Thursday 15 March 2012

Preterm labour that very nearly ended up with two early babies and Supervisor of midwives visit

So around midnight on Tuesday the 13th I wake to lower back pain and braxton hicks, and then ended up on the loo with a most definite clear out (nice!). I thought that maybe the pain was from this and went back to bed. Only a few minutes later the back pain came again but it was constant and I kept getting braxton hicks every time I moved. I ended up back on the loo and I just knew I was in labour.

I told Paul and I decided to call the maternity unit (as that's how they started with Charlotte, except my waters broke with her first and I was 5cm already) I explained previous birth and twin situation and she said ring back in an hour, take paracetamol... the usual but then went on to say that actually if in an hour they didn't go or got worse to come straight in.

I had a bath to see if they got worse or stopped.... the got worse! They were also in my lower tummy now as well as my back, so called the unit again and she said come in.

We got ready and my sister came to watch the girls for us. When I got to delivery I was met by a very smiley midwife (it's now 2am wed!) and she was very nice. I was seen very quickly and I accepted an examination. She said I was 4cm (although wrote 3... weird) and then took us to the day room while they got the delivery suite ready. I was getting contractions around every 3 mins or so but then would be irregular in length (some 1-2 minutes and some 30-40 secs) so although I knew I was in early labour I didn't totally feel that this was it.

We got taken to the room and my heart just sank, the room was massive and there was two resuscitaire's in there. It just looked so wrong and I just couldn't imagine them both on one.

I then met the midwife who was going to look after me (and she did) and she read my birth plan, it was amazing to see her facial expressions as I doubt she'd seen anything like it for a twin pregnancy! She gave me the guidelines on some of the points I have on it but then respected that I wanted to be active and we made a compromise on the fetal monitoring. She was lovely and we had a laugh with her, I felt surprisingly very calm about it all and confident it would be ok. The Midwife warned me (yes really lol) that the consultant who was on duty may have a few things to say about my birth plan and to be prepared for her to be a bit funny (which I was anyway).

The consultant came in and was surprisingly not looking like she was about to rip the babies out of me there and then and was very polite. But she really didn't get off to a good start, "so Natasha this is your 3rd pregnancy, 1 csec and 2 vaginal deliveries?" my face must have said it all as she said "no?!" (shocked face) I then said that I have had 4 pregnancies (well on 4th), one I miscarried and I have never had a csec, first was assisted ventouse delivery and the second I birthed at home. The Midwife also relayed this information and said that she must have got me mixed up with the lady next door but yeah she looked like a Dick.

She then went on about my birth plan, and again was very polite and just reiterated what I have been told and read many many times about the "high risk" twin pregnancy and then pointed out that there is a twin study that is going to show that all twin births are safer when having planned csections (yes probably if you get subjected to high amounts of intervention and get scared into thinking your body can't do it's job........... *sigh why can't they work with women) She then tried to convince me to get an epidural (the contractions were more regular then and getting more painful) I said no and then to shut her up said I would consider it, she then said that if I wanted she would get the anesthetist to come and have a chat with me (she would not leave it alone!) and I said no thank you! So then off she went and left me to it. I eventually got a ball to labour on and me and Paul were pretty much on our own, the Midwife was great and just left me to be on my own and just checking every now and then which was fine and I was happy with. The contractions then started to die down but I started being sick so thought maybe things were progressing (although deep down I knew they weren't and it was just from being over tired and still having morning sickness) By 6am they really had tailed off and I asked her to examine me (so I could confirm my own feelings on it being over) she said I was 4cms and agreed that it looked like it had all stopped.

She then went and I was met with a new midwife and again was very nice, they tried to get me to stay but I discharged myself as I knew it was just pre labour and that I still have a little while yet (accept this morning 15/03/12 I had a lot of show eeeek stay put babies!) So I got home Wednesday 10am and my god I felt so poorly and tired.... I slept well last night!

I'm so pleased it stopped and it actually kicked my head into gear about being worried about stupid things and to get a grip ha ha! Although initially I crapped myself when I got home because of how close I was to having them anyway! If I had accepted that epidural I would have ended up being induced and then would have had two very small and very very not ready to come out yet babies!! It's scary how close I was and can't imagine how often this must happen!!!

Now the Supervisor visit :)

It went very well, she was really nice and we just went through my birth plan, changed a few things (which i'm happy with) and my Midwife did the Home birth check. The supervisor said that she will be having a meeting with the Head of Midwifery next week to discuss a plan and I will be able to see a copy of this next week when my Midwife comes out for an antenatal visit. I was so happy that I actually had the meeting as 6 hours prior I didn't think they would be still inside!

I'm looking forward to seeing this plan :)

It seems to be getting more eventful everyday and the closer we get to their birth (whenever that may be!) I just hope they hold until the 26th!!

Natasha xx


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