Baby Very Stuck

Naomi shares her birth story

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I was induced the day after my due date as I had had high blood pressure for about 2 weeks. At about 8 in the morning my midwife inserted prostaglandin gel and at about 2pm she broke my waters and I was given an oxytocin drip.

By about 3.30pm I was in active labour. It was pretty full on – I couldn’t really discern any break between contractions (I didn’t realise it at the time but this was because I dilated very quickly). At about 5pm an epidural was put in to lower my blood pressure.

At about 6pm my midwife did an internal examination. I was fully dilated but my baby’s head was tilted so that he had the side of his head trying to come through my pelvis. A doctor was called in. We waited a while and I wasn’t allowed to push to see if baby would correct his position himself – he didn’t. The doctor tried to turn him (very unpleasant!) but instead of correcting the position, baby turned posterior, still with his head tilted.

It was the doctor’s opinion that given baby’s position and my size (I am 5 ft with narrow hips), it would not be possible to push him out, so the decision was made to do a caesarean before baby became distressed.

Unfortunately as I was putting the gown on for theatre I accidentally pulled the filter for the epidural out so I was in a lot of pain going into theatre – stuck baby in posterior position with no pain relief and no natural hormones (because of having the epidural previously).

I would like to be able to finish this story by saying that the caesarean was routine and easy, but unfortunately it was not. My baby was very stuck so while the doctor was trying to pull him out, my midwife was trying to push him back up. Then I haemorrhaged and the medication that I was given to stop the bleed made me violently nauseous.

On a brighter note, despite the traumatic birth, I was blessed with a perfectly healthy 3.83 kg baby boy, who cried immediately, then popped his thumb in his mouth.

So, my birth experience was definitely not what I would have chosen, but the thing is I was completely “okay with it” straight away and not at all traumatised by the experience.

I figure it was just one unpleasant day – definitely worth the precious gift that I received for the trouble!

~~ Welcome baby~~