Birth Stories (expectant mothers BEWARE!)

I want to hear them!  My group of friends are having a baby boom at the moment so birth stories are all I've been hearing and I love them.

So tell me yours!

I'll go first.

I was booked in on the 9th of April to be induced. I was 37 weeks. They preferred that I didn't go past 37 weeks with twins. More for my comfort I suppose.

Anyways, we spent about 2 hours doing all the paperwork and pee samples and stuff when the midwife did an internal exam to see how my cervix was. Turns out I was already 2 cm dilated so they went ahead and broke my waters. We were thrilled because we figured that it was going to take hours if not days for labor to start.

We waited around an hour, got myself comfortable and then they gave me an epidural. Once that was in they put me on the drip to make my contractions properly start. I liked that part best, epidural before the pain starts. I was hoping to actually go through labor without having any pain but unfortunately that didn't work out.

The epidural would only work on one side of my body at a time. I was constantly being turned over to one side or the other to help the epidural drip to the side that wasn't feeling it. They had to give me top ups several times. I ended up having so much epidural that I vomited a couple of times. Didn't faze me, I kept telling them I wanted more!

I felt really bad for Jon because our room was really warm when we went in. Then they had put extra machines in because of the two babies. Then I had a lot of staff coming in and out to check with my midwives. So the temperature kept rising and it became so unbearably HOT. I had a fan on me constantly but poor Jon was suffering. He ended up with a really nasty heat rash from sitting on the plastic chair all day. Also, I just didn't need him there. I wanted him for a bit of moral support but I had attended all the antenatal classes so I knew what was going on and I felt confident with the care I was getting, so I didn't really need Jon and as a result he just sat in a corner the whole time. A couple of times he helped me with turning over but mostly he just sat there, fretting a bit when the midwives asked about things he didn't know (like putting a clip on the babys head. He was freaked out by that but was comforted by the fact that I was ok with it). It was an odd sensation seeing my uber confident husband rely on my confidence for awhile.

Anyways, when it came time to push I was really tired. It had been like 15 hours at this stage. I hadn't eaten and was starving. I hadn't slept much because of the problems with the epidural and I was so tired. I tried pushing but it wasn't going very well. Abby (twin 1) was distressing a bit and I had Izzie (twin 2) trying to push herself into my ribs. I couldn't hold onto my legs and push as I needed to because I was trying to keep Izzie from pushing into my ribs. I ended up having Jon push Izzie down while I tried to push Abby out. To top it off Abby had her back to my back and the pain was excruciating and they didn't want to give me more pain relief at this point.

So we ended up going into theater where they were going to try forceps but they made it clear that if that didn't work I'd have to have an emergency section. They gave me further drugs and after that I felt great! Didn't feel a thing and I was very calm and was able to properly push. Abby came out with the aid of forceps. 14 minutes later Izzie came out on her own but she was breech.

Abby had quite bad bruising on her face due to the forceps. I didn't see her at first but Jon says she looked like she'd had a stroke and the pediatrician was quite worried. She had called over the other one (the one who was waiting for Izzie) to have a look at her because she wasn't doing very well at first. After a few minutes, though, she perked up and while Izzie was being looked at they gave me Abby to hold. Izzie was given to Jon and it was a lovely scene.

A lot of my friends are very much into the whole natural birth thing and are horrified by my birth story but I think it all went very well! I had twins, it wasn't going to be pretty and compared to what it could have been, I think I had it easy.

Now I want to hear yours.

Ashley, I think your story is marvellous.  I hardly know any mums of multiple births who didn't go c-section.

For myself, I can't always decide how I feel about my delivery.  I had gone two week overdue and so they brought me in on a Sunday night to be induced.  I can't remember the name, but they put that hormonal thing with the string so you can pull it out inside me to see if that would have any effect.  I got the impression later that it usually doesn't actually start labour for most women.

