Suzanne's
Stories.
BIRTH OF JAMES MICHAEL - 2.4.98
My husband and I were ecstatic to find I was pregnant, as
our first pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage at 10 weeks.
It then took another 10 months to fall pregnant again. My
pregnancy went wonderfully until 30 weeks when I was
diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I was lucky enough to
be able to control it with diet alone and my pregnancy
progressed on uneventfully. We were very naïve in
relation to the treatment of gestational diabetes, and also
about the possible effects of induction of labour. My
obstetrician informed us at my 39 week check up that he
would be inducing me in 2 days time even though I had
informed him that my family had a history of overdue first
babies &endash; my mother went 3 weeks over with her first,
and 3 of my sisters all went 2 weeks over with their first
babies. Being so uninformed, we didn't query his decision
and dutifully turned up at the hospital for our induction.
The baby had not engaged, was posterior and nearly a week
early. My cervix was thick but he went ahead and broke my
waters anyway. I was then hooked up to the drip and within 2
hours I was having very mild contractions 2 minutes apart. I
call them contractions, but in hindsight they were just like
the Braxton Hicks tightenings with very little pain. I can
remember at 3pm one of the midwives asking me if I wanted to
push yet &endash; not at all. My obstetrician came back
about 6pm and did an internal and said that I had not made
any progress. He recommended that I have a caesarean as he
thought it might take another 12 or more hours for things to
really start happening and that I would end up tired and
that the baby might get distressed. What first time mum is
going to ignore those kind of comments? So I agreed &endash;
not having any idea of what how this decision would impact
of future births/pregnancies. James was born at 8.35pm,
weighing 8lb12oz, 51 cm long and head circumference of 37.5
cm. I had a spinal anaesthetic and my husband was with me. I
remember the obstetrician holding the baby up and showing us
that he was a boy. The paediatrician checked him out and
then my husband brought James over for me to see.
Unfortunately, I was being sewn up and promptly threw up and
wasn't particularly interested in seeing him. After what
seemed like hours in recovery I was finally taken upstairs
to see my baby. After a quick feed he was taken back to the
nursery and after a shot of pethidine I was asleep. I
recovered very well from the caesarean (some of the midwives
said I was the best cesar they had seen) &endash; Up and in
the shower at 9 the next morning and walking around
(although at a severe angle as I thought I would split
open!) James was born on Thursday and I was home on Monday
morning. We settled in well, James was a text book baby
&endash; fed well, was sleeping 8 hours overnight at 4 weeks
of age and 12 hours overnight from 7 weeks of age. This is
probably why I fell pregnant again when he was only 10 weeks
old. We had not yet started the mini pill (you should be ok
til he is 12 weeks old said the Ob.) and hadn't really
thought we would get pregnant so easily after so much
trouble having James.
BIRTH OF MATTHEW JOHN - 15.4.99
In hindsight the worst decision I have ever made was to
go back to the same obstetrician who delivered James.
Naively I thought that as he knew my history I would be
better served by him. On my first visit, he said he would
pencil me in for an elective c/section. My husband and I had
already started planning for a VBAC and so I told him that
unless there was a medical reason why I would not give birth
vaginally I wanted to at least try. I should have realised
there and then that he did not truly support me in my plan
for a vaginal delivery. He already had my antenatal card
labelled VBAC &endash; trial of scar, gestational diabetes
and CPD? He ordered a pelvimetry, the results of which were
well within normal limits and I was told to treat myself as
if I had gestational diabetes, even though I had not been
tested in this pregnancy. My husband and I did a lot of
research on VBACs. I contacted BACUP and read lots of books.
I saw a naturopath who prepared lots of foul tasting potions
to help my uterus. My obstetrician made it quite clear to me
that if I didn't go in to labour spontaneously I would more
than likely end up with another c/section. We tried
acupuncture, acupressure, evening primrose oil, regular sex,
hot curries and even good old castor oil to try and hurry
things along. We thought we had an agreement with the
obstetrician that as long as my diabetes was well controlled
he would let me go to 41 or more weeks before intervening.
At my 39.5 week check up he said he would book me in for an
induction. My husband looked at me in disbelief and said "is
that what you want?" Before I even had a chance to answer
the obstetrician said, "Well, it's what I want". We were
absolutely dumbfounded, as my sugar levels had been
excellent. The next couple of days we spent madly trying to
bring labour on but to no avail. When I was having one of my
weekly CTG's a wonderful midwife who listened to our
concerns said "you realise you don't have to turn up for the
induction, and that you are entitled to get a second
opinion". What a brilliant idea, so we went to another
obstetrician who said no need to induce due to gestational
diabetes, and no reason to doubt my ability to give birth
vaginally. We would have jumped ship at this stage, but this
obstetrician was going on leave the next day and would be
unavailable to take me on. Having our thoughts about the
induction being unnecessary being confirmed by the second
opinion, I did one of the bravest things I have ever done.
