Cherry's story, Yorkshire - 10lb 5oz large baby and c-section

"I went into hospital on Friday 20th November 2009 to be induced as I was suffering from high blood pressure and the doctors were concerned this was developing into pre-eclampsia as I had so much oedema. I had already been admitted overnight the week before and had had to go in for monitoring every other day since. As I had reached my due date on 16th my consultant decided it was best to nip things in the bud for mine and the baby's health and set a date for induction - something I was terrified of but as I ended up having another check on Thursday night due to flashing lights in front of my vision I knew it was time for baby to make an appearance! 

When I arrived at the hospital I was shown to a bed and then a midwife did an internal (ouch!!) and put a pessary in. Then nothing happened at all apart from checks on the baby's heartbeat and my blood pressure. Me and Jon went for a walk round the hospital and had some dinner in the cafe. I started getting some mild-ish pain that evening so Jon put on the TENS machine and went home himself at 9pm. I hated being alone and even worse was in a bay where anyone who came in for assessment was seen - great idea to put someone being induced in there! 

The next morning I woke up to much stronger pains and soon it felt like my back was breaking - and they said I wasn't even in labour yet! I had a long bath and was given some gas and air and painkillers for when the pain got too bad and in went another pessary after it was found I wasn't dilated much at all. I managed some sleep after being given a low dose of Pethidine later on but was then up all night again due to the pain even though I was given codeine and a mild sedative to rest for the real big day coming up! I managed to breathe through the pains which at this point would come one on top of another and then rest for about 10 minutes and also found that walking round the bay helped as I was on my own in there at this point. 

The next day Jon arrived bright and early at 8am. The last pessary had worked its way out at 6 that morning and the contractions had stopped altogether (I got the impression this baby was very comfy just where he was!) Luckily when the doctor came round and examined me again that morning; I was 3cm dilated (hurray all that pain worked!) and they sent us across to the labour ward to have my waters broken.

Once on the labour ward we were settled in our room and Jon was brought in a tray of tea and coffee (the midwife said I wasn't to have any in case I needed a section later - charming! I get all the pain and he gets the tea and sympathy!) The midwife broke my waters which was a really weird sensation (not to mention the weird smell!). She then attached a monitor to the baby's head so they could keep an eye on his heartbeat and explained that I would be bed bound as that was their policy with induction - that was what I was dreading so I warned her that without being able to move I'd probably need an epidural at some point, which she said was expected with the syntocin drip. She then left us for an hour to see if labour would get started by itself and I started to have mild but regular contractions so hoped against hope that the drip wouldn't make an appearance! Unfortunately after an hour or 2 they decided things weren't moving quick enough and in went the drip.

Two hours later and I had the epidural which was surprisingly painless and felt like heaven once it worked! I told the midwife I felt like a total wimp and she said not to worry and that I'd done really well as they'd already cranked the drip up quite high. We then settled in front of the TV in our room and I remember x-factor being on and the anaesthetist and midwife slagging off Jedward before they were voted off! Jon at this point went for a sandwich from the vending machine and came back to tell me all about it (thanks Jon! Nil by mouth remember!) Unfortunately the epidural only worked on one side and after a few top ups they decided to use a stronger anaesthetic which felt like a wonderful cool waterfall down my back! I then had a little nap before the midwife examined me at about midnight. Gutted! All that time and I was only 4cms! She explained that if I was still under 7cms in 5 hours they would be looking to perform a section and also said he'd turned back to back - at least I know now why those early pessary induced contractions hurt my back so much! 

I managed another nap (by now it was getting very uncomfortable being stuck in one position in a boiling hot room) and we watched some repeats that were on in the early hours on TV. I then had another top up on the epidural after using gas and air for a while (great stuff!) and finally was examined again - 8cms!! Hurray!

When the time came to push I decided to throw dignity to the wind and really went for it, I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions due to the epidural but felt the tightenings

They then shoved loads of consent forms under my nose and in my drugged up state I didn't realise they had the wrong patient details! Thankfully they called me "Laura" though and it got sorted! They then took me off to the theatre where I started crying as I was at the end of my tether by now and was sure the baby was in trouble. The doctor who would operate examined me and said really quickly that there was no way on earth forceps would work as the baby hadn't descended enough due to his position (and as we later found out his size) and I was prepped for a c-section. 

Jon was by now in scrubs and feeling very pleased with himself at looking so professional! I didn't feel a thing and then heard the doctors say they were in and felt them rummaging about - its the strangest feeling and although I could feel they were pulling and pushing a lot it wasn't painful. The surgeon then said that the head was born and Jon turned to have a look (he'd previously been told not to as if he fainted "we'll put you in the corner and leave you there" LOL). He didn't faint just exclaimed that he could see my insides and then as the doctors said "its a big baby" he said "it's definitely a boy!" - typical man! I then heard him say "he's absolutely perfect" as they took him for a wash and examination and then when my baby started to cry I started too in relief that he was OK. The student midwife then held him in front of me all wrapped in a towel and I thought that he was exactly as I'd imagined he'd look with brown hair and a chubby little face. At that point I said that he really did look like a Freddie. He kept looking round the room at everything looking quite bemused that he was in this cold strange place and did some little sighs but he didn't cry again for hours.

