WARNING: Birth Stories

[yoyo]

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS THREAD MAY POSSIBLY UPSET YOU. IT IS HERE AS A WAY OF RELEASE FOR ME. I'M NOW READY TO LET THIS GO. I THOUGHT THERE MIGHT BE OTHERS IN THE SAME POSITION.

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I guess we also need to point out that just because a person has a bad brith experience is doesn't necessarily mean PNI will follow also you don't have to have a bad birth experience to get PNI either. There are no rules from what I can tell!!

[cheshire]

YoYo

This is a good idea for a thread.

Hxxx

[susanneb1984]

Go for it YoYo
xxx

[yoyo]

I won't go into all the details but basically this is how things were ...

Started contractions Friday evening (11pm) and went to hospital Saturday who confirmed I was in labour and 2 cm dilated - to come back when things progressed further. Went back early Sunday morning in established labour. Labour was slow and erratic but both me and Jake were doing ok. Throughout my whole labour from first contraction I was throwing up, even when water was just used to wet my lips I would be sick. I wasn't offered any anti-sickness pills or given a drip as I went through 3 lots of midwives throughout and each kept saying when we hand over we'll get that sorted for you (I forgot about the whole thing -more important things on my mind!).

Gas & air didn't do a thing for me - neither did the warm bath so had a shot of pethadine to give me a bit of rest before I was fully dilated. Reached full dilation and after an hour had my waters broken for me. I was so weak by this point with no food and proper rest for so long and didn't have the strenght to stand or be on all fours for a gravity induced delivery so was laid down on the bed in stirrups (just how I didn't want but hey) pushing for england but because Jake was a big lad I just couldn't do it.

So along came a doc and suggested a ventous delivery - but the student mid wife was disappointed that she wouldn't be able to deliver this baby as it would have been her first so the doc's ears pricked up and he decides to go for an episiotomy for me. Whilst I am laid there full contractions and bit scared by now he asks the student midwife if she knows how to test how sharp scissors are - he gets a sterile pad and tests out 2 pairs to see which cuts the neatest - then says "these ones will have to do then" and proceeds to cut me. Whilst doing so he reminds the student midwife how you have to be careful as there are big arteries and blood vessels around here - with that he makes a 2nd cut into one and I bleed really heavily, but manage to deliver Jake "naturally". I needed lots of stitches and sutres. (I lost around 3 pints). As he's stitching me he says it's not plastic surgery but it'll do the job. Great time to be cracking jokes.

Jake was given to me straight away but I felt nothing.

After an hour I was taken to the toilet but collapsed on the way and had the crash team rush in to revive me - I woke up to a room full of nurses/docs/midwives and being hooked up to a drip (covered in someone elses blood!) which rammed into me in the space of a few minutes pints and pints of solutions.

That evening I was taken to the main ward where I just sat and sobbed once on my own. I didn't open the curtains round my bed, just sat and held Jake and sobbed - most of the night. What the hell had I done!!

I was discharged later the following day after being asked if I wasnted a blood test - I said did I need one? I was told I looked pale (lol looking back at a pic I had NO colour at all - I was whiter than the sheets literally!) so to pop to the docs at the end of the week after I'd rested up. 2 nights later I was rushed back in by ambulance after seizures and collapsing - my hb was right down at 6.4 or something. I stayed in hospital for around 5 days, jake was brought to me for a few hours each day but I was too weak to hold him for long.

After the first day in hospital I was knocked out with sleeping pills (i'd not slept for 4 days in a row) and it was then I realised I wouldn't die If I laid down - I'd told the docs that I felt my throat was closing when I laid down so had been trying to sleep sat up but each time my eyes closed and I began to drift off I would shake and wake up - this was the beginnings of Post Traumatic Stress - but the docs siad it was becuase I was screaming so much during labour (I checked with hubby as I was sure I'd not made a noise and he said I hadn't screamed once).

