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Placental Abruption

Sitting down to the soaps with my parents at 7 pm I felt a pop between my legs. My Due Date was four days away but as I felt liquid trickle from between my legs I was sure it was my waters! I'd gone for a 1 mile walk up a steep hill - all I could manage with my bump! I'd had a bath and gone to my room at my mums to have a rest. This was between 5&6pm.
I ran to the bathroom hoping that I wouldn't leak over the carpet my mum had gotten in her hall three days before!
When I was safely in the bathroom I had a wee talk to myself to calm myself down!
I had a shower, noticed that I was bleeding so used a sanitary towel and got dressed in some clean pyjamas and went outside. I heard my brother's playing pool in the shed and barefoot went to join them.
They asked what I was doing in September walking around in pj's and no socks or shoes. I told them I was in labour and left. I don't think any of us fully believed it. I went inside and made myself some tea. Sitting at the table I heard a pop again. This time I knew I couldn't wait it out at home so called my Mum. She told me to stand up and when I did blood filled with large clots landed on the floor!
Well my Mum nearly had a heart attack!
She ushered me back into the shower and told my Dad to go out to the shed - he didn't mind once he'd seen what happened. I think he was glad to get out of it!!
My Mum phoned the hospital and told them what was happening and they told her they didn't want to see me until at least 10.30pm because they were so busy. This was at 7.30. I told her to stress to them that my waters had broken but got the same response.
I called Jonathan, the baby's Daddy to make his way to me.
The next two hours passed with the phone ringing constantly with my family wanting to know what was happening, me getting in and out of the shower and being sick. It was horrible. The contractions were getting stronger with each that passed.
But I felt so calm and in control. The only thing that bothered me was that I hadn't smoked since conceiving (or very soon after) and I had massive cravings. But fighting that craving helped me to forget that I was in labour.
I waited for my sister Grace to come and take me to the hospital but she couldn't get out of work until 10pm. My other sister Kate appeared and decided at 9.30 that I needed to get ready to go. At this point I was dizzy and shaking. Shock had started to set in and my Mum wrapped my blanket around me and gave me sips of water. She mentioned phoning an ambulance when Grace rang to say the boss had let her go.
She finally arrived at 10.30pm - they all helped to get me into the car and waved me off. I was talking utter rubbish by then and Grace was terrified. My contractions were 50 seconds apart but felt never-ending. My stomach was rock hard and I realised that the baby hadn't moved. Another sister (I know, I get confused too) Michelle met us at the hospital, she was to be with me while I was in labour. She took one look at me, put me in a wheelchair and spoke to a Midwife. I don't fully remember what was said but she had gone mad. The Midwife quickly apologised to me and a few moments later I was having an ultrasound and an internal examination. The consultant apologised to me again and asked for verbal consent to give me a c-section. I thought my baby had died.
I didn't understand what was happening but I agreed and was wheeled to theatre. I had been at the hospital 15 minutes when I was put under anaesthetic.
When I came around there was an incubator in the corner with a tiny bundle just wearing a nappy!
I asked a nurse to bring 'it' over and quickly took off the nappy. It was a girl!!
She was tiny, 5pounds 12.5ounces but appeared healthy. After tea and toast and a long wait I was finally brought to a ward and left alone to say hello to my baby!
She was born at 00.35 on the 6th of september. At 6am a midwife came to see me. Closely followed by two Doctors. She told me that she wanted to talk to me and to apologise.
According to her the hospital should have picked it up in a scan I had had two days before going into labour but a student registrar had missed it. She told me I'd had a placenta abruption and that the large clots were in actual fact parts of my placenta. 90% of my placenta had gone and Ellie had been starved of oxygen. They also apolosized that I had been told not to come in and that they were trying to find out who had told my mother that. I had been in labour since around 6.45pm on the 5th of september which works out at around 6 hours in total with just paracetamol as pain relief. I was told that the fetal mortality rate was 20-40% so Ellie was lucky to be alive. And so was I.
Ellie was floppy and not breathing but with the nurses excellent work she was like a healthy newborn baby after five minutes.
Ellie is now three years old and is so healthy - she rarely even catches colds thankfully!
She is a happy, funny and beautiful little girl and has changed my life so much - I could never be without her!
Thanks for reading this :D

