Long labour, Forceps Birth - Elli
TENS MACHINE/MORPHINE/BIRTH POOL/EPIDURAL/EPISIOTOMY
I went in to labour on Wednesday 09/02 after a stretch and sweep at my 40 week midwife appointment. I had a veeeery long labour with bub not being born until Saturday 12/02. I ended up going through every available form of labour before finally receiving an episiotomy and assisted forceps delivery.
I knew I was in labour when my contractions started at about 8pm Wednesday night, I was able to labour at home until Thursday night when we decided to make our way to the hospital as my contractions were lasting for about a minute and I was having 4 in 10 minutes. I was 2cm dilated when we got to the hospital, but my cervix was fully effaced so my body had been doing a lot of work! They sent us home with some panadiene forte and told me to get some sleep, hilarious I know.
I managed to labour at home with my TENS machine until Friday night, but by then I was exhausted with my contractions coming long and strong.
We made our way to the hospital again, and I was still only 5cm dilated! I was a little deflated to hear this as I was so tired, but I was given a dose of morphine which allowed me to get a well needed 2 hours of sleep.
Once awake I was checked again and I had made it to 7cm dilated, so I was allowed to move into the family birthing centre’s birthing suite and into the birthing pool. I laboured in the pool for another few hours, which was my favourite part of my labour. The midwife used the Doppler to check babies heart rate, and her heart rate had jumped to 185, so I had to get out of the pool and go to the main hospital for further monitoring.
By this stage I was absolutely exhausted, so in the early hours of Saturday morning I decided to get an epidural, not part of my original plan but I am forever grateful that it was an option for me. I had only dilated to 8cm at this point and the Obgyn came in to talk to me about my options at this point. She said that they weren’t worried as baby was quite happy slowly making her way down, but they were very conscious of the amount of time I had already been in labour. The obgyn said they would leave me for a few more hours to see if I could make it to 10cm dilated, but if I couldn’t I would have to consider the possibility of a Caesarean section.
I knew I just wanted my baby to be born as safely as possible, so I made peace with the possibility of a caesarean and relaxed into the progression of my labour.
I made it to 10cm dilated but I was so exhausted that I couldn’t push any longer. I was taken into theatre for an episiotomy and forceps birth. Baby Lyra Mae was born at 12:14pm on Saturday 12/02/22. 40+5 weeks. 3520g. My husband was able to announce the gender and we were able to do immediate skin to skin as I was being stitched up. It was absolutely perfect in its own way!