I left hopstial feeling absolutely dreadful and wishing I was dead - I knew I wasn't well at all. I put it down to being amaemic still and I'd be ok once I got home. I wasn't - PNi kicked in.

A midwife who was standing in checked in on me the day I was discharged (we stayed at my mum's for the first 8 weeks of Jake's life ) and said she felt I needed to see the doctor about how I was feeling (she said to my mum she thought I had PNI) I went to the doctor grudgingly and he simply asked how I felt about my son I replied "I loved him" not meaning a word of it but scared becuase that had to be the answer didn't it?! and he said - oh well, you're probably just having a bad day - it's a big thing having a baby and off I went. It wasn't until my hubby made me go about 8 weeks later that I admitted I wasn't well but not fully. I had to return 3 weeks alter when my mum found me at home in a right state - I was uncontrollably sobbing and hysterical - then I told the doc (different one) how I really was and felt (well not quite everything) and she arranged for a CPN who really helped me to see just how I felt. At that time I found this site --- my lifeline!!!

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I just feel now is the right time for me to let this go.

[emilyalwaysblue]

You all mind if I post my birth storie here?

I find my sons birth creeps up on me all the time. I always talk about it to my husband and I cant seem to get over it. That makes me think that it is the reason for my PNI.
I had a bad pregnany from the start, I had a few threatend miscarriages and was told at 20 weeks that I had lost my baby, only then to be told by a midwife that my baby was fine after finding the heartbeat (the hospital tested the wrong urine and tested negative for pregnancy duh!) I also developed SPD and a PE (Pulmonary Embolism) on my lung. I couldnt lay down at all and it constantly hurt to breathe.
I was admitted to the hospital numerous times and eventually after 3 days of vaginal bleeding a speacialist decided to induce me. I was 39+3 days, 2 days before april fools.
I rung my husband at work and he came into the hospital and I was given the prostigladin gel at 8am on the 31th march. Whilst the midwife was examing me she said my cervix was very hard and wasnt forward at all, she said I wasnt a good condidate for induction, yet she carried on. I was given this gel on the ward, with everyone listening in and I didnt feel like I had any privacy .I felt contractions all the day and did lots of walking to help the labour come on. I was checked and told I was 3 cm, but I should stop worrying cos I would have my baby soon. The pain was getting quite bad, but I had decided i would try for a natural birth with no drugs. I would have liked a bit more support from the midwife,maybe explaing about changing positions and masage for pain, but I was offered some paracetamol? My husband left at 9pm and I feel asleep, waking through the night in alot of pain, 6am the next day I woke properly with sharp cramps. The midwife moitored me and told me I was contracting regulary still but still 3cm, and offered me a tens machine which I said I would like. My husband came into the hospital at 8am that morning and found me in alot of pain, moaning and writhing around on my bed. There wer four other people on the ward with me and I was upset that I was being listened to by other women and there patners and vistors. I still hadnt recived a tens machine.
My husband got me up and we walked around the hopsital which did me the world of good. I was examinded at 12 and they said I was still 3cm dilated and that I had "hours to go yet!", that didnt help.
When the midwives changed shift I was eventually given a tens machine but the wires were not working, after 4 wire changes and 1 hour later they got me hooked up. I wasnt told how to use the machine and I got no benefit from it. I was given a ball aswell and a really lovely midwife showed me how to use it. I found that was quite useful.
I constantly walked around the hospital and tried to keep my spirts up. I was in so much pain. I kept taking baths and my hubby rubbed my back.
I was examanied again at 6pm and was hysterical crying, I was in so much pain. The midwife was lovely and gave me a cuddle. I was apologising for crying and I just felt so out of control.
I was given another dose of prostigladin gel at 11pm on the 1st of april as I wasnt dilating anymore and had been 3cm for neary 2 days. My husband was sent home . I remember watching footballers wives on the telly over my bed and dozing off. I woke at 1am in the morning in alot of pain with strong contractions.
