MSE Pregnancy Club Birth Stories

A question about : MSE Pregnancy Club Birth Stories

I'm starting this thread because we pregnant ladies find it comforting to know what really happens when you go into labour, be that everything going swimmingly or it involving mad rushes, lots of doctors and an emergency operation.
The money saving aspect is best described by Tia
Quote:

Originally Posted by tiamai_d Families. Working on the basis that women need to talk about the birth to get over it and if they don't it will cost you a fortune in counselling after your marrage falls apart. I knows this I got PTSD from having DS2 after folk told me to just be grateful that we were both ok and I stopped talking about it (till I ended up breaking down on a bloody bus (hate buses!)). Most insulting thing you can say to a woman who has had a traumatic birth... but I won't rant about that. Might do on the birth story thread

So please feel free to post the story of your little one's arrival into this world, all I ask is that you specify when the birth occurred - just the year will do, so we have a general idea if things are still as they were at the time of your story

EDIT: If you experienced a traumatic birth and would like some support please visit The Birth Trauma Association's Website

Best answers:

• To get us started here a some of the recent births
  vanilla - 6th May 2009
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...postcount=2722
  shellsuit - 9th May 2009
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...postcount=3293
  angela6834 - 12th May 2009 (32 weeks emergency c/s)
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...postcount=2950
  Claire Jones - 14th May 2009
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...&postcount=136
  sugarspunsister - 16th May 2009 (Emergency c/s)
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...postcount=2157
  elle_gee - 17th May 2009(31 weeks emergency c/s)
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...postcount=2188
  Mrs Tine - 22nd May 2009
  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...postcount=2505
• I've copied and pasted mine from my original post! Thought we should have a nice simple, boring one on here!
  Hello Ladies.
  A very dazed 3onitsway here.
  I last posted last night around 8.30 looking for news from Rmac - and mentioned i'd had niggly tightenings every 15 ish minutes but wasn't getting excited as i'd had them for a few nights now.
  Anyway, i tried to go to bed about nine, but the pain woke me up every 10 minutes til around midnight - still niggly and not too painful.
  Decided to get up and have a bath to see if that eased it, stayed in the bath til about half one, still niggly, not too bad.
  Got out of the bath and they got more painful.
  Phoned hospital for advice around 2.30 for advice - they said to come up and they'd check me over - so phoned mum to come and look after DS and DD, who were tucked up in bed.
  I don't know why, but I was expecting to get to hospital and for them to tell me to bu66er off home and stop being dramatic!
  Mum arrived, and off we went to the hospital, pains every 6 minutes on the way there, getting more painful, we arrived at 3.20am.
  Got into hospital, they put monitor on tummy, and examined me to see what was happening - I was 9cm dilated .
  Gas and air was given to me, and four painful pushes later, my beautiful little girl arrived at 4.02am, weighing 6lb 12 1/2oz.
  It all happened too fast for the water birth i'd wanted - but it was still amazing, and i'm so proud of myself for doing it with just gas and air!
  Baby and me were checked over and discharged - home by 6.30am. Driving home was surreal - we were looking at each other saying three hours ago, we were driving to the hospital, now we're driving home with a baby.
  DD's face was a picture when she got up at around 8, and came downstairs to find a little sister in the living room! She asked 'who's is that?'!
  Baby is as yet unamed - I think we've narrowed it down to two.
  Name and photos to follow.
• Mine is cut and pasted from the Word document that I typed it out on because it is so long-winded!!
  Ladies - my very long and probably far too detailed birth story…
  Went into the hospital to be induced at 9am on Thursday 12th - put me and baby on a monitor to check heart rate and level of contractions (not that there were any at that stage). Baby's heart rate was high and erratic so ended up stuck on monitor for 2 Ѕ hours until he settled down.
  12.20 had my first internal sweep and pectin tablet inserted - left on monitor for another 2 hours…some slight contractions but nothing to speak of. 18.30 had second internal and pectin inserted. Cervix softening and shortening, some contractions but not enough… Hubby sent home at 9.30pm and told to return on the Friday unless called in. A pretty sleepless night for both of us.
  Hubby sneaked in at 8.30am on the Friday morning (visiting doesn't start til 11!!). At 9.45am the doctor came to examine me to see if it was possible to break my waters, she concluded that it was (2cm dilated) and said she would arrange for me to be sent up to delivery.
  11.45am (yes - 2 hours later!!) I was taken up to delivery by the midwife. Waited whilst she arranged the room in the traditional style (bed in the middle, monitor one side, drip on the other side). Up on bed, IV inserted and doctors examined me again. I was asked if the junior doctor could break my waters, which I consented to. She had a go but couldn't do it - as it turns out she was poking the top of Benjamin's head and he has several cuts from her efforts (I can count 19 marks on his head a week later). The main doc had a go and my waters broke with such ferocity that they went all up his arm and soaked his armpit…he was less than impressed!!
  I was put onto a drip to speed up contractions and make them stronger. Hooked up to monitor on my left and drip on my right and stuck on a bed (exactly what I didn't want). Cue change of shift…
  New midwife comes on, it's her first day in delivery proper (she has been shadowing for a week or so) she is a nice young girl who has a calming air about her. She will be closely supervised by 2 of the maternity co-ordinators, one of whom is the lady who gave the waterbirth class I attended. When she introduced herself and asked for my birth plan (first time anyone had asked for it) I mentioned we had met before and she said that if she had known before they put me on the drip then there would have been a chance to do something about it! She said that now she knew what I wanted there were still some thing she could do. She moved the bed to the side of the room, got me a birthing ball to put next to the bed and hooked me up to a wireless monitor so I could move around and use the en-suite bathroom. It was then when I became obsessed with needing to poo (sorry far TMI coming) I couldn't and every time I moved I was gushing waters and bleeding and things started to really get on top of me.
