Sorry! Kinda long story!

FTM. Yesterday while in theatre at work (i work as a interventional endoscopy nurse) i started to have some sharp stabbing pains in my left groin/pubic bone area. The pain lasted for about 1-2mins and I initially thought maybe its braxton hicks (but theyre usually uncomfortable and not painful) so i then thought, baby was just in a really bad spot as she had been sitting on my bladder, so i went to the bathroom. I struggled to pee through the pain(nothing was wrong functionally but to try and relax enough to pee was so hard!). I also checked i had had any PV loss/show which i didnt. After that it eased.

I came back into theatre and the next patient gets rolled into the room. I started doing our pre operation checks, i started asking the patient for his details and to confirm his operation. While asking this the pain started again but more intense and i wanted to keel over as it had started to also tighten around my belly. I tried to push through the pain and it was becoming all too much. I started sweating profusely and i got really hot and dizzy like i was about to pass out. I quickly finished all the questions and i sat down. I told my buddy nurse i didn't feel good and she covered me as i sat down. I had to take my scrub gown off to cool myself down. Again the pain eased. I sat for another 5 mins and then again another round of contractions. I got up and incidently my boss had just walked into my theatre. I said i didn't feel good and she took one look at me said yep you look terrible. She moved me into our next theatre where the last patient had just been rolled out to recovery room.

I sat down on a chair and another wave of contractions came. They grabbed me a trolley and popped me on. They called a code. Then everyone came in. I had 1-2 minute contractions every 5 minutes and they were steadily getting worse. I wanted to cry so much but i was embarrassed as i was at work in front of all my colleagues.

All my work colleagues sent me down to our emergency department. Unfortunately my hospital doesn't have obsterics or gynaecology so they were to transfer me to the royal womens hospital 10mins down the road (i initially didnt want to go because my MIL works there and i was scared she would freak-she did.. more on that later).

In emerg they gave me betamethasone steroid in my arm to help stimulate and mature baby girl's lungs in anticipation she would come. They also gave me nefedipine to stop my contractions. Then ushered for a ambulance to transfer me across. I was still in my work scrubs haha!

While in the ambulance the nefedipine worked wonders! I stopped having the contractions and tightness across my belly and i could feel baby again. A 10 minute ambo ride turned into 30mins due to traffic.

Once i got to the womens i was starting to feel much better.

They quickly admitted me into the birth suite and hooked me up to the CTG monitor. Babys heart rate was good and they could still see some small contractions occurring but i wasn't bothered by it.

They gave me fluids and every 30mins i was bursting to pee. They were happy that i had stopped contracting and that baby was fine. They were happy that my hospital gave them the meds they would have given (i think impressed because my hospital litterally has no obstetric services or midwives so they handled it well).

The doctor saw me and did a few tests including a fetal fibronectin test where they introduced a HUGE metal speculum downstairs and that was almost as bad as the contractions in a different way. She she said i had some mild redness/blood but she wasnt worried about that its relatively normal. My cervix was closed and hadnt begun to thin yet. She did a swab and it came back negative meaning it was unlikely that i would go into a true labour anytime soon.

They said they were unsure what caused it but everything looked great after all the tests came back. So they sent me home after 4 hours. My partner came and brought his mum. Ironically she had called in sick for the afternoon shift, when she came to pick me up all the staff were asking why she was here when she was on sick leave. Haha she was embarrassed. Just said she got out of bed to come pick me up cos she was worried when my partner called her lol. She did freak out tho, she doesnt handle stress all that well.

All in all baby is good and so am i. If that pain is like of whats to come, my god I'm really going to suffer when baby girl comes November 5.

Thanks for reading, just wanted to share my experience.