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This is too technical ......

I"m also new to this site, but giving birth to my own children is what has inspired me to become a midwife.

On DS my Waters broke 40+3, at my brothers 21st birthday party
within minutes contractions started at 3 mins apart lasting 30 seconds, within an hour I couldn't tell where they begun and where they ended so we went to the hospital. On assessment my midwife commented on how much hair my baby had.....totally freaked me out as I thought I was going to give birth to a furry animal! I got an epidural anad went straight to 8 cm and 10cm within half an hour which is when my contractions stopped and the oxytocin went up. DS was born after an hour of pushing (4.5 hours from Waters breaking), all 7lbs 13 oz and I had 2 stitches. I did develop Bells Palsy which started as soon as I went into labour and worsned over 72 hours but thankfully I got a full recovery after 8 weeks. He is now 4.5 yo


My daughter was born at 40+6, 4 hours before I was due for a RoM induction. I woke up in bed at 4am, after the 3rd contraction I had the urge to push and had to get into the car and pant all the way to stop me pushing and she was born 12mins after we arrived at the hospital at 4.45am, 8lbs 15oz, no stitches this time! I think I went into shock that evening, I couldn't believe how close I was to giving birth in the car on the side of the road!! she is now 11 months

wow we have some quick ladies on here !!!

i thought i was fast !!!

XX

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This is too technical ......

I was just thinking the same.
Mine have never been quick.
Donna
X xx X

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Doing my access course september 2008

Aw I love reading/hearing womens' birth stories, I think it's very important as well as we can learn a lot from listening to how women experience labour/birth and the care we give, so thankyou for sharing everyone.

I haven't even introduced myself yet but I'm going to jump straight in here with my own story, which will without a doubt be long...because conciseness isn't my strong point!

My first birth (and only as yet!).
Edd 16/08
During the night of the 26th August I was woken with regular but not particularly painful 'contractions' which was nothing new. I woke up the next morning with pretty uncomfortable cramp like feeling, it was constant though not coming and going, and as I was by this point (T+11) starting to think this baby was never actually coming out, I didn't say anything and just got on with my day. My ex was still in bed and I went to the supermarket with my mam and nana, the cramp like feeling got worse as the morning went on. Went home and unpacked the shopping and had some lunch. Ex was up and just as he was leaving to go to work at about 1pm, I was standing next to the fireplace saying goodbye and I felt a definite change in the pain I was feeling . I still didn't say anything though and just let him get off to work. About an hour later my mam picked me up and we went into town, my pain by this point was about every 10 minutes and it was very low down in my pelvis, I was pretty sure now that this had to be going somewhere, but still kept quiet. When we got into town we bumped into my friend's mam who said she's been hoping I might have the baby today as it was her birthday (I thought to myself well there's still time (ha!)). We did some shopping and my contractions- as I was pretty sure they were by this point, started to stop me in tracks, obviously by this point my mam had noticed and said we should go back to hers. So we went and had some tea and then I had a bath, after my bath I started timing the contractions and over the next few hours they increased to about 4 minutes apart lasting about 50 seconds. At around 9pm I rang my ex at work and told him there was no rush but I was pretty sure I was in labour, and I was going back home now if he wanted to meet me there...he got there before we did!! My mam stayed for a bit, I had a another bath and, ex fell asleep on the settee, my mam decided to go home. Some of my contractions were pretty painful but they weren't anymore frequent. I decided now would be a good time to pack my hospital bag, went upstairs and left ex sleeping on the settee. While upstairs I had quite a few painful contractions in sucession so decided to give DS a ring, the midwife I spoke to told me to have another bath and not to come in until all of my contractions were very painful. About half an hour (and no bath...i don't even like baths and I'd already had two!) I though sod that, woke up ex, rang mam to come and get us and rang DS back up and told them i was coming in. Arrived at about 2.15am, the midwife took my history and was probably thinking 'no way is she in labour' because my contractions had compltely gone off, my mam and ex to left the room while I was examined- 6cms dilated on examination (very relieved me as I did not want to be sent home) still OP, membranes still intect- ARM offered and declined.