I got up and began walking the corridors of the hospital leaning against the walls and trying to breathe through the contractions. A midwife told me to have a bath (again) and I was left to run my bath and collect my bath things myself. I climbed into the bath and sobbed, I wanted my husband, my mum, anyone to be with me, to sit through the contractions with me. I stood up because the water was getting colder and i felt a pop (which I later found out was my waters) The pain was so intense that I couldnt lift my leg out of the bath, so I pulled the emergency cord. The midwife came in and put a towel around me and helped me out, she said she would ring myhusbad and get me up tot labour ward. I was taken to a side room and examined, I was 3-4 cm. I was in so much pain I started to be sick. My husband arrived half and hour later and he tells me that he could hear me sobbing as he walked down the corridor.
I was going to be taken to labour ward by a health care assistant, she came in with a wheel chair as I wa shaving a contraction and was pushing me to get up and get into the wheelchair, she also said "can u keep the noise down a bit". Myhusband saw red and said he would push me.
Once in my labour room , I was crawling on the floor and moaning. I completley lost control, my eyes were fuzzy and I was dizzy. There was no midwife with me and I was left with my very scared husband. When the midwife came in she looked and me and said "get on the bed Emily, now" I think because I was so young and my husband was so scared she just thought she could boss me about and talk to me like a child. I was laying on my side in bed and was sick again. She told me that I should just have some pain relif as "I had got myself in to this mess,and I should get myself out" I felt pressured, when all I wanted to do was gain control again, maybe have someone hold my hand.
At 5am that morning an aneathatist came into the room and expalined an epidural to me. I didnt understand why he was here as I hadnt asked for him and i didnt want an epidural. As he explained it to me he was saying "When I give YOU the epidural I will use ....blahblahblah" I didnt understand but when he had finsished I sat up and I was given an epidural. The midwife was saying ur so so tired, This is the right thing. It might have been for her but it wasnt for me. I hadnt wanted this and felt that if I had gained control again I would have been able to get on with it and labour the way I had wanted. When the epidural was being sited I felt a sharp pain in my back and legs and I was still feeling contractions. The aneathestist tried a further 2 times and on the 3rd he was happy with the epidural. I still felt the contractions but I couldnt move as my left leg was numb.
At 6am the midwives changed shift and a lovely midwife called diane came on shift. She topped up my epidural and checked me with cold tube to see if I could feel it, and was shocked when I could. She expalined that my epidural must have failed. I was in pain and couldnt move now. I felt so stupid and such a failure. I was so so so tired. I cried and apologised to my husband, telling him I was so so sorry that I had failed him by having an epidural.
Hours passed and I was using gas and air when I felt I needed to push. My son was born after 1 hour and 40 minutes of pushing at 1:38pm on the 2nd of April 2005.
He was purple and not crying and was taken straight from me. He eventually started breathing and was put into the crib beside me.
I didnt have stitches of anything but I was emotionally drained. i couldnt stand because my leg was numb still and I was in shock. I rung my mother and sobbed down the phone.
I didnt hold my son for a few hours.
I know it sounds like I have just complained the whole time thru this birth story but this is as it happened. I was treated like a child as I was only 19 and my whishes were not met.
I felt like I was just another number having another number to add to the world and that my birth plan wasnt taken into account.
I cannont fault the midwife that delivered my baby. She was an angel and I have the up,ost repsect for her, she encouraged me helped me give birth to my son. I couldnt have done it with out her.
Im sorry if I have drowned on.
Thanks for reading

[Veritee]

You are both so brave to post this on here and what a good idea for a thread - perhaps we can even give birth stories its own section?

Yoyo what a terrible story - I have heard many terrible birth experiences over the years and I have seldom heard worse

I really want to respond properly to you both but feel if I try now I will not be able to concentrate and respond as fully as your stories deserve.

But you are so right to let go of this and share.
I have to say that I have shared my birth story and once was not at all enough - I have told it a few times and need to a few more.

Every time I tell it, I let go a bit more - but I am not quite there yet, so perhaps I will share it again on here - why not??

