Birth Debrief

You may be aware if having read my birth story that I was left with a few questions as to what happened to me, my waters and my placenta.

With my sister having an overdue baby but a perfectly fine placenta it reawakened my questions so after speaking to a midwife friend who recommended a birth debrief and I dutifully contacted the delivery ward and made an appointment.

I went along yesterday and met the consultant who sent me for a cesearean and the head of delivery, and we sat down on sofas and I asked my questions and the consultant began to talk me through Joel's birth using the notes in my file.  It brought it all back and changed some of the timings I'd had in my head too!  I was way out with the time I thought I was on the ward.  I thought I went to delivery at 3 but it was more like 5pm!

She said that with dating scans, it's very hard to be accurate and that they can be 10 days out either side.  That means, technically Joel could have been 10 days overdue. 

She doesn't know why my placenta got a bit gritty and seemed to not be working as well, it's just one of those things.  After a due date the placenta gets calcium deposits and that's not to say it doesn't work as well, it just has a gritty texture.

She said the doctor who tried to break my waters said it was 'difficult' (me or the placenta?  I don't know!) but that they're presuming he managed it and once I was put in a chair to go to the delivery room the slush was waters mixed with meconium.  He wasn't gentle and I remember him poking and pulling about a lot saying I wasn't relaxed enough.  Well, I'd like to see him relax in that situation.

Joel was fine at 6am for the first trace and not in distress at all, so he'd not been panicking for a couple of days as I'd thought.  He first seemed distressed at around noon once the contractions had begun and began having heart decelerations.  The consultant, on referring to his charts was adamant that she'd have made the same decisions again on seeing them as they were worrying.

There were notes to say that I had waters and meconium behind Joel which came out, so they don't think that my waters had gone before going to hospital.  They said there wasn't much and have offered me a further scan towards the end of my next (!) pregnancy (as and when) to check on the levels if I'm worried.

All in all, it was helpful.  It has answered my questions and made me feel better that things weren't as bad as I'd supposed.

I then asked whether my uterus would be sufficiently healed to carry another baby and they said yes, and I should be able to have a normal birth next time, as I'd got quite far on prostin gel which surprised me as I thought I'd got nowhere with too much pain!  Apparently 2cm by the time I was (about 5 hours in) was good going.  Youch.

Then (and this bit took me by surprise) the consultant looked me up and down and commented that I was still carrying extra weight from my pre-pregnancy weight.  I agreed and said I wasn't quite what I was before.  She asked what excercise I did and I replied I walk about 3-4 miles a day.  She said that only counted as gentle exercise (she obviously doesn't do it fast pushing a buggy then) and advised that I begin jogging to shift my extra weight.  I guess it's because it's still around my middle and yes, I know I need to do something about it, but I've just started work full time, any spare time is spent washing up or doing laundry and then falling on the sofa to watch tv in a stupor.  Because I'm tired and my baby is teething.  And I half think that it's easier to think about it once all the babies have been born I want!  I guess that's a silly thing to think though and lazy too.

And not to be mean back, but she didn't exactly look as though she did regular jogging either.  Not that I said it.  I just thought it.  And felt castigated for being big.  Not that I am big big.  I'm 5'2" so should be about 8 stones which I've not been since I was 16 as I'm curvy to boot.  I've not weighed myself for a while but I'm fitting into pre-pregnancy clothes again for the first time in ages.  I do need to shift my spare tyre though.

Maybe this will turn into a diet blog.  Although I don't think so.  I'm just too hungry for that sort of thing.