Having read this thread for a while, I finally feel like I can post. My son was born 4 months ago now- I was induced at 40+5 as they thought he was going to be a big baby.
I was admitted at 8pm on the Tuesday night to be induced. I spent some time with the foetal heart monitor so they could trace baby's heartbeat, that took a while as baby kept on moving around a lot, and it took over an hour an a half to get the 20 minute continuous reading that they needed. The first gel was done at 12.30am on the Wednesday- they hooked me up to the monitor again for an hour after that, and then I tried to get some sleep- there was a baby born on the ward that night though, so I didn't really get much sleep at all. The plan was to have a second gel at 6.30am, all being well.
At 6.30am, one of the midwives came in to check me over, ready for the second gel. She put me on the foetal heart monitor again, to check baby was ok. She went away, came back a few mins later, and checked the print-out. She watched it for a little longer, and then told me not to panic (!), but to get my stuff together quickly as she was transferring me straight down to the labour ward. She didn't say anything other than that- next thing I knew I was being wheeled downstairs, put in a small cubicle, and left wondering what was happening. I phoned my husband, as the transfer to the labour ward meant he was allowed in with me again.
The labour ward was a real contrast from the lovely ward I'd been on upstairs. The room I was in still had 4 beds in it, but it was a room about a third of the size of the one upstairs. There was no proper natural light where I was, and hardly any room in my cubicle. The night staff were still on at this point, and no-one would explain what was happening, When they changed over, finally someone explained to me that the baby's heartbeat had fallen below 110, so they'd transferred me straight down to labour ward for more monitoring. The trace was fine though by the time I'd got there. The only good thing to come out of it all though was that I was able to call DH to come in- he would have been allowed up to the ward upstairs at 8am for visiting hours, but as I'd been transferred to labour ward he could come in there and then.
The doctor came to see me with the midwife. They were happy with the trace, and so at 8.10am, they used the second gel. I had breakfast, and then my midwife came in and suggested I go for a walk to help move things along. DH and I walked over to another of the hospital buildings, so he could have some breakfast in the canteen- I had something extra to eat too. As we were walking over there, I though I had a couple of contractions. By the time we'd got the food, I knew they were contractions, and although they were irregular, they were all less than 10 mins apart, and some of them were less than 5 apart, we decided to go back to the ward. I am not sure of the time, but I do know that Homes Under The Hammer (one of my guilty daytime TV pleasures) was on the Patientline TV we had, and we were watching it, so it would have been sometime between 10 and 11. The midwife came back in, and I was in a lot of pain by then, so she suggested I start to use my TENS machine. I did, and it was great for a little while. She said to get her if I felt I needed looking at. The contractions were very painful by this point, and I was finding it difficult to cope. I kept needing the loo as I was drinking so much, but even walking down the corridor was painful. At some point after lunch was served, things started to go a bit wrong. The pain changed, and was so bad, I just couldn't cope with it. DH went to find the midwife, left a message at the desk for her (!) and she eventually came to see us. She insisted that I needed to wait until the 6 hours were up (2.10pm) before she would examine me again. She disappeared off, telling us to fetch her again if we felt we needed her. Not very long afterwards, I knew I needed more pain relief as the TENS was taking of the edge of things only, and not blocking the contractions any more, which were 1-2 mins apart by now. DH went to find her again, she came into the cubicle, checked the trace and then eventually said she'd examine me earlier if it got really bad. (like it wasn't already )
On one of the trips to the loo, my waters broke. I came back and told the midwife, who said she'd examine me in a while (she kept asking me if I was sure they had actually broken, and could it be just where I used the loo). She came back eventually, but only as I wasn't able to be quieter anymore during the contractions, and the other ladies in the room could hear quite clearly that I was hurting (I knew the lady in the next cubicle; we both post on another message board, and didn't meet in RL until I had the induction!), and tried to examine me- but couldn't as I was too tense and in too much pain. Contractions were all less than 2 mins apart by then, and very, very painful. So she decided to move me to a delivery room, so I could have some gas and air, and hopefully that would help her examine me.