  I started on the gas and air which made me feel dizzy and sick (think when you are uncontrollably p1ssed) and made me really thirsty. The contractions were getting much worse and I just wasn't coping at all - I was absolutely obsessed by needing to poo and the mess that I was making as I moved around. The contractions made me feel like I needed to push but I knew I wasn't dilated enough so I was 'clenching' through them and trying not to push. This was causing some swelling on one side of my cervix meaning that dilation was slowing. So, after much heartache and soul-searching I asked for an epidural (my worst fear). The co-ordinator suggested a mobile epidural so I could still move around and I agreed (although the moving around was distressing me).
  At 7.55pm the anaesthetist came and ran me through the procedure. He was finishing at 8 so scrubbed up there and then and put the epidural in on the 2nd attempt. It seemed to make a bit of a difference so he left. I was examined by the docs who said they would give me until 1.30am and then would make a judgement as to whether they needed to do a C-section because of slow progress and the baby's heart rate, which was still erratic.
  The contractions got worse and worse and I was still using the gas and air to get through them (which I now know you shouldn't need to do with an epidural). Dilation was very slow, baby was stressed, I was stressed and tired. Cue change of shift again.
  New midwife was a bit more stern, old-fashioned sort. Said pretty much straight away that she wanted the anaesthetist to come and take a look at me because she wasn't happy with the epidural. Old irish anaesthetist arrived, took one look at me and started preparing to sort me out, calling all the other people who had hooked me up idiots and b*stards for putting monitor and drip on separate sides etc! He was great, did me another epidural (non-mobile but I had hardly moved for hours because the mess upset me) which worked!! And he re-sited my IV so it was in a more comfortable and sensible position. At last things started to calm down and I could rest a bit. I could feel tightening but no pain from the contractions. To begin with I could use my legs a bit too. Hubby and I tried to rest for a while (MW dimmed the lights) with poor hubby propped against a cupboard resting his head on a towel.
  Docs came back about 2.15am, examined me and said there was some progress, albeit slow and that they would let me continue to labour and see me again at 4.30am. I told hubby to go home for an hour and get a shower. He protested for a while but saw sense that we weren't going anywhere fast, he was knackered and I was just going to rest. We only live 5 mins from the hospital so it made sense.
  4.30am came and I was examined again - if they had offered me a C-section then I would have taken it in a flash…I almost asked for one. The contractions began to build up again and the epidural was starting to wear off every 40 mins or so needing a top-up. They said they would let me continue until 6am then make a decision. 6am came and I was nearly ready to push, the doc asked me about forceps assistance and I said I would probably need it (I had been in labour for over 12 hours by then). We started to push but I was struggling to feel contractions and my legs were heavy and numb so I ended up with my legs in stirrups pushing as and when the midwife told me - so far away from what I had imagined. I was doing okay when the doc came back to set up with the forceps but the baby was in distress so we agreed (hubby and I) that I should take whatever assistance was offered.
  And so I had an episiotomy (my second worst fear) and Benjamin John was finally delivered with the help of a lady with metal salad tongs at 7.54am. Just the thought of hearing his first cry has me sat here in tears and as I have said to AF since I would go through all of it every day for the rest of my life for that first look into his eyes.
  Things have not been easy for us both since either but I will tell you about that later - I am so sorry that this is such a long story but I wanted to tell you all because despite the fact that it all went 'wrong' and none of my simple birth plan actually happened, we got through it fine and it was worth every second in the end.
  I hope that this helps the ladies that are worried about how they will get through it.
  Edit: reading through it again and thinking about Benjamins first cries has me in floods of tears all over again over 10 weeks later. That was the moment that my life changed forever and I got to meet my beautiful, wonderful son - the best moment of my life.
• what a good idea for a thread! this is mine from my original post but edited a bit with some hindsight.
  i was 5 days overdue and it was wednesday when my MW decided to give me a sweep, which was horrible, she took great pleasure in waving her goo and bloody covered hand in front of my face and said it was the show and that she had touched the head so it wouldnt be long. she told me i'd probably need a pantyliner and that was it i was sent on my way, no warning of what to expect or anything! i then had painful but irregular contractions and bleeding til the saturday afternoon, soaking proper towels and making constant calls to the hospital panicking that it wasnt normal. i went in for monitoring on the friday and it was clear they thought i was making it up and wasting their time!
  i think i went into proper labour on saturday afternoon, EDD+8, but i just assumed it was still the cramps caused by the sweep and i was still bleeding from it too, it didnt occur to me that it might actually have worked, i think i'd given up on the idea of ever giving birth by that point! it took a good few hours and OH to come home and tell me i was having a baby for me to believe it was happening! the contractions slowly got worse to the point i couldnt sit down, i had to pace, and then they got worse and to the point the only way i could cope with the contractions was to kneel on the floor and bury my head in the sofa. the contractions were still only 5 mins apart and lasting only 30 seconds and the hospital said i wasnt to go in yet, but i had a squinny and went in anyway cos i wanted some pain relief, but when we got to the hospital the stupid contractions stopped for half an hour!
  they were just about to send me home when they started up again with a vengeance, i refused to go home so they examined me and found i was 5cm dilated which i found very pleasing. (i resisted the temptation to shout "HA, IN YOUR FACE!")
  they gave me some tablets, dunno what they were but i threw them back up straight away so they didnt actually do anything! they wheeled in some gas and air for me which i've decided is the best stuff in the world, i had the radio on and was dancing around in my chair lol!!!
  after a while the gas and air wasnt enough and i asked for pethidine, they told me it was too late and he would be here soon, this was at about 7am on the sunday, EDD+9, and at this point my waters promptly broke, they were full of meconium and i freaked out completely screaming at them to give me a c-section and get him out! they had to transfer me to a labour room rather than the birth centre room i was in, and to be honest i dont remember a lot after that, the only things i remember are the transfer when i was asked if i could possibly stop shouting in the corridor in case i upset some other mums, and me crying and saying that i couldnt do it which made OH cry.
  apparantly they gave me a very small dose of pethidine after all and seth eventually made his way into the world at 11:05 showing no signs of distress after all thank god.
