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I was woken at 5.50am last Thursday by strong contractions every 5 mins. I knew there would be no rush as I didn’t dilate last time round (the reason I had a c-section) so I just pottered about for a few hours. Decided to phone the midwife around 10 when they were getting very strong. She came round and insisted I went into hospital for monitoring as there is a risk that the contractions could cause the c-section scar to separate.
I put off going in for a long as possible, arriving around noon. The monitoring confirmed I was in labour, but an internal showed I had not dilated at all. They gave me a sweep and ordered me to walk round the hospital for an hour. So I waddled and froze for an hour but nothing changed.
The scar was holding up fine so I came home around 5pm. Spent a long and boring night listening to DH snoring and trying to get comfy while the contractions came about every 7 mins. About 8am they came back at every 5 mins with a vengeance. Back to hospital and on the monitor – still no change from yesterday and I still hadn’t dilated.
Discharged myself at 3pm, as I wanted to go home and see my son as I thought I would be in hospital for a long time. Managed to stay at home till 8pm by which point I was in agony. Back at hospital on the monitor again the baby’s heartbeat had started to show worrying decelerations. I was told if this carried on I would be having an emergency c-section within the hour. I knew it was for the best but I was devastated. It was thought that the cord was being crushed with each contraction. So I decided to move around a lot to see if it helped. Thank god it did – I felt the baby move quite violently and the heart rate settled.
Unfortunately another internal showed that I still hadn’t dilated at all. It was heading towards midnight and DH was dead on his feet. It was decided to give me a jab of pethadine so I could sleep and send DH home till 7am. Midnight came and my waters went – everywhere! No one was expecting that so I ended up flooding the room The water was clear so I thought everything was fine until I took of my pants (TMI I know) to find them full of blood. All hell broke loose then. I was given gas and air and wheeled half dressed at full speed to the labour ward (thank god it was the middle of the night!).
From then on in the contractions became unbearable. By 3am I had dilated to 3cm but was screaming like a banshee through every contraction. I had an epidural but it only worked down my left side. I’d already had pethadine and so had to rely on the gas and air (I had bit through the mouth piece by the end to the night). We were left on our own for a lot of the night as they had a medical emergency with another woman.
At 5am I felt an overwhelming urge to push. Dh called the midwife back in but she didn’t seem at all fussed and wasn’t hurrying. SO I screamed I want to push NOW!!!!! She did and internal and the surprise in her voice was very clear when she said I was 10cm dilated! DH danced around the room like a grinning idiot. And apparently I said ‘Thank F**K for that!’.
Midwife gave me a brief lesson in how to push (imagine you are having a giant poo and aim for my fingers!!) and told me to start on the next contraction. This was 6am. Poppy arrived at 6.54am. I tore slightly but it was an amazing experience. DH was in tears and kept saying how proud he was of me. And all the midwives came in to congratulate me on having a natural birth. I felt like an Olympic gold medallist on a victory tour when they wheeled me back to the ward as my midwife kept telling everyone she saw that this is Liz and she’s just had a natural birth all by her self after she had a caesarean last time!!!
It was a truly amazing experience and I have to say a very positive one. The hospital was amazing and very supportive of my wish to have a VBAC. That made all the difference in the world. If any of you ladies are considering a VBAC then I say go for it if you can. I was out of hospital the next day and I am only suffering slightly from my stitches.