At 40 weeks pregnant I defied the obstetrician, and on the
morning of the planned induction I phoned the hospital and
said that I would not be coming in and that I wanted an
appointment to see my obstetrician. Surprising he wasn't too
upset, and agreed to let me have another 6 days &endash; he
would induce me on Thu 15/4 if I hadn't gone in labour (he
was going on holidays on the Friday) as long as I had a
daily CTG. So we kept on trying to get labour started, and
on the morning of Thursday 15/4 I had a show. We had hoped
that the obstetrician would realise that things were going
to happen by themselves but he went ahead with the induction
anyway. The obstetrician broke my waters at 10am. The baby
still wasn't engaged was posterior and my cervix was 2-3cm
(I'm not sure if effacement was happening though). Within 2
hours contractions had begun &endash; 20 minutes apart, then
15, then 10 and by 1.00pm they were down to 5 minutes apart.
My obstetrician came back in at 1.30pm and did an internal.
He said, "thought as much, not much progress &endash; I'll
be back at 6.00pm to check how things are going but I'm not
expecting too much". Well, that did it. I became so
disheartened and can remember saying to my husband "he may
as well just cut me up now". My contractions completely
stopped. My husband and the midwife tried to focus me on
getting labour going again, and2 or 3 hours later things
were really heating up &endash; contractions 2 minutes
apart. I can remember my husband saying, "We are going to do
it this time". The obstetrician came back in at 6.00pm and
did another internal. He said, "not much progress - I
suggest a caesarean". My husband said "look, she has only
had really strong labour for 1 or 2 hours, can we have a few
more hours and see how things go?" "Oh no" said the
obstetrician, " the theatre staff are about to go home, and
that means we would have to call them back in the middle of
the night".
I agreed to the caesarean. As I tried to explain to my
husband later, I found it impossible to labour and fight my
obstetrician at the same time. I had another spinal
anaesthetic and again my husband was present. At 9.35pm
Matthew was born, weighing 9lb 12oz, 52.5 cm long and 35.5cm
head circumference. My obstetrician did not say one word to
me during the caesarean. He came and saw me on my last day
in hospital and said "any more babies will be elective
caesarean &endash; no if's or but's". I decided there and
then that my next baby would be born vaginally and that I
would have a different obstetrician. Again I recovered well,
although it was very hard coming home from hospital after a
c/section with a 12 month old and a newborn. (I went on the
mini-pill when Matthew was 4 weeks old &endash; no more
surprises).
BIRTH OF LUKE ALEXANDER - 21.12.2000
As we only had 12 months between James and Matthew, we
decided that we shouldn't wait too long to have number 3. I
promptly fell pregnant and made an appointment to see the
same obstetrician who had given us the second opinion during
my pregnancy with Matthew. He was wonderfully supportive. I
can remember saying to him "look if you think it is too
risky then I will just have an elective c/section". He said,
"I'm not going to tell you what to do &endash; I'll give you
all the information and let you make your decision". What a
breath of fresh air &endash; to be allowed to make choices
and not be told what to do! He said he could not think of
any reason I would need another c/section, and was just so
supportive. At 28 weeks, I was again diagnosed with
gestational diabetes and this was again controlled by diet
alone. He was also happy for me to go in to labour naturally
and could see no benefit in inducing me unless an emergency
occurred. We were so much more relaxed &endash; no castor
oil!!! This time, everything went as hoped. I finished work
on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning had a show. I
woke up on Wednesday morning at 3.00am thinking I had been
dreaming about contractions but I soon realised it wasn't a
dream and that contractions were actually happening. The
contractions were about 10 minutes apart right through until
1.00pm when we decided to go out for lunch. We came home
from lunch and rang Mark's mum to come and mind the kids who
had been in family day care for the day. Contractions were
now 5 minutes apart and continued on until about 11pm. They
then slowed down a bit and I managed to get a bit of sleep.