  OH filled me in on the following bits as i cant remember then, but about 5 minutes before he was born i was apparantly trying to get OH to go and put some money on the car in the car park cos it had expired and when i was crowning i kept demanding to know what colour his hair was!
  it took over a hour for the placenta to come out even though i had the injection, they all thought i was going to have to have it surgically removed and prepped me for surgery with a catheter cos it just wasnt going anywhere but it was ok in the end. it was absolute agony when they were all tugging at it, as bad as the later contractions if not worse!
  this is the worst bit aboiut the whole birth experience for me: i remember in the seconds after he was born craning my neck to try and see him and only being able to see the top of a very purple head at the end of the bed while the cord was clamped, but because of the meconium he was whisked away before i could hold him. i deeply regret this as i still feel that while he has definitely bonded with me, i often feel like i havent with him or that i love him because i have to, IYSWIM. the tests were all carried out behind a screen so i couldnt see him still, he was about 10 mins old when he was finally brought to me. then he was given to OH to dress while i had the placenta and after that put straight in his cot, and then i was sent for a bath. i really dont remember a lot about the afternoon, i went into shock and had the shakes, couldnt eat and didnt actually cuddle him for the first time since that first cuddle until i'd had a few hours sleep.
• Hi Ladies,
  My labour was awful...this might be a bit of a long post so i apologise in advance!
  My DS was born in april 07 i was 4 days over my due date when my contractions started on the wed morning, i had no idea i was in labour and even when i rang the maternity ward and they said it sounded like i was i still didn't believe them! Anyhow the contractions on the wed were quite far apart and the midwife i spoke to said come into hospital when theyre between 1 and 5 mins apart, so i stayed at home all day until the night time when they we're getting quite close so i took myself off to hospital. I stayed in for a couple of hours then they sent me home as for some reason my co0ntractions were being really irregular some being a min apart some being 5-10mins apart, so off we went back home. I was in crippling agony with them at this point but i stayed at home till the thurs eve until i couldn't physically cope with the pain anymore. When i got back to the hospital they said i was 5cm dilated so they would keep me in. They gave me lots of different drugs i can't honestly remember what as i felt so out of it especially with the gas & air as well. They hooked me upto the monitor to try and find baby's heartbeat and they couldn't find it so had to put this wire thing onto his head to track his heartbeat ( i've no idea what this was called or how it worked!) Come fri morning and still no sign of baby wanting to come out they decided to break my waters, it was the most weirdest feeling ever lol. A couple of hours later i started getting the urge to push but they then found out that my son had his head tilted backwards instead of tilted down so i couldnt push as it would have ruptured my womb putting me and baby at risk, so at this point they started discussing surgery and asked me to sign the consent forms in case they needed to take me in a couple of hours. Ten minutes later the anethetist came into the room to tell me i would be going straight into surgery and wheeled me off down the corridor ( i lter found out that he had told me OH that if they hadnt taken me in when they did then me and baby might have not made it) Then then gave me a spinal anestetic and Jake was born at 1pm fri afternoon by forceps. As they had cut me while they were trying to get him out they had to stitch me back up so they let my Oh cut the cord and hold Jake while they were sorting me out! Even though through all the pain hearing Jakes first cry brought tears to my eyes! I swore after that i would never have another child but 2years down the line i'm considering it! I hope my story hasn't scared any of you. You've just got to remember that every labour is different and yours might be plain sailing Sorry for the extremely long post but my god it feels good to actually tell someone about it apart from OH i've never told anyone how bad it actually was! Good luck with all your pregnancies
• What a fantastic idea sami! Though reading some of these im turning into a bit of a wimp
  lol.
  I cant handle pain haha x
• Here goes...
  1 week before due date, 1am, my waters broke. At first I thought I'd wet myself so I got out of bed, all huffy, woke up OH, said I had to change the sheets. Then more came... had a sniff, didn't smell like wee. Figured out I was going into labour.
  We rang the birthing centre where I was booked in, and they said leave it a few hours and then ring back. So I tried to go back to sleep. One hour later, contractions were starting and it was too painful to be in bed lying down. So I got up and made OH some sandwiches. I left them on the table.
  Around 4 am, the pain was so bad we drove to the birthing centre. They examined me and said I wasn't in labour yet because I was only 1-3cm dilated. Never mind the fact that the pain was excruciating, and I was soaking (there was A LOT of water, I lost 20lbs giving birth!). They said to have a bath, and breakfast and come back at 8am.
  We drove to 24hr Tesco on the way home to get food for breakfast. I sat in the car while my OH went in. By the time he was back, I had started pushing (about 45mins after being sent home by birthing centre). I never said anything though because I thought you were only meant to start pushing when you were told to. I just couldn't control it and I thought I was being 'naughty'.
  When we got home I got in the bath. I don't know how long I stayed there, but I pushed more and more and eventually OH noticed from the noises I made and got me out and dressed me.
  It took me 20 minutes to walk from the house to the car because I kept having to stop to push with each contraction.
  He drove like a lunatic to the local hospital, where a wheelchair was found and I was taken up to the labour ward. When we got there, my daughter's head had started crowning.
  25 minutes later, with a bit of gas and air... she was out!
  Then I had terrible after pains. I still felt like I was in labour for a while afterwards and I didn't really bond with my baby for a little while because of it. I'm told next time I can ask for some medication for that.
  A while later OH starts complaining he didn't have enough sandwiches. Turned out the cat had eaten half of them when I left them on the table!
  This was in 2007. We're planning another baby now.
• I've only posted in Mortgages before but would like to share my birth story anyway if it's ok! It involves an emergency caesarean but everyone is safe and untraumatised!
  I had identical twins in late 2000. At 37 weeks pregnant I suffered some bleeding, the hospital couldn't tell me why, but there was no damage to the babies. Still when they offered induction a few days later, after my scare I was quick to agree.
  I went in one evening and was given a pessary, my husband went home as we were told probably nothing would happen until morning. Then my waters went with a huge gush, and the midwife phoned my husband, who came back. But next morning I still wasn't having contractions, so at 10.45 am I was put on a drip, and 2 of those horrible tight belts to monitor the babies.