I spent that night on the ward with nine other women.  It's funny, I had dreaded having to be induced more than anything because I'd have to stay on a big ward rather than in the prettier private rooms in the midwife-led units.  That night, though, turned out to be my favourite part of the time in the hospital.  After all the partners and spouses went home, we all just started chatting with each other.  It made the night much easier.  I was pretty nervous, so it was nice to have other women around to help kill some time.

I finally slept and woke up around 5:30ish.  I started noticing some light cramping after that and it started feeling more regular and I realized my labour might be starting.  Around breakfast, there was no doubt.  The think I hated most about being induced was I had full-on contractions from that morning till I delivered.  I didn't get to experience the whole contractions getting closer and closer together thing--mine were full-on, full-pain and full-length from the get go.  Since my contractions had not been going on for very long for a first birth, the staff just left me to it.  Around one I begged my husband to get some help.  They checked me and nicely said that I wasn't very dilated, although it did seem DD was coming down still, but they couldn't give me any pain relief yet. She promised someone would check me again in three hours.

An hour later my waters broke on their own and a while after that I was begging my husband again for help.  I told him I really wanted an epidural and to please find someone to check me.  A new midwife came (shifts had changed) and she told me she could check me if I really wanted her to, but she hated to break the news to me, but I just wasn't in labour yet and it probably wouldn't help tons to check.  I couldn't believe what she was saying!!!!  I had been having full-on contractions with only a minute between them for around seven hours at that point.  She told me what the other midwife hadn't--that I was only one centimetre dilated when the last midwife checked.  I was heartbroken, but told her I wanted to be checked anyway.  As she reluctantly got ready, I suddenly had the urge to push like nothing else.  I told her, and she suddenly was moving much faster. 

I'll show you not in labour! 

So she looked and I was nine centimetres dilated and pushing.  They collected all my things, threw them on my bed and ran the bed through a shortcut through the IVF unit to get me to a delivery room fast.

I only pushed for about 45 minutes, and Ella was delivered.  The delivery was non-eventful and went very well.  I got to a point where I would have sworn that I couldn't do it.  I really thought they were going to have to do a section because I couldn't do it anymore, but somehow I summoned what I needed.  I hear women talk about this amazing rush when their children are born, but truthfully, I was so exhausted that I could only feel relief that it was over and Ella was okay.  That relief was overwhelming.

Since it was a simple, healthy delivery, they moved me to the MLU into a nice private room as the wards were pretty packed.  The midwives there were lovely and helped me a lot in the morning before we went home.

My care while I was pushing and after was good, and the delivery went very well, but I'll admit, I struggle a little with the memory of it all.  I now realize I should have been pushy and insisted on more help.  I tried to tell people I was struggling and hurting way more than I thought I would, but I worried they would just discount it as a first-time mum being dramatic.  I had no help or support from anyone all day other than a few minutes when I was checked.  I didn't even get gas and air until about 20-30 minutes before I delivered. 

I told them I was having a hard time going to the toilet, but nobody did anything--I've since spoken with midwives and realized I should have been catheterized, especially when I still couldn't after delivery.  It took the better part of the week before I could wee normally again (sorry if TMI).  That alone caused a lot of pain.

Now that I'm preparing for another birth, I'm really hoping to go to my local hospital where things are much more personal.  I do feel I was left alone for way to long in a very busy ward.  If I do have to go back to the big hospital, I will be more insistent on at very least things like getting some gas and air when I'm having contractions.  I'm a little nervous about how fast things will go this time.  I never got the pitosin drip and still only pushed for 45 minutes on a first delivery--I'm worried I'll go pretty fast next time, which will be fine with me, as long as I can get the help I need first.

I'm in NO hurry to repeat the birthing process!

I had been on bedrest for 2 weeks prior to go into labor, due to blood pressure problems. On a Friday night, I had a horrible backache and couldn't sleep. The next morning I woke up with a bit more discomfort in my back. I complained most of the day and eventually lost a mucus plug (gross, I know!) in the shower sometime before dinner.

