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Once my due date (Sat, 25.09.04) arrived I was keen to have my baby delivered asap as I suffered from antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (sticky blood) and had been anxious throughout my pregnancy. My midwife did a stretch and sweep on my due date but this had no effect. I was therefore admitted to hospital two days later to be induced.
The first dose of prostin was administered at 12 o'clock on the Monday and by 6pm that evening, the monitor showed I was having some good contractions, though I couldn't actually feel anything and was sitting up in bed eating my tea! They decided to wait and see what happened before giving me a further dose.
The next morning my contractions had almost stopped so I was given another dose of prostin. The same thing happened that day with my body responding well to the hormone and this time I could feel the contractions but they were having no effect on my cervix. We decided to try one last dose of prostin on the Wednesday morning but unfortunately, the same thing happened and despite very strong contractions, my cervix had hardly dilated which meant my midwife could not proceed with the next step of breaking my waters.
I was very tired and stressed by this stage and after much discussion, we decided that I should have a c-section the following morning.
The following morning I woke up feeling nervous but so excited that at last I was going to meet my baby. My DH arrived at the hospital about 11am and at 12.30 I was taken down to theatre. The walk to the operating theatre was very surreal - like I was in another world. The theatre seemed to be full of people all bustling around doing different jobs. I had my epidural which was absolutely fine and I felt my body go numb from the waist down. To my delight, my own consultant was carrying out the section and he began. We then suddenly realised that my poor H was still outside waiting to be called in. He came in and held my hand. I did have to look away at one point as I could see wait the surgeon was doing in the stainless steel light above me. I lost all sense of time and just held tight to H's hand and then we heard the surgeon say 'Come on baby, your time is up'. The next moment we heard a very loud protesting cry from our baby daughter - I will never ever forget that sound or the relief that flooded through me.
Amy was born at 13.42 on Thursday, 30th September 2004 weighing 7lb 8oz and had an Agpar score of 9.