Sunday 24 May 2015

Labour and delivery

Here is the story of Hallie's birth. Be warned this contains a lot of detail! 

My pregnancy with Hallie was not exactly the smoothest of pregnancies. I started having dizzy spells from around 20 weeks, at 32 weeks my rib cracked and from pretty much the moment I found out I was pregnant I developed severe exzema from all the hormone changes. All these factors led my consultant to decide I needed to be induced. At 38+4 on Friday 6th February I was taken into hospital for my induction, I was terrified and excited at the same time. I was given a 24 hour pessary first to see if this would get things moving. I think I had it in my mind that I would have this pessary and instantly be in active labour. I was extremely wrong. I felt no different with the pessary, I was gutted. The following day 24 hours later it was removed and I was examined to be told there was no progress. Next they tried a 6 hour pessary. With this pessary I walked the whole length of the hospital about 40 times over. At one point I distinctively remember star jumping, squatting and running, probably the most exercise I'd done in a long time. 6 hours later again I was examined and again there was no progress.
In the evening I started to cry to one of the nurses I had been in the hospital such a long time and had no idea the induction process would take so long. Girls were coming in and leaving with their babies and I felt like I was making no progress at all. The nurse agreed to arrange me a sweep with a dr called dr jazz who is known for starting people off. Another DR came to examine me before Dr jazz and she gave me a sweep. Honestly it was horrific, I cried my eyes out. I was linked up to the heart monitoring machine and after my sweep Hallie went into distress. I was kept on the machine for an hour and a half in total until 2 dr's came in and had a discussion with me. They told me they were going to take me to labour ward immediately to see if they could break my waters to start my labour off, if they were unsuccessful with breaking them I would have an immediate section because of the baby starting to become distressed. I was taken to labour ward where I was again linked to the heart monitor machine they were keeping a close eye on Hallie's heartbeat, It seemed to have settled down a lot and was now going at a normal pace again. I was given gas and air and the legendary dr jazz tried to see if she could break my waters. I was only half a CM dilated and they told me this normally isn't attempted until at least 3CM. The thing used to break my waters to me just looked like knitting needles. After what felt like hours she eventually broke my waters. It was the oddest feeling there was just so much water I couldn't believe it had all came from me. I was aloud to sort myself out and have a clean up and then I was linked straight to the hormone drip. They started me on a low dosage but within 2 hours my contractions were coming every minute, they had over stimulated the hormone drip. I was in agony! I coped with gas and air until the midwife said she felt the best thing would be an epidural. My epidural arrived within a few minutes. They had a problem inserting my epidural and I had a bleed on my back. They eventually inserted it. When testing my epidural they realised it had failed as I was still feeling the contractions and they were stronger than ever. They then took my epidural out and they tried again to insert it. Again I could feel everything so it was removed. They called this a failed epidural and apparently it's extremely common. I didn't even know they could fail! Going through the labour with just my gas and air was hard. My pulse and oxygen levels kept dropping and the midwife was constantly checking I was responsive. At one point an alarm sounded and lots of DR's rushed In. I just remember it like a blur they were all standing around me and checking me over. The midwife examined me at around 1pm and said I was 4cm. I was feeling all the pain above my left hip, they inserted a cathator to see if releasing my bladder would help, it didn't relieve any of the pain. When it came to 4 o'clock I was naturally pushing I was addiment I was ready, the midwife told me there wouldn't have been that much progress so quickly but I knew I had to push. I insisted on being examined and I was right, I was 10cm!! I was told to take in massive gasps of air, hold my breath and then push as hard as I could. All my pain was still being around my left hip area. Hallie started to become in distress again and there was now 2 midwifes in the room they told me I really needed to push as I was now at massive risk of having a section and her head wasn't even fully crowning yet but it could be seen. This was clearly the motivation I needed. On my next contraction I held my breath and I pushed as hard as I could with all my strength and then Hallie just came out in a big massive pool of water. The midwifes actually had to try and catch her because they didn't expect her to come the way she did without crowning! I knew she was in distress and that gave me the most motivation it could have to get my little girl safely into this world. She was Born on 9/2/15 at 4:28pm. The cord was wrapped around her neck so they did have to act quickly! My little girl was then passed to me and Andrew cut the cord. I instantly fell in love with her! She weighed 6lbs 1oz (which is small considering I was now exactly 39 weeks and was told to expect a big baby!) I was then back on the gas and air an hour later when they fitted my internal stitches.  

We were then taken back to the maternity ward and were aloud home the following day. When we arrived home I started getting horrendous headaches. They kept getting worse. A midwife visited the following day and by this point the headaches were so bad I couldn't lift my head off the pillow without screaming in agony. The midwife told me it was a side effect of my failed epidural and I may even need surgery called a spinal block, as there was a leakage on my brain caused by the failed epidural. I was taken straight back into hospital immediately that day where I was linked to a drip giving me the fluids I was loosing from the leakage on my brain. Dr's were also giving me lots of painkillers and heaps of caffeine which is known to help this pain. These headaches were so horrendous it was honestly worse than my labour pains. I was so annoyed that I had been pressured into having the epidural and I was now having all this agony and the epidural hadn't even worked! I had done my labour on just gas and air. After hours of having these fluids they allowed me to go home. It took a few days for these headaches to fully disappear. It was awful I felt like I couldn't really do a lot and I needed help doing everything when all I wanted to do is be the best mammy I could to Hallie. As soon as the headaches cleared I was so happy I could finally be pain free and enjoy doing everything I wanted with my little girl.

Hallie is now 15 weeks old and I love her more than I could ever imagine I could ever love anything! I didn't have the easiest labour Andrew, my mother and my nan were amazing, I couldn't have done it without them! But I would honestly do it all over again 10 times over because being a mammy is the best feeling in the world and I've never felt a happiness like it! I love my perfect little family! 

Thankyou for reading! Xx

2 comments:

  1. Well I happened to love that day :P meeting your beautiful baby girl!! It sounds horrific but she was worth it all as you've said. Shes perfect!! xxx

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    1. I would more than happily do it all over again <3

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