We ate dinner, and I was heading to bed to settle in with a movie when my water broke. I wasn't feeling any contractions and didn't even have the appointment with the OB to discuss the "what do you do?" scenarios, so silly me called the OB on-call and asked if I needed to go to the hospital even though I wasn't feeling any labor.
Obviously, we needed to go asap.

So we made our way to the hospital. By the time we arrived and checked in, I still wasn't feeling any discomfort or pain, but I was miraculously dilated to 5cm. I got an epidural and had a pretty easy night until it stopped working early the next morning. My labor soon turned into a horrible back labor (baby was "sunny side up" and no epidural could resolve that) I tried pushing for 3 hours, didn't work, was rolled into the O.R. for a c-section. When I was being prepped for surgery they found out that my entire epidural line had stopped functioning, so I needed to be knocked out with gas. When I finally came-to a couple of hours later, I was a mother. So both DH and I missed our son's birth 

At some point i spiked a fever during labor, so both my newborn and myself were hooked up to an i.v. of antibiotics for 48 hours after delivery. Not fun. Oh, and he was jaundiced so we were sent home with a bili-blanket to sleep in while in the bassinet.

Timing on this is so funny because I just typed up my birth story with DD today for my blog.  So I'll just copy and paste.

I was scheduled to be induced on March 22nd due to high blood pressure.  I had a routine appointment on March 15th and the sonographer didn't like something she saw (something about poor practice breathing and lack of movement) so the doctor agreed I should be induced right then (I was almost 37 weeks).

I was sent directly to the hospital and after filling out all the required paperwork and settling into my delivery suite, they inserted the pessary.  This was supposed to help my cervix (which had been at 2cm dilated for several weeks) to ripen and dilate.  For some women, it's enough to bring on labour.  I felt some pretty bad cramping for awhile after that.  A few hours later they started a Pitocin drip.  I felt contractions immediately and they were long and painful...no nice slow build-up of intensity and frequency just bang on straight out of the gate.  They gave me some pain meds through IV.  I was passed out the majority of the time and having bad nightmares...while I was awake, I thought the nurse was injecting poison in my IV and trying to kill me...so I tried to rip it out.  Later that night they checked me and I was still 2cm, so they decided to stop the Pitocin and let me get some rest.

March 16th - Started the Pitocin drip again around 6am.  I don't remember the majority of this day.  Continued to have nightmares and hallucinations, would wake up and shout random obscenities then fall back asleep.  Apparently several people came to visit me and I even had conversations with them but I don't remember any of it.  At one point the doctor said the Pitocin wasn't working and I heard the words 'cesarian section' and went off.  I cried and acted like a lunatic and said there was no way they were cutting me open.  I was checked late that night and still 2cm.  I was so devastated.  2 days of pain and suffering for nothing.  The doctor said it was like banging into a brick wall...the contractions were there but the cervix wouldn't give.  They stopped the Pitocin to allow me to rest again.  I was told that the baby would have to be born by the end of the next day because you weren't allowed to be in for more than 3 days with no baby.

March 17th - I talked to the nurse and doctor and asked them to give me different pain meds because I was reacting so negatively to the drugs.  They agreed but said the other pain meds wouldn't be as effective.  They started the Pitocin drip again.  They also broke my water to see if that would help move anything along.  The contraction immediately following was so painful that I begged them to give me the pain meds from the previous days so I could just be passed out and not feel anything.  I'm actually glad they weren't able to give them to me (I needed to wait 4 hours before receiving another dose) because I probably wouldn't have remembered the birth.  My hospital's policy is that you have to be 4cm before they will give you an epidural.  My nurse lied to the doctor and said I was (even though I was still 2cm) because she believed it would help me to relax and might move things along.  I was given the epidural around 11:30am.

