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Scary Delivery

After having a nightmarish pregnancy, my OBGYN decided to induce me at 37 weeks as I was getting sicker and we didn't want to endanger our baby. I was given the Prepadil which ripens the cervix and sent home expecting to get a call the next day to come back in for the Prostin. I got a call the next day only to tell me they were too busy for the inductiion and they would call the next day if they had room. Being a nurse in the same hospital, I understood what it was like when it was busy.
I got the call the next day. The Prostin was put in and my contractions started immediately, every 2 minutes for a minute. I barely had time to breathe and was getting tired. The docs couldn't check me until 6 hours had passed. At the 6 hour mark they did an internal only to find out I was still 1 cm. I was told that there were other women in labor on other floors and I was not likely to deliver so I could either be transferred upstairs or go home and they would call me the next day to start the IV drip. My friend was in charge on the L&D floor that night. We chose to go home.
We got home at 10:30 p.m and the pain was getting more intense, still only 2 minutes apart. I laid in our jacuzzi tub for a couple of hours. My water broke at 2:30 and the pain was so intense I was screaming and crying. Let me tell you that I have broken many bones and even had my casts removed to play in special sporting events and NEVER have I felt such terrible pain in my life. We got back to the hospital at 3:00 and were sent straight to the high risk L&D ward where they did an internal and found I was only 3 cm. I was crying for something for the pain and they gave me the gas (which is useless) and a shot of Demerol (which didn't touch me). The anaesthesiologist was in surgery doing a c-sec so I suffered NOT in silence for the next hour.
Finally he got there and tried to start the epidural. He poked me 3 times and finally asked me to sit up. When I tried, I told the nurse that I felt like I had to push. She checked me and I was 9 cm. I went from 3-9 cm. in 1 hour. Needless to say, they ixnayed the epidural much to my dismay. There was a little lip of the cervix left but she let me try to push off, to no avail. I pushed for a couple of hours with no improvement but the baby's heartrate was dropping so they called the Dr. They tried to cathterize me twice hoping that an empty bladder would help but the baby's head was blocking the way.
When the Dr.came to see the readings, she did an internal and told me that with my next contraction she was going to remove the lip of the cervix. With that, our baby's head came shooting out. she told me one more push and he would be out....just one more push turned into 3 more and she ran out of the room and yelled for help. 5 nurses came in and flipped me on my back, 2 held each leg with my knees touching my ears, 1 laid across my belly and the other one pushed so hard on my pelvis it cracked. My babes shoulders were stuck and they had to yank him out. My husband says he was blue and he was very worried. It took quite a while to pull him out and once they did at 6:45, they whisked him away so I didn't know if he was o.k. Luckily my girlfriend who was working that night went to find out and he was fine. We got to see him moments later but they kept him in the nursery for a few hours.
I was voted least likely to deliver and I beat ALL the women who were supposed to deliver before me. I said I would never have another baby but my son is now 3 months old and we are already planning our next.

Ginette

Horrible delivery

I've read all of your horror stories about the pain and thought I would share mine. Although there was no pain involved in mine except for emotional I think it fits. It was just before my 19th birthday I was pregnant with my first child. We, my boyfriend and I, went to visit his mother who lives in Illinois and we are from Georgia. I was 6 months pregnant at the time.

We ran into financial problems and were not able to come home right away, guess we should have planned better. We had a huge bonfire for my birthday which is August 18th. I had the beginnings of a headache but didn't think anything of it at the time. I had been told by all of his family that I was quite swollen. Well this being my first child and hearing horror stories of feet and hands swelling I thought it was natural.

Saturday and Sunday were quite a blur I only remember the headache was so bad that I stayed in bed most of the time just trying to sleep it off. Monday came and it still wasn't better so I told my boyfriend that if it didn't go away today we were going to have to go and see someone about it. It was 3 am and I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. The headache was finally gone but had been replaced by NO VISION! I could see colors and that is it, I couldn't even remember where things were at. My boyfriend didn't believe me when I told him I had to go to the bathroom but couldn't get there by myself. He finally helpped me upstairs but then I couldn't find the toilet paper. He seemed to be getting annoyed with me. I swore to him I wasn't lying and asked him to call my mom in GA which was 4 am her time and wake her up to see what we should do. She said waste no time and get right to the hospital.