  Contractions started straight away. There were several midwives around and I was told even more people wanted to come in with machines in case the babies needed special care, but when I asked if these others could wait outside, they agreed.
  I hadn't planned to use any breathing exercises, but I found myself concentrating on slow breathing anyway. It really helped with the pain and I was angry when people kept disrupting my concentration to ask me things, mostly 'Do you want an epidural?' 'Are you sure you don't want that epidural?':rolleyes:
  After a while the pain was worse and I asked for gas and air. This disrupted my helpful breathing and didn't really help much with the pain. With the unpleasant dizziness it caused too, I really wish I hadn't bothered.
  People were still nagging about the epidural and so I agreed mainly to shut them up and also because I thought the pain would get much much worse. However before it could be arranged I realised I was getting an urge to push. The midwife checked me and hurried out to get her colleagues, calling 'We're having these babies now!'
  There were 3 midwives, a registrar, my husband and I there when I gave birth to the first twin. It was easy. I thought, 'I can easily do that again and in half an hour they'll all have gone and it will just be the four of us.' (She weighed 5lb 1.5oz, and was born at noon - labour of an hour and a quarter.)
  However on my next push a small hand and foot came into the world. Oops! The human pelvis can't give birth to a live child sideways.
  The registrar pushed the limbs back inside and made strenuous efforts to turn my second baby from the inside. I don't know if she was going for headfirst or feet first but either way, it didn't work. I was still just on the gas and air but to be honest it wasn't that painful, nor was I terrified, but if I was going to have a caesarean I wanted them to get on with it!
  When it became clear the internal version wasn't working, they pushed me down the corridor to the operating theatre. As I remember the surgeon and anaesthetist both introduced themselves, which was polite but odd. Then I had the general anaesthetic and knew no more until I woke up, in some pain but mostly freezing cold. Both the girls were fine. Second twin weighed 5lb 4.5oz and was born 27 minutes after her sister.
  I was not upset about the caesarean at all. It's a shame they weren't both born vaginally but I am confident every effort was made that could be without endangering twin2.
  The second twin cried more and was harder to comfort than her sister for the first few weeks, perhaps because of the trauma of being manhandled before birth (she had bruises) but there were no longterm effects and she was soon just as happy a baby as her sister. They were a bit small but neither needed any special care and we all left hospital on the third day.
• What a good thread...I can let you know my 2 labour stories....
  Oct 2004.
  At the end of Sept, about 2 weeks before I was due babies head became engaged. OH was working in Iraq & first baby syndrome he was worried it may arrive soon so arranged to come home. 10th Oct, due date came & went... did lots of walking, gardening & all the usual things plus a few sweeps.... 23rd Oct arrived & my waters broke around lunch time...just a general trickle & not very much pain, put a towel in & sat on a towel. I called the hospital & they said to go in at 8pm. Hospital at 8pm, they examined me & said I had to come back at (I think) about 7am if I had not gone in before. Went home, had a bath, pains started increasing. 10pm I went to bed to try to get some sleep, pains got really bad & was leaning on my hands & knees on the floor, started being sick (now that is something they don't tell you about!).
  12pm pains increased & we went to hospital. They tried to get me onto the bed to check me but it hurt soooo much to stand up! They did a check & took me through to the labour room. At this point I was kneeling down on the floor with my head on the bed, midwife put pillow under my knees to make it comfortable.
  2am midwife told me I should have some extra pain relief, baby was back to back which was why it was so much more painful. Gas & air was just making me sick! I asked her what she thought I needed & she said that she thought I would end up having an epidural anyway so we said lets just go for that.
  2:15am the guy came to do the epidural, he had bed head & looked half asleep, he missed the vein on my arm first time & got the plaster stuck (great he was going to put a big needle in my back!) but he was great!
  8am OH went down for breakfast, the night had been easy except I was getting a pain in my side!
  3pm the specialist was called in as baby had got stuck & not moved down for about 30mins. She was quite offhand with the midwife & said to just keep going.
  4pm Ellie arrived. No stitches needed. Even though I had an epidural I could feel the sensation of needing to push, which was good.
  8pm sorry going to be too much info here. I needed a wee...still did not have use of my legs & the nursing assistant got a wheelchair to take me to the toilet. As she lifted me off the wheelchair there was a pool of blood, I went to pull my pants down with OH holding me up & a huge blood clot splatted on the floor making blood go everywhere. I sat on the toilet with OH & the nursing assistant mopping up the bloody mess!!!!
  I will post this then do DD no 2's birth story!!!
  Nicky
• Still with me? DD no 2's story - this does go on a bit!
  March 2007.
  Katie was due on 3rd March. The following week I saw the midwife who gave me a sweep, she said babies head was so low she could have broken the waters easily, also I was already a couple of cm dilated.
  I had to go to the hospital on the Friday (getting baby regularly monitored as my blood pressure was high), they did another sweep & said the same, still a couple of cm dilated (still no labour pains though)
  On the Sunday I had a bath & usually baby would kick like anything as soon as I went in the warm water, no movement so I called the hospital who said to go in. As soon as I arrived at the hospital she started wriggling again. They did another sweep & said I was 3cm dilated. Wanted me to go to day assesment on the Monday.
  Monday, day assesment, did wee test & they were worried as blood in wee until I told them about sweep. They did another sweep & said I was jumping to about 5cm dilated.
  Tuesday 12th, putting DD to bed & picked her up my waters went with a gush. Felt like I was going for the biggest wee ever! Called hospital & they said to go in, got eldest out & drove her to our friends & on to the hospital (could not go into friends as I was still gushing)
  Arrived at hospital & got to maternity ward, trousers were dripping wet even though I have 2 towels in! They checked me & even though I was not in pain they said to OH not to go home as when it happened they thought it would be quick as baby was so low.
  Got put in a room, OH was luying on 3 uneven chairs, I was on the bed but running to the toilet every 20 mins to change the towel as it was getting drenched.
  Next morning OH went down for breakfast & I ate mine, still no pains so got dressed & started walking around the hospital. & walking & walking...