But for some, once may be all you need - we are all different .

Thank you both for sharing this - it is a testimony to what we know has happened to you and is happening to women right now.
I think of theses stories every time I am told by someone - usually a medical professional - that it has changed since I had my horrible experience nearly 17 years ago.

As long as one person suffers this lack of care at what should be a wonderful time - then nothing significant has changed.

No one of course can guarantee a birth will go well physically - but a hospital should be able to guarantee that every woman will be treated with respect, consideration listened to and given the emotianal as well as pyshical care she needs - I am just so appalled at the lack of consideration women are given by some of these professianals and that year after year it continues to happen.


I know my words are just so inadequate -

Love Veritee

[yoyo]

The system needs to change doesn't it?!! The frustrating thing was that I wrote to my hospital and complained about the treatment I had received. I was very factual and just focused on the way I was treated by mainly the doctor and also the lack of communication between staff - the reply I eventually receieved completely dismissed anything I had said - they told me it wasn't anything like the way I had said and they had the notes to prove it.

Reading back over what I wrote I've omitted such a lot - I guess it shows I'm healing. Just don't get me started on midwives attitudes (not all but many) or levels of 'cleanliness' (yeah right) in the wards!! LOL

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(Emily - you weren't by any chance at lincoln county hospital were you?)

[Veritee]

Dear All

I was going to reply further but actually I think the stories stand for themselves.
I will either find where I wrote mine and move it to here or write it again.

This section can be testimony to our experience in itself

I too had the same reaction when I tried to complain and there were no witnesses to some of the things that were the most hurtful - and the fact that they continually missed my babies distress etc - yes if this is still happening then it sure has to change.

For me the actual medical situation I found myself in was appalling as way yours YoYo but like Emily it was actually the attitude and comments made by those supposed to be caring for me that I now remember most.

However what I do want to say - is that whether or not a mothers version of events can be factually substantiated and confirmed - in my opinion it should be enough that she experienced it as a bad birth experience

However the situation was perceived by the medical staff, if the womans subjective experience is traumatic, abusive, frightening, upsetting in any way and especially if the woman feels that any of the bad experience was caused, made worse , by staff or could have been alleviated by staff and was not

Then this is all that is important - as to experience such a degree of distress and not feel that the staff are on your side and doing their best for you............

Means that something has gone wrong whatever the staff view is of what happened .

Anyway please post your stories here and why not name and shame?

Anyone have a bad birth experience in Treliske Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro in the last 20 years ?

Love Veritee

[gordo]

Gosh what truly hidieous stories. After a rough birth with my first I was adamant I was staying at home. Archie was born in a lovely, calm enviroment after just 6 hours of labour and me being able to move all I wanted and be left alone, not strapped to a monitos as first time round. A bad birth exp. can leave huge mental and physical scars and i hope you two girls keep recovering the best you can.

[Veritee]

Thanks Gordo

I am so glad your last birth was so good..
We are recovering, with help from each other

But did you have PNI ? If you did you are always welcome but I think I recognize the name, have you posted before? sorry if you have and I do not recognize you - my memory was never good but getting worse !

VeriteeX

[nina]

Wow, I thought I had a traumatic birth in some respects but you guys are amazing that you have come through it and are making head way in your lives.

My story, My partner and I decided to go for a baby we were so excited when I became pregnant and were so looking forward to the whole experience. I had a brilliant midwife and have to say without her I couldn't have done it. I was huge during my pregnancy and because diabetes runs in the family I had to lay off the sugar and be tested because ,my midwife was concerned about the baby. We were told in out antenatal classes that it's very rare your waters break first without having contractions, well I knew this it what was going to happen to me, and yep you've guessed it that exactly what happened this is on a Tuesday night about 8pm, I had just sat down with a friend who was also pregnant at the time when I thought to myself oh my good I'm wetting myself my bladders gone, then thinking no I've just been to the loo, it was then I released my waters had gone, I phoned the midwife and she told me to get to bed and try and sleep and call her any time. Well i slept through the night with only very mild pain, woke in the morning to nothing much happening my midwife came and examined me I was 4cm, she told me I was going to be a while yet but keep it up, she checked on me that day a further 2 times on the last time about 2am on the Wednesday morning she told me the baby was not the correct way round and he wasn't turning when she tried to move him, and OH my god that was painful. She informed my husband that she would be back at 7am and we were going to have to make some decision, we went to bed, where I let my hubby go to sleep and snuck back down stairs to the sofa where I continued on with the contraction and falling a sleep in between them the best I could.