Ex and mam came back and I was put on CTG for admission trace, the contractions started to pick up again and I was given gas and air and left to get on with it....and that's where it all goes hazy lol. I can't even remember the midwife coming back in to remove the CTG but she did and obviously it was fine, actually I can't remember the midwife being there very much at all, I can't remember any IA or obs being done, what I do remember is how much I loved gas and air! I remember laughing my head off but then getting annoyed with myself 'because it's not even funny! It hurts!'. I don't think I moved from the bed at all, and I can't remember anyone encouraging me too- I think if they had I would have done because I was keen for a normal delivery and had done a little bit of reading. I can remember only being allowed tiny sips of water and being very fustrated as the gas and air was making me thirsy (I had a sore throat the next day and it was really no suprise!). I can't remember them putting the IV fluids up, and in fact it was only recently that I found out they did when I was showing my dd the pics and she pointed out my 'poorly hand'!

At my next examination (I'm presuming 4 hours later) I was about 8cms, ARM offered again ('to speed things up') and accepted...and bloody uncomfortable!

Maybe an hour or so after that the same midwife came and gave me pethidine 'because I was very tired and it would help me get some rest'. More than anything this annoys me looking back, I didn't request pain relief, it wasn't even offered, she came into the room with it and told me I was having it, I didn't feel I needed it, yes I was tired but I was coping and I was resting between contractions. It didn't have much of an effect (on me) anyway, except just to make me feel like I lost a little bit of control for a bit.

A while later a different midwife and student came into the room (I liked this midwife so was pleased to see her). They examined me again and I can't really remember what they said but I would guess 9cms/anterior lip. I can remember at this point them still comenting on the baby being OP (still no encouragment to move at all from my semi-recumbent position though). Shortly after that I started involuntary pushing, but the midwife telling me it was fine to push but this wasn't it yet, I argued a bit, and then said well okay then but when it is 'it' it won't take very long will it? And her saying it will probably take about an hour.

I couldn't fight the pushing anyway so I just went with it, and it got stronger and stronger and I loved this bit. I was totally in myself, I can't remember what was going on in the room at all but I can remember thinking how amazing it was, slightly scary that I felt like I couldn't not push if my life depended on it, but amazing because this is how women have babies, this is what I'm meant to do and my body just knows how to it....it was this amazement that I still feel even now that made me first think about midwifery as a career!

I remember telling the midwife I felt sick (not that there was much in my stomach, it had been hours since I had my tea and I'd only been allowed those tiny sips of water! ) and her smiling as she passed me a dish and saying that's good.

Then the midwife decided it would be a good idea if I got off the bed to deliver upright, so I was standing on one side of the bed with the mw and student behind me and my ex and mam were on the other side of the bed and I was holding onto their hands and when I was pushing with the contractions I was squating and using their hands as support (I can remember my mam crying at this point and reassuring her that I was absolutely fine). Then i looked down and saw quite a lot of blood on the inco pad, I insisted to the mw that this wasn't normal (what on earth did I know!), and tried to get my mam to tell her (even though she couldn't even see the blood from where she was) but she reassured me it was, however a couple of minutes later, much to my disgust, she was telling me very firmly to get back on the bed now (she later told me she was slightly concerned by the blood loss). I could feel her head just there as I climbed back onto the bed and it can't have been much longer till she was born. She was passed up to me for skin-to-skin and I just stared at her, I was still very aware of them messing around down there and pressing on stomach and it feeling very uncomfortable, then they stopped, and all of a sudden I was overcome with emotion, crying lots, and saying how beautiful she was.

She was born at 10.38am, T+12, weighing a decent 9lb6oz (I'd measured 2cms under the whole pregnancy!), no stitches required. I'm presuming at some point she turned herself round (miraculously with me reclined on the bed for pretty much the whole 8 hours of labour I spent in the hospital!) as I was never told otherwise. 2nd stage was about 35 minutes long....lol about the only time I communicated during the 2nd stage or was even aware of what anyone was saying was when the midwife told me it would only take a few more pushes and I looked to see what time it was, ex laghed and said 'do you have to be somwhere?' and I said 'no but I told you it wouldn't take an hour'. I've got a form here to get a copy of my notes from the hospital, I'll be quite interested to read them when I eventually get around to sending it off.

