Monday 13 July 2009

My Labour and Birth Story at PRUH

OK, so I had been up all night with contractions, I'd had no sleep, the night before I had been kept in PRUH (Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough) and had hardly slept so I was already tired before anything started! - Read my earlier post on this!

I'd been having blood pressure problems and suffered from swollen feet, ankles and wrists ohhh and face!

It was 6am and I had been labouring mildly since about 7pm the night before but properly from about midnight. I hadn't realised I was in Labour at first because all my contractions were in my lower back, I didn't know this could happen and didn't have a single contraction across my tummy.

With each contraction I had to bend forward, it was the only thing that helped me ride through them.

When we got to the hospital, I had just got out of the car when I had a contraction, I had to kneel on the carpark floor! and again in the hospital corridor! There was me on the floor leaning onto the wheelchair seat making whale noises - with Hubby balancing all my bags and stuff! - What a sight! Two people passing by took pitty on us and helped get me and all our stuff to the delivery suite, once we had been put into a delivery room, it turns out that the man who had helped in the corridor was my midwife, Jimmy!

My birth plan was basically to use hypnobirthing, have a water birth with gas and air as pain relief. I wanted to avoid drips, catheters, pethadine, epidurals and ventouse, the last thing I wanted was to be stuck on a bed and I'd like vitamin K given by oral drops to my baby as I had read about the possible risks from the injection.

So what happened was that I needed to be strapped to the monitor from the moment I entred the room because of my BP and baby's heart rate - I was stuck on the bed with lots of wires attached to me, every time I had a contraction I needed to be helped forward, the back pain was agony - I actually felt like I was going to be left paralysed. I had gas and air which was fantastic! Really helped me cope with the pain and made me feel a little drunk and provided entertainment for my hubby! I kept feeling like I was blacking out and when I felt aware again I kept saying Hello and saying "drunk" things like I know what's going on it's just my speech has gone funny...

I had brought an icelolly with me in the cool bag and wasted no time at all getting stuck into it! The gas and air gives you such a dry mouth it was a relief to have! Jimmy, the midwife thought it was hilarious that someone had brought an icelolly! Take Icelollys and hand fans with you!

I ended up getting really badly dehydrated to the point that my lips went blue and I had to be hooked up to a drip.
The contraction pains were so intense I ended up having pethadine injected into the top of my leg, this meant that there was no chance of a water birth and things were happening so fast I could hardly think, let alone practice hypnobirthing! and as I was stuck on the bed, I wasn't able to use any yoga poses.
It also turned out that only part of my waters had broken, the rest were in the way and had to be burst for me - with something large and painful. It also turned out that my bladder was too full and in the way too so I ended up with a catheter!

Every time I had a contraction, my baby's heart rate dropped below 100 and the monitor alarm went off which was terrifying- both me and my hubby were scared that baby wasn't going to make it out alive.

I was in complete agony and struggling to push baby out (I'm sure the lack of sleep from the previous 2 nights didn't help!) I was in so much difficulty and baby was getting distressed that I ended up needing the ventouse to help deliver baby. They inject your ummm opening to numb the pain of getting the ventouse in and also when I ripped, I didn't feel the pain but I did feel the action of it happening and all the blood that followed which was a bit unsettling!

When they finally got baby out, I only had him on me for a second, they had to put him on oxygen to get him breathing - we didn't know we had a boy but recognised his features from the 4d scans we had done! The relief was imense when we finally heard him and saw him moving!

I'd lost half a litre of blood there and then and went on to lose another half litre and a huge blood clot (needed two hands to pick it up!) the midwife who came to my rescue told me it was one of the largest she had ever seen!

My baby boy only weighed 5lb 13oz when he was born and was absolutely perfect! Ended up with the vitamin K injection instead of oral drops though!

It's taken me a while to cope with the birth and accept it - It's left me feeling a bit traumatised and shocked - it was much worse than I had anticipated and I since found out that back contractions are rare and much more painful than ones across your tummy.

It was good to be on the labour ward so that everyone could come and visit and see our baby but it was hard for hubby to go home that night and leave us alone - I do think it's hard on partners!

We were out of hospital the next day and the midwives were fantastic, I got help with learning to breastfeed, change my boy's nappy and how to give him a bath!

The food was awful, so take your own cool bag full of drinks and snacks! Breakfast is cereal or a slice of bread (there is no toaster), Lunch was a microwaved hard potato and I'm not sure what the evening meal was - somehow I missed it!

At the pruh the staff were great and everything seemed clean and in order. If I were to have another baby I would go here again! (Although it's too soon to think about putting myself through birth again!)


Emma in Bromley

1 comment:

  1. Just been reminded of something to mention if you are going to the Pruh - They keep your green birth notes folder - I didn't know this and would have liked to have kept copies of some things such as the measurements from the scans we had. If there is anything you want to keep, make copies as soon as you can!

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Emma x