Emma Tierney

MY BABY

ON THEE 28/3/2011 I STARTED HAVING CONTRATIONS SO I STARTED TO DRIVE TO THE LOCAL HOSTPITAL THEY SASID I WAS 9CM DIALATED I SAID IT WAS IMPOSIBLE MY ONLY BROKE 30MINS AGO THAY SAID IT IS TRUE SO I HAD TO GO TO THE BIRTHING SUITE I TOLD THEM I WANTED WATER BIRTH BUT THEY SAID IT WAS TO LATE AND I HAD TO START PUSHING NOW SO I STARTED PUSHING I OUSHED FFOR 2 AND A HALF HOURS WHICH FELT LIKE 4VA BUT AFTER THAT MY BEAUGHTIFUL BOY WAS BORN

BY BRITTANY

BRITTANY

3/6/11 new Life Born

i never thought that this would happen to me i remmber it like yesterday when i went into labor i was so scared i didnt know what to do life forreal i was only 15 so i was pushing and pushing and crying worst pain i ever felt in my life my babydaddy was holding my hand and i was crying like what if sum go wrong then i finally gave birth to a healthy Baby girl Name Heaven Marie Johnson never could forget holding her in my arms kissing her welcoming my love one her dad even cried we realized not only she her but we have a child that need our love and care ANd she was so beautiful I LOVE being A MOM some might think im grown our sum but its bout the fact i take care of my responsiblity and me and her dad might not be toegther but he always there taking care of her I learned my lesson learn from your mistakes and i did thats why ima keep LOVIN her no matter what happens never would regret having her cause the pain

maria

Excellent start, dissapointing end!

I woke up one morning a week before my due date with some irregular mild tightening and proded my husband. "I think I'm in labour." I said half asleep. He was awake immediately and decided to call his manager to let her know he wouldn't be in because I was in labour, but after many attempts to call her and her not picking up the phone (probably because she was enjoying our city's festival way too much) he had to go into work, open the store and beg someone to cover his shift. But first we had to find the car keys! We spent about 45 minutes searching for them. As a last resort hubby broke the car boot open to look for them as we had gone shopping the day before and I was worried with my pregnancy brain that I may have left them in the boot. Hubby in a final moment of desperation end up taking to the lock with a hammer and philips head in order to get it open, it worked like a charm but still no keys. What had happened is because in just a two minute trip a 9 month pregnant woman can go from empty bladder to busting to wee. When we got home I sprinted up the front path, rushed to the toilet and in the process had thrown the keys into the ready made bassinet! First and last time ever!

After a couple of hours of being in labour and timing my contractions to no avail - they were irregular and were coming between 4 and 12 minutes, the same as my first pregnancy right up to 7cm dilated, I called my parents down so my dad could be ready to take the kids and mum ready to take hubby and I to the hospital, so when I began to have some medium strong contractions and it was time for us to all get in the car my brother decided to tag along too. I had my 3 bottles of gatorade, my clothes, baby's clothes and all the other essentials tucked away in my suitcase. I also packed heaps of snacks because I was ferociously hungry after the birth of my first baby and all they give you after a marathon like birth is a tiny salad sandwich! I was ready to go!

We picked up my husband from work at about 3.30pm and went to the hospital, I was greeted by a really lovely older midwife, I was 4cm dilated so they showed me to a birthing suite where I spent all my contractions breathing in through my nose and blowing out through my mouth while relaxing my whole body so my uterus and cervix could do their thing without interruption from any other part of my body, many of my contractions however were interrupted by my brother making jokes such as a farting noise followed by "oh sorry, false alarm, well this is embarrassing - I should go home now eh?". This lovely midwife would also pop in and check on me from time to time, however her shift was up at 9 which was a bit sad! Then I met the two midwives who would be delivering my baby, one was a lovely older lady, the other was a young lady who was less warm and didn't look like she was old enough to have had kids of her own.

