So you're in the hospital . . . *warning*

This will be graphic. I recommend not reading this if you are pregnant as it may scare you.

My labour was LONG! Officially on paper, it was only 19 hours, but I was contracting heavily from the moment my waters broke, about 36 hours before bubba was born.

Let me start by saying that I had wanted a natural labour, with no drugs - maybe gas only. I wanted my baby to be placed on my chest as soon as she was born and for her cord to stay intact with the placenta until it had stopped pulsing. None of these things happened.

I was at home, resting my heavily pregnant and swollen body, when I felt a little trickle and some dampness "down there". I sure as heck had not peed myself, but didn't think it could really be my waters breaking as I'd been told throughout my pregnancy that I had excess amniotic fluid. So I called the hospital as I'd been advised to, and they said to go in to check.

Off we went to the hospital where my waters broke. It was like a river breaking it's banks! I gushed and gushed and gushed so much that the bed they had me lying on was soaked to the point of dripping onto the floor. I was mortified, but at the same time glad. We had just bought a new bed and mattress, and the towel I had been sleeping on at home "just in case" would have done nothing to save our comfortable new bed!
Now let me tell you that your "waters" are nothing like water at all. It is a slimy, thickish consistency and not at all pleasant! Anyway...

I was sent home after flooding the place, and told to come in at 6.45am the next morning for an induction if nothing started happening ( mind you I had been having contractions 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute at this stage). So we went home, told hubby to get some sleep, while I did some laundry and had a stinking hot shower.

Fast forward about 3-4 hours and we were back at the hospital as my contractions were pretty painful at this stage, it was about 4am. We were admitted and taken to a birthing suite where they told me to get comfortable and rest, Ha! You try resting when your lower back and abdomen spasms every 3 minutes!

Luke warm showers (the water does not get hot at the hospital - had I known this I would have stayed home and in our shower for longer) on my hands and knees, or leant over a chair worked for a while, but I started to get scared that I wouldn't be able to take the pain and that I was only 1cm dilated. Thankfully I was more like 3-4cm at that stage. This is when I asked for some gas. It tasted disgusting, made me light headed and feeling drunk, but it did the trick for a while. Just breathe deeply when you feel a contraction coming and it all goes away... That's what they said anyway.

After a while I then laboured next to the bed, cushions under my knees and chest on the bed, buck naked this whole time with midwives and doctors coming and going. When people tell you that you leave your dignity at the door when you give birth, they sure as hell aren't wrong!

Enter midwife number 2 (sorta) who said to me "you can take this pain, look at all your tattoos, you should be fine". She didn't come back in after that, whether I said something or gave her a look I don't know, but I had no patience for her!

The next midwife (proper number 2as the previous one lasted 5 minutes) was better, she helped move me into better positions, and assured me that my baby would be born on her shift due to how well I was progressing. At this point I was given the Pethadine shot as well as the gas.

Her shift ended and enter the next midwife ( who was my favorite during labour). She was also convinced that my baby would be born during her shift as I was progressing so well (I was about 6-7cm at this stage).

And then the progression slowed down. In fact it stopped. Baby's heartbeat was fine, but there was no more movement in the "down and out" direction. They called a doctor in, who much to my dismay, thrust her entire hand into my vagina to feel my cervix and my baby's progression. Have you ever seen a vet show where the veterinarian puts their hand up into the cows bits to pull out the calf? That's how I felt. And bless her, she's trying to tell me what's she's doing, and I'm doing all I can to not tell her to shut up and get her damn hand out of me during my contractions!
During this stage I finally asked for an epidural. I had been labouring with intense contractions for well over 20 hours and needed sleep.

The anesthetist arrived and told me to sit up and hunch over so that he could administer the needle. Apparently I told him that it was impossible, could he not see the size of my belly? Lol, I don't recall that at all!

Blah, blah, blah, epidural in and bring on about 2 hours of sleep. At this point the doctor returns, again puts her entire hand inside me (that shouldn't even be possible!) and tells me that if I don't progress further within the hour I'll have to have a Caesarian. My heart dropped. All this work only to be told that. I yelled out that I didn't want a Caesarian and she gave me more time to progress.

During this my 4th midwife had arrived and was very supportive. She helped me relax (somewhat) and told me that i could do this. I fell asleep for a while and woke as the epidural was wearing off. The midwife told me that I could continue to allow it to wear off to feel when to push, or I could dose up. I decided to let it ware off a little. But that bastard of a thing didn't ware off, it straight up cut out. There I was, no pain then BAM! more pain than you could imagine. I pushed and pushed and pushed for dear life. I pushed so much I was vomiting, I was determined to push this baby out. But after pushing for what seemed like hours, the midwife called the dr in again, my baby was stuck.

Thankfully I had pushed her to the point where a Caesarian was no longer possible, but I still had to go to theatre to pull her out. The readministered the epidural (thank god!) and wheeled me away.

The rest is kinda blurry, they put a screen up so that I couldn't see below my chest, they put my legs in stirrups, and they used the ventouse to try to suck my baby out. It didn't work, instead it lifted some of the skin from my poor baby's head. So they then used the forceps, which caused scrapes on her temple and under her ear, but got her out! I remember seeing them lift my purple baby away from me and onto the crib with a group of doctors and nurses around her. I remember calling out "why isn't she crying?" and then seeing these little hands stretch upwards from the crib. It took a whole 2 minutes for her to cry.

I don't remember birthing the placenta, I don't really remember them stitching me up, I remember them holding a tightly wrapped baby to me, and then being wheeled away to recovery. I remember trying to stay awake in recovery so that I could see my baby, but it was about 2hours before I did. Luckily my husband got to have that bonding time with our healthy baby.

My labour was traumatic for me, I still, almost 5 months later, have nightmares about it.

But I wouldn't change a thing.