Lesley's story, UK - waters breaking early and Group B Strep

"September 2002

This was my first pregnancy. I was 19 years old and 28 + weeks pregnant.

In this pregnancy I had really bad sickness and and sciatica, I was bed ridden for weeks with my back. Other than that I was enjoying it. One day in September 2002 I was having a lie down (at my partner at the time's house) as I wasn't feeling too well. When I felt a gush of warm water between my legs I got up in such a fright and looked at the bed; it looked like I had peed the bed. My boyfriend at the time shouted for his mum who phoned my local midwifery unit who said I had to go to the labour suite 25 miles away and had to wear a pad. So I did and when we got to the hospital they tested my pad and said that it was my waters that had gone. I got put straight on a drip to try to stop the contractions and got steroids injections. I was so scared but they said that they would do everything in their power to stop my labour progressing. I got a scan and was told the head was well down. Hours passed and I was kept in the labour suite as they said my baby was well on his way. During the night nothing seemed to happen; I was given the steroids again 12 hours after the first time. I was kept on my drip to stop my labour for 48 hours. After that they put me up to the maternity ward and I got checks every few hours. This would be my new home for the next week. During the week they discovered Group B Strep in my urine and in my high vaginal swap. I had never heard of this before and was puzzled to what it was so I was explained to that I would need antibiotics for the rest of my pregnancy because of my waters breaking and that also during my labour that I would need a drip in to administer antibiotics straight into me to stop my baby becoming ill when he entered the birth canal. After they were convinced that I was OK to go home, I was given my tablets and leaflets and told not to have sex. 

October 2002

I was getting checks all the time to make sure everything was OK, I would have scans and blood taken. When I went for a check one day I was kept in as I was having tightenings, nothing happened and after a few days I got home. This happened a few times over the next few weeks. 

20 November 2002 

36 weeks pregnant

They were really happy that I had made it this far and decided I would be booked in for induction on the 2nd December, 18 days before my due date. On the 20th November I got my usual scan and blood taken and they said everything was fine. The next day, 21st, I received a phone call from a midwife telling me to get straight into the hospital as they had found a problem in my blood. I was so scared. I got there straight away when I was told that my CPU level in my blood was at 2 and if it went to 3 there was a great danger of infection and that I was to be induced straight away. I was taken to the labour suite and put on my drip to start my contractions and my drip for antibiotics so here I was stuck on a bed with a drip in each hand after about 9 hours my baby boy Dylan entered this world weighing in at 6lb 6oz, 4 weeks early. He was taken away and had swabs taken on his eyes and ears to be sent away to make sure he had not contracted the Group B Strep. Luckily he didn't. We got home after a few days but were back in for a week afterwards as he was really bad jaundiced. I hated being back in there but knew it was the best place for him. 

My son is 9 years old in November and he has no idea the trouble we went through to keep him in my belly until 36 weeks - one day I shall explain."

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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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Tanya's story, Kent - 4 weeks + 4 early, induction

"My Miracle Princess Phoebe

6th October 2009 35 weeks + 3 days

Waking up in the early hours of the morning, I realised that I was feeling rather wet down below, needing the toilet had woken me and I thought I had wet myself but after having a smell I realised it wasn't wee so woke hubby up. As I got up off the bed my waters just started gushing everywhere, I don't know why but I put my hand there to stop it which of course failed, I made my way to the bathroom and sitting on the toilet it was still just pouring from me. I eventually managed to put some pads on and get my friend to have Megan for me and rang the hospital who told me to go straight in. After what seemed like a lifetime I managed to ring my mum who took us to the hospital. By the time we got there I was soaked through, I honestly did not realise how much water you carry!!. I got to the delivery unit and had swabs taken and was put on the monitor and all was fine with baby. At about 7.00am I was transferred to the antenatal ward where I would spend the next few days.

My Dr came round to see me that morning saying she would expect to see me on the postnatal ward the next day, how wrong was she!!!! I spent the next 3 days on antibiotics and had steroids and was given 11/10 has my induction date as I was worried about infection and having hardly any water. Nothing much happened while I was in hospital; although I was getting contractions they were nowhere near regular or strong so they wouldn't do nothing unless they started to show on the monitor, which they never.

