Another thread has prompted me to write this down, as I STILL feel really quite resentful about the whole thing,although the outcome was fine. Having had two lovely (though painful(!)) homebirths, with dd and ds2, it highlights to me only too clearly how wrong they got things.
A bit of history - uneventful pregnancy, ds1 didn't seem to be too big, everything fine, bp normal, no abnormal results at all. At 40+7 the mw booked me an induction for 40+12. No discussion about this at all - I didn't know this was optional! Dd was born at 40+14 - this is obviously how I have my babies! Anyway, I got the leaflets about induction, read them and cried and cried - especially about dh having to go home if it went over visiting hours. It just seemed so barbaric and rigid, even the bit where it said 'when you get close to delivery your dh would be phoned' - what about the support during labour? Anyway, this wasn't an issue as it turned out.
40+12 arrived - a Saturday morning. Was having some niggling pains, bad back ache and a dull ache in my hips (which I now know is the way I feel early labour). We were due at the hospital at 10am, so I attempted to eat a bowl of cornflakes, felt sick so didn't. We stopped at the petrol station for opal fruits! On arrival at the maternity ward, we were booked in by a student mw, who would be looking after us. I instantly recognised her, and she me, as she had done one of my antenatal appointments, and attempted to take some blood - she had ended up dropping the needle out of my arm, leaving me dripping blood to go and get another one, messed up that one, so I had two HUGE bruises. So that didn't fill me with confidence. She did a quick exam, declared the baby to be ROA (he was in fact LOP), and said I needed to be monitored for an hour before induction. All this time I was having moderate contractions, about every 5 minutes, which she brushed off, and wrote in my notes 'painless tightenings' - er no, painful contractions thank you very much! After about half an hour she came back - ds1 was asleep, so the trace wasn't good enough - not variable enough, so another 3/4 hour or so had to be done. After that, she took the reading to the dr who said the trace was fine and to proceed IF NECESSARY. Given the trace was showing fairly strong contractions every 3 mins, I would have thought any sensible person would have held off a bit. BUT NO. The STUDENT decided I would have the prostaglandin pessary, which then meant another hour on the bed, being traced. I did say 'do I really need that?' and her response was ' oh yes dear'. Retrospectively I should never have gone in - just waited, and then gone in when in established labour, but I wasn't confident enough in knowing that this was the beginning.
Anyway, half way through this monitoring hour I shifted position (was very uncomfortable), and the pad shifted, so we buzzed the mw. The student came back, and panicked - "the baby is in distress, the heartbeat has dropped from 130 to 70 " - er no, we said, that's my heartbeat. "No NO NO - it's the baby". She moved the pad and he miraculously recovered. Funny that. DUring this time, someone brought me some cold rhubarb crumble and custard and a tuna sandwich, which I did NOT eat !
In another half an hour or so (i.e. 90 mins after the pessary was given) I was really in a lot of pain, loads of contractions, so we buzzed her again and said 'please could we go to the labour ward so I could have some G&A'. Her response was "No, you're not really in established labour yet, you'll get much better attention here(!)". At this point I really did insist, and she phoned the labour ward. "They're a bit busy, you have to stay here till they're quieter. I'll just check how you're getting along - oh. You're 7cm, we'd better go now."
So, I was wheeled along to the labour ward, and I remember being in SO much pain, all in my back, as ds1 was OP (remember her OA diagnosis). I requested an epidural, which they did give, and things calmed down a bit. Student mw stayed from now till the birth, but from now on she was at least supervised, so she was reined in a bit. I was also from now on on the bed, being constantly monitored. I do wonder if had I had access to G&A earlier whether I could have managed without - it didn't touch it by the time I got there.
After about an hour, ds1 was having 'late declerations' - I think lying down was putting pressure on the cord a bit, so they did lots of blood samples from his scalp which was very unpleasant and meant he had loads of scabs when he came out. The first two samples were wasted as the machine broke. Anyway, he seemed to be ok, and from then on things went ok - he was born in the evening, 9lb12. After an hour dh was sent home, and I was sent up to the ward. I can remember being SO hungry I thought I would faint - I hadn't had any food all day, as I couldn't eat breakfast or lunch and 'oh dear, you missed tea, oh well.' Trying to feed ds1 was a nightmare, but I won't go into that now.
Sorry this is SO long, but I've never written it all down, and it does bug me, even though it was a happy outcome, and not really a bad experience - the mixture of incompetence and inappropriate responsibility still surprises me.
Thanks for reading!