Hospital birth for me (Hospital Births)

Member Name: sam_k

Product:	Hospital Births
Date:	23/09/08 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of medical assistance and midwife support available

Disadvantages: Husband couldn't stay overnight

As soon as the midwife asked me at my first appointment was I thinking about a hospital or home birth I knew I wanted the security of being in a hospital.

Although I hoped to avoid too much intervention I knew I'd be happier with the back up in case anything was to happen that would be present in a hospital.

I was very pleased with the level of care I received during my time at the hospital.

Two days after my due date I woke with some mild pains that after 2-3 hours were coming regularly every 20minutes. I put my TENS machine on and sat on my gym ball. I started to note down how often the contractions were coming and by lunch time it was every 7-minutes, so I gave the labour ward a call to le them know and to double check when they wanted me to come in (though I was happy to stay at home as long as possible) They told me to give them a call back if my waters broke or my contractions were coming 3 minutes apart and to have a bath and take some paracetamol if I wanted.

I continued sitting on my ball, pacing up and down the room and pushing my boost button on my TENS machine, with my husband periodically asking if there was anything he could do!! And after another few hours the contractions were 3 minutes apart so called the labour ward again and was told to make our way in.

When we arrived at the labour ward I was checked in quickly and shown to an examination room. I was asked if I minded a 3rd year student midwife looking after me with the midwife also present. After being examined and told I was 5cm dilated and in established labour I was shown to a delivery room with the midwife but the student left us at that point.

The midwife was great she gave my husband tips on how to rub my back to help with the pain and explained the options of pain relief when I felt my contractions were getting more difficult to deal with. Yet in between times she kept her distance keeping within earshot but not invading our space.

She would come and regularly check my blood pressure and check the baby's heart rate too and was very supportive (like my own personal cheerleader) when I felt I couldn't do it!!!! She was very good at discussing options about pain relief with me as I progressed and she was so excited and enthusiastic when she examined me to find I was fully dilated and after breaking my waters telling me, my baby had lots of hair!!

Unfortunately my lovely midwife shift ended after I had been pushing for a bit but she was replaced by another lovely midwife and a student midwife! The student midwife this time was really motivating, cheering me on and being really supportive.

I had been pushing for an hour but the head wasn't descending fast enough and my baby's heart rate was indicating the start of some distress so the registrar was called in who examined me and said things were happening but a bit too slow so called for things to be set up for a ventouse delivery.

Suddenly the room was full of people (though I couldn't have cared less who was looking at me by this point!) I had both the registrar and the student midwife cheering me on and I was pushing as hard as I could.

About 15 mintutes later my son was born (assisted by the ventouse) with his hand on his head! He was placed on my chest so I had a few seconds to see him before he was taken to be checked over.

While he was being checked, they found he was grunting so started taking blood samples and checking his temperature, once they were happy he was passed to my husband to hold while the registrar was busy stitching me up!

Once I'd been seen to, cleaned up a bit and made comfortable on the bed, I was given my son. We had a lovely cuddle and some skin to skin cuddles before the student midwife came over and helped me with breastfeeding. After being given a plate piled with toast and cups of tea for myself and my husband we were left together as a family.

After about an hour my midwife was back to take me to the shower while the Doctors examined my son. We were then taken to the post natal ward which was the worst part of it all, my husband had to leave us, as it was 1am.

We spent 2 days on the ward as my gorgeous boy needed 24hours of observations. The staff were very supportive, offering assistance with breastfeeding, we were shown how to bath our baby and during my first night on the ward I was given help to pick him up out of the cib and change his nappy when I felt too sore to move!!!

All in all I was very pleased I was in hospital for the birth seeing as the little man decided to have his hand on his head!! And all the care and support I was given during my time there was great.

My only negative points were that my husband couldn't be with us overnight.

Summary: All the back up you might need