My doctor came in to check on me before she went to lunch (around 12pm).  To my surprise I was fully dilated.  She said we would need to wait a few hours for the epidural to wear off because I wouldn't be able to push properly.  For some reason she asked me to "practice push".  I heard the doctor saying "You're doing a really good job.  Keep that up."  I thought to myself "They say that to everyone".  I couldn't feel anything and I didn't know if I was doing it "right" or if I was even doing anything at all.

After that is a bit of a blur.  I remember the doctor yelling at the nurse for a glove.  She only had time to get one on and the thumb ripped so it was completely exposed.  The nurse pushed the emergency button on the wall and yelled something and a bunch of nurses came running in.  There was no time to break down the bed or have blankets ready...nothing to cut the umbilical cord or anything.  I had pushed about 5 times and then there was a baby on my chest.  It was 1pm.  I had dilated 8cm and given birth just 1 1/2 hours after receiving the epidural (ya think I'll be asking for another one?).

DS has a little over 10 days to come on his own or I will be induced again.  Either way, I'll have another birth story to report shortly.  

Cadenza, I can so relate to parts of your story!

I went past my EDD and the hospital policy says induce at 10 days, but they don't induce on weekends and already had a bunch scheduled for the Friday so I was booked for Thursday morning.  Thank goodness at 6 am I woke up with contractions!  I ate breakfast and phoned the hospital, they said to come in.  We get there around 8ish and they check me out.  I'm not very dilated, maybe 1-2 and they say I can go home or stay there.

Given my parents are at my house and I'm a complete noob first timer I elect to stay.  I get sent to a room in the antenatal ward and essentially ignored for HOURS.  Alex is not allowed to stay with me and I'm only checked on a couple of times.  I'm curled up on the bed listening to the mp3 player instead of moving around like I should be because it hurts and they won't give me anything but paracetemol! Just after lunchtime (not that I ate) a midwife suggests a bath will help and she runs one for me.  at 2 pm I'm miserable but thrilled when visiting hours finally arrive and I'm able to have Alex with me.

They finally check me again and agree to move me to a labour room.  My Mom and Alex are there with me.  My Mom is annoying me with the cuddly cow and I snap at her.  Things aren't progressing like they want (baby is coming down too slow or something - I'm loopy on gas and air by this point) so they want to move me to theatre.  They change me into a gown and wheel me away from Mom & Alex.  I'm in theatre without Alex for what seemed like ages, I was crying for him.  Finally he comes in in scrubs and pink (LOL) crocs that are too small for him!

They decide to use a ventouse to help the baby out.  Other than a moment of panic when the mouthpiece disconnects from the gas & air I'm doing swimmingly. They've got a radio or cd player on in the room but I can't remember anything they played. I can clearly recall thinking "yes! Nearly done!" when they tell me to stop pushing and pant.  Jean was born at twenty past four in the afternoon  and the very next moment I heard Elton John singing "Your Song". 

"How wonderful life is..now you're in the world"

The next two nights in the ward are awful.  I got no sleep at all.  The maternity ward was full and I was in a room in the antenatal ward again.  Finally on Saturday at about five we got to go home!

I love reading birth stories but probably won't post mine as my first one was really scary and my second one pretty boring.

I was 2 days past my due date and my mom came to visit from California and take care of me. On my due date they have given me a sweep which started things for a little bit but then they stopped. My blood pressure was high so they kept having me come in every other day to be checked for pre-eclampcia every time we went I had a sweep. By ten days over due I had been having false starts all week and just went with it. They had been talking about including me on Saturday if I didn’t go into labour on Friday so we went home and waited. I had started to have pained at ten in the morning and they continued to get closer and close until I was having one for a minute every five minutes so I called the hospital and they said ok call us if anything changes. So I put on my tens machine and sat in the chair until 11pm when I called and said I and now having one for over a minute every 2 minutes and they said hurry come in.