My midwife arrived at 7am and told me I either had to go to the hospital or stay at home for the next few hours and see what happened, by this point my hubby and I said we would go to hospital, there was my home birth out the window, I felt very frustrated at the time not being able to get anymore than 4cm, it seemed to be haunting me and by this time, because my waters had broke it was getting important to get my baby out,so we discussed all my options and I told her I did not want a c-section if at all possible, my midwife booked me in to the birthing pool, and got a midwife that would not pressure me in to anything, she settled me in to the hospital and then had to leave to do her rounds but promised she would be back later.

The pool didn't work after 2hrs they took me out and checked I had gone to about 7cm, but still no good he hadn't turned so I had to had a drip to help give me stronger contractions they tried to put it in three times and on the third attempt got the needle in, at this point I was shattered and crying my eyes out telling my hubby that I just wanted the baby out, I turned on my side on the bed and was going to sleep during contractions and sucking on gas and air, then my midwife arrived back and took hold of the situation, she made me get on my knees which is how I wanted to give birth, and also because at the start she thought I could be having a 10lb baby, my baby finally turned, my midwife had taken the gas and air away and was telling me how to work with the contractions, my baby passed meconium so a PD had to be on stand by, and also another ,midwife came in to assist because they were worried he would get stuck, but once I had got his head out he came out no problem he was whipped away and checked over by the PD, i was finally able to turn over and sit down, at this point I couldn't stop shaking and when they passed Owen my baby boy to me I hardly had the strength to hold him, but he was the most gorgeous baby I had ever seen and loved him straight away, not that I could show it I had no energy left to really feel any thing or show it. Owen was born at 2.24pm on the Thursday, so for me a very long labour, and he was born on the 07.07.05 so a very special baby on such a bad day of news.(the London Bombings)

After the whole episode my husband told me that my midwife and secretly told him that she thought I was going to have to have a c-section. I'm so glad I didn't have to. He also told me I had lost a lot of blood which I had no idea about.

So even though I didn't have the home birth I wanted at least I didn't have a section.

Well thats my story, not as bad as the other girls but something I wanted to share. Thanks for reading sorry I ramble on a bit.

[AUSSIE GIRL]

