Stop over in PRUH and getting labour started!

In the last few days of my pregnancy I had developed a few small complications, My swollen ankles had swollen even more, my blood pressure was high and I had a level 2 protein reading.

My midwife at the GP's had said to me that if I get even the slightest hint of a headache, that I should call the labour ward at PRUH (Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough)

The next day I got a headache, I thought it was just down to a bizzy day and the heavy air pressure but I took the advice of my hubby and phoned the labour ward - who asked me to pop in so they could just check everything was OK.

My blood pressure was all over the place so I had to stay in that night, at one point my bp reached 170/110. I was terrified - I'm not comfortable with hospitals as I had a few operations as a child (childhood kidney disease) and I was put on a ward in a bay with 4 beds, my hubby stayed as long as he could but was not allowed to stay with me - I'd have felt a lot more comfortable if my hubby could have stayed with me!

I didn't get much sleep, it was very noisey on the ward and any sleep I did get was interrupted either for me to be woken for my bp and other readings or by the sounds of others being woken for their monitoring or the cries of babies from other bays, staff talking to each other and various equipment beeping. I would reccommend that if you should need an overnight stay before your baby is born - pack ear plugs!

The next morning the doctors decided that I should be induced in a few days time as although my BP had settled a little in the night they were concerned, they booked me in for induction on monday and told me I had to come back for monitoring over the weekend.

In the meantime I was advised to see if I could get labour started using other methods and was offered a sweep - which I had.

OMG! the sweep hurt like h3ll and was a lot more uncomfortable than I was expecting (They said it was like a smear test) I wasn't dilated at all so it was very painful and left me feeling rather bruised and uncomfortable!

After I was discharged from hospital we decided to see what we could do to get things going.

We went for a walk to our favourite Indian restaurant in Bromley (The papadom) - I had Chicken Tikka Buhna and a few pineapple juices.

Before we had even left the restaurant, my show had started! and I had very mild lower back pains but I suffer IBS and put it down to food and tiredness. We walked back to the car and took the route home with the most speed humps - as I was still feeling bruised from the sweep it was quite uncomfortable!

When we went to bed, I was still having mild back cramps and they were getting stronger, I also had to go to the loo with an upset tummy - it felt very much like IBS and I wasn't getting any pains accross the front. I was struggling to get comfy in bed or sleep, I ended up going downstairs and was getting those back cramps every 10 mins, I couldn't sleep and by this point it was midnight and I started to suspect I was in Labour but was confused as I thought contractions happened across your front (turns out that for a few of us, we get contractions in our backs!) The pains in my back kept getting worse and I laboured downstairs until about 6am, each time I got a contraction, because they were in my back I had to roll forward over my birthing ball or go on all fours on the floor. When the pains were coming every 3 mins and were very painful (the noises I was making, I wondered if the neighbours thought we were having noisey sex!), I told hubby it was time to go!

Whilst my hubby was phoning the labour ward my waters broke they kind of gently gushed out if that makes sense! Hubby made the calls to our parents and packed me into the car and off we went to the hospital.

If you would like to read more about my Labour, please read my Labour story entry...

Emma in Bromley