Twin birth on OBEM

[tiggersreturn]

Did anyone see it and did it match your experience at all?

I wasn't induced, labour started with waters breaking unexpectedly at 33+4 but these were the key differences in mine.

Obs informs me I will be delivering in theatre and will be moved from the room am currently in and have no choice in the matter.

Obs informs me that I must have an epidural (since I was at 5-6 cm having a pleasant conversation through contractions which rather worried them ), when I say I'm not keen and am doing really well she informs me she'll write in the notes that it's clinically dangerous to refuse this because of the risk to twin 2.

Babies are put on mother as soon as born even before they've cried. Only after that is oxygen given. Both of mine were whisked to the paeds on the other side of the theatre even though dt1 had cried. No complaints there particularly for dt2 but it just surprised me seeing a birth where this didn't happen.

I believe dt2 was turned internally and held in position as there was definitely something rather uncomfy happening after dt1 came out and when I asked the mw if she could take her hand off she said she couldn't. No explanation was given though and I'm still not sure what happened.

Dt2 came out without crying and was whisked to paeds. He then cried but they told me he was going to be taken to scbu as he was 3lb 13, and had poor tone. They showed him to me briefly and then took him off. I'm still not sure what happened as I couldn't see lying down and my doula was sitting next to me while dh wasn't allowed in as I could only have one person with me in theatre (yes I tried to change this earlier but to no avail).

Obviously it's a bit different in that I was a vbac so effectively my first vb plus type 1 diabetic plus premature twins so not exactly low risk but it all seemed to have considerably more choice and communication than my birth did.

So was your labour like the one on OBEM or more like mine?

Much more like yours! I was induced at 40 weeks. Epidural was deemed compulsory by doctors although one midwife did say it was my choice. In the end I needed it. I was monitored throughout and both born ventouse. DT2's heartrate slowed with syntocin so I was given enough epidural for csection and delivered in theatre. Both babies taken off to paed team. DT2 needed air so have no issue with it but DT1 also taken straight off and then handed back all wrapped up so no skin to skin. It was a good hour before I could feed them with stitching etc. DT2 taken to SCBU after a few hours when temp and blood sugars didn't stabilise. I don't really have any issue with what happened as this was my first birth so I had no experience and DT2 was struggling with the long labour. Just wish I had been able to do what she did!

I was really surprised that they weren't taken to SCBU, especially as one twin was only 4lb something.
Just seems crazy - my DTriplets were all between 3lb and 3.6lb - and all spent weeks in neonates.
My older 2 girls were prem but were both 5lb, even they were taken to SCBU for a week or so. Never had skin-to-skin with any of mine, they were all whisked straight off.

I had EMCS with DTri's, so can't imagine what it must be like to go through labour, and then all over again. Felt so, so sorry for her when MW told her that epidural wouldn't work in time and that there was no point.. poor woman :(

I am just not encouraged to try a vb after reading this!!! I'm too scared of all the things that can go wrong...

My birth was not dissimilar
I used the pool early on
No pain relief at all for twin 1
Gave birth on my knees
Just one midwife from hospital present plus my dp and independent midwives
Paeds waited outside in case they were needed

Had skin to skin, fed him

Twin 11 had to be manually turned, had my waters broken in theatre for her

It wasn't too far from my experience though I didn't have the same trauma getting the second baby out.

Induced at 40+3 but already being 3-4cm dilated, it only took a couple of lots of pessary to get labour going (10pm then 5am when nothing seemed to be happening). From 7am things went from a bit crampy' to pain I needed to jig through' (but no `contractions' as such) & then had a couple of paracetamol at 10ish as things were getting a bit more painful & we hadn't seen a midwife in a while. Jigged around a bit til 11am when I felt a need to lie down & pain then turned into contractions so spent the next couple of hours breathing through them. Waters broke, was examined & fully dilated so transferred to theatre for delivery (we were told delivery would happen in theatre just in case other interventions needed).

Started pushing at 13.10 but was pretty ineffective til a change of midwife team & threat of interventions. I didn't know the policy was only to allow 1 hour of pushing but was fortunate that babies & I were fine so they allowed me to keep going, though I did feel under pressure after that and had a big audience!

Ds1 was born at 15.37 without intervention. He was fine but I didn't really get to see much of him as attention immediately turned to baby 2. Dp did skin to skin with ds1 while we got on with it. Someone held my tummy to keep baby 2 from moving & they did a quick scan to check baby position & he was still head down. Contractions tailed off so waters were broken / syntocin given & ds2 was born 13mins after ds1. He was fine too (cried while we were waiting for his body to be born!) - so much so that his team of drs shrugged their shoulders, declared they clearly weren't needed and disappeared.

I was v lucky to have such a positive birth experience. It was pretty quick for a first time and we were pretty much left to it until labour was well established as our midwife was in theatre with an emergency admission.