My first and only experience birthing a child was so traumatic. I guess I should start from the beginning. Apologies for the long post, but I feel like I need to get this all out and hope to hear some other stories of others having this type of experience. Apparently postpartum hemorrhages only happen in 10% of all deliveries.

My water broke at 38 weeks in the early morning of 2 am while making yet another trip to the bathroom. I knew it was my water because it soaked up two pairs of underwear and there was blood. I guess maybe this was the first sign of the hemorrhage? Anyways, I woke my husband up and we made our way out the door with my hospital bag already packed. I made him stop by sheetz to get me a basket of fries since I knew that was the last time I would get to eat for awhile. 😁

We made it to the hospital and the nurses took their tests to make sure it was actually the amniotic fluid and then I was given a room. We got settled in and tried to get some sleep since we wouldn’t be able to see my obgyn until 7 am. When he got there, I was only 2 cm dilated so they gave me pitocin to speed up the process. The nurse mentioned the blood that was leaking on the bed to my ob and he said that they would keep an eye on it. After a few hours my ob came back and I still was only dilated 2 cm! He suggested that I get the epidural as it may relax me and help speed up the process. I agreed and got it right away, they also upped my dose of pitocin. After another few hours my doctor came back and I progressed to 4 cm. He then used something to break my water even more. After another few hours he came back and I was about 6 cm. That’s when things started to speed up. I literally went from 6 cm to 10 cm in a little over an hour. I remember telling the nurse that I feel a lot of pressure and told her to check to make sure the baby’s head wasn’t popping out. She in fact was and that’s when they got my ob and I started pushing. It all went so fast, I only pushed twice and she was out, but things went downhill for me after that. I started hemorrhaging and they wouldn’t let me see my baby. My husband told me that the entire floor of the room was filled with my blood along with a trash bag of blood, fluid, etc. My doctor had both of his hands inside of me compressing to try to stop he bleeding and was yelling at the nurses to give me a shot to help the blood clot. I had a 2nd degree tear as well and while he was sewing me up I remember asking me if he was pulling my umbilical cord out. That’s what It felt like, but he just told me not to worry. I was out of it, lol. They got it under control, but again I was so out of it. I puked right after too, then I wanted to eat, which my husband fed me some pasta we had in the room. After everything calmed down I was able to hold my babe finally and it was the best feeling ever, even though I was hooked up to a million different things and I couldn’t move or get up.

That night was horrible because one I was in pain and couldn’t get more pain meds because they needed to wait a certain amount of time before giving me more meds. Two I needed to be hooked up to all of these things for 24 hours so couldn’t get up to get the baby. Three, my babe had a hard time latching on - my husband even had to milk me since my babe was having such a hard time latching. Finally four, I was sooo tired and up for almost 48 hours before getting a good stretch of sleep. It was rough!

They took multiple tests and determined that I didn’t need a blood transfusion because apparently I only lost 1000 ml of blood, (the same/average amount of blood lost during a c-section). This was good, but till this day I’m still wondering if I needed one or not. For about eight weeks post I would get so dizzy if I would even go up and down the stairs and my heart rate was so slow. My usual resting heart rate is about 90 bpm, but during those eight weeks it was about 70 bpm. I mentioned this to my doctor at my six week check up and he didn’t seem concerned. I think I was for sure anemic or something because of my symptoms. I’m fine now and all back to normal.

In regards to breastfeeding, because they pumped me with all of these fluids, my milk didn’t fully come in until a month in. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I went to weekly lactation meetings to help and not once did the consultant or anyone at the hospital mention that my milk might have a hard time coming due to all of the fluids. Apparently it happens all of the time according to my Aunt, who is a nurse on the maternity ward. All they kept telling me is to nurse, nurse, nurse to get my milk to come in. My baby was starving and lost weight the first week, but thank god I didn’t listen to anyone and gave her formula and breastfed too. We are still successfully breastfeeding as well. 😊

My babe is the best thing that has ever happened to me and she is now a healthy, crazy, little 10 month old. I’m so proud of my husband and how he has been since she has been born. He is the best dad and takes care us both.

Anyways, like I said I would love to hear if you’ve had a similar experience as I did!