My Stats
Name: LadyNovember/Laura
Age: 26
First Baby
Baby Stats
Name: Myles Christopher
Gestation at birth: 39+1
Delivery Method: ELCS
Birth time: 15:13
Birth weight: 7lb 4.5oz
Birthday: 17/04/2015
Days to return to birth weight: 0 - gained at first weigh in!
My Birth Story
I was planning for a normal (hopefully spontaneous) vaginal birth right until Monday 13th April. The night before, my feet had started to swell and get hot, so I checked my BP and it was raised (slightly by standard, but a lot by my "normal"). On the Monday, my BP continued to increase and by early evening I'd developed a headache with visual disturbances. I called the antenatal ward who told me to come in for a check.
When I arrived, they checked my BP, agreed it was borderline high, but high for me. (My normal is 100/60 and it was reading about 140/90) and they also checked my urine to discover "trace" of protein. The MW felt baby, said he wasn't yet engaged, and hooked me up to the CTG. They took some bloods and the consultant came to see me. She decided she wanted to feel baby for herself, and discovered the bum the MW had felt was in fact a head! She confirmed this with the mobile scanner.
It was decided that I would come back in 2 days, on the Wednesday, and attempt an ECV. In the meantime, I had a MW appt on the Tuesday that I was instructed to go to so they could continue to monitor my BP and protein levels. At the appt the following day, my BP was still reading around 140/90 but protein had increased to +. The MW called the hospital who said it was fine to wait until my ECV appt the following morning for further monitoring. I was instructed to take my hospital bags incase anything went drastically wrong with the ECV.
Arrived at antenatal clinic at 9am on Wednesday 15th. They scanned to confirm baby was still breech, then took me up to the delivery suite for the ECV. They did their obs and this time my protein was +++. Normally they wouldn't attempt an ECV on a pre-eclamptic woman, but for some reason, after much deliberation, they decided to give it a go. This was around 2pm. They injected me with Terbutaline to relax the uterine muscles and the consultant used her very boney fingers to attempt to manually turn him. 3 attempts were unsuccessful, he didn't even move a centimetre :( Uncomfortable is an understatement at describing ECV. Painful is a better word, at best haha. At this stage, they were waiting on blood work and hadn't decided what they were going to do with me yet. But it was confirmed that I would need an ELCS sooner rather than later (as I was now 38+6). Finally at 5pm they came in to tell me I was being admitted due to pre-eclampsia and I would deliver the baby by section on Friday morning.
DH was told to arrive by 9am on Friday morning. When he got there I'd already showered and been cannulated. We were told the intention was to have the baby here by 10am but unfortunately there were a number of emergencies in theatre. I ended up being given IV fluids as the delay was just too long to leave me with hydration. Finally at about 2:20pm theatre staff arrived to tell us they were ready. Cue nerves! :D
I walked up to theatre, with DH and he was led to a room to scrub up. I was taken into theatre and told to sit on the edge of the bed, bent over. They sprayed my back and inserted the spinal. It was completely painless and took effect pretty quickly. They laid be down and the anaesthetist instructed me to tell her if I felt nauseous, as I would be aware of my BP dropping before she was. DH was brought in and the procedure begun. My BP dropped a couple of times during the procedure, I felt instantly nauseous, but as soon as the anaesthetist put something in my cannula to raise it again, I felt better. I also had a moment where my heart rate dropped and I felt like I was floating away. DH says my heart rate was around 40..the second anaesthetist was almost yelling "push atropine!" and when anaesthetist #1 did this, I felt instantly better! Magic! Myles was born at 3:13pm and his cry was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard! The paediatrician checked him over for about 10 minutes and he was brought to me via DH. It took about 40 minutes to stitch me back up, in which time we gazed at our son in awe.
I was allowed to recover in the theatre since there was no one in after me, so DH and baby could stay with me. We started skin to skin and continued this all the way back to the postnatal ward.
I spent the rest of that day in bed since I was still fairly numb and catheterised. I wasn't in any pain though, as they'd given me some medication rectally in theatre. I'd also had diamorphine in the spinal, which unfortunately made me vomit an entire cup of tea. :( I was given an anti-emetic to help with this which worked a treat!
The following morning I had my catheter removed, and once DH arrived to be with the baby, I had the best shower ever!
I went home on the Sunday, I felt ready. The pain was controlled with oral tablets and I was active and well. I'm now 8 days post section, and feeling pretty good. I'm not taking any painkillers any more, BF is going really well, and my wound is healing nicely. I'm managing to go out every day for walks/trips to the shop etc but haven't done anything silly like cleaning or lifting.
I know this is pretty long and detailed, and most people know how an ELCS goes, but I just thought it might help comfort someone that's yet to have theirs. It's really not as bad as I thought!