I was then stitched up and Freddie went with his Dad to the recovery bay where I joined them half an hour later. We then had some skin to skin contact and he was weighed - 10lb 5 ounces! No wonder I couldn't walk up the stairs by the end! The doctors who'd delivered him came by to ask his weight too, when they'd said he was big I'd expected 9 and a half pounds maybe as we'd been warned to expect 9 but over 10 was even a shock to us! After that we enjoyed lots more skin to skin and cuddles and both settled into recovering and getting home in 2 days time. Oh one more thing, I sent Jon to buy a newspaper to remember the headline on the day of our son's birth. The only one left bore the legend "Jedward, deadwood!" - what a headline to remember on the day you were born lol!"

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Sam's story, Kent - large baby and haemorrhage

"A tough journey but an amazing reward...

On the Friday night 27th November 2009, on day before my due date, large and uncomfortable and like all parents to be desperate to get things moving, we went for a walk down to the fish and chip shop which involves a steep up hill walk on the way back. No instant labour, no broken waters (nice chips though), but disappointment on the walking makes the baby comes front - well that is until around 5am on Saturday 28th (my due date) I woke feeling a little damp so got up for the loo and had a bit of a trickle. 

I didn't really think anything of it just that I was obviously more desperate for the toilet than I thought...wrong. I continued to wake approx every hour with the same trickling every time I moved. To be honest although I was aware that waters could leak, mainly I was totally panicking that I was incontinent as I wasn't getting any pains... but as time went by I noticed the fluid was quite jelly like so became quite sure I was losing my waters, I took the time to have a nice bath, shave my legs, make some food, but by the afternoon the colour was changing which was of concern to the hospital, so on our way we picked up my mum arriving at the hospital about 4pm. 

At the hospital they examined me and seemed unsure if my waters or not but there was a sudden flood, so I am guessing if they weren't broken, they broke them for me, however I was around 3cm and baby had pooed and so were going to admit me and put me on a drip to get things moving. They put a monitor on babies head and I was bed bound...not the birth I was expecting. I had attended NCT classes and was planning on using all the things we had been taught about keeping mobile, I was open to the idea of a water birth and had this idea that of labour being exactly like what it was not for me. 

By the time I had been hooked up to all the necessary machinery, it was 7pm, the midwife confirmed that she would examine me at midnight, this was my goal and I was determined to make it to then without any pain relief, so I soldiered on happy with the fact that I had been told I would go 1-2cm an hour so by midnight should be almost at the pushing stage. 

Yep you guessed it midnight comes and I am 5cm...cue me getting upset and starting on the gas and air. I had mixed feelings about the gas and air I loved the feeling of drunkenness and hated the loss of control I felt. The drip had been cranked up to max and the contractions were coming one on top of the other, I decided that I would rather be without the pain but in control mentally and so begged for an epidural. 

Epidural helped a lot and I was able to nap, however I had problems that the epidural was more effective than on one side than the other. I was examined again at about 4am when I was 8cm and then at about 8am when they decided I was ready to push. 

I started pushing but had excruciating pain in my back which made me very very sick, the registrar gave me a top up of a different drug which stopped the pain. The midwife told me that baby was back to back and the pain reached a head as it turned the right way. After half an hour of pushing I hadn't managed to deliver baby and the concern was growing because of his poo, so the docs came in and put a suction cup on babies head and also cut me, on the first pull on the suction cup it popped off and after a couple more pushes I delivered baby on my own at 9:57am. 

Everything seemed fine, baby was big and healthy and I couldn't take my eyes off it...that is until I became aware of the rising panic around me and then the out of this world pain as a doctor started to pump her fists up and down hard on my tummy. The pain was worse than any part of the labour and the epidural did nothing to stop it, I just screamed and screamed totally unaware of what was happening. I was aware of being rushed up the corridor on my bed and my body convulsing and agreeing to all the drugs they were offering... I remember asking if I was going to die and telling them to look after my baby but as you can imagine I soon zoned out. 

I came round a couple of hours later. I had an unexplained haemorrhage and had lost half of my bodies blood, the doctors put a balloon inside my womb filled with water which put pressure on to stop the bleeding, the balloon was left for 24 hours and then a little bit drained each hour until it was removed. I also had a blood transfusion over about a 48 hour period. 

Three hours after he was born I met my beautiful son Lucas, weighing it at 9lb 1oz, I would have died for him that day and, I would go through the same again and again for him."


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