Please don't read this if you would rather not hear a pretty traumatic birth experience, but I'm finding myself in tears nightly over this and wanted to reach out and see if what I experienced is just one of those things or if it was a mismanaged birth. This will be longish 😅
I gave birth to an IVF baby last week. He was overdue and at 41 weeks a urine test and blood pressure flagged late pre eclampsia. The triage team got me in for a second test on the Saturday, and decided I should be induced. I didn't mind that as I was keen to have the baby, as he was also always measuring in the high centiles on scans and showing no sign of being ready to come out. I've read ALOT about inductions so went to the antenatal ward prepared for possibly a few days. I've always been very flexible in my birth plan, partly because all of my friends went out the window and partly because I'm just grateful to be having a baby after dealing with the IVF process.
I was given the pessary at 11am Saturday, started contracting that afternoon and into the evening. They were painful and all in my back. I'd raised the worry he was back to back at several of my latest appointments and always told ah don't worry he'll move etc. The pain was awful so I knew he was back to back, plus could feel his feet at the front. I was feeling nauseous too and given an anti sickness by the midwife, and at one point the contractions became regular enough that they were three in ten. I asked several times what's the next step, will my waters be broken, and the midwives were all quite reluctant to do anything at night and wanted to wait til next day. Fair enough, it is a 24 hr pessary after all I thought.
Next day i was dilated enough to break my waters, but was told as post natal ward was full, labour ward was also full so they wouldn't break my waters. I asked how long might it be, and told oh we cant know but people are leaving all the time so not long. Not long turned into two more days on the ward, not able to go home because I and the baby needed 4 hourly monitoring due to the pre eclampsia. Wards are noisy places anyway and I was getting very tired. I asked several times if the cervix would revert or stay open enough to have my waters broken to be told it'd be fine it would stay open.
At about 10am Tuesday after being in since 8am Saturday, a labour room became free and I transferred over. The midwife examined me and said my inner cervix os had closed and I'd have to go back to ante natal as they had got it wrong on Sunday, and do the gel for 6 hours to open again. I could have cried. In the two days and nights I was on antenatal, noone had transferred over to labour except two ladies who went into natural labour themselves.
I couldn't face another two days getting more exhausted on the ward, so when the midwife went to get the registrar I resolved with my husband to ask for an elective, as I was worried too about his position and size, having read alot again about induced vaginal birth outcomes for those factors. Usually ended in an EMCS or theatre instrumental delivery.
The registrar came and actually disagreed with the midwife and broke my waters herself. I opted for an epidural in a change to my birth plan as the contractions on Sunday has been horrendous in my back. They came and did it but as the anaesthetist warned me of an electric shock feeling, I only felt it down my left side and told him. He pulled it up a bit and said that would do the trick. The drip went in my arm, a catheter in my bladder and I began contracting. Pretty early on I knew the epidural hadn't worked as my left leg was numb and the pain was localised in my right side, and was awful. Tried lying on my right for a top up to no avail, and was very hard to move at all with a catheter in my bladder, cannulas in my arms, a blood pressure cuff and the wire attached to a clip on the babies head as his heart rate was high, as well as monitors strapped to my bump. I felt trapped and unable to mlve much at all.
Epidural was resited before 10pm, but still didn't work, and was agony to keep still during the relocation. My extremities went ice cold after and I was vomiting - in hindsight a symptom of shock. At 10pm I was 3 cm. Come the 2am examination after back to back agonising contractions I was still only 3cm, and there was meconium in the waters. Babies heart rate was still high and because of his position, his head wasn't engaged on the cervix properly so I was never going to dilate to ten. It was so frustrating to be told what I had already known, but I was anxious to get the baby out as he was in distress. They said I had to have an EMCS and I of course did, a scary and shocking experience. So grateful to the wonderful midwives and surgeons but still, terrifying. Baby was born and came out a whopping 10lbs.
I won't go into after care and conflicting feeding among the midwives which ended up us having a very hungry, tired and angry baby on discharge and now unable to latch but I just wanted to get that out there and see if anyone else has had an induction like that, where the process was essentially stopped for two full days and nights. If pre eclampsia was so serious then why allow for that time, and if it wasn't then could I not have kept my initial induction booking at just short of 42 weeks.?
Well done if you got to the end of this post 😅 even if noone reads it feels good to have written it down.