I went into labour with Joshua when I was 9 days overdue. When I was examined at the hospital I was already 5cm dilated but my waters had not broken. The labour was progreesing well. I was offered meptid after a couple of hours and reluctantly accepted a small dose which is when things started to go wrong. It made me feel sick, dizzy and out of control. I was managing well with the pain.
After four hours, the midwife wanted to speed things up so broke my waters. The pain became worse and I quickly dilated to 9.5cm. The baby got into distres and his heart rate fell. They needed to get him out fast and prepared me for a forceps delivery. His heart rate stabilised and I tried pushing but each time I pushed his heart rate fell. It was early hours of Sunday morning and the medical staff could not locate or make contact with the anaesthetist. After a while the anaethetist rushed in and it was all very panicked like something out of a hospiatl drama. I signed a form but I could feel the baby's head and shouted to them he was coming but they rushed the trolley through, put me to sleep and delivered him. When they opened me up they found I was fully dilated and they had to pull him back out of the birth canal.
We were both okay but I suffered syptoms of post traumatic stress, lost a lot of weight and suffered flashbacks. I felt very emotional about the experience especially once the initial euphoria of his arrival finished. I lost a lot of weight, felt as though I had no control, like the labour was a waste of time and that I had failed.
When I was pregnant with Owen I really wanted to experience the birth and see him being born. I worried the whole pregnancy and now wished I hadn't worried so much.
I went to the hospital at 36 weeks and discussed it with the consultant who was wonderful and gave me the confidence to go through with a vbac. I told them that whatever happened, not to let me get fully dilated and then put me to sleep. If I needed a section I wanted to be awake. I was 2 days overdue when I went into labour. I had had loads of braxton hicks so I was convinced I wasn't in labour. My husband dragged me to the hospital but not until I had made sure we had all eaten tea!! I wanted to have as much energy as I could.
The labour was so quick they didn't even have a chnace to examine me to see how dilated I was. It was a four hour labour with just gas and air. I told them I did not want any meptid and I didn't want my waters broken. Owen was delivered after just three pushes and he came with the waters!
I had no stitches or tears. When I saw his little face I was elated. I kept saying "I've done it I've done it!" I was the happiest woman alive. He was placed on to my chest for skin to skin and breastfed straight away. It all happened as I had dreamed and it was such a positive wonderful experience. I even had a good look at the placenta as I wanted to take in every moment, everthing I had missed out on the first time. I had a little sleep and woke up three hours later and I would have done it again. I felt like I was on a high for weeks afterwards. I felt fantastic.
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