Did I imagine this!!!!

[fiestabelle]

Hi

I have searched through threads and also on the net - apologies of this has been asked and answered before.

DS was a long labour, as he was OP and contractions stopped after the first 12 hours. I was put on a drip to re-start contractions, had gas and air and 2 lots of diamorphine and think I coped reasonably well - dh might tell a different story

Anyway, late on second day of labour glanced up from my drug induced haze and found an assortment of doctors/midwives/students round the bottom of the bed and was then told that they DS was stuck (they may have used a more technical term and that I would need an epidural and they would attempt to manually turn him. Had epidural and then vaguely remember being rolled back and forth around the bed whilst the doctor tried to manipulate ds into the correct position (think vet helping cow to give birth if you want to conjure up an image .

No-one I know seems to have anything like this, and I do remember thinking this cannot be happening, but dh says it did

We are thinking about ttc again, and although I wouldnt say I was traumatised by the birth experience I do have a few issues around loss of control and disappointment that I didnt get the happy smiley birth I had wanted - ds was eventually born in theatre a few hours later with forceps.

Well done if you have reached the end of this - anyone shed any light on this - is it common??

Many thanks

I', sure I've seen something like this done on one of those birth programmes.

Did he have shoulder dystocia?

It sounds plausible to me. Could you get hold of your labour notes when you see the midwife if you conceive?

I agree with pooka - the first thing they do with shoulder dystocia is to move you into different positions to try to free the shoulder. I seem to remember they get your knees up as high as possible, then turn you over and move your legs around from there...

So sorry your birth wasn't what you wanted. I think that exhaustion and shock can make birth memories seem oddly hazy. I was preoccupied for months with my memory that, after my emergency CS, dd was taken away to the other side of the room to be cleaned up and checked over, then brought back over for dp to cut the cord. I must have that wrong, of course - the cord must ahve been cut first - and obviously it doesn't really matter, but somehow my confusion wove into the distress of the occasion and left me feeling oddly displaced and even slightly (only slightly - I don't want to overstate this) traumatised.

Why don't you contact the Head of Midwifery where you gave birth and ask if you can have a debrief, go through what happened and why? Lots of women find this very helpful. Make clear that you're not looking to make a complaint, just to make peace with the experience and move on.

Thanks - plan to get copy of notes and discuss with m but bit wary in case I have just conjured it up, or its been excaggerated!

Need to go for a bit now but will check back later, -

Hi

Dont think it was shoulder dystocia as this was before he was "being born". I stuck at around 8cm and from what I can gather he was coming at my cervix at an odd angle which stopped me from dilating - when he was born he had a big bump on my head and the health visitor later said that this type of bump was caused by him being in wrong position for weeks prior to birth -ie he had got wedged in the wrong way? Think dr was trying to pull him down into correct position so that I would be able to push - also have horrible memory of mw trying to push back cervix before epidural.

I've not been traumatised by this - not a pleasant experience but we had a healthy baby and tbh by the time we got to this stage they could have chopped off my leg and I would only have been vaguely aware but......I suppose I want to be able to discuss it with a midwife with a bit of knowledge/background so they cant just fob me off.

Wouldt be a complaint in any way, midwifes were fantastic.

I'd ask to see your notes. It is your right to do so.

I had quite a lot of confusion about my DC1's birth, due to pethidine, exhaustion and shock.

5 years later when I was in hospital(for 5 days) after an emergency CS with DC3 the staff 'left' all my maternity notes in my room. As you can imagine I had a very good read and learnt a lot about DC1's birth that I had never known before.

I wish I'd read them earlier.

Oh ok, so he was OP and stuck at an awkward angle (sounds like what happened to me, by the way - but mine also went into distress so had to be fished out the sunroof). I guess it wouldn't surprise me that they would try to get him unstuck by moving you around into different positions. Good for them, actually; better to try that than to go straight for CS.

Yes, I also had cervix pushed back - it hurts, doesn't it?

Really glad you're going to get hold of your notes. It's worth understanding what went on, not just to get your head round it now, but also in case you have another...

Yes this is exactly what the doctor did to me DD1 was also OP, contractions stopped ect ect. I had to have an epidural to so that the doctor could do this, she was finally delivered with forceps after 2 failed ventose attempts.

DD2 however was born after just 1.5 hours of active labour and was delivered by the paramedics in an unplanned homebirth

My ds was OP (17 years ago). I was spaced out on gas and air, he was ventoused out; All Creatures Great and Small was a recent hit on TV, the doctor did look like a vet delivering a calf from where I was lying. (I had 2 dds, both straightforward). A friend having a VBAC had a similar manual 'repositioning'. Good luck witt ttc!

Same here, OP, attempt to reposition at 9cm dilated, epidural, failed ventouse, delivered with forceps but third degree tear. To be honest I was very grateful to have avoided a CS and to have a healthy baby and thought that the MW and doctors were great. I was told that all this is much much less likely after your first baby. I would really try not to let it put you off conceiving again but agree talking the labour through with someone whilst going through your notes would be helpful. I was given the opportunity to do this a few weeks after the birth and it did help. Now pregnant again I've been advised to have an elective CS but only because of the third degree tear nothing else.

Could have been asynclitic, perhaps? DS was OP and asynclitic (and I had contractions coming and going, stuck at 5cm for ages but eventually got to fully dilated after being pumped full of syntocinon) and they didn't realise until I'd been pushing for an hour and a half and he was well and truly wedged in in that position, so they rummaged arond a bit, decided not to even try ventouse and I wound up with an emergency c/s.

If it's any consolation, DD was beeeeeeeeautifully positioned and had lovely simple quick VBAC with just TENS and a touch of gas & air at the end.

Hi

Sorry havent replied earlier dh on pc last night and was out this mornin. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to reply and feel reassured that I didnt imagine it all, the later part of his birth is vague so hard to remember and didnt want to make a fool of myself asking the midwife about this if it hadnt happened at all.

Hester - yes the cervix being pushed back was done before the epidural and was the most painful bit of the whole birth - had to ask the mw to stop a few times as just couldnt handle it.

I had an epesiotomy (sp??) which took a while to heal and also had problems weeks later with a slight bladder prolapse - the mw at the time said if we had further children I would be fine to request an elective cs. I would prefer a natural birth again, and from what you have said above unlikely that the same thing would happen again so might go for natural again. The actual birth wouldnt put me off going for vaginal delivery again, as I said above was painful but hasnt traumatised me - if anything I would steer towards a cs more to avoid further prolapse problems -

Anyway, we are only just thinking about ttc now - this is something that has always bothered me a bit so I do really appreciate your replies,

Thanks again