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The acts commenced on this ball of earth: Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
This is an email my wife wrote to friends following the birth of George. I've edited it slightly, so it makes more sense to people who don't know us so well.
Be warned this story is a bit of a nightmare but I would do it again if it meant another lovely baby like George.
I was watching Room 101 and trying not to laugh as the baby kept pushing down and I had really bad backache so I used a hot water bottle and then realised that I had tummy ache too! Didn't tell Paul and so we went off to bed.
Once I lay down I realised that they were quite regular so Paul timed them and they were 7 mins apart. We decided to phone the delivery suite because of my previous caesarean. They told us to come in and so we phoned the in-laws who live in Aylesbury - by now it was midnight so they got here in 45 minutes.
When we got in they said I was 1 cm - surprise surprise and sent us back home. We watched TV (Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, Hong Kong Fooey and Scooby Doo) and I rocked over my bean bags and walked up and down whilst Paul tried to doze. After another tearful goodbye to a sleeping Emilia (anyone would have thought I wasn't coming back - ever the optimist!!) we set off at 6.30am. By now, the contractions were every 3 minutes.
Well I was 1 cm still so we had to go to the dreaded room 12/16 (as it is known now!)[1] where other mums were having their gel put in.[2] I had a bath with my oils and put my tens machine on and used the gas - I would not sit down and used my beanbags kneeling and squatting but my knees were so red and my legs were a very strange colour by mid-morning they did another internal and said I was still the same.
The contractions were now 2 minutes and painful - I also had to be monitored the whole time which was a real pain. They wanted me to open the curtains but no-one else was in labour and I felt that I wasn't a side show and got quite bolshy!!!
They examined me at 2pm and said I was 3 cm and that I could go to theatre now but I refused by now I was very tired and quite tearful - it also didn't help that I didn't want to make any noise in front of 4 other women who occasionally were feeling their tummies go hard!!
Paul could not find any midwives around and he went out about 6 times - they were very short staffed.... lost my notes, confused me with someone else, lost my blood. and lots were going up to theatre... then a really great registrar (Dr. Gandhi) came on and said we should persevere for a normal delivery. He said I was now 4 cms and that he would break my waters but the midwife said there would be no-one in delivery to take me. By now I wanted an epidural.[3]
2 hours later they found me a room.... so I walked round, but the room was empty. They left us and did not show us where the gas was so I only had my tens on. At 5pm the anaesthetist came and said he was in a hurry as was due in theatre in ten minutes.[4]
So the epidural went in and although I could still feel the contractions, I could rest. I used the gas and then I had my own midwife!!!!
Mary was with us for the next 12 hours so we really got to know her. They broke my waters and said they would check me again in 4 hours. Well I was still 4 cms so the dreaded syntocin drip went in......
They asked again about the caesarean but the registrar wanted to persevere. I got to 6 cms by 2am Wednesday morning but the drip was making me very queasy and delirious but because of the gas I was still very smiley!!
Then Mary went for a break and things got a bit scary - I lost blood and I had a pain that was not a contraction by my scar...[5] they scanned me and decided the pain was a urine infection - because I had been there so long I had not been to the toilet and was not drinking enough. They put a catheter in and I was 8 cms!!!
By 6am I was fully dilated and Paul (bless him - he kept nodding off and then jumping awake)[6] had a real rush of adrenalin and it was very exciting - although we could hear lots of noisy women around us and that did scare me - but I had waited so long for this moment so I began to push.
Unfortunately Mary had to take her little boy to school so she left at 7. Two new midwives came in (one a trainee) and the registrar was back to deliver our baby. By now after being topped up with epidural for 12 hours plus I had no feeling in my bottom and I knew I was in the wrong position to push.
Paul saw the head and was cheering me on but I was shattered so forceps and stirrups came out - I didn't care by then and out came a meconium covered George - 7lbs 3 ozs.
Officially they classed the labour as 19 hours and 45 minutes as they only count it from 3 cms. From when contractions started, it was 34 hours.
[1] Room 12/16 is a waiting room, basically. Usually, it is just for women who are being induced but when busy (when there are no free midwifes) it also looks after women in the early stages of labour. In this case, there were 6 women to one midwife.
[2] To induce labour.
[3] They couldn't give the epidural without one-to-one care from a midwife due to the potential complications. (e.g. lowered blood pressure).
[4] To perform a caesarean.
[5] What Gina doesn't explain here is that the stand in midwife turned up the level of the syntocin drip, presumably standard procedure, but it wasn't noticed by Mary straight away because of the panic caused by the loss of blood. We think the pain was caused by the increased pressure created by the drip being increased.
[6] from 2am to 6am nothing much happened, you can't blame me. I had to actually leave the delivery ward to get a coke or a coffee, and sometimes it took ages to be allowed back in again.
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