People who have had a PPH - experiences please

[daydreamer1975]

I am considering a home birth and the thing that keeps coming up is my high risk for PPH. Don't know how I fall into that category only that it is my 5th labour.

I have been painted pictures of me near death with the kids screaming in the background.

Realistically what happens when you have a PPH?

hi - I had a PPH but it followed an EMCS after an extended labour so it wasn't a surprise and I was already being attended by a team of doctors. I didn't know about it at the time because I had a spinal block. I just suddenly felt very nauseated and said to the anaesthetist that I felt like I was going to throw up and he said 'that's because your blood pressure's dropped a little but we're dealing with that now'. It wasn't until I was in the recovery room that I found out my blood pressure dropping was due to losing 1.2 l of blood! Luckily I did not need a transfusion.

A PPH at home would be a lot more frightening but I have no knowledge of the effect of multiple births on PPH risk. Congrats on the 4 soon to be 5 children!

Hello,

I've had PPH with two out of three births. The first I had no risk factors before I went in to hospital but had a retained placenta, the second I had an increased risk and ended up in theatre a second time, again a retained placenta and uterine atony the third they said no chance I was having the baby anywhere but in a hospital because of the first two. As it happens, my third was the most accommodating as he bought his placenta with him and I had a minimal bleed (500ml) which was nothing compared to the first two!

When I did haemorrhage I just felt woozy and started drifting in and out of consciousness, there was a lot of blood as I lost 2 ltrs before I even got to theatre and once it started there wasn't a lot of time to hang about. Once I was out of theatre I just felt very tired and required a transfusion the first time. I was very glad to be in a hospital when it happened so I could get treatment promptly and I didn't have to clean up the mess but then I'm a born worrier at the best of times!

You'll be a higher risk due to it being number 5, I seem to remember from reading NICE guidelines once you reach a certain number of pregnancies the risk increases but its still no guarantee it'll happen. Everyone thought I would with number 3 to the extent that they had blood already up for me, in the end I was in and out within 36 hours and 19 of those was waiting to be discharged from a very busy postnatal ward! It's worth reading the guidelines as they tell you your actual risk so you can make an informed decision.

Good luck with it all

You will be higher risk as it is baby number 5.

They told me that yiur uterus can get lazy after so many children and may not contract well.. which unfortunately happened to me.

Luckily I was having a c section so wasn't really aware but dh said it was rather scarey. I lost 2 liters.

I have always been scared about it. Always been at the back of my mind.

Never had aby problems with my previous labours.

They put me on a drip to contract my uterus for few hourd but I felt drained and dizzy.

I had a small pph after a homebirth. I wasn't even aware that I was bleeding much until the mw commented on it. Luckily the mw had been getting antsy about DS's heart rate so we'd called an ambulance & the paramedics were on the landing when DS was born! The mw gave me the synthetic oxytocin injection & said she thought we should probably go in, just to be safe. I agreed & everyone started fussing around finding clothes & helping me put them on. They escorted me down the stairs & when I got to the bottom I had to sit down for a moment as I was feeling dizzy. After maybe a minute I got up & continued out to the ambulance. They took me to the hosp where they put me on a drip & took some blood to check if I'd need a transfusion.

It was all v calm & matter-of-fact. We needed to go in so we did! At no point did it even occur to me that I should be worried about bleeding to death!

FWIW, DS2 is due today & we're planning to be at home again! Can't have been that bad an experience if I'm planning to do it again less than 2 years later!

I had a small (600ml) pph in hospital. I felt fine though they gave me iron tablets afterwards. It wasn't very dramatic, just needed a couple of extra injections to stop the bleeding. I'm planning a home birth for my second

I had a PPH after DS was born. He was delivered by forceps and after he was born I kept bleeding (lost about 1500ml I think) and as they couldn't stop the bleeding I had to go into theatre to get sewn up. Didn't have a transfusion at the time but had one later on that day (DS born v early in the morning).

V glad I was in hospital rather than at home as would have needed to get to hospital v quickly. But I don't know how much of your risk is due to it being a 5th pregnancy rather than anything specific.

With DD I only lost 500ml and didn't need any stitches which was very nice :)

I had PPH of 1.6l with Dd and also retained placenta. I didn't really know much about it as I was pretty out of it I think, but DH said it was a bit like a butchers shop (lovely.) gave birth in hospital.
No transfusion in the end, but I did have to take iron tablets for a week or so after and looked grey for quite some time! DS was born earlier this year and was much more straightforward. However, I wouldn't have considered a home birth in case it had happened again, it made me feel more secure being in hospital and knowing everything was available right there if there were complications. Good luck!

I had one after 2nd DC. It wasn't obvious at first as it was collecting inside me, but I started to feel really faint and my blood pressure was low.
They evacuated the blood in the labour suite then I had to go to theatre to check it was stopped.
Lost over 2L, a third of my blood volume they said.

I felt very calm as I was being well looked after but it went from being a very easy pain relief free birth to masses of intervention very quickly.

I recently had a 1.5 L PPH whilst still on the table having my 3rd ELCS.It was totally unexpected,delivery was quick and placenta was posterior and low.Whole thing was horrible.I suddenly felt very unwell and had pain in my shoulder.The consultant went quiet and no-one would tell me what was going on but I knew things were going a bit wrong.Apart from the shoulder pain I couldn't feel anything due to the spinal.Baby was out & well but I didn't want to hold him in case I went unconscious.Because I was already in theatre it was relatively easy to manage,they stitched up all the hosing uterine vessels and then put a massive one round the whole thing to contract it before closing the wound normally.I lost 4 units and was borderline for transfusion but fortunately didn't have one.
Because of the resulting anaemia I was told it might be harder to bf but milk came in 3 days later and baby fed well.I did nothing for 2 weeks afterwards except look after the baby.
My haemoglobin was back up to normal at the 6 week check.
At the time it was so horrible it made up my mind that 3 DCs were enough but I'm bloody grateful it happened when I was already on the table.