The next morning they were 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 15
minutes, and 5 minutes &endash; all over the place. By this
stage I was pretty tired &endash; not much sleep the last
two nights. We rang the midwife we had organised to care for
us and she suggested we come around for a cuppa. I was
pretty teary and discouraged by this stage. I wanted to know
whether I had made any progress &endash; but was scared to
find out in case I hadn't. I was also concerned that if
things kept stopping and starting for too much longer I
would be too tired to cope with labour when it really heated
up. She gave me a wonderful back and tummy massage and we
spoke about fears that I had. We decided to ring my
obstetrician and he offered the option of coming in to the
hospital and having my waters broken to get things moving
along. We weren't too sure whether this would be the right
thing to do &endash; maybe the baby wasn't ready to come yet
and we would be going down the wrong road by trying to hurry
things along. Deep down inside I knew I wanted to get things
going and that I was ready to do this. So we went home and
packed things up and went off to the hospital. Both labour
wards were busy so we were in the father's room &endash;
only a bed and a TV pretty basic. Did I mention that it was
40 degrees outside? My obstetrician came in at 12.30pm and
did an internal examination and announced I was 3-4cm and
fully effaced. I felt so clever &endash; all these
contractions had been doing something after all &endash; my
body did know what to do. When we broke my waters there was
old meconium &endash; nothing to panic about, he said, it
just means they would need to keep a closer eye on me and do
more monitoring of the baby's heartbeat. I got up and we
spent the next hour or so walking around trying to get some
kind of labour established. By 2pm things had really hotted
up &endash; contractions about 2 minutes apart and lasting
45 seconds to a minute in duration. Most of my time was
spent lying down, kneeling or leaning on my husband or the
bed. My wonderful midwife gave lots of lovely back-massages
although I must admit I didn't have too much back pain this
labour. As it was so hot she also had an atomiser with cold
water and peppermint oil, which was sprayed liberally all
over my body and my face. She was lovely music playing
softly in the background and essential oils burning &endash;
such a wonderful relaxing atmosphere! I found the easiest
way to cope was to squeeze my husband's thumb every time I
had a contraction &endash; he could tell how bad each one
was by the colour that his thumb turned &endash; I think it
was purple most of the time! My obstetrician came back
around 6pm and did another internal. He said I was still
about 4cm but that the baby had moved right down and that I
was where he had expected me to be. Silly old me got very
discouraged &endash; I had hoped to be further dilated and
started to think that maybe there was something wrong with
me and that I wasn't going to make any more progress. My
midwife suggested pethidine - which I wasn't too keen on but
accepted anyway. Well, it was wonderful. I lay on the bed in
a delightful haze &endash; I must have dozed in between
contractions as they seemed to take forever to come around
but they were still 2 minutes apart but lasting a minute
each time. I can remember getting a funny sensation, but
trying to ignore it and before I knew it I was saying, "I
think I have to push". It was 8.30pm &endash; from 4 cm to
fully dilated in just over 2 hours &endash; pretty amazing,
huh? By this stage one of the labour wards was free so we
packed up and moved over. I had always been more concerned
about the dilating stage &endash; not knowing how long it
would take. I had never paid much thought to pushing
&endash; but this I found to be the hardest part to deal
with. The thing that amazed me is that once I had the urge
to push the contractions became completely painless. I never
really felt I knew what I was doing when I pushed &endash;
first I tried the birthing stool &endash; then tried leaning
over the bed. Then I tried kneeling on the bed and leaning
over the pillows, but none of these was remotely
comfortable. I didn't realise it had been so long but by now
I had been pushing for about an hour and a half. I finally
found a position I was comfortable with &endash; kneeling
upright on the bed and really pushing down into each
contraction &endash; I finally felt I was making progress.
But the baby's heartbeat was dropping each time I had a
contraction &endash; and not coming back up again straight
away. The midwife called the obstetrician in and I can
remember thinking, "just get it out" &endash; I was really
worried by this stage that my baby was in trouble. He said
he would use a vacuum extractor to help baby out &endash;
fine by me and the quicker the better. It was very
uncomfortable having the vacuum fitted to be baby's head but
before I knew it I was having another contraction and was
told to push as hard as I could for as long as I could. The
baby was about halfway out after the first contraction, and
I was told that I would feel a burning, stretching sensation
(which I didn't) and to keep pushing past it. Someone said,
"put you hand down and feel your baby's head" &endash; and
then my hand was moved and I could feel a soft wet head!
Amazing! Once the baby's head was born his airways were
suctioned and he was delivered on to my tummy. I was in
heaven &endash; he raised his head and looked up at me and
he was wet, and bloody and new and smelt absolutely divine.
My husband cut the cord &endash; he said it was like trying
to cut calamari with a blunt knife! We were ecstatic - we'd
done it! Our dream of a vaginal delivery had come true.
After a minute or so the paediatrician asked if he could
have a look at the baby &endash; I said of course and after
a quick kiss, handed him over. No stitches were required and
even though we had been concerned about the size of the baby
he was only 8lb 11-_ oz &endash; nowhere near the 9 1/2 or
10lb we had expected. The placenta took nearly an hour and a
half to come away &endash; we were a bit concerned I might
have to be taken down to theatre but when the midwife said
one last try I gave an almighty push and out it came. For
the first time, my husband and I were able to see a placenta
&endash; and we found it absolutely amazing. Once it was all
over I got up and had a shower, and then had a cuppa and
some sandwiches &endash; so much nicer than the recovery
after a c/section! Dreams really do come true &endash;
especially when you surround yourself with supportive people
&endash; obstetricians, midwives and husbands! Thank you
all. I feel that a lot of the emotional pain from the first
2 deliveries has been healed by this wonderful experience.
I'm ready to do it again!
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