redo it completely but by this time I was happy with just the gas and air. I think the nerve shock had set it and I was left with just contraction pain which was painful, sure, but manageable so long as I kept taking in great lungfulls of the gas and air. It even became kind of fun to try to get the contraction peaks to match the headiness peaks of the gas and stop inhaling at the right moment to ride it out.

I had a two hour second stage before the obstetrician said theatre and forceps. In theatre I was still clutching the gas and air and refused to let go. The anaesthetist got his cold spray out again and I wasn't numb at all. I was told I was to get a spinal block this time. I scoffed at the idea because I thought nothing was going to work.

Oh my, how blissful to have been free of pain after 70 hours. I was asked whether I consented to an episiotomy and I said: you can remove my head if it'll get the baby out. And after a few minutes I heard a cry. And then I cried. And then DH cried and we saw it was a boy and I thought: Fuck me, that was hard. And then I was too exhausted to do anything but lie in recovery and think: is this what having a baby is like?

No, is the answer. My second one was a 7 hour labour and I loved every moment of it. And I felt disbelief that I now had another baby but this one had been so easy to give birth to. Like I hadn't earned him or something. As though he'd been gifted to me. A freebie, even.

sorry to hijack the thread, but I'd like to ask a question... I wrote about my birth in a previous post upthread but all this talk of nerve damage has got me thinking.

since the birth, I have had some strange and painful sensations in my legs. immediately after the birth and for about 6 weeks, both my knees were very painful to touch, even if they were touched very gently they had an almost burning sensation. this has faded, but is now present, but to a lesser degree on the front of my left ankle. and the side of my right knee is quite numb to the touch.

I mentioned this to my gp at my 6 week check and she seemed to think it was due to swelling (I did swell up pretty massively by the end of my pregnancy). but now I'm wondering if there was any nerve damage, especially as i'm still feeling the effects 10 months later.

i'd appreciate any thoughts that anyone may have.

Happy You could always get it checked out. I now "feel" everything in my lower back so if I'm ill or under the weather in any way I get a dull ache in the base of my back just where my contractions were. My sister had a terrible birth with her youngest who is 16 next month and she has felt any cold/bug/any illness coming on with aching hips ever since. Maybe some things just leave certain areas compromised??

RolyPolier I had such similar experiences to you with Ds1 and DS2. I know exactly what you mean about feeling DC2 was a freebie! Nice to see someone put into words what it feels like. Shuffling around traumatised after DS1s arrival (back to back 2.5 days of labouring then forceps), I felt like someone returning from war who really earned the medal/baby. When I came home from hospital 12 hours after having DS2, I couldn't stop laughing, it seemed so ridiculous they'd give me a baby after such an easy time.

Returning from war. It is a bit like that. And similarly, two soldiers can have returned from the war and have had such different experiences that neither can understand what the other went through. Even though both look like they'd have something in common.

And some have injuries some have mental scars and some had it easy.

And fairness doesn't come into it.

Similar to a PP I have found Drs don't take you seriously if you aren't screaming for drugs/writhing in pain. With my first I was put on the drip and told it would be painful (another back to back baby) then left to it, I kept being told I was being silly asking for pain relief when 'only 3cms it's going to get a lot worse'. They were about to send me for c-section for no progress and then found out dd was crowning. Same with ds, just because I wasn't writhing around in pain midwife was very shocked to discover that I was 8.5 cms and almost ready to have him. Our debriefs haven't been helpful in the slightest but it has helped us see that our local hosp is not the place for us. Hope you can get some closure soon

Well I've had no response to my email to the general enquiries address for the region. I might just request to view my notes and go from there.

Have you emailed PALS? That's who I tried when I wanted a debrief, they were very quick at responding.

I don't think PALS exists here in Scotland unfortunately.