After joining in with the #mummybloggers and #mblogchat last night where the chat was about labour and birth, I have decided to repost my birth story from my pregnancy blog.
Charlotte Mia Crompton arrived into the world on the 7th October 2012 at
7.38am weighing in at a whopping 9lbs. I am completely and utterly smitten with
her and it was worth every single second of pregnancy and labour. Below is my
birth story which was originally posted on 28/10/2012.
I went into Warrington General Hospital on Thursday 4th October to be induced;
this made me 38 weeks pregnant, 2 weeks before my due date. Jonathan and I
arrived on ward C23 at 3pm; however, they were so busy it was 7pm before
anything happened.
I was put onto a monitor to make sure baby was happy, due to the midwife
having trouble finding the heartbeat (weight blamed once again) I was sent over
to the labour ward to be put on a more sensitive machine. After this I was
scanned to check the baby was still head down which it was at 11pm I was given
an internal examination and a pessary was inserted into my cervix. I was
monitored at regular intervals throughout the night and this time there was no
trouble finding the heartbeat. At 5am I had another pessary inserted. At
midday on Friday a registrar examined me and found that I was 2cm dilated and
therefore, didn't need another pessary which was a relief as it was quite
painful and at that point, one of the most undignified moments of my life. I was
told that once there was room on the labour ward I would be taken over for my
waters to be broken, this didn't happen for a long time.
On Saturday at 4.30pm I was told there was now room for me on the labour
ward, I was again monitored to make sure baby was happy. I then had a cannula
put into each hand, well on my right hand after several attempts it was
inserted into my wrist. One cannula had the hormone drip to bring on labour and
the other had a sliding scale of insulin and glucose. I was unable to eat
anything and could only drink water whilst in labour; I also needed to do the
finger prick test to check my blood sugars every hour throughout labour. I was
then examined and was still only 2cm dilated, my waters were broken and the
drips started. I was unable to move during labour which made it really
uncomfortable particularly on my lower back as the baby was back to back.
My contractions started at 10.30pm, they felt like bad period pains and were
short but regular. My back was still aching and I was very uncomfortable I was
given some paracetamol through a drip to ease the pain, however, it didn't work
so the midwife suggested that I use gas and air which worked a treat it took
the pain away and also regulated my breathing. I was re-examined 2.30pm
and at this point I was only 3cm dilated, I was devastated that I still had
another 7cm to go before I could even begin to start to get the baby out.
Things are a bit hazy from this point as I relied heavily on the gas and air
so was out of it for most of the time. I remember being incredibly thirsty and
shouting at Jonathan to get me water. The next thing I remember from being 3 cm
was being 9cm dilated, at this point the urge to push was overwhelming but I
had to keep breathing through the contractions, Jonathan was shouting at me
every time I was pushing instead of breathing as the baby's heartbeat was
falling. My Mum arrived back at the hospital at this point and I am glad she
was there to see her grandchild being born.
Charlotte got her shoulders stuck during delivery (shoulder dystocia) which
meant the alarms were raised and about 20 people rushed into the room to get
her out quicker. I have googled it since and it can be fatal and only happens
in 1% of vaginal births, so I am very grateful to those who helped deliver my
baby safely.
I was in active labour for 4 hours and 43 minutes. I had a 2nd degree tear
to my perineum which required stitches and I also grazed badly.
The midwife ran me a bath which Jonathan helped me with whilst my Mum stayed
with Charlotte, we were then taken back over to the ward. Once on the ward
Charlotte had to have her blood sugars tested 3 times over her first 24 hours,
she was also very cold so was placed in a warming cot. We were discharged on
the Tuesday afternoon, unfortunately, we ended up back in hospital on the
Friday for the weekend as Charlotte was badly jaundiced and had lost 15% of her
birth weight (they allow up to 10%), this meant she went down to 7lb9oz. After
tests at the hospital it was found she had to have light treatment for the
jaundice, she was dehydrated and had raised salt levels. I felt she was breast
feeding well however, she wasn't as my milk supply wasn't good enough; I made
the decision to switch to formula and expressed as much as I could. I am still devastated
about not being able to breastfeed but the most important thing is Charlotte is
healthy and she now weighs 9lb 1oz.
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