Pic Taken from 42weeks.ie
My birth experience was so bad, that to be honest (with myself), after 5 years, it is the main reason why we still don’t have another baby. Our economic situation is not ideal at all; it is actually far from ideal. But that’s only recently. If I have really wanted another child, we could have gone for it, but I always hide under the “money” and “stability” excuse. Which is important, but when you REALLY want a baby, you just go for it, and you know that things will get sorted out somehow.
It’s not too long ago that I have been able to accept that the real reason why we haven’t got another baby yet is because I am petrified with the idea of going through birth again. From the early days after the birth, I knew there was something wrong, because I couldn’t stop going through the whole thing in mind, day after day. Trying to come to terms with it.
So what happened to me? I was 14 days overdue and I went for an induction. If you have never had one, an induction means
Labor induction is a method of artificially or prematurely stimulating childbirth in a woman.
What happens on induction day?
You have to be at the hospital at 8am, they apply a gel down there which is meant to start things, but which I don’t think ever does. You are free to move and walk around the hospital, and even go for a walk in the surroundings. 4 hours later, they apply a second dose of gel, and nothing happens. You start to get tired and sick of the place. The excitement of the day starts to wear off, and the prospect of staying the night in the pre-labour ward, surrounded by so many women in their first stages of labour is very depressing. Doctors might agree to break your waters and that is what happens.
The rest of my story in brief is that once they broke my waters, contractions came super-fast, there was no time to adjust to the pain. I was brought to the labour room a few hours later. They made me lie down in bed, although this was the last thing I wanted. I was forced to take gas & air, although it didn’t suit me or helped me. I was administered oxytocin to speed things up after the epidural, and all this ended up in an emergency C-section.
I spent 4 days in the hospital and it was a nightmare. There are a lot of other details which made it a nightmare but I prefer to keep them private. A lot of them concerning the lack of help from the nurses.
If only I had known what I now know… Thanks to meetmums I have come across AIMS, Gentlebirth, fabulous pregnancy private Facebook groups full of women in the same situation as you and other websites like the recently launched 42 weeks where they inform women about ALL the options available for birth.
42 weeks name was chosen to highlight the fact that most women go into spontaneous labour when their babies are ready to arrive, which may be anytime between 37 and 42 weeks of gestation. I wish I had known that! And I wish I had known that induction can bring a cascade of interventions that can end in a C-section. Yes, sadly, I am proof of it.
This article by AIMS on the Irish Times is a great piece of information about the different birth options available to women in Ireland. You wont hear this information in your average antenatal course, so, read it! Learn about your birth options: consultant-led care, Midwife led-care and Home birth. Then choose what suits you and your family.
Information could be the key to have a great birth experience.