I loved labour and birth (much more so than pregnancy!), my body did just what it was supposed to and I felt so strong and mostly in control as I breathed through my contractions, and like I said the explusive contractions completely amazed me. In fact I think it was my positive experience and the confirmation of how well I'd done I received from my mam and the midwives afterwards (which is why I always always make a point of telling women how well they've done) that got me through the following difficult year. I know it was by no means the 'perfect birth experience' but it was incredibly special to me, and it definitely made me who I am today as a woman, mother and future midwife.

Next time (one day!) I'll do it at home (hated the night spent in hospital afterwards), without the pethidine- completely uneccesary, with food and drink rather than a drip, and on a birth ball (and maybe in a pool) rather than a bed!

ETA...oh dear I did say it would be long!!! Good job I have only had one baby....in my defense it was a pretty long labour though

Great stuff! Nice to 'meet' you Sandra! Are you a midwife now? Or training? Or wanting to train???

Hello Norman, I've just edited my my profile to show a little about where I'm at, I'm a student midwife :-)

Hi sandra

Lovely birth story and such a joy to hear you had such a lovely experience! (would love to enjoy mine as much next time!)

Welcome to the site and well done!

xx

Hi Sandra, welcome to the site, thanks for sharing, made me cry happy tears

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CCCU Sep 2008 - yes 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all
I introduced myself before but now i,ve come across this thread i wanted to reply .My story is very long so i,ll give you the shortened version!!!. I had my first baby when i was 16 and went on to have another 5 !!.Never really had any probs ,did have very mild pre eclampsia once and i carry the strep b bug but that's it really.We concieved our 7th baby quite quickly and heard h/b at 12 weeks.I went for my scan a few days later and it was devastating.I had two sacks but only one baby had a heartbeat. radiographer told us that that baby was seriously ill. My baby was diagnosed with Anencephaly ,My world had utterly ended. I didn't even consider a termination and decided to carry my baby full term.I was told there was no risk to me except i may develop Polyhydramnios.Anyway i did develop poly and was seriously large ,i couldn't walk 10 steps without being out of breath,i even had to give up collecting my kids from school. My DR had agreed to do c/s as research has shown that babies with anen can survive longer if born this way,and after reaching full term i didn't want to lose him at the last hurdle. I went into labour at 36.5 weeks ( 2 weeks before C section) ,I had a spinal and never felt a thing at first .My beautiful son was born at 8.08pm and passed away at 8.25pm -we were devastated ,even though we knew he would die nothing prepares you for when it actually happens.Just after Luca was born i began having pains in my stomach which quickly got worse ,when my baby died i was in utter agony words cant even describe the pain -The spinal had failed. A Entonox mask was quickly put on my face ,and i was given morphine and whatever else but nothing even touched the pain. everyone was asking me to "go to sleep" but i refused as i wanted to be with Luca even though at this time i knew he had gone. After a hour of pain i couldn't stand it and agreed to the GA ,i was petrified i could hear commotion around me and knew that i was bleeding heavily .Surgeon said they may need to do a hysterectomy if bleeding couldn't be controlled but i utterly refused. When i awoke some hours later the first thing i ask was if Luca had died ( head was still muddled) and then i asked if they had done the hysterectomy (they had) .At that point i told everyone who would listen that i wished i hadnt come off the table.I discharged myself 3 days later and can tell you that it is the very worst feeling walking off labour ward without your baby.
8 months later i feel i,ve now turned a corner and i,m starting my access course in Sept 08 with the view to starting uni 09. I understand so much that pregnancy doesn't always result in a little bundle of joy and feel i can put my own experiences to good use. Midwifery has been my lifelong dream and i,m going to try my very hardest to achieve it.