 So once I got there everything had slowed down due to the bumpy car journey. They checked me and I was already 6cm to the disbelief of the midwife. So my mom sat with me till 2am then had to leave since her plane took off at 10:30am. Once my co-codamal wore off I asked for pethidine so I could sleep. I was sleeping between contractions and my mother in law showed up. They gave me gas and air and I got nice and high off of that. They put me on the drip to speed up my contractions since they slowed down again. While putting the drip in I have been told I was offering the gas to everyone. About 8am I was screaming bloody murder because I wanted to push really bad. I was told by my male midwife that I had to stop pushing since I wasn’t ready yet.  Later I was told I wanted to push because my baby was half way between being in the right place and back to back.

I really couldn’t stop I just kept screaming, I said they I would have to have an epidural since I couldn’t stop myself. My midwife was having none of that he upped the induction juice to try and turn him and get me all the way contacted. Once that happened I was gone I had such a strong contraction I was hallucinating, at one point once the contraction stopped I had relaxed and was pain free I thought I had died.  During all this I looked over at my husband and his was crying his eyes out holding my hand (he shoved his mother down to my naughty end) and I yelled at him “you fool why are you crying?” After a good hour of pushing my son Huw came out right on to me. My mother in law cut the cord and we had a cuddle and a feed and we haven’t stopped yet.  My mother had missed her grandson by an hour he was born at 9:25am

After all that the mid-wife was so please with us. He said that I had attracted a lot of attention from the theatre staff because they were convinced that I needed to have a section. He said no that I could do it and I did and I am so pleased that he didn’t let them take me away. I ended up getting my 8lbs 11oz boy out with out any tear. 

Now I’m ready to do it again… well maybe not just yet.

I am on my third trouble free pregnancy.  Last two were normal births and everything progressed well afterwards.
To my surprise, at 37 weeks my midwife made an appointment for me to see a consultant because the baby was lying across my stomach, head on the left, bottom on the right.  I went to the appointment and was shocked as he confirmed the baby was transverse/ oblique and he went on to say that I should then be admitted to the hospital until the baby was born! Because I could go into labor and the umbilical cord could prolapse I needed to be as near as possible to the hospital.   I have an 8 and 5 yr old at home, husband works and no family nearby.  My MIL lives in the UK but has had some health problems recently so was unable to help.  We got through the next two weeks with the help of good friends.  The drs were willing to let me go until 41 weeks (which would mean 4 weeks in hospital!) but after a week and with the baby not choosing any position, I elected for a section. 
The time I spent in the hospital was restful in one way (they gave me a private room) but also very boring as I became more lethargic as the days dragged on.  I would force myself to go for walks in the corridors and stairs just to keep moving- otherwise tho I have never napped in this pregnancy I found I could spend the day sleeping or lying in bed, waiting for family to visit.  The staff were absolutely wonderful- I was in the pre-baby ward and they were so kind and compassionate.  They would chat with me and make me feel comfortable.  I spent a lot of time talking to others in various stages of pregnancy.  I would occasionally hear labor and delivery noises but not too much.  One night a woman did scream out "I"M GOING TO PUSH NOW!" and you couldn't help but think there was nothing stopping her!
The day for the section came, they gowned me, took me to theatre.  The anesthestist had a trainee with him, who unsucessfully tried to get an IV line going and in her lack of confidence was chatting nervously.  Annoying.  He then put the line in easily in the other hand, and they prepared the spinal.  It took effect very quickly, and scared me.  My bp dropped and I felt horrible until they lifted my head slightly.  Then I was fine.  We went to theatre and it started, I couldn't feel anything.  My husband was watching them and he kept asking me- you can't feel a thing?  Ben was born and I could hear him screaming and was so happy.  My husband brought him to see me- he was covered in vernix.  Then, the anesthestist told us that I was losing more blood than normal and that they were calling in a senior surgeon to assist.  I must say, I felt quite strange after that- prob psychological but still scary.  Apparently I have some unusually large blood vessels in my uterus wall and they could not cauterize them.  They just had to do the surgery quickly and close me up before I bled too much.  I lost over 2 liters of blood.  They finished off and we went back to a labour ward room where they monitored my bp every 5 min for an hour or so.  (will finish later.....)

