My friend is in labour... but its not going well ...

[EnchantedWithEdwardCullen]

She was a week overdue Saturday and the midwife came to her home to give her a sweep at 8am, she examined her and found her to be 1-2 cms already .

After that she started getting pains, found this out at about 2pm saturday.

Since then the pains have been getting worse, but she didn't go to hospital until last night (i had a feeling things wouldn't go smoothly, her mum had really long labours and contractions were still 10 mins apart when she left for hospital but she couldn't cope with pain)

At hospital she was given gas and air and pethedine but when examined early hours this morning she hadn't dialated at all

She was put on a drip this morning and things are getting going again now I think (haven't heard from her mum in a good few hours)

Can you just send some vibes that she starts to get going please! Its her first abby and shes only 22,

I don't want this going on for days!

snaf 'It's difficult if someone really doesn't appear to be coping well and is scared to leave the hospital and really needing pain relief. As a mw you know that it's not the best place for a woman in very early labour to be, and you can kinda predict the outcome really, but equally it's hard to force someone to leave once they've arrived!'

I have to disagree, unless there is some change to policy (like having g&a delivered at home), if a woman really isn't coping with the pain, surely the best place is where the pain relief is?

'I have a lot of sympathy for first-timers who are finding it all completely overwhelming and terrifying, because I was one. But they still really, really need to Stay At Home if at all possible - this is something that antenatal education needs to address much more clearly, I think.'

I agree that antenatal education was inadequate at helping me cope at home, however, I don't understand how it is always possible to stay at home once you've begun screaming and know that due to nhs cuts you still have a 40min drive to the nearest hospital ahead of you!

Some mothers can't cope at home, maternity wards don't want them and send them on a path of timing and intervention, - where is the middle ground for these poor women?

Back to GOOD Vibes ladies!!

Wishing your friend a good delivery, I really hope things improve

hiya,

baby girl was born at 9:40pm last night weighing 6lb 14 oz

horay !!!!

lovely ! thanks for the update !

moonlight, i think a great compromise would be a community midwife coming out to see the woman, assessing her at home and then going to the hospital with her if necessary, or staying with her at home, maybe with gas & air until things were progressing and she was in established labour. i think it used to be an option..DOMINO care.. but i don;t thikn it really happens anymore

units just could not cope with admitting every woman in early/latent labour and using antenatal beds or delivery rooms for those ladies, many of whom could well be thre for many,many hours..

in a non ideal world, i thikn staying at home, using water , massage, tens etc is a good thing on the whoe

lulumama

I THINK that my cmw was offering that when I was whinging about the homebirth service only offering 20mins of gas and air. She said that she would stay with me until I ran out of gas and air and if I wanted more, come with me to the hospital.

However, it didn't make any sense to me because the hospital that the cmws are from (not the one that is closest) is 40mins drive away, - so the gas and air she had wouldn't have even covered the journey , and it would have meant giving birth in a hospital labour ward, rather than the lovely birthing unit THAT WAS CLOSER, but another hospital PCT so wouldn't have been able to go there with her ( again)

It's a shambles.......

But as it turns out, - I prolly wouldn't have needed any gas and air if at home - the birth was a doddle! MW told me I have a very high pain threshold which really is since last time I was screaming for an epi at 2cm. It just goes to show the difference between having support and knowledge and not, - AND that labours can be soooo different.