PTSD Labour experience

[Babzer22]

Hi everyone,

i know this is a very long post, but I wanted to write it down here to get some advice and clarification for myself.

FTM here, I was induced at 39+4 due to developing preeclampsia. I had pessaries inserted on the weds night, then again at 9am and again at 12 pm.
following the 12pm insertion I got contractions very hard and fast. It became so unbearable I was in so much pain I kept asking for help. Nurses kept coming in but they were only interested in putting the monitor on me again and again.
they were saying I was 2cm dilated and that was all.
i was in agony. Then just before 5pm a delivery midwife came and rushed me in a wheelchair down to delivery. My epidural was very rushed and panicked (to this day I don’t know how I didn’t move as my contractions were so strong and there was no break between)
as soon as I had the epidural I was told I was 10cm dilated and needed to start pushing.
my baby girl was born at 7pm and she wasn’t breathing. Needed to be resuscitated. Apgar levels of 5 and 8.
she went to nicu for 3 nights, she had TTN and they treated her with antibiotics incase of risk of infection.
thank God she’s all ok. Also I had iron levels of 8.1 after birth as i had a mild haemorrhage. They didn’t inform me about this at the hospital only my public health nurse did when I eventually got home.
i am just wondering if I was treated properly or if I should look into this further.
thank you

I had 4 children and the first 3 were natural labour very manageable pain with just gas and air and all born within 3 hours and the last was induced and I was in agony with intense contractions wanting a epidural but had to wait until someone was available to do it which took all night and 17 hours later my baby arrived by ventouse and I had stitches which were so painful while healing.
Luckily for me that was my last but if he’d been my first he’d be an only child.

Oh my love - what a time you've had, I have not experienced this, luckily, but it does not sound like the care you got was the care you and your daughter should have had.
Enjoy your baby and take care.

To answer the question though I think all labours are different and unpredictable so I don’t think you can blame the midwives for your experience.

Look into it further as in suing someone? Probably not but maybe.
Look into it further as in talking/complaining to the hospital, your GP, friends, family, a counsellor? Definitely.
It may be a relatively common occurrence to be disbelieved and ignored during pregnancy labour, birth, and postpartum but that doesn't make it okay.
You can also ask the hospital for a birth reflections debrief or maybe talk to someone at the birth trauma association for peer support.
How long ago was your baby born? You may find that your thoughts and feelings about your experience change a lot over the next few weeks and months.

It maybe worth asking for a birth debrief. I didn't have this with my first until I was pregnant with my second and so wish I'd have had it sooner.

Basically they go over your birth notes and talk to you about what happened. It could be that, that was just the way things turned out, or it maybe that you decided to ask about complaint procedure. But I think with births it's often hard to tell when you where the one atthe receiving end of the treatment.