Wow- my midwife came to take my staples out (lot better than it sounds) and it has taken me a few days to get back here.  Life with a newborn. 
I stayed overnight in the labor ward and the next day they took me to the maternity ward.  It was only the other end of the corridor, but a very different feel to where I had stayed the last two weeks.  As soon as I was back they wanted me sitting up and trying to walk a bit- with a catheter that felt nearly impossible.  The midwife came with packets of medicine, rattled off what they were for and was I happy to self medicate, self inject and blah blah.....well, didn't really feel I could say no. However, I wasn't near a clock, they all needed to be taken at different times, I could hardly move to reach water or the drawer where the medicines were kept and quite frankly, it was just a bit much too soon.  They took the catheter out, and that was better, but the pain was getting more intense.  They gave me codeine- that helped.  Had the newborn checks and they decided I was ready to go.  So, 72 hrs after my c section I went home.  Baby is a sweetie and so lovely.  He is doing well with breastfeeding and even sleeping fairly well.  So worth it all......

Wow Grace, what a story. I'd be really put out having to watch and take my own medication. Like you can keep on top of that sort of thing after having a baby!

I also had a catheter but I didn't feel it. It was a bit awkward walking around with it, though. They called it my chanel bag. *snerk* I think what made walking for me the hardest was A. my internal organs were shifting back into place and I felt like I had been punched in the stomach everytime I stood up and B. the episiotomy was PAINFUL. I seriously walked hunched over for a good month or so.

I told them I was having a hard time going to the toilet, but nobody did anything--I've since spoken with midwives and realized I should have been catheterized, especially when I still couldn't after delivery.  It took the better part of the week before I could wee normally again (sorry if TMI).  That alone caused a lot of pain.

I'm really surprised about this. My hospital put a lot of emphasis on bladder care. I had a catheter for two days because of it. How awful for you to have to go through that.

I had to do self medication, too. I hated it because I had a hard time keeping up with what time it was and I was in so much pain it was really hard to reach anything. But I had a VERY difficult experience so YMMV!

I'm really surprised about this. My hospital put a lot of emphasis on bladder care. I had a catheter for two days because of it. How awful for you to have to go through that.

Yeah, I spoke with my current midwife about my fears of that happening again, and she was pretty surprised.  She told me that I will be pretty carefully measured at the hospital I hope to deliver at and if I'm not producing, they'll take action.  Nobody did anything like that at the big hospital I delivered at during the first go-around.  I don't really want to go back there.

My water broke at 4:30am.  Within an hour my contractions were painful and irregular, but less than 2 minutes apart.  The labour ward said I needed to come in and be checked.

At 7am I arrived and found out I was 4cm dilated.  I asked for an epidural right away and the anesthesiology arrived within 10 minutes.  The epidural only worked on the right side so I had to lie on my left side.  They gave me a top up and the epidural began to work on both sides...but only for about 20 minutes. 

At 11am, I started to feel an intense pressure in my lower abdomen and it was time for them to check me again (hospital policy is every 4 hours unless you feel the urge to push).  I was fully dilated and effaced and the head was less than an inch from the opening.  The midwife said I could start pushing if I wanted to but suggested we have a "passive hour" to allow the contractions to move the head even further down and make the pushing stage easier. 

I started pushing at 11:58am and he was born at 12:14pm.  The cord was wrapped around his neck, his body and through his leg and he wasn't breathing...but within a few minutes he was crying and breathing on his own.  Total time of labour recorded as 7hr 44min.

Here is a link to mine, on my blog:

http://babylux.tumblr.com/post/881521320

Katy, what a moving story!  I did get a chuckle that your hubby had to struggle with too-small crocs as well though.  Silly hospitals!  Don't they realise expectant Dads have big feet?