  Lunchtime...by now I had a few of the midwives looking at me as I was a bit of an oddity, baby was very low, I was very dilated but no pains at all...they said how unusual I was!
  5pm I was told that I had to start getting ready to go through to the labour ward as my waters had been broken for so long they needed to give me some antibiotics for the baby. They said as I would be attached to the antibiotics they would give me some stuff to get the labour progressing.
  Labour came on quickly! Tens machine got racked up from nothing to full in 30 mins. Said I needed a poo & midwife said she would look as it may be baby & it was.... a few pushes & babies head was 1/2 way out - then the contraction stopped & she told me to stop pushing (that hurt!), a bit more & Katie arrived.
  We had to stay in hospital an extra day as she did not get enough antibiotics before being born & they wanted to keep an eye on her.
  Hope this helps someone!
  Nicky
• This is one of the bad stories, but as Sami quoted me saying, women do have to talk about the birth to get over it (Google if you don't beleive me).
  DS1 was born in September 2001, 5 weeks early as I developed pre ecclampsia. He was induced, born after 12 hours of labour by ventouse, pretty nice labour to be honest.
  DS2's birth story follows. He was born in April 2005 at 33 weeks.
  I discovered I was pregnant very early with DS2 as I started throwing up less than a week after conception! Not a nice pregnancy. I had hyper-emesis till 24 weeks, SPD from about 20 weeks, cervical bleeding on and off from the start. And I just knew it would all end bad, I never thought I would actually see that baby alive to be honest. At night when I went for a pee I kept seeing blood all over a white floor even though we had a green carpet.
  At 31 weeks the BP went up and protein appeared in my urine. Twice weekly trips to the day clinic until I was admitted when I was just shy of 33 weeks. I was admitted on a Friday. Plan was that I would stay there for 2 weeks on medication same as when I had DS1. Was given steroids and settled in for the long haul. Saturday I had a premature labour scare brought on by dehydration as I hadn't drank enough on the Friday (was nil by mouth for 5 hours till they decided I didn't have to be delivered there and then). Got through that by drinking 3 jugs of water!
  Weekend was OK, BP crashed down low on the Saturday, but rose up to a normal level by the Sunday. Monday a doctor tried to send me home, but my own consultant has told me to tell them that HE said I was to stay in, plus I just knew I was better off there. Luckily I did stay in as things would have been very different had I went home.
  Tuesday morning I woke up feeling fine, spent my 40mins on the monitor to check baby's heart, everything was looking good. Had breakfast at 8.30am, still felt fine.
  9am arrived and my bump started to feel a bit uncomfortable. Put it down to the SPD at first, but as time went by I knew it wasn't SPD. My bump felt sore, baby hadn't moved since I was on the monitor. Imagine that someone has removed your bump and gave you one made of wood, that was how it felt. Tried explaining this to the midwives but they had a feel said everything felt fine and the 'trace' (of baby's heartbeat) had been fine. Advised to rest. Resting didn't help, walking didn't help. Went to visit a friend who had her baby the day before and was in the next ward at 11am and I was dancing about. My bump felt wrong. Again tried to get someone to listen to me but again I was fobbed off, this time told to have a bath.
  Lay in the bath and got back out. It was painful lying down, the water did not help like it should for normal uterus/ligament/SPD pain etc. Lunch time arrived and I sat down to try and eat my salad, couldn't eat it couldn't sit down. Then I was told (and this part has went missing from my notes) that a doctor had had a look at me (my back was to the door of the day room where we ate) and said I looked fine.
  I gave up and went to my room. Lay on the bed propped up with pillows and fell asleep. I woke up at 4pm and felt a bit better, less sore but feeling strange, tired and weak. Put it down to lack of food and too long a nap so went and ate my lunch that was in the fridge.
  Then I was sat at the table reading a paper with my room mate and her DH. Felt a wetness and thought I had pee'd a liitle bit, so I calmly folded the paper and said 'just going to the loo'. As I got to the door I felt more 'pee' and wondered if my waters had broken, but my bump didn't feel lighter, in fact it felt solid and wooded again.
  Sat down on the loo with a huge splash of liquid, looked up and saw a trail of blood from the door to the loo and that blood I had seen at night all over the white floor.
  Panic welled up in me but suddenly some part of my mind kicked in with calm rational thought. My body was shaking and tears started streaming down my face (I went into shock) but in my head I thought 'OK, right, bleeding so, pull the red cord, then unlock the door'. Pulled the cord, got a wad of loo roll and unlocked the door. MW came in as I was sitting back down and I rather stupidly said 'I'm bleeding'. Her face went chalk white when she saw the floor and she ordered me to sit down, yelled for a wheelchair and as another MW brought in the chair, she helped me get a pad on and sit down on the wheelchair.
  I was taken to my room, my sodden bottoms and knickers taken off, a fresh pad put between my legs and told to lie on the bed. The pain when I lay back was so bad I tried to sit back up and when a MW put her hands on my chest and pushed me back down I knew it was bad. They tried to find the foetal heart beat but failed.
  Then I was being wheeled along the corridor to the delivery suite, 2 MW pushing the bed and 2 others holding open doors and yelling for people to stand back. Moved onto another bed with another monitor pressed against my bump to find the heart beat, still nothing. At some point DH was called and he walked in as a consultant wheeled in the mobile scanner. I looked at the screen and finally saw his little heart beating away, low hart rate but he was alive. That was when I closed my eyes and tried to just keep breathing. All I could think about was 'keep the oxygen going', slow steady breaths would keep him going. Took me a while to realise I was to get a section, don't know what I was thinking about when they said 'we need to get this baby out now', but I didn't realise that meant a section. Signed the sheet and then we had to wait for a room. 3 were being prepped and the first ready was mine. An anaesthetist had to be called in as we couldn't wait for the one who was there to finish with his patient and get to me.
  Finally I was on that bed with the leg bands puffing up and the mask on, being told to count back, I'd feel heat in my throat and someone would press on my throat. Blackness descended.
