The birth story of my little one actually starts at about 34 weeks lol. After blood pressure rise in my 2nd trimester I had been having weekly monitoring from my midwife. At 34 weeks my blood pressure began to rise again, my legs became hugely swollen as did my hands, face and belly and at my 37 week check I had protein in my urine.
Was admitted to the antenatal ward on Thursday 23rd April at lunchtime and kept in for urine and blood tests. At that time had blood tests done for protein ratios. Normal level was up to 30 and mine came back at 120. At this time they started to discuss the possibility of induction. However, as some results were still pending I was kept in for monitoring and further tests.
On Sunday 26th April developed indigestion in the evening and went for a walk to try and ease it but nothing worked, nor did the drugs they gave me for it – now it seems I didn’t have indigestion I was having pain from my liver which was referring into my chest. My bloods came back and showed pre eclampsia. At this point they decided to move me to delivery and start the induction. My blood pressure which had been running at 150/85 was found at this point to be 185/115.
Had the first Prostin pessary at 2110 on Sunday 26th and was told not to get my hopes up as it would probably take 3 doses to get things going and then I would have to have my waters broken artificially…20 minutes later I started getting backache. Was kept on delivery as they had decided by now I was too high risk to continue my induction on the ward so I settled to try and get some sleep but by midnight was having tightenings every 6 minutes or so. The midwife came in at 3.30am to give me the 2nd pessary and did my blood pressure again which was still 165/100. I asked to go to the loo first and as I sat up to walk to the toilet my waters broke spontaneously at 0340 on Monday 27th April. The doctor examined me and found I was 2cm dilated so the 2nd pessary was not needed and I was left to labour naturally for the time being though still having my blood pressure every 30 minutes and attatched to the baby heart monitor.
At 4.30 I put my Tens machine on as the contractions were coming every 5 minutes and getting a bit uncomfortable. In truth it took little off the discomfort but did give me buttons to play with lol. Unfortunately after this point things started to go wrong. I had drunk a well over litre of water since midnight but by 6am had only passed about 200ml of urine despite being constantly in need of the toilet. As I was being induced they were starting me on a Syntocin drip to stimulate contractions and had advised me to have an epidural as this causes contractions to be more painful. S o while the drip was running and I was waiting for an anaesthetist they decided in light of the pending epidural and the inability to pass urine to catheterise me. The catheter was passed but the large amount of urine I expected to come out never materialised. It seemed my kidneys were not working properly and all the water I was drinking was passing into my skin and tissues meaning my legs, hands and face were rapidly swelling. By the time I phoned my husband to come in just after six my fingers were twice the size, I had massively swollen legs and swelling around my eyes.
My husband arrived about 0630 and at this time they had examined me and found I was only 3cm dilated despite contracting every 4 minutes. They turned down the Syntocin and started an antibiotic called Clindamycin as I have been found to be Group B Strep earlier in my pregnancy. Its uncertain whether or not I reacted to this or was having ongoing preeclampsia complications but I started to have a metallic taste in my mouth and developed uncontrollable shaking of my arms and legs which meant I was unable to get off the bed due to shaking so badly. The decision was made not to give a 2nd dose and instead to monitor LO for Group B Strep and treat if needed after delivery. The possibility of C Section due to labour not progressing and the state I was getting in was being discussed at this point when LO made the decision for us. I felt her move then suddenly the fetal heart rate monitor dropped from 150 to 50 so the midwife hit the alarm. The heart rate did pop back up but the doctor felt she had tried to move down and gotten her cord tangled around her neck. Though the heart rate was back to normal the monitor was not registering much movement. In light of the distress she was in and how unwell I was becoming I was moved to theatre for an emergency section under spinal.
I got into theatre at 10am and the spinal was inserted and I was laid down to start. Unfortunately I was also reacting to the drugs in the spinal as I was dry heaving and itching my face and neck madly. I also was suffering extreme dizziness. I described it to my husband as the feeling you would have if you laid on your back on a roundabout and someone pushed it – I could see the whole room rotating 360 degrees. He was lovely and sat by my head holding a sick bowl for me and stroking my face and arms as I was getting a bit freaked out by the feeling at this point. At 1014 on Monday 27th April they delivered my little girl at a gestation of 38 weeks exactly. She was shocked when she first arrived and required a couple of breaths being given to her and oxygen. She also had suction to remove amniotic fluid from her mouth and nose but recovered quickly and had a full set of responses within a couple of minutes. She weighed in at a diddy 5 pound 12 ½ ounces.
I was moved back to delivery and kept there for a further 24 hours for monitoring as I was on anti seizure medication, intravenous medication to control my blood pressure, fluids to get my kidneys going again and an intravenous medication to control bleeding all through the drips in my hands. I had an awful time getting breast feeding commenced as I was still extremely dizzy and described it to my husband as trying to latch a baby onto my breast after a night on the beer! In addition I had limited use of my hands due to the swelling and the drips. The first day they had to top her up with formula twice. On the Tuesday I was less dizzy and able to get up out of bed for washing and moved back to a general ward so we persevered with feeding and finally managed to get a successful latch Tuesday evening. Unfortunately by this point both nipples were cracked and bruised so it was still painful but she was now feeding well and my milk finally came in on the Thursday.
Had repeat bloods done Friday as my blood pressure was still not dropping after delivery and the blood showed the markers for preeclampsia were still raised so I was not allowed to go home which was immensely frustrating as I was now feeling very well. Finally Saturday 2nd May I had more bloods done which still showed raised preeclampsia markers but was allowed home after a 10 day stay with instructions for a lot of rest and to return immediately if I felt unwell in any way.
Was on blood pressure medication til C was 5 months old and had daily blood pressure recordings for the first fortnight from my midwife as I was told there is still a risk of seizure for another 2 weeks after discharge if my bp didnt come down.
I saw my consultant in July after she was born who said for my next one i was classed as high risk so this time round im on daily aspirin and have to see the hospital by 10 weeks, i will have doppler scans on placenta at 22, 24, 26 and 28 weeks and growth scans at 28, 32 and 36 weeks.