So around 4 am we got to what we thought was the hospital. Well it wasn't apparently it was some sort of doctor's office or something that had people like security guards there at night. They let us in and said they had called someone to come and check me out. About 15 minutes later a doc showed up in the exam room I was in and started asking me all kinds of questions, none of which I can remember now. My thumb on my left hand started to jump, I just thought muscle spasm right? Well the doc asked me if I was doing that and I said no.

This is where is starts going down hill. They said they needed to get me to the ER and wanted to put a catheter in me while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. Ok no problem only when they tried to put it in it hurt so bad that I started to have another seizure which it turns out was also what I had had earlier that I thought was a muscle spasm. I don't even remember now if they got the cath in or not. I remember them putting me in a wheelchair and there was boyfriend too, how did you get in here I asked, and then I had a grand mal seizure. I don't remember anything after that. The whole birthing expierience is lost to me. I woke up on Wednesday Aug 23rd in a hospital room to find my boyfriend sitting in a bed beside me my mother standing in the corner and my sister sitting in a chair. What in the world is going on I asked them. They told me what had happened and that I had had a baby. I didn't remember and my body wasn't telling me anything so I absolutely refused to believe it. It took 2 days for me to understand what had happened and accept that I had had a child. I only got to see him in a polaroid picture before he was helivaced to a bigger hospital more equipped to take care of children that young.

We had to drive 70 miles everyday to go and see him in the IC unit in Peoria Illinois. I finally got to hold him when he was 3 weeks old and he finally got to come home just over a month after he was born. He weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces and was 16 1/2" long. he was only 4 lbs. 1 oz. when he came home so we had to have a special car seat for him.

We are now expecting again 6 years later and am worried that the same thing will happen again. Our 6 year old son is now in perfect health and except for still being tiny and a bit behind in school he is just like everyother rambunctious 6 year old boy.

Tiffany

Dena

Dena,
I am appalled that docters, anestheisa, and nurses would allow this to happen. I am a Nurse in a nursery where we are required to be in any c-section preformed. I have never seen them cut into someone w/o knowing they are numb. Standard of Care requires that they test this. If They do not or do not believe the patient, then They should be held accountable. I've seen the anesthesiologist put women out several times due to the epidural not being effective, but they do this before they start cutting. I think your experience is a traversity and those responsible should be accountable. Besides, as a nurse we are to be the patient's advocate, and prevent this type of thing from happening. I myself have had a c-section w/o any problems, other than throwing up the whole time. The next time you are there for labor explain what happened, there are more than one drug they can use in a spinal. The one they used may not have worked for you, however another one might. Good luck, and I hope you have a better experience next time.

Anna

My Three Cesarean Births

All three of my kids (Nathan-6, Leah-2 1/2 and Justin-1) were born by c-section. Nathan's was because I had a long, hard labor (24 hours!), only got to 1/2 cm. dilated, then there was meconium and his heart rate became erratic, so they did an emergency c-section. He was 9 lbs. 5 oz. 21" long, so I didn't know if I could have gotten him out anyway!

With Leah, I had one because at my 20 week ultrasound my doctor saw that I had a very long, thick cervix that was probably scar tissue from an infection from a D&C (for a m/c). She said I would probably never dilate properly, so I scheduled her c-section 9 days before her due date. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz. 20 1/2".

Justin was c-section by default and my doctor's practice would no longer do c-sections more than 7 days early. Believe me, I tried to talk them into it, because I knew I was having a big baby and I was VERY uncomfortable. It hurt when he'd move. They did the c-section 3 days before his due date. I had to be put to sleep for this one because of an extremely low platelet count. Justin was 10 lbs. 6 oz. 22 3/4" long!! The hardest part about his birth was afterwards, because apparently when you have a large baby they help your uterus shrink by giving you pitocin- Ow, ow, ow!! They didn't even tell me they were going to do this ahead of time- or at least I don' t remember it- I was a bit loopy from the general anesthesia. If I would have realized that my IV drip was pitocin instead of just fluids or antibiotics like I thought, I would have pulled it out, because I had that in labor with Nathan and it's awful!! Here I was, already delivered and having labor-like contractions. Where's the postpartum epidural??

Anyway, c-sections wouldn't have been my first choice, but they really aren't too bad, at least in my experience!! The most important thing is that I have three healthy kiddos!!

Tammy Charles

Teenage birth

I am 17 about to give birth to my first baby daughter all on my own and where was my boyfriend? On holiday in Portugal for his 18th birthday! Don't men get the easy way out; it's not fair!

Kerry