  I became aware of someone holding my hand squeezing it and someone calling my name. I managed to nod (I think) and squeeze the hand back (DH's). Later I woke again and saw people, doctors and nurses around me poking at wires coming out of me and at machines. I couldn't see the whole room, my vision was blurred at the edges. I tried to ask how the baby was, but to be honest at that point I didn't give a crap. I'd wake to see something, like the doctor who had my wrist and was trying to get a needle into it, he looked into my eyes and turned his back on me. I went back to sleep. I'd hear DH talking, one memorable time he was telling the mw about his cracked rib. I'd ask for a drink, take a sip out a straw and go back to sleep. Every time I woke there were too many people in the room and they all looked very serious, even 'Smiler' who was a lovely wee registrar I had gotten to know quite well, he always had a smile on his face but in that room he didn't smile once. It was him who put the needle in my artery and turned his back on me, something in the way he did it told me he didn't expect me to make it.
  When I finally woke fully enough to actually talk, 2 days had passed since the section. I had a drip in the back of each hand to give me blood, plasma, fluids and medication to bring my BP down and a needle going into the side of my wrist to an artery to get my BP. A BP monitor was on each side of me, taking readings every 15 mins from both arms. My BP at it's highest was 240/180 and my heart rate was 122bpm. I was told I was very sick but getting better. There was a crash trolley next to my bed too.
  Later that day I managed by sheer force of my stubborness to get off the bed and onto a chair. I fell asleep on the chair as soon as I sat down, but it felt so good to have achieved that!
  Next day I had been awake more and more so I was allowed down to NICU to see my baby boy. Started to feel hot and sick going down, my vision was still tunnel vision and all I could see was the bottom half of the baby in his incubator. I wanted back up to my bed to sleep. Got back and had been moved out of the IC room into the observation 4 bed ward. I got sick that night, and vomited so forcefully that they tested me for meningitis. I also had a very nasty moment with the folk in the next bed. She had her partner and visitors with her and every time I started to fall asleep they would roar with laughter. MW asked how I was feeling and I said 'I'd be better if those ***** didn't keep waking me up every 5 **** minuets!'. The visitors were told to leave. I don't feel bad as your not supposed to have visitors in that ward let alone at that time of night and roaring with laughter!
  The next day I felt better, was helped to the shower, couldn't raise my head as I was so dizzy I thought I'd pass out, but after my shower I got sitting in a chair and had some food and more yummy A+ blood. Felt so much better.
  1 week after DS2 was born, I was in a private room on a different ward. DS2 was doing great, taking expressed breast milk and having a go at feeding from me too. He had spent 24 hours on a ventilator and a further 24 on CPAP, all of which I missed. He was a bit jaundiced, but given what he went through, very well. He weighed a massive 5lb12oz. I was getting better too, had a few problems (severe diarrhoea from antibiotics, very low blood counts, BP still raised, massive bruising) but they were getting better.
  Then the consultant who delivered the baby came in. He told me that I had a placentral abruption, had a 10cm clot behind the placenta, my clotting factors were at 9 when they should be 500. I developed full ecclampsia after the birth, my heart was tachycardic and I was at constant risk of heart attack, my liver and kidneys were failing and quite frankly he had no idea how I survived. He said DS2 had an agpar of 0 at birth, 0 at 5 mins, 1 at 10mins and 3 at 15mins. Babies usually die in that situation. Another baby would be suicide so don't do it. It wasn't medicine that saved my life, he had no idea what had done that, but I was very, very lucky.
  Then he left. I was alone in my little room, DH not due up for another hour and I was left with those words. A year later I broke down and was diagnosed with PTSD.
  At 8 months old DS2 was diagnosed with 'some degree of brain damage'. At 2 years he was diagnosed with right sided hemiplegic cerbral palsy due to oxygen starvation at the time of, or leading up to his birth.
  And in January this year I discovered the lil lady here, even though I had a minera coil. But her story is not done yet. And this has been a very long post.
• THanks for that Tia. Has made me well up. (And I don;t do crying!) Thank you for sharing it.
• Ok I'll try and make it brief
  Birth 25 Dec 07 due date 16 Jan 08
  My waters broke 5.30am 24 Dec I had to fone hospital and go get checked as I had cholestasis. All was well I was 2cm dilated so I was sent home.
  No contractions until late afternoon I was still out walking the dog at 6pm. Contractions started coming more often I wasn't really timimg as I still felt fine. Was at my folks house they went to their christmas eve church service so Hubby and I went for a drive as I was becoming fidgity. Went home after that hubby put his head down while I had a very very long shower he woke everytime I was having contractions asked if I was ok and went back to sleep although he did say " wake me up when it's time to go to the hospital" Which I did at 6.30am (xmas day). I did it with gas, air and a lot of pushing and oooohing and ahhhhing, I needed to be cut so was given an anesthetic downthere which wasn't pleasant. Only wasn't plain sailing as I needed constant monitoring due to condition but with the help of kiwi ventouse (left a temporary egg on her head) little Ellie was born at 10.04am christmas day. I got stitched up which I felt as the anesthetic hadn't worked properly they did offer to inject more but I refused and just let them get on with the stitches so I could hold baba once finished
  It was quick and easy
  We were in hospital a week as she had a chest infection and she was overdosed with antibiotics so was monitored closely for the toxin levels in her little body.
• I need to add something.
  After DS2 was born I was told by well meaning friends, family and DH that I should just think myself lucky that we were both here, safe and well. You should never that. Of course I knew we were lucky and of course I was grateful that we were both still here, but that doesn't make what we went through any easier to deal with. If I had been in a car crash I would have gotten more understanding from people. But birth has a thing attatched to it that it is natural and therefore, non traumatic. Well sometimes it is traumatic, and getting a lovely baby doesn't erase the trauma.
  I kept how I was feeling to myself for a year. That year was spent with me constantly thinking about what happened and wondering why I couldn't 'just get over it' like everyone said I should. If I mentioned how I felt about the birth, I was told I just had post natal depression.
  Due to the lack of support from my husband, we split up. To me, he had failed me by not giving me the support I needed.
