Saturday 5 December 2015

My labour story: 2nd time around

I've decided to write my labour and birth story in a couple of posts or you'll end up feeling like you've read a mini novel.

All through my pregnancy I was hoping that I was going to have a very different experience than my first labour, birth and post partum. I had a long, slow labour and I then had a horrific delivery and was severely infected after having Eva which led to me needing an operation later on to fix up the mess.

Whilst pregnant with Ophelia I remained very positive about what the birth would be like and I had envisioned a different experience to last time. How wrong was I?! 

I started having contractions early Friday morning when I was term + 8 days. They were about 10 minutes apart and were painful but manageable. I was actually looking after Eva at the time so I couldn't make too much of a fuss about them as I thought i'd frighten her.  I thought having her around would be a bad thing but to be honest it was a welcome distraction. I think I was able to deal with everything a lot stronger than I would have done if I was on my own. From about 6pm that evening they became a lot more intense. I dealt with them with paracetamol's and soaking in the bath for what felt like hours (it actually was). I also projectile vomited whilst in the bath. Labour is so glamorous isn't it. I got out of the bath at about 2am and suddenly the contractions became a lot quicker. They were now minutes apart. I decided it was time to go to the hospital. We called my next door neighbour in to babysit Eva until my dad could arrive. The drive to the hospital was horrible. The sleet was extremely heavy which made the journey seem endless.

The midwife examined me and said I was only 3cm and my waters hadn't broken. I couldn't believe it. It was so painful and I was gutted and gobsmacked to find that I was only 3cm. We discussed pain relief and in the end I opted for an epidural as I was so tired and thought that things would take forever seeing as I wasn't very far dilated. 

Next the anaesthetist came to put the epidural in. The midwife then examined me once again but this time I was 7cm. Once again I was gutted as I'd have never had the epidural if I'd have known things were gonna progress that quickly in the space of half an hour. I suppose no one can predict these things though. My waters then broke but came out in a membrane sack. Everyone seemed postive that the baby was going to arrive imminently or within the couple of hours......

The minutes went by, the hours went by. I was examined many times and was still 7cm. At about 10am my consultant popped in. I was so relieved to see him and couldn't have been more pleased that he was on call the weekend I was in labour. He decided to give me something to help contract my uterus. We waited 2 hours to see if that worked. On re - examination I was still 7cm and the head was now not far enough down. The baby started to become distressed so my consultant called it a day and we agreed on a cesarean. I was quite upset about it at the time and I think that was because I had been in labour for so long that I felt like a failure in the end. However, I knew it was the safest option for both baby and I. That's where I will leave this part of my birth story and continue it in a separate blog post.

How have your labour's differed or were they the same? I wished this time around that I was going to be one of these people that have no contractions,  your waters break and then everything starts but annoyingly I had a very similar labour to last time.
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16 comments

  1. I've never given birth, it sounds like you had a traumatic time, lucky the consultant was on call, I hope all went well x

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  2. What a long labour! I know a C Section is never a first choice but it sounds like it was necessary here.

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  3. I have never given birth and being honest, it scares the life out of me, it sounds as though you had such a long labour x

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  4. Mine were very different - my first was daunting, bad staff, very very long & scary, my second i managed to deal with a lot of the labour at home, had a water birth and much quicker, although had to have stitches with the second as he was such a big baby!!

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  5. Its amazing what you put yourself thru in order to ensure a safe delivery of a beautiful baby. All worth while x

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  6. Oh bless you - my eldest was born via an emergency c-section, and I felt a failure too. You are amazing though hun - you carried and nurtured and brought into the world a little miracle! Congratulations. Kaz xx

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  7. All mine were different and after 5 natural births number 6 was an emergency c-section so things don't always got to plan

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  8. Glad everything went well in the end, but sorry that it was such a struggle up until then.

    www.diyjahn.com

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  9. I had two emergency sections and one elective. the elective was by far the worst. OS pleased I don't have to go through all that again x

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  10. You'd hate me if I told you about mine xxx Don't keep us waiting! When is part 2 coming?

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  11. I could never give birth. You sound like you did just fine though x

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  12. I love hearing birthing stories, but they always have a way of making me instantly cross my legs hahaha mine were totally different... I look forward to reading the next part :) x

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  13. I've never given birth but weirdly I like reading labour stories. I feel like yhey give me a little bit of prep for when I do decide to have kids! X

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  14. Typical UK weather always bad on special days ha! You did amazing and it dosnf matter how babies come into the world as long as you are both healthy. Lots of love x

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  15. Birth, it's so unpredictable! Sorry it wasn't what you had hoped for, but pleased you all got through safely x

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  16. So sorry you didn't get the birth you hoped for! My labours were completely opposite but both my babies were born and are healthy now which I think is all that matters xx

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