What happened during my birth?

[tiredparentstiredbaby]

Long story so I will try to keep it short!

• I live abroad and in this country they do not have midwives, health visitors, its a different doctor you see each time and they generally don't speak English.

-I was having contractions for 3 days and they eventually agreed to an emergency C section. -Got to the emergency hospital and I was 9 cm dilated so took me up to the delivery room. -I had one nurse at the bottom of the bed pulling and one standing on a stool next to my stomach pushing (punching!) on my stomach every time I had a contraction. -I had an episiotomy. -I don't remember being in pain when pushing but they had injected anesthetic when they did the episiotomy and also had administered a drip of something about an hour before. -After I had pushed the head out they told me to stop and then they just pulled him out and that was it.

So this is my birth story. It was pretty weird. But my husband was not allowed in the room so I was my own so some parts are very hazy. My question is, I just watched a 'one born every minute' style programme and the giving birth part was very detailed. It was COMPLETELY different to what happened to me. Why wasn't the midwife pulling on the baby? Why wasn't anyone punching her stomach?

Now I'm thinking, did I have some sort of different procedure that they never told me about? I know forceps are particularly painful, but when I think about the details of the nurse pulling it kind of sounds like forceps? Or is this just normal and not what they show on TV? Any ideas?...

Wow op that sounds really traumatic. In the uk you can ask to have someone go through your notes with you and explain why what happened happened. I'm guessing you don't have anything similar there?

That sounds horrendous. Was it in a third world country?

That does sound very traumatic Op.
Can you talk it through with a midwife who works there ? Where are you ?

Could it have been a shoulder dystocia?

No they don't speak English and I have no idea who it was that actually delivered him so I can't really ask.

Not a third world country but developing, very very old fashioned when it comes to women healthcare.

I just looked at shoulder dystocia and from what I can see if his shoulder came out with the head she could of just hooked him out? This would make sense I guess....

It’s hard to say for sure but sounds not too dissimilar to my experience.

My daughter had shoulder dystocia and what you describe does sound a little bit like what they had to do to get her out. It was called the Macroberts manoeuvre and in my case took three people. The midwife explained after that usually they would just hook the arm out but she wasn’t able to do that because it was twisted behind her back. This only lasted for a few minutes though - maybe through 3 contractions and they got her out.

I think I read somewhere that pushing on a woman's stomach in labour is standard practice in some countries.

Sounds barbaric to me.

Sounds fairly similar to my first birth, my daughter was back to back and completely stuck.

I had an episiotomy and the midwife pushed down on my stomach with each contraction, then she was brought out by forceps.

I don't think it sounds like be shoulder dystocia. Could the midwife have been using a ventouse. The pushing on the abdomen is something we just don't do the UK but I know it's done in other places.
The drip was probably artificial oxytocin which is given to speed/strengthen contractions. Or it could have been saline.or antibiotics.

Just messaging to say I can empathise. I had my first child abroad and they were taking turns to push on my stomach (fundal pressure). Literally standing on the side of the bed to get a good run at it. They did a lot of stuff that they didn't do with my second birth in the UK. I've no advice but just wanted to empathise. I just had my third child in a different foreign country and opted for an ELCS as I would never risk another labour in a foreign country

I'v had the pushing on the stomach done in the UK by a Dr. DC1 was high risk for Down Syndrome but we chose not to have an amnio. Right when I was pushing DC1 body out the Dr started talking to me about Down Syndrome which I think stalled my contractions. I assume the pushing was to get them going again.
I'd assume vontouse or forceps for the pulling.

The pushing on my stomach was also in the UK, albeit ten years ago.