  Luckily we had marrage councilling which was when I was finally able to talk about the birth and how it had affected me. DH realised that while he thought he was helping me, he was doing it in the wrong way. I needed to talk about it to begin to get over it. I'm so glad we went to councilling or we would not be as strong as we are now.
  That's why I said that talking about what happened is money saving.
  There is a website for those of us who didn't have the expected birth we planned, https://www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/
  but I hope to see many, many more happy stories than bad ones. And I will stop talking now too!! But this has helped me a lot tonight, been having a bad few days thinking about all this and the upcoming birth of teh lil lady here, so hope you will forgive me!
• my dd was born in april 06, the day that i was due the midwife came out to give me a sweep and told me i was already 2cm dilated which i thought was great as she said i should have her soon, my dd was back to back so was told it was going to be a more painful labour than usual but i thought lets just get on with it i wanna see my baby
  So labour started on a sunday was having pain every ten mins all day and night so took some painkillers and went to bed, didnt sleep very well but on monday pain was coming and going so didnt go to hospital, had a little show as well so was getting more excited but still no baby and no sleep,
  went to hospital on tuesday daytime and was 3cm so they sent me back home and said take paracetamol, very tired already and things hadnt even started then:rolleyes:
  Went back to hospital wednesday and was told i was 4cm go home and come back later, finally at 11.30pm my pain was every 6 mins so went back to hospital and was 5cm and they were keeping me in
  Was coping really well with the pain just having gas and air but was extremely tired with not sleeping, also fell of birth ball because of the gas and air,
  Anyway at 3pm on the the thurs i was 8cm and had been for 2 hours with pain every min, midwife gave me an epidural which did not worked as i could still walk around, was then given a drip to speed up labour but my blood pressure dropped through the floor and babys heartbeat slowed down so it was decided i need an emergency c-section
  Off to theatre i went and was given another two epidurals bbut i could still move my legs, then was given a spinal thing(cant think of the name but i think a spinal tap) altogether had three lots of that but it finally worked
  Not long later my beautiful daughter was born but 2 mins after she arrived i could feel pain in my stomach and move my toes so i had to have general anesethic.
  When i woke up i was told the surgeon thought she had cut one of the tubes to my kidneys so i would have to have an iodine injuection to scan my body for leaks but turns out i was allergic and was sick for hours after
  then to top it all off i suffered with terrible post natal depression which lasted 2 years
  But even thought i went through all this i would do it again as every time i look at my daughter i know it was all worth it
  Also my partner was with me through out all this and was brilliant throught out
• What a fab thread, my story is as follows.......
  Woke up wed 19th June 2002 felt fine was 6 days overdue and had a hosp. appointment to arrange to be induced, went for a wee and there was loads of mucus stuff(made me feel bit queasy), anyway dbf came home from work as planned for 3.30pm appointment, saw midwife who told me I was 2.5cm dilated (I had no idea), and would have my baby within next few days. We went home and i was feeling "odd" , I then had a huge pain in my back so decided to lie down, 10mins later had another pain in my back (I did not know these were contractions, I was expecting the "painless tightenings" which they tell you about), 7 mins later next one then 5mins then 2mins, this was when i realised i was in labour.
  Got in the car dbf hit every pot hole, on the way to lincoln hospital realised it was kicking out time at lincolnshire show, traffic jams everywhere (all contractions 2 mins), took us 1.5 hours to reach the hospital, (usually 20mins), when we arrived dbf dropped me off and told me he would "see me up there" and bu**ered off to park the car!
  Staff were lovely but did not think I needed an epidural, I had to make it quite clear I was having an epidural, and eventually got one. DD was born at 0058hrs on the thursday morning, 8lb5oz, the only problem with having the epidural was that it slowed down my contractions, therefore took longer to give birth but i was glad not to have the pain after the traumatic journey to the hospital.
• Tia... wow.
  I wish you best of luck for your next baby. You are a very strong person to have been through all that.
• Well then here goes!
  My DD is 2 and a bit and was born 24th December 2006 (yep xmas eve!)
  I was due on the 11th Jan and had just finished work a few days before xmas. We had not long previously moved into a new flat and had our first grown up (ish) dinner party planned for 8 people plus us on Sat 23rd December.
  Well sat morning arrived and i nipped to the loo and there was a small amount of discharge streaked with red. Phoned hospital, they said it was a show and to ring them back when i started having contractions.
  Off we went into town to collect the huge piece of pork we had ordered from the butchers, i had my first contraction outside what was then the smallest pub in Britain.OH kept saying "maybe we should cancel dinner??" I was having none of it as i was determined not to waste all the food we had brought!!!Very MS!!
  Plodded along throughout the day, peeling, chopping, preparing the table, still having contractions but just little cramps really.
  Friends arrived at 7pm.I was having regular contractions by then but i didn't want to tell anybody!!!My close friend was there and she too was pregnant and terrified of giving birth so i didn't want to show it hurt and upset her! Ate dinner, kept going off to "check things" in the kitchen (ie bending over double trying to do the breathing thing) and then going to the loo (was i the only one who did about 6million poo's before I'd even got to the hospital??think i was terrified of doing it at the birth so did it in the privacy of my own home!
  During this time my OH kept tryng to ask me if i was alright and giving me knowing looks bless him!(even when people were arriving he kept saying "it's not too late to call it off you know").
  The last ones to leave were my close friend and her husband who later told us they knew something wasn't right but couldn't put their finger on it!!lol.
  It was then that it all started to happen (think i had kept my knees together all eve!). Contractions got stronger.called hospital and they said the classic "take some paracetamol and get some sleep" (that phrase cracks me up!).went to bed but eventually OH turned the light on and said well we might as well get up as i kept turning my phone on to check the time of contractions which lit up the whole room!
  got in the bath and lay there for what seemed like hours with OH on sofa cusions asleep on the floor next to me holding my hand.we both dozed during this time waking to squeeze hands during the painful bits and top up with piping hot water (very good!). Got out of the bath for a wee and had a bleed so rang hospital who said to come in. By then this was 4 am xmas eve.
