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Has/Is anyone else going through their notes with the hospital???
Hi Ladies,
As some of you may remember I got quite poorly at the very end of my pregnancy and was in and out of hospital, poked and prodded with needles every 5 minutes and ended up being induced with a traumatic 36 hour active labour ending in emergency cs.
So...
I have taken up the offer of going through my labour notes with someone who was involved at the hospital. At the moment I'm waiting for an appointment and not sure who it will be with yet.
Has anyone else done this before and if so did it help? Who went through your notes? and was the procedure to do it as a timeline?
I'm hoping we can discuss the details of future pregnancy as i feel this is important for me to understand what I'd be taking on before finding myself in that position.
As some of you may remember I got quite poorly at the very end of my pregnancy and was in and out of hospital, poked and prodded with needles every 5 minutes and ended up being induced with a traumatic 36 hour active labour ending in emergency cs.
So...
I have taken up the offer of going through my labour notes with someone who was involved at the hospital. At the moment I'm waiting for an appointment and not sure who it will be with yet.
Has anyone else done this before and if so did it help? Who went through your notes? and was the procedure to do it as a timeline?
I'm hoping we can discuss the details of future pregnancy as i feel this is important for me to understand what I'd be taking on before finding myself in that position.
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Replies
As I had laboured for 49hrs with a long 'pushing' stage ending with my having a 3rd degree tear & heavy bloodloss she wanted to talk through the notes to see what she thought had contributed & how likely I'd be to see a repeat. I was actually surprised by the information she talked through as it was new to me but DH sat there saying 'yes, I remember'. I was offered elective c-sec but chose to go for another vaginal birth & was happily able to talk through recommendations for my 'birth plan' based on previous experience.
It did help both DH & myself to prepare for a 2nd birth experience more confidently knowing that the MW was aware of our 1st & so could reassure us throughout that all was ok & look out for the signs of similar problems (she could see my old tear wound straining but knew it wouldn't need so many stitches).
Hope yours goes ok. If you had emergency c-sec they may get the surgeon to talk through the process with you as they will have been 'briefed' by MW about the events leading to the c-sec & will have made the 'call' during the c-sec so will be best informed. It is to help you understand & move forward so do ask questions on anything you don't feel happy with or want clarified. Best wishes.
Thank you!
I'm not really sure why but reading your reply has made me cry (in a good way).
I think your reply is exactly what I wanted to hear...that it helped and that they will be good and professional and not rushed as can sometimes be the case for other things.
I just want to be able to move forward with some confidence and know what is realistic to expect.
Your replies are always so thought out and supportive and caring. Thank you!!!!!!! (hugs)
when we had our appointment, it was with the consultant. He was really good and put us at ease and it felt very informal. He went through everything as a timeline so that we could get a good sense of what happened on the day and obviously that brought up a few questions along the way. He also was able to pinpoint where mistakes were made and what should have happened (ie, when it became obvious I had a retained placenta I should have been taken to theatre immediately but it took an hour). Might sound strange, but it was so helpful for us when he did acknowledge the mistakes as it made us feel we weren't remembering things wrong.
We also discussed future pregnancies as that was a huge concern for us and up until the meeting, we were so sure we couldn't go through another pregnancy and birth. He was able to explain the chances of future problems (in our case, quite high) but also what care I'd receive since I'd be a known high risk patient.
The meeting was incredibly helpful and we were told we could arrange another meeting at any point if any other questions came up. We came away feeling very relieved and with a much better understanding of what I went through. It also gave us the confidence to try for baby number 2, who was conceived just three months later!
I'd recommend you write down a list of questions/concerns that you have as it's so easy to forget on the day once you start hearing all the information. I really hope it brings the peace of mind you're looking for.
Shons
x
(ps, think I said in a previous post but my birth second time around was entirely trauma free and couldn't have been more straight forward)
I have to tell the matron which part of the labour concerns me when she phones so she can decide who is best but from your story and also because my questions relate to lots of different things a consultant may be best.
I definitely think a timeline will help us to understand things better and will allow us to take our time.
So nervous that I just want to have the appointment and move on.
Did you ever consider counselling for the labour?
I'm keeping an open mind as it does still bother me a lot.
We have to get a GP referral to actually speak to a consultant about it!!! God knows how long it will take and it will be weird doing it in 2 parts. :evil:
SB x
Thanks SB.
It was brilliant. We were able to ask so many questions and the matron could reference the notes directly and also show us things like the reams of ctg paper which showed the unco-ordinated contractions etc.
We found out our baby was back to back and the head was totally the wrong way around for birth. We didn't know this before!
I also learnt more about how inductions are different to natural labour and why my contractions came on so quickly etc. At the time we couldn't ask about it as it was all so quick.
I heard also how they gave me an epidural partly to reduce my premature urge to push (we pushed for an hour when only 5cm!)
Very very useful appointment! x
For my other children and I am waiting on Oliver's. When I got DS notes back I found out that he was resuscitated at birth which we weren't told about, so glad I found that out.Has it helped knowing what happened??
Before I felt I was just being a wuss and rubbish but now I understand we were very unlucky.
We started with an abnormal situation, diagnosed late, very poorly to begin with, apparently inductions are longer and more painful in most cases, he was back to back, his head was larger than usual and at the total opposite angle to the best for birth.
They also said my induction had gotten out of control and I was probably quite close to a spontaneous labour so the contractions were very close and strong from the start.
Also the back to back thing explains why I had no rest between contractions - it hurt solidly which I wasn't expecting.
The contractions were unco-ordinated a lot of the time so I was having too many too close together to do any good as apparently the regular pattern is what's important. Also it means you tire out a lot faster.
But the positives are that I progressed well initially, he wasn't distressed until the end which is why we had a section and we got to 10cm which means I can do it.
Unfortunately we learnt a little more about OC and were told how suddenly women can lose their babies with the condition which is why it is such a scary condition because they just don't understand it fully.