I spent the rest of my labour breathing and relaxing, I went to the toilet, came out and sat on a chair with my family where we joked and chatted for five minutes. Then a contraction came over me which was incredibly intense and I was almost unable to focus on the breathing and relaxing, I felt a "pop!". The contraction went away and a minute later another extremely intense contraction happened only this one was accompanied by another "pop!" as well as water gushing out. That's when the fun really began! I groaned really loud that I needed to push, my brother literaly ran out of the room at that point leaving me without a comedian. My knickers came down as the midwives started dissassembling the maternity bed. The younger nurse pulled the small square mattress off the bed and put it down on the floor to which I responded "NO ON THE BED!!" They slid the mattress back onto the end of the bed and I got on it. I laid on my back and the baby's head was already presenting and I was moaning. The midwives at this point had become very insensitive and uncompassionate, I was ordered to "Be quiet! You need to listen!" I could hear them just fine and didn't need to be yelled at. Then the yelled "I want you to pant! You have to pant! Just pant!!" but it was too late I was already bearing down by that point and was just unable to stop, my body had taken control and I was just along for the ride! The older midwife was holding the babys head in so he didn't crown too fast and cause a tear. With the next contraction his head was accompanied by heaps of blood gushing out as well and spurting all over my babys face. The midwives had a look of panic for a second looking at eachother then looking at all the blood gushing out but I had a feeling everything was fine so I didn't worry at all, in the middle of it I had mum trying to get in between my legs and take pictures, the midwives were really rude to my mum in telling her to move. I pushed again but the rest of his body didn't come out like it was supposed to so in the next push they pulled him out. It wasn't hard to see why he was stuck, he had massive shoulders! He cried as he was put into my arms, I rubbed his back and cuddled him, he looked just like his daddy! I breast fed him for a moment before he was taken away to be measured and weighed. The doctor was then called in to give me an injection and pull out the placenta and then looked to see if I needed to be stitched, she tried to stuff gauze in to see where the bleeding was coming from but it wouldn't go in! Who'd have thought after pushing something the size of a melon out! And during all this my mum decided to go and pick up the grandchild without permission, I had my heart set on passing the baby to my husband so he could hold him for the first time. Then It turned out I needed two stitches just in the entrance and probably from my baby boys shoulders having to be pulled, but this was going to be hard for me as I already felt like I had carpet burn in the area, now they wanted to put a needle in there!! They gave me the gas and put me under as far as they could but athough I was high as a kite on this gas and wasn't concious of it I was screaming before the doctor was even stitching as well as while she was stitching me up.

After I had been stitched I went and had a bath, while in there the younger midwife came in to say "I hope what happened didn't ruin your birthing experience." It didn't sound sincere and I think it was said in the hopes I wouldn't report her for being a cow. The midwives did taint my birthing experience because they weren't calm or sensitive and made me feel really bad and stupid for doing things which were coming natural to me and that I couldn't control. I told her to get the hell out and sat in the bath and cried for a while, my husband came in to comfort me.

A couple of days later I asked for nipple cream because my precious little one was a comfort sucker, however when the nurse handed the cream over she said "when I had my babies I just sucked it up." Needless to say I wont be going to that horrid hospital again!

Ally

how hard

i was ment to give birth on the 15th of the 6th but in the end it ended up being on the 17th i was scared as i hadnt nown i was pregnant in till i was 6 mounth's gone and i was only 16 as i had realy iregula period's so had carried on drinking and hanging with my friend's that smoked like useual thinking my sudden craving for cheese was just a stage when i found out i was pregnant i started doing every thing you were ment to and wrote out a realy big birth plan as i was sigle had no family or close friend's and was scared stiff but every thing went great and i now have a lovley little girl dipsy-lee star ververgold prasty

asmee