how my lovely natural water birth turned into an emergency c-section...

day 2

Tabitha Penelope was born two days ago at 9:39 pm weighing 8 pounds and 11 ounces. a Beautiful healthy baby girl.

Going into labor is actually harder to spot than you would imagine, I had a couple of false worries when I thought my waters had gone, but actually they hadn't (apparently I was making a large amount of very liquid discharge...I know, yuck) so had to worry Coyote and ask midwives embarrassing questions. But by Sunday my body was niggling away I was getting cramping types pains, though none very definite and a weird clenching sensation in my womb, not painful exactly, but uncomfortable and weird and I got some show coming away (a gooey snot like clear plug that blocks the opening of the cervix). By Monday about 3 am I was definitely having contractions, they were painful, but I was coping and they weren't regular, so I had a hot bath and a couple of paracetamol and left heading into hospital till about 11:30 when they were about 5-6 minutes apart and lasting about 60 seconds each. At which point I was assessed, they found I was contracting well, with good hard contractions, but not regularly enough, so they examined me and found I was still only 1-2 cm, then they sent me for a walk for a couple of hours to see how it would go and they gave me some paracetamol and some codeine. during the walk though rather than continuing to get going they slowed down again, so the midwife recommended that I head home, get some rest and see how it went. I managed to get some rest in between the contractions which had slowed down to about once every 10 minutes. but around 2 am they started coming back hard and fast, speeding up and getting really very very painful. I stopped coping so well at this point (you've got to remember that a strong pain at least once every 10 minutes for 24 hours is a very wearing thing) so I got a taxi back to the hospital...

the next 16 hours were very very unpleasant...I was examined to see if my waters had gone (at this point I didn't think they had, but I was tired, confused and a lot of weird stuff was happening with my body) my waters hadn't gone so and I was still only 2-3 cm dilated, so they gave my cervix a sweep. 20 minutes later my waters impressively and gushingly broke (it felt like a pop and then maybe a liter of water flooded out)...  my contractions kept coming thick and fast, making it really really hard for me to eat or drink (which took the power but not the pain out of the contractions, slowing down my labor) I did get to use the birthing pool, but we kept on having problems with it, first they didn't check the temperature of it properly so it was too hot and made the babies heart rate get too high, so I had to get out and have cold water added and then wait for the midwife to come back and check that the temperature was right this time round (but there was an emergency with someone else so this took a good long while) and then because I'd been desperately trying to get fluids down while i was having lots of contractions I got sick in the pool, and again it needed to be drained and refilled (and again a good long wait to get back in it while we found someone to check it) and then because I was going for so long they gave me more codeine and paracetamol which would slow down contractions but give me rest, so I rested, but then of course the pool was too cold to use... all of this was really frustrating because being in the pool was great, it made the pain about 1/4 less, which helped me feel so much better...

baby also kept on moving around, into and out of again the delivery position, she was on her side, then back to back and then onto the other side...at one point they couldn't figure out what was happening! apparently it felt like she had two bottoms..but this again was slowing things down because there wasn't any constant pressure from her head.

and on top of all of this my heart rate just kept on getting higher and higher, and I kept on getting more and more tired, even though I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes, and sometime just in a continuous flow that didn't let up for 10 minutes at a time, nothing was progressing...I was in so much pain I just wanted it all to stop, I wanted to give in and get an epidural even if it meant a change of hospital I just couldn't cope and didn't want to keep on having too, it was all so hard...and then my temperature started to rise as well. My high temperature on top of my heart rate speeding into worrying levels really worried the midwife's, and the decision was made that I be transferred to a different hospital where I could be assessed properly by a doctor and other options discussed...at the time I don't think I realized how worried they were about me, especially when they discovered that even after everything I was still only 3 cm dilated, but looking back...the ambulance used to get me to the other hospital used sirens and flashing lights, and the worry levels were rising high...

at the next hospital everything was much much more medicinal, a drip was put in my arm to give me fluids and IV paracetamol to help with the pain and hopefully bring down the fever which kept on climbing, and they took a blood test. my contractions had slowed again because of my exhaustion and I was at the end of my reserves. another exam showed that I was still only at 4 cm, and it was now 12 hours after my waters had broken...and infection had gotten in at some point and my body just wasn't handling it, babies heart rate was starting to speed up as well in response to mine...generally things were stuck and starting to get medically dangerous for both of us...I was out of time energy and options, the doctor (who was lovely  explained everything to me, but it really came down to "we have no options" they couldn't give me a epidural and hormones to make everything speed up because of the risk of infection getting into my spine if they tried, they couldn't leave me to keep going as I was...so...only one choice left. a cesarean section...

once the decision was made everything happened surprisingly fast, I recon I was into the operating theater within 30 minutes (again an indication that they were really worried about me) everyone was lovely, from the anesthetist (who quoted Yoda and was impressed that i recognized it) to the surgeon to the nurses (it was a crowded space), everyone was kind and upbeat...and actually at this point I calmed down a lot, it was Coyote (who had been so very strong and supportive through this whole thing) who started to freak out and I was calming him down! Coyote came in with me (though it needed me telling him that he wouldn't see anything gory and that it would all be behind a sheet screen to persuade him) and they gave me a spinal block...which wonderfully and magically took away the pain I'd been in for 40 odd hours, and made me feel all tingly and warm from the breast bone downwards. and 9 minutes later at 9:39 pm Tabitha was finally here! all I could feel on my stomach was a bit of strange tugging, but nothing worse than someone trying to take off a shoe for you, in fact less violent. They quickly checked her out because she was a bit shocked, but we heard her cry and burst into tears...and they brought her to me...and she is beautiful...

and it was all worth it, I would do it again for the privileged of having this baby: