Follow my blog with Bloglovin My labour and delivery story: Scrap the birth plan!

Disclaimer: If you are an expectant mum maybe don't read this.

Okay so my labour wasn't that horrific...I lived to tell the tale afterall and Rafe got here safe and sound. However it definitely didn't go to plan...and I was definitely not prepared for the pain!
When I wrote my birth plan I really wanted to try and go through labour and delivery with minimal pain relief. I rather arrogantly thought that I had a high enough pain threshold to be able get through labour using just breathing techniques supplemented with the occasional puff on the gas and air...How wrong was I! I ended up BEGGING everyone and anyone in the hospital who would listen to get me an epidural
 
My waters broke at half past eleven in the evening on Monday 5th December one day before my due date. This wasn't just a slow leak of waters or just a trickle there was loads. I called the hospital who told me to get some rest and come in at 9am the following morning. We actually ended up going in at both 1am and 9am as I thought baby had stopped moving. At both visits they monitored the babies heartrate and whether I was contracting and they took my temperature and bloodpressure. After establishing that everything was fine they booked me in for an induction at 7am on Wednesday the 7th December and then sent me home to see if I would progress naturally. I wasn't overly happy with this as after your waters have broken there is an increased risk to the baby of developing infections. But they refused to induce me any sooner so we headed home.

By this point I was having mild contractions, just like period cramps on and off with no pattern or regularity. They weren't really bothering me so I got a couple of hours sleep and just continued with normal day to day activities. At around 6pm that evening I was really starting to suffer, the pains were more intense but they will still sporadic with between six to ten minutes between them. Eventually when they were around five minutes apart and lasting fifty seconds we made a move to the hospital, this is a little early but I was in a lot of pain and it is a forty five minute journey.I think my naive self thought that if we left things too long the baby would just pop out in the car on the way there, if only it had been that easy!
Sods law on the journey to the hospital my contractions began to slow down. We saw a rather patronising midwife who told me that I was not in proper labour. She suggested paracetamol and pethidine and offered to examine me. Because of the risk of infection I refused an examination. In regards to the pethidine it may have been a good idea in hindsight but my own midwife had been quite negative about it so I went with the paracetamol and we headed home. Again.

The next few hours were probably the worst of my life. I am not exaggerating. I have never been in such pain! The only position I could bare to be in was all fours and I had to be continually moving. I was literally crawling from room to room wailing uncontrollably with poor R following me about and rubbing my back.

At half 5 I could take no more and we set off back to the hospital. By this point I was exhausted, in agony and possibly a little hysterical. I had to sit in the passenger foot well and lean over the passenger seat...not exactly safe or legal but the pain was unbearable if I sat down. I just remember making sure I did not look out of the window once during the entire journey because I didn't want to know how far away we were from the hospital.
Once we reached the hospital I lost all dignity. ALL DIGNITY. I began begging for someone to help me, begging for an epidural. Once they got us in a room I was writhing about so much on the bed that a nearly fell off and a midwife had to push me back on. I was inhaling so much gas and air that my face started to feel numb and while this was happening I was completely naked apart from a hospital gown that came undone at the back exposing my bare arse (although I didn't even care by this point). When they eventually examined me I was six, almost seven centimetres dilated just on paracetamol!! That's the only part of my labour and delivery story that I am proud of!

I eventually got my much anticipated epidural and it was the BEST decision I could have made. When you have been in that much pain the relief it provided was incredible. Once I was fully dilated they gave me an hour and a half to push. It wasn't happening and unfortunately I ended up needing an episiotomy and forceps delivery and I lost 1.2 litres of blood. I definitely would not say that my birth was the experience that I hoped for but as soon as my beautiful baby boy was put on my chest all the discomfort was forgotten and it was worth every second of pain! 

My advice to anyone due to have a baby would be to prepare really thoroughly. Learn about the alternative pain relief available like TENS machines, water and breathing techniques. I wish I had researched these and maybe I would have coped better. I would say don't be set on your birth plan, obviously it's good to have one prepared and hopefully everything will go to plan but be open minded to different pain relief options. Every labour and birth is different and if it's your first baby it's very difficult to know what to expect.
Don't be too hard on yourself. I felt really disappointed in myself that I needed to have an epidural and I felt like I had failed in some way. But I have come to terms with it now, and there is no point in suffering when you don't have to. The most important thing is that your baby gets here safe and sound.

Jx Follow Follow