Nickie over at Typecast is running a writing prompt #dosomethingyummy for the CLIC Sargent Do Something Yummy awareness campaign. And the subject this week is survival and what we’ve over come.
We have thankfully been blessed in that we’ve been very lucky and not had any terrible illnesses such as cancer in our family. So my story is about Miss L’s birth, which I’ve blogged about before but it’s been a long time since I shared her story.
I had a horrible labour with her, it started in hospital as I was being checked out as I was a tiny bit over due. Labour started as 1 contraction every 3 minutes, we were all excited thinking we were all systems go because that’s what you’re told from the moment you start the ante-natal lessons. A very matter of fact midwife was called, checked my dilation and this what was now a classic conversation in our house:
Midwife: ‘Yes you’re contractions are every three minutes, but you’re 2cm dilated. Come back when you’re 6cm’
Me: ‘How will I know? I’ve not seen my feet for 3 months?’
Midwife: ‘Just come back later’
With that she swept out of the room and we were kicked out in tears, not knowing what to do.
Long story short, I phoned my Midwife from the car on the way home and she came out and spent 5 hours with us helping me labour at home, then she sent me back to give birth in the hospital – another 45 minute journey back still having a contraction every 3 minutes. 27 hours later my beautiful baby girl was born by emergency c-section.
I was exhausted, my body was in shock from the labour and emergency c-section so it wasn’t a surprise when she wasn’t feeding that well. But she was also making a weird snorting noise, to be honest being a first time mum I was more than a little clueless. I’d seen a baby once from a distance, but that was about the extent of my experience.
I mentioned it to the nursing staff but they said it was ok, newborns feeding badly isn’t exactly unusual so I left it. However by the time she was 30 hours old I needed some sleep, I’d been awake for 3 days at that point and close to utter collapse. Thanks goodness I did, they took her from me so I could rest and for the first time noticed something was wrong when they tried to feed her. She was rushed instantly to the Special Care Baby Unit, with a Group B Strep infection.
I’m forever thankful that as I’d had the labour from hell and an emergency c-section and was still in the hospital. If we’d gone home I think she’d have died because it was such a quick decline. It turns out that if you have your waters broken and then are left in labour for over 24 hours, the baby can contract Group B Strep even if the mother has tested negative for it – which I had.
However I didn’t have a clue what Group B Strep was when I was woken in the middle of the night, by a doctor telling me that my baby needed a spinal tap as she had Group B and possibly meningitis, and did I have anyone who could be with me ‘in case of the worst’. By the time I arrived in Special Care Unit (as quickly as I could shuffle down the corridor) I was welcomed by a really lovely nurse who sat me down and gave me a Polaroid picture of my daughter wired up to every conceivable piece of medical equipment. When I asked why she explained they took pictures to give the mother something to ‘remember their child by’. We’d already lost one baby through miscarriage and I refused to lose another who’d been perfectly healthy at birth and had caught an infection, you can imagine how I felt when I found out it was from me.
Thankfully she’s a great little fighter and survivor, and she had 10 days of excellent care by a very experienced group of medics and she pulled through to be the sassy little bright button she is today. But it was needless, it shouldn’t have happened. I showed signs of maternal temperature in labour, the length of labour and the fact my waters were broken I should have been given antibiotics in labour and then she wouldn’t have been infected.
To quote the GBSS Website:
“intravenous antibiotics (in the mother), during labour. When given from the start of labour or waters breaking (and ideally 4 hours before delivery), prophylaxis of this kind has proven to be very effective at preventing GBS infection in the baby. Sadly, waiting to give antibiotics to the baby after delivery will sometimes be too late.”
In the UK
1 in every 1,000 babies born in the UK. Each year, based on 700,000 babies born annually in the UK, approximately:
- 230,000 babies are born to mothers who carry GBS; 88,000 babies (1 in
become colonised with GBS; 700 babies develop GBS infections, usually within 24 hours of birth; and - 75 babies (11% of infected babies) die.
I was hoping that nine years later, women are now being informed of the dangers and can be prepared/tested/aware of Group B Strep and there are more little survivors like my girl but it seems the numbers are staying static. If you’d like to know more, pop over and visit http://www.gbss.org.uk/
{ 14 comments }
A great story of survival! But a horrible story of how you were initially treated. You don’t forget experiences like that in a hurry! Glad you have 9 years of happy memories though, and not just one little polaroid to hang on to.
