Ooh baby baby (Pregnancy Complications)

Member Name: tigger1978

Product:	Pregnancy Complications
Date:	18/05/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: you get a baby at the end!

Disadvantages: pain - emotional and physical!

After a missed miscarriage at 12 weeks (where they tell you in the scan that the baby actually died previously but for some reason your body has chosen not to discard the baby in the normal way a miscarriage occurs) I was overjoyed to be pregnant again shortly after.

The pregnancy progressed well and I only suffered mild morning sickness. At 31 weeks I got home from work and my waters broke. I called my husband and we went into hospital. we arrived there about 7pm and were in the delivery unit until about midnight when they transferred me onto a ward. In the delivery unit they had me rigged up to monitors for the heart rate - which kept disappearing as the baby was small.

They gave me a scan and confirmed that the waters had broken. Luckily I wasnt getting any contractions so I wasnt actually in labour. They gave me a steroid injection to strengthen the babys lungs - we didnt know the sex as i wanted it to be a surprise. Anyway, so they transferred me down to a ward - - the ward had mothers with their new baby's on it so i was shut away in the corner by myself - it was awful. I was so scared.

The next day I had a scan and the woman didnt really give any information but as she walked off fdown the corridor she said oh dear to herself. At that point I was fairly hysterical as I was convinced that I was going to lose my baby. My husband was really supportive, and one of the trainee nurses had a look at the information in my file and comforted me saying she saw no reason for me to be so upset and arranged for a doctor to come and talk to me.

We went and looked around the neo-natal unit which was so emotional, I was in tears. The babys in there were so tiny and fighting so hard for their lives. We were then shown into the Special Care Unit (SCBU) which was a nicer place - the babies in here were stronger and could breathe for themselves.

Anyway. back down on the ward I was moved to the other end where theere were other pregnant ladies who were experiencing issues. I made some friends - I was in for 3 weeks before my daughter was born. The doctors said that they thought my baby was small for its age. I had 2 scans a week - 1 to check the doppler readings and the other to check there had been growth, and the amount of amniotic fluid was checked every time.

Twice a day I was rigged up onto a heart rate monitor to check whether the baby was becoming distressed, - once on a computer monitor and once on an older style monitor which is more frequently used during labour. The baby never became distressed, so they decided that 34 weeks would be the optimum time to deliver the baby.

Up to this point they had kept saying I could still have a natural birth... but then they started saying that it would be better to have a C-section as it was my first baby and we didnt know how I would be in labour and they didnt want to risk a long labour and the baby becoming distressed. I went along with their decision - they must know better than me!

C-section day came.
I was petrified - I knew nothing about C-sections. I hadn't read that chapter of the book - I was going to have a completely natural birth, with only gas and air to help me through... - well, thats what I thought - we had never attended the antenatal classes as I was in hospital at the time that they were supposed to be on - so there was no birth plan even in place!

I won't go into details of the C-section. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life and I did not enjoy it much at all. Also I would hate to scare anyone. Other women seem to have very different reactions to the C-section and didn't find it a bad experience at all.

The baby was born and immediately she was taken to be assessed. I heard a little cry so I knew she was alive, but they didnt tell us for a good 10 minutes whether it was a boy or girl - and only did so when we asked.

I managed to have a 2 second peek at my daughter before she was whisked off to SCBU. She was doing well, breathing for herself. She weighed 4lbs 4.

I was wheeled in to see her after I had spent time in recovery - after I had a cup of tea and a biscuit and could start to feel my legs again they wheeled me through in my bed to see her. She was tiny.

Then as there were no beds available on the ward up near SCBU I was taken back down to the ward where I had first started. They then gave me a machine and told me to express some milk for the baby.
I had no idea what to do and over the next couple of days this resulted in incredibly sore nipples.

Baby Abi was kept in SCBU for 3 weeks after her birth. I sat with her every day from 7am til 10pm nipping home a couple of times only for food. It was a hell of a long day and highly uncomfortable on my wound, but we had decided it was best for my husband to take paternity leave when she came home, and I was not allowed to drive so soon after the C-section, there was not much option.

Because of this I think it took me a long time to recover from the C-section. During her time in SCBU abi stopped breathing a couple of times, and she was fed my milk via a tube and when i didnt produce enough to keep up with her it was supplemented with a special formula.

She came home at first with a tube so that she didnt tire herself out trying to breastfeed, but within a couple of days she was strong enough for the tube to go which was a relief - the first night at home she had ripped the tube out before morning.
She was very slow to start breastfeeding, but I was determined to feed her myself and not try with a bottle. Needless to say we succeeded. I know alot of mothers whose babies are in SCBU for a long time actually find that they cannot breastfeed, i think it really helped to spend so much time sitting with her and being with her.

I stopped feeding her shortly after her 1st birthday. She has been incredibly healthy - especially for a premature baby. The friends I made in hospital did not succeed with breastfeeding and both of thier little ones have had more colds, coughs and illnesses than Abi.

She has no effects from being born early and has caught up growthwise with where she should be now. If you do have a premature baby you just cope with what you have to. My main worry was that there would be long term effects, but at 34 weeks the baby is fully developed and is just putting on weight.


I am a little apprehensive about having another baby as I could not bear to go through all of that again. however I desperately want for her to have a brother or sister.
We are now trying for the next baby and I will be keeping my fingers (and legs) crossed for a full 40 weeks when it happens!

Summary: Just do it! no-one knows how it will go