Wow Yoyo how did you stop yourself from slapping that doctor silly and as for his sense of humour, he would make any woman scream. Thankyou for sharing your birth stories i think it's a good idea to write them and leave them behind in our journeys. So here goes mine.
August the 1st 8.30am started having mild contractions was about to take 6 year old to school and see hubby off to work decided hubby should stay and take the school run and i would stay and ring our birth centre.
We choose a birth centre for a natural birth and had meet almost all the birth centre midwives, we felt comfotable that this was going to be a natural birth with a birth centre mide wife. Rang the birth centre in between contractions, was told by a very stern matron that the birth centre didn't operate midewives on Mondays. A very useful fact that would have been more useful to know yesterday. (I felt like Adam sandler in the wedding singer if you have seen that movie you'll understand). Hung up on the bully old Matron and started to panic and cry. Husband arrived home rang another line in the hospital and they said to come on in.
was sat in a waiting room with other slightly pregnant mums and scared the helll out of them, with my face buried in the chair and breathing through each contraction.
Once it was established i wasn't going hom was finally allocated a midwife who was as quiet as amouse but kind to me.
After 6 hours of pain asked for some pethadine had this but noticed no difference. Finally at 2.30pm pushed out my 9 pound 14 baby boy and was happy to see him, although i was exhausted and wanted to sleep.
After delivery of the placenta this is where the fun began.
Started bleeding quite a bit and worried loooks on the nurses was enough to start off my first panic attack. When my six year old arrived to see his brother i missed it as i was wheeled into another room just in case i needed a blood transfusion or surgery.
I remember thinking am i going to die now but not having the courage to ask, i was scared and i think this was the start of my first panic attack.
Next day the bleeding was under control but i felt like i had been hit by a train i was exhausted and the last thing i wanted todo was breast feed. In came the breasts are best team encouraging me when i knew in my heart i just could not breast feed this baby it just did not feel ok.
Sent home day three severly anemic and started having head spins and not able to stand up, was also white as a ghost and my arms and legs felt like lead. Day 4 and my breast hurt more than anything again i was pushed and pushed to keep feeding still didin't want to and it felt not right. On day 4 while feeding my baby with my engorged, bleeding breasts my baby stopped breathing on the breast and went blue, husband saved baby i callled and ambulance and tried calming my other son who kept asking is my baby brother dead. Ambulance arrived and checked him over and said he probably choked on my milk, made me feed him again, this felt wrong and i started having panic attacks everytime i feed but still everyone around me insisted i feed him. This is where my life changed i went onto get the flu and got more physically sick and depressed and anxious until i was diagnosed with PNI at 6 weeks. I think i still feel chills from that day i saw him go blue and writing it down and leaving it behind seems like a good idea.
Aussie Girl Tracey

[Veritee]

Dear all

Yes this thread is a great idea

Oh Tracy

I feel such disappointment for you, you did all the right things, planned the birth you wanted and when it came to it no one seemed to care - how stupid to have a birthing center that has a day where its not open - babies come anytime.

As with everyones birth story - including my own which I have yet to tell -

I am struck that a common theme is that we lose out control over the situation, which is well known to crucially important for all mothers and this is why we are encouraged to make birth plans, choose where we give birth, even choose our midwife.....................

it seems to me that when this control is lost - is what pushes the birth from being maybe painful and difficult but still a wonderful event - to being something that we remember with horror, anger, fear.

And again I am struck as to how much just one word, action or attitude of those caring for you can make the difference - either way - with a word or action you can help a mother gain control, or lose it.

For you I think it began with that phone call, this womans attitude meant that from that minute you had lost control over the situation - and to fight or flight is the natural response to losing control when it is really important to be in control or you feel yours or a loved ones live is threatened.

And child birth is a life and death situation at times .....

and if you can not run or fight- we panic - because we can do nothing to get the situation back into our control.

it could have been got back but only with your being offered the right conditions and some very skilled and assertive handling by someone caring for you - but then to be put while in labour for any time at all in a waiting room with only just pregnant women was just so wrong

and your midwife sounds nice, but too timid to fight your corner.

Nina on the contrary seems to have been lucky enough to get a midwife at the eleventh hour who did fight her corner and it is possible to be assertive but give the control and power back to a woman rather than take it away..

and from what Nina says this is what this midwife did - I think it is very possible that this experience and assertive midwife saved her from the C section she very much did not want and as she was so against this may have left her feeling completely crushed and as if she had failed.

As it was Nina did at first have care that caused her to feel she had lost control but she was lucky enough to have someone competent save the situation a little in the end.


I hope midwives in their training read birth stories like this - when training to be a youth worker we defiantly read young peoples stories, we even met with those for whom relationships with carers had failed in their eyes, as part of our course and hear ed first hand what they felt went wrong between them and their carers.......

I hope trainee midwives do this - if they don't they should

Thank you both for your stories - I do think that as well as offloading them for yourself that one day they could be read by a medical profession, or read by a woman and help her to avoid the difficulties - and change some other womans situation for the better.