She gave me gas and air, examined me, and I was only 3cm dilated- contractions were just over a minute apart, and I couldn?t believe that was all that I was. I asked for Pethidineadine, as the gas and air and TENS were only taking the edge off things, and not helping any more. The midwife decided that she needed the Sister in there to examine me first, and went off to find her. 'That took at least 10 mins where DH and I were in the room on our own, although the door was left open. Things from here are hazy for me, but I remember bits and pieces, and DH has filled me in on the rest. The Sister came and examined me, and I had gone from 3cm to fully dilated in that short time. I was also having continuous contractions, and was in more pain than I'd ever been. The baby had turned back-to-back, which is why it had become so painful. They offered me an epidural, which I said yes to straight away, so they went to page the anesthetisttist. I was still struggling on the g&a through the contractions, and hallucinated a bit too-
Things then accelerated really quickly, and the continuous contractions meant I was unable to move at all or speak properly at all. The anaesthetist came in eventually, and started joking about him taking so long (didn't go down too well with me, I just wanted some pain relief), and then started explaining the risks of him doing one on me- I remember shouting at him that I didn?t care, and to hurry up and do it. They wanted me to go on my side to start it, but I couldn?t move, the pain was so intense I couldn?t even roll. I have honestly never known anything like it, and I was still only on gas and air. I knew something was going wrong when lots more people came in, and I was told to start pushing- I tried, but couldn?t push enough. DH tells me that they checked the foetal monitor, and the baby?s heartbeat was dangerously low, and it had been prolonged.
They decided they had to carry out a crash section, thrust some bit of paper into DH's hands to sign. It all happened so fast, DH wasn?t even allowed to come in with me. Even as I was being wheeled to theatre, and in the theatre itself I was pushing, trying to get baby out myself. Last thing I remember is hearing some conversation about me having the TENS machine pads on my back still, and then them giving me some liquid to drink, which I gulped down.
Within 10 mins of being taken into surgery, was son was born. My husband was left in the delivery room we'd been in with my bags, having no idea what was happening to either me or my baby. Eventually someone came and got him-surgeonurgen came out of theatre, said the baby was ok, and that it was a boy (we hadn't found out). They cleaned the baby up, then took him out to DH who took off his t-shirt and had skin-to-skin contact with him like I'd planned to do straight after birth; the baby calmed down straight away as soon as he was with his Daddy . They asked him about vitamin k- and so baby got the injection as we?d discussed. They then led DH to a side room, left baby with him for ages, brought in all my bags and they told him I?d had a genanesthetichetic but would be fine. They also told him I'd had a blood transfusion in theatre (we found out later I'd lost 3 pints during surgery). They weighed and dressed baby, and then eventually they wheeled me into the same room. I think I came to about an hour and half after he was born. The first thing I saw was DH, who told me that we had a boy, and that he was perfect. He pointed to the cot, and I could just see this little baby lying there, in a stripey outfit. I remember a midwife telling me it was 90 mins since he?d been born- could I try breastfeeding, or did I want them to give him a bottle? I remember mumbling about breast-feeding, and they put him to me, and he latched straight away. asked for some pain relief and was told it would be sorted out in a while.
I slept for a while with him feeding, and sort of drifted in and out for a long while. I remember very groggily phoning my mum, sister and best friend, but hardly had the energy to talk- DH had to finish off the conversations for me. I was in a lot of pain, but it took several hours and requests to finally get my morphine injection- the midwife who administered it said to me I'd done well to have that taht long without pain relief (thinking back to it, I get angry that I was ignored and left in pain for so long, even if they were very very busy that day).
We were finally transferred back to the ward at 2.30am, and I got a side room which I was very grateful for. DH had to leave at that point, but was allowed back at 8am. The next day I spent dosed up with many painkillers, but things have got easier day by day, and they let us come home on the Saturday, which was a relief. They had wanted me to have another day in as my iron levels were so low ? 7.4 (I lost 3 pints of blood during delivery and they?d given me a transfusion in there and wanted to give me a second transfusion), but they let me just take iron tablets in the end.
So absolutely nothing went to plan at all. I?ve never known pain like it if I am honest, and things didn?t progress in the way they should have done. When I was getting the contractions 1-2 mins apart, I feel the midwife should have stayed with me. They should examined me earlier than they did, insteainsistingsting on the 6 hour thing. If any of that had happened, or if the anesthetistatist had arrived earlier, I might have been able to have an epidural. I suspect that with the induction it was always going to end up with a c-section, but I am still upset that I didn't see my son born. I would have done had they believed me when I said I was in pain and started the pain relief sooner. I really feel like I missed out on something, and that initial bonding process and I've found it so hard. I'd mentally prepared for every situation (even a section), but I suppose I had this image in my mind of baby being born, and my husband telling me what it was, and then having my skin to skin contact with the baby. We had 6 scans with him, and had avoided finding out the sex in all of them.
I love spending time with him, he's adorable, and while I'm glad they acted so fast in hospital when his life was in danger (I can't fault how quick they were when they finally realised there was a problem), they were so busy there I felt I was ignored to the point it could so easily have gone the other way. It upsets me 4 months on, and has made me think twice about if I could even have a second pregnancy now.
I spoke to a HV nearly 4 weeks ago about having a debrief- I saw her again 10 days go and she said she was chasing it up but I've heard nothing. I stil get flashbacks at night when I try and sleep but not as many as I used to.