Thankyou Jack, we were very lucky. I’m so grateful she was ok.
Liz´s last [type] ..{Writing Prompt} Survival
This sort of story infuriates me, I sometimes wonder whether babies are considered a replaceable resource by some people in the medical world.
So glad it was all ok for you in the end xx
Mummy whisperer´s last [type] ..Surviving Mental Health for #DoSomethingYummy
I agree, the stupid thing is it’s utterly preventable. It shouldn’t still be at the same levels it was 9 years ago
Liz´s last [type] ..{Writing Prompt} Survival
I am really not sure what to right… I am so glad that everything came right but I am so disappointed with the glib attitude of staff that took you to that point. This is a powerful piece of writing, thank you for sharing
RosMadeMe´s last [type] ..Midweek Mini-Tute – Mini Bunting
Thanks Ros, I just felt utterly abandoned and unprepared. I was just so lucky my midwife came out to help us, god alone knows what would have happened if we’d been left alone. It worries me that happens to other people, all women should be supported in labour and no just told to ‘come back later’.
Liz´s last [type] ..{Writing Prompt} Survival
Oh that blasted polaroid! My daughter was born prematurely and spent a stretch in SCBU so I had the photos too. I am torn between being grateful of having pictures of her in her early days to being still a bit uneasy that they were taken in case I lost her and would have had nothing to remember her with. How the numbers stay static in this day and age is frankly outrageous. Although your story suggests that part of the reason is lack of maternal care in labour and the immediate post natal period, and new mothers not always being taken seriously. So glad she pulled through but sorry for the start you both had. x
Amy´s last [type] ..Breastfeeding, by a Bottle-Feeder
I know what you mean I was torn between the thanks they’d taken it and the horrible reminder of what happened. I hate the fact maternal care seems to be so hit and miss.
Liz´s last [type] ..Desk in Cupboard
Hi Liz, what a terrible time, a happy result for you, you can look back and say it shouldnt have happened, and it so easily could have been avoided ; how awful if things hadn’t turned out ok. left with that unhappy experience of too busy and undedicated staff.
I worked as an Auxillary nurse in SCBU. and I along with a collegue found that although the nurses and doctors knew their stuff, many were not parents I at the time had 3. Nothing can replace holding your new baby, and when you are given a photo to treasure at the time you know its a ‘ just incase’ but I have spoken to mums who have lost their bubs and becasue the family are in trauma and the bub ill they dont take a picture , sometimes sadly thats all they go home with . I am so please your midwife had the experience and compassion to be there. And we do survive dont we, no matter what life throws at us we bounce back .. We are women after all! xx
Debs´s last [type] ..This time last year!
I know what you mean about the photo, I was so torn between be horrified why I was being given it to be grateful that they’d thought of it. The SCBU staff were amazing though, so kind, thoughtful and telling me everything that was happening. I will be thankful to them forever
x
Liz´s last [type] ..Desk in Cupboard
Oh my, your story is almost word for word my own, except the Minx didn’t get Strep B but instead suffered a dramatic weight loss after birth as she was born under weight and very weak and kept throwing up the breast milk she did manage to consume. No one noticed how much I was struggling to get her to feed until four days later when she dipped under 5lbs despite being a week late.
We had the whole SBU and polaroid experience too. Truly that was the very worst week of my life, except for the fact that my beautiful daughter was born in the middle of it. Makes you wonder how many babies they nearly kill in hospital. Makes me so angry.
That’s so horrible! I know what you mean, I had masses of conversations which started with ‘She’s not feeding…’ and then getting ignored. I must admit the whole experience put me off having any more children, purely because of the care we both received. I didn’t want to have a second one and then die in labour (which I seriously thought I might at one point) and leave L motherless.
And this was 9 years ago when comparatively maternity units were well staffed and the baby boom was at it’s start, god knows what it’s like now?
Liz´s last [type] ..Desk in Cupboard
Awful experience but you’ve got such a fantastic daughter – you’re both survivors in many senses of the word. Thanks for joining in with the final week of the #dosomethingyummy prompts
Thanks so much for taking part in #dosomethingyummy and I’m really glad it was an opportunity to also talk about Group B Strep.
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