  Got to the hospital and brought a 500ml bottle of water. I wouldn't let go of that water for love nor money after that! at one point i shouted at OH in a menacing voice "where is my WATER???" he replied "it's in your hand dear".marvelous!
  i laboured in my lower back which wasn't helpful as i had a damaged disc already. I took one puff of gas and air and slung it out as it didn't work quick enough!Hate injections so i didn't want any pethadine epidural etc. I apparently scooted right to the back on the bed to get away from the crowning bit!and i tried using a pillow to stop her coming out too. My Oh who had promised faithfully to not look, DID and told me to feel the head.he put my hand down there and i touched it (apparently) but to this day deny all knowledge!Very odd business!
  Anyhow a few pushes, a lot of stinging and she was born at 8.06am xmas eve.At which point prudish me ripped off my nighty and demanded her on my chest!!!
  Then came the grim part...stitches...dear god this was worse than pushing a head out!i had 7 with some of those inside. they gave a local anasthetic and gas and air which terrified me once it got going (but i do hate being drunk too!) as i was trying to talk and tell them i could still feel it but no one seemed to hear me ( like i was in a bubble).I afterwards found out that OH felt awful during this time as he could hear me clearly but there was nothing he could do but hold my hand.
  We have a real giggle with our friend when we relive that night (apart from the stitches!!), it helped me to be open about it and to laugh about it too. DD was nearly 3 weeks early and made a grunting noise when born (like snoring) and as they were worried about infection so we ended up in for 4 days all over xmas. She was fine though and a very contented baby.
  If i could give anyone a tip though...Put lavender oil in the bath to soothe stitches and smother your down belows with vasaline before weeing-this works a treat as long as you don't miss any bits and do it thick enough!!lol!Oh yes and having a bottle of water really helped me (for some bizarre reason), the reason i mentioned the 500ml bottle size earlier was because my OH refilled that bottle more than 6 times during 4 hours!thats over 3 litres...nevermind 8 glasses a day eh!
• I had my DS in January 2004.
  my due date was 7 February 2004, Two weeks before I went to see the midwife & after being prodded & poked, fell when getting off the bed as my jeans had got caught on the bed brake managing to break two fingers.
  I had been fairly stressed as my DH had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerocis on Christmas Eve, he had begun treatment & was adapting to being in a wheelchair as the attack had taken use of his legs, we were visiting the hospital twice a week for treatment & physiotherapy.
  On the Thursday night I noticed that my rings were getting tight & my feet were swelling up, so I decided to go to the Doctors on the Friday morning. When the Doctor saw how swollen I was, she tried to persuade me to go into hospital but I refused as I felt I couldn't leave my DH, so as a compromise I was ordered to bed to rest with the Midwife visiting the next morning to check my BP which at that time was 145/110.
  Next morning my BP was no better, I was ordered to stay in bed & the midwife would return at tea time to check my BP again, when she returned she made me go to the hospital to be monitored & to my horror I was admitted to be induced. I was given the usual internal & prostin gel to try & start things off at 8.00 on the saturday night, everyone was sent home & I spent a very lonely night on the labour ward, I cried most of the night as I had never been in hospital before & was scared stiff. On the sunday morning the gel was repeated & after lunch I was sent to a ward as the midwife led wing was closing for the afternoon as I was the only one on it.
  I kept on getting niggles & had started to bleed a little, eventually I was taken back to the labour ward to have my waters broken, I knew that this was going to be painful as the midwife gave me the gas & air to hold, she started by giving me a sweep which was excruciatingly painful, I screamed the place down & then she broke my waters. Within about 20 minutes I was turning the air blue as I couldn't handle the pain which had hit me like a ton of bricks, despite putting in my birth plan that I didn't want an epidural, I was begging for one whick took over 2 hours to arrive as the anaesthetist was in theatre, once I had the epidural in I relaxed & managed to dose & read for the rest of the night except for when the Doctor came in to up the drip to get my contractions going, by morning I was only 2cm dilated but the Doctor just kept on doubling the amount of symetrine I was getting, by 4.00pm I was 8cm dilated & the midwife told me that I would probably be able to start pushing in about an hour, but when that hour passed I had gone back to 7cm & the doctor insisted that I needed an emergency c-section, I begged for longer but he refused & practically forced me to sign the consent form, my mum came into theatre with me, my epidural was topped up & the Doctor proceeded to operate, I was shaking so much that he had to ask me to stay still, baby Thomas Andrew Atkin was born at 6.22pm, I didn't get to see him until they had done all of the checks.
  When they handed him to me all I could see was a massive pair of blue eyes from this creature that looked like ET. I heard the Doctor ask for help as I was haemoraging & there seemed to be loads of activity down at the business end, we had to wait for someone to come in & mop the floor as it was covered in my blood. I was taken to High Dependancy & was begging for a drink, but was only allowed a medicine cupful every hour as they thought my kidneys were in danger of failing, I had full blown eclampsia & for the next two days was closely monitored & given medication to help my kidneys & lower my BP which was 180/125.
  After 2 days I was allowed onto the normal ward, plonked in a room & rarely saw any of the medical staff, I had a new baby that I struggled to pick up, felt nothing for & didn't know how to care for properly. I spent most of the days in tears, begging anyone who came in to dicharge me & let me go home. On the Friday I asked to see a Doctor & insisted that they discharge me as I wasn't receiving any care, I felt that I would be better off at home where I would have family to help care for Thomas & I & I wouldn't be worrying about my DH who was extremely ill yet struggled in every day to see us.
  It took almost a month at home for my BP to return to anything like normal, I suffered terible post natal depression that has taken almost 4 years to go away, if someone had sat down with me & explained what went wrong, maybe I wouldn't have suffered for so long. I blamed myself for not standing up to the doctors & insisting on being helped to have a normal delivery, I felt a failiure.
  I am almost crying typing this as this is the first time I have put down what happened & how I really feel about it, it took almost 6 months before I really felt anything like love for Thomas & still feel guilty for this.
  I love him more than words can ever explain now but feel cheated about the 6 months I couldn't bond with him.