I had a totally normal pregnancy, no sickness or anything else, had been to childbirth preparation classes, and felt well prepared for my baby's arrival.
Early in the morning on the day after he was due, I had my first contraction. Very clear and strong, followed two minutes later by another, and so on. After timing a few, my husband said we were supposed to wait until they were five minutes apart before we called the hospital, but I felt this was a bad idea! We called and said the contractions were two minutes apart and strong, so they said we could go in and they would have a look.
We arrived at the hospital, and I was found to be 6cms dilated, which I was quite happy about. It was at this point things began to go wrong, although I didn't know it then. The midwife said that breaking my waters would speed things up, and I let her do that. What I didn't know, was that my babies head was still high, and he wasn't facing in the right way. When she broke the waters, she effectively fixed him in a bad position. Within another hour or so, I was fully dilated, but the baby was still high. Because he was high, I felt no urge to push, but by this time I was surrounded by people telling me to push. After 2 hours of this, I thought I was dying; I couldn't have an epidural, as it was too late, so all I had was gas and air. They then decided I would have to have a high forceps delivery, and it would have to be under a general anaesthetic, as I was too far gone for anything else. I was taken away, they couldn't turn him with forceps, and so I had an emergency caesarean. When I awoke, I was handed my beautiful 7lb 10oz son, and told that he was too big for my too straight pelvis! I was not really happy with this explanation, but was too happy to be alive and have a healthy baby to make a fuss.
We were told to wait a year before getting pregnant again, to give the scar time to heal, so we did. (there is 1 year 9 months between children 1 and 2) By this time, we had moved to another city, and I was registered at a big teaching hospital. I was under the care of a consultant, because of the previous caesarean, and because I wanted to try for a natural birth. Although he asked the other hospital for my notes, they never sent them (rather suspicious), so he had to rely on his own observations and my memory. At 8 months pregnant I was given a pelvic x ray, to compare the size of the baby with me, and it was inconclusive. They said my pelvic bones were a slightly odd shape.
Three days before my due date, I had an antenatal appointment, where I was found to be 2cms dilated, so they decided to take me in where I could be monitored. I was happy with this, as the one thing I was sure of was this time I meant to be awake when my baby was born, however that was. Labour began early the next morning, and to begin with, I was encouraged to walk around. When it reached the point that I wanted pain relief, I was given an epidural, so that if another caesarean was needed, the anaesthetic could just be topped up. After that, I spent a very nice couple of hours with my husband, and a wonderful midwife.
When I got to be fully dilated, I was told I would only be allowed a short second stage, because of pressure on the scar tissue, but in fact I was given much longer than they said. The baby wasn't distressed, and I was fine, so the midwife allowed more time. As the baby's head got lower, she said I would be able to have a natural birth, but I may need forceps. A doctor came in to check things out, gave me an episiotomy, and used his hand to pull the baby the last little bit, and then my beautiful 9lb 3oz daughter was here!!
All in all, it was a great experience, and the big advantage was the much shorter recovery time; I was up and about in a day or two, whereas the first birth left me tired for ages. I would like to say, that I have since had 4 more children, all born normally, the largest of which was 11lb 4oz, and the shortest labour 50 minutes!!
I think that for me, it was a great thing to do. I didn't go into the trial of labour feeling that I would be a failure if it didn't work. I had my plans for both possibilities. There is so much that the doctors do not know... I was told that 7lb 10oz was too big for me, and yet I delivered an 11lb 4oz baby with no trouble. In the end, it is important to feel happy yourself with whatever the outcome, and to be able to trust the doctor/midwife who gives you advice! Also, it's not worth risking the life of your baby to prove you can do something!
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