On Friday 9th my Dr came and told me that I was allowed home and that they had changed my induction day because by scan dates I would only be 35 + 4 on the Sunday and they wouldn't even think about delivery before 36 weeks so although disappointed that I now had to wait until the Wednesday to meet my princess I was just so happy to get home and be with hubby and my other daughter. The whole weekend I hardly slept through being in pain and having on off contractions and with being in hospital and not sleeping I was just so tired. It got to the early hours of Sunday morning and I just couldn't cope no more - I wasn't eating or sleeping and baby was nowhere near as active has she always had been.

Sunday 11/10 35 + 4 by hospital dates 36 + 1 by mine.

I woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep as the pains were too much, I decided to have a bath and pain killers to see how I went and also redone baby's hospital bag as I had to buy smaller clothes has I know she would only be around 6lb by the growth scan I had. After doing all this I felt no better so the hospital told me to go in. I was put on the monitor and Phoebe's heart rate was up in the 180s (which it had been since my waters went but no one seemed to bothered so I took it it was a normal rate) and also my pulse was up which they were worried about, so they called the Dr in. The Dr scanned me after thinking she was breech but she was head down. After asking some questions and feeling my tummy he could feel I was getting contractions, it was then he told me he was going to induce me has he wasn't happy with the heart rate at all, it was far too high. So I started panicking. He also told me that if I didn't deliver in a certain amount of time then it would be a c-section as baby wasn't happy inside me. So a quick phone call to let my daughter know that I would be having baby, then I was taken to the delivery room and put straight on the drip along with lots of antibiotics, this was at 10am.

I was told that I would be checked at 2.30pm to see how I was going. My contractions started at 1.30pm and I was shocked at how controlled I felt with the pain. At 2.30 I was examined and told I was 2cm. I really thought I would have been more and was told they would check me again at 6.30pm which I really thought I would be told I was only 4-5cm so had decided if that was the case an epidural would be likely!!.The pains were getting a lot stronger and I was breathing through them; although painful I didn't think they were that bad, the midwife was shocked that I hadn't asked for pain relief; I knew I wanted to get as far as I could with none as I wanted another natural birth. At 5.45pm I caved and asked for gas and air, god I fell in love with that stuff, I couldn't help having a giggle, it was lovely and helped with the pain, even DH had a go on it!!

By 6pm the pains were getting bad and I just wanted to stand up but couldn't has I had to be monitored the whole time. I was getting frustrated but knew it was best for baby so just tried to get comfy as best I could on the bed, not easy. At 6.30 I was examined and told I was 8cm. I couldn't believe that after hardly any real bad pains I had gone from 2 to 8 in 4 hours. The relief I felt was amazing knowing I was nearly there. Not long after I was getting the urge to push really badly but was being told I wasn't ready, I forgot how hard it is to try and stop yourself pushing when you get the feeling to. This went on for about half hour, being told not to when I knew I had to, I could feel her head coming down, I kept telling them I had to so they looked and could see her head so another midwife was called in and I started to push.

After 8 minutes at 19.28 I set eyes on one of the most beautiful little girls ever, I couldn't help bursting into tears as I set eyes on her. After 5 years I couldn't believe she was mine. Me, hubby my mum and Phoebe's big sister were all in tears in the room, even the midwife shed a tear telling us she had never made the whole room cry at a birth. I was so glad that Megan was there to witness her baby sister coming into the world, apart from having her it was truly one of the best days of my life and I can't believe how easy and short the labour and birth was. It didn't put me off, in fact if every birth could be like that I would have it again tomorrow, LOL.

Phoebe was weighed and we were shocked at her weight: 6lb7oz. As she was so early, I thought she would be smaller than that. She was healthy and happy as were we all. I delivered the placenta 4 minutes after having her and then had a massive bleed, midwifes running in the room etc but to be honest I can't remember that bit, I was just happy to have my baby in my arms although DH and my mum were quite worried. I was just in my own little world. Luckily after an injection it stopped and no stitches were needed. We were left in delivery till 9.30pm when I was transferred to the ward. The only thing I didn't like was DH had to go straight home. I laid in my bed all night just staring at my beautiful little girl, I couldn't believe she was mine, I was the happiest mummy ever.

Sorry it is so long, I tried to remember everything to put down although I'm sure I have missed lots out. All in all I really enjoyed my labour and birth and would do it again in a flash if I could."

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