[susanneb1984]

Thought I'd post mine here. Hope no-one minds!

Thea : It was March I found out I was pregnant with Thea, and we were so excited. I felt wonderful until I hit 6 weeks, then the morning sickness started, well not just morning, but afternoon, evening, middle of the night. I couldn't keep anything down, and after 4 days of not eating of been able to keep water down, I started vomitting some thick purple stuff which tasted like acid, that really didn't help because it burnt my throut.
Ok, so at 7 weeks, I was admitted to hospital, due to severe dehydration, and put on a drip. I was left overnight and I asked the doctor if there was something he could give me to stop the vomitting. He turned to me very calmly, and said 'Of course there is, but the medication would cause your baby to die' Well, I wanted my baby, so obviously I refused them!

I went home, and slowly the vomitting stopped, I learnt that I could drink cold drinks through a straw and it didn't make me vomit. Ok, so our first scan date came, we couldn't wait. I convinced myself I'd lost the baby, I was convinced! But no, there she was, a little tiny baby with a lil tiny heart! We cried, and got lots of pictures! lol then we went and bought two photo frames, one said 'I love my Mummy' and the other said 'Daddy, always there, always cares, my Daddy' on it, and the photo's took pride of place on the cabinet!

Ok, so the vomitting slowed down, and I slowly got bigger, but everytime I went to the hospital, something else was wrong. I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia at just 26 weeks, my wee was the colour of lucozade! Nice! And was in and out of hospital. At 28 weeks they told me Thea wasn't growing, rushed me for scans and tests, and she was ok, they blamed my smoking. Fair enough. Then they discovered she had a problem with her left kidney, the tube from her kidney was 1/4 of a mm too big! lol Obviously this is a big deal! Just seems such a tiny amount to me! lol I was in and out of hospital with pre-eclampsia, and her not growing, and stuff! Also we didn't know my dates so it was difficult because we got a different due date everytime we went.

Ok, so 2nd Dec 02, I'd been Xmas shopping and was sat at home with Mark, wrapping the presents, and I turned to my bump and said 'If your not born by Xmas, I'm taking ur presents back' BIG MISTAKE, DON'T THREATEN A BABY! lol

I went to bed and woke up at 2am for a wee, as normal! Had a wee and noticed I'd had a show, I thought I was almost 38 weeks pregnant, so I thought YAY let's get this baby out. So I went and woke Mark up to help me get things started
Went back to sleep and woke up at 4am, when I stood up, I felt a trickle down my legs! Well, Mark panicked! lol
I phoned the hospital and they said it was probably nothing so to come in when we were ready, I said I wanted a cig first! I wa sat on the sofa, trying to eat a chocolate trifle, urgggg it made me feel sick! So I stuck to the cigs instead. Finally got to hospital at 5am, wasn't feeling any contractions, or anything, but I could see them on the monitor.

Doctor came in at 10am, and examined me, I was nearly 5cm and wasn't feeling a damn thing, was they decided to break my waters. OMG once they'd done that I felt pain! lol
Mark went to call my mum, and she said she'd be a few hours as she had something to do and we'd be lucky if baby was here by tea time. My midwife was lovely, and I lasted until 12 noon with no pain relief, then I had gas n air, pethadine, and an epidural within about an hour! Unfortunately, Thea wanted her Xmas presents, and as she arrived at 14:37pm that afternoon the epidural didn't work! When she was put on me all bloody and horrid, I instantly fell in love with her, and I cried hysterically along with my mum n Mark! lol

A very positive birth experience, unfortunately GJ was not the same. Will post that one later.

[yoyo]

It's true - "professionals" who deal with this sort of thing every day really ought to sit up and take note - this is only a small sample too and you can see a pattern already!

Glad to hear that Thea's birth was a positive experience - good to have a balance here.

I guess we also need to point out that just because a person has a bad brith experience is doesn't necessarily mean PNI will follow also you don't have to have a bad birth experience to get PNI either. There are no rules from what I can tell!!