My Uterine Scar Split During Vbac

My youngest daughter is Rosa-Lea is now 11 weeks so I feel like I can talk about her birth now.

So 5 years ago on august 17th 2013 my eldest daughter Elsie-May was born via emergency c-section. She was 10 days late & I was due to be induced 2 days later. My waters broke on the 16th but because I wasn't having contractions they sent me home & told me to come on the 17th. So I went in and started labour but before long they were worried about her heart rate so I had an emergency c-section. All was well, I had a spinal & Karl was able to stay with me.

Fast forward to December 2017 & we found out we were having our second child. The pregnancy went relatively well. I had terrible morning sickness at the start and suffered with spd but it was all worth it :) As I had a c-section before I had the choice for a planned c-section on a vbac. I decided on a vbac for a few reasons 1) I was upset not being able to give birth naturally to Elsie-May 2) I was told that the risks were greater to have surgery. At 36 weeks I had an appointment with my consultant to discuss my birth plan. We agreed on a plan a sweep at 40 weeks, another sweep at 41 weeks then a c-section at 42 weeks. I was told that normal labour may result in c-section if I am contracting too strongly for the amount that i'm dilated as this would put pressure on my uterine scar. The consultant also said that he didn't want to induce me because of the risk of that happening. I always thought the scar that has the risk of splitting is the one that you see but its not its the one on your uterus.

So 40 weeks arrives and she still hasn't made any sign of arriving. I go in for my first sweep as arranged. I then got another consultant to speak to me who changed the plan. He said that he would rather induce me due to the risks of surgery, He wanted to induced with a drip so they could control the hormone better. He also said that he didn't want me to go much further as it would then be harder to induce me. Now looking back I should have said no and stuck to the original plan but I really wanted a natural birth & as a consultant I trusted him so I agreed & was given my induction date for the 13th August.

13th August comes & we arrive at the maternity ward at 8.30 am. We are taken to our own room and at 10.30am my waters are broken. wow there was so much water, it just kept coming haha. I had a lovely midwife, I wasn't coming on with contractions so they gave me the hormone drip. This drip was meant to be increased by 3ml every hour and the heart rate had to be checked by someone else (second eyes) every half hour as it had to be closely monitored due to the risks . After a while a new midwife came in she was newly qualified. Between 5.30pm and 10.30pm this new midwife had increased my hormone drip so much another midwife had to come and turn it off, she also had to be reminded on several occasions about for forgetting second eyes or asking the same person to do it twice.

I was on the gas & air in agony but coping with it however I then felt a pain like no other & it all changed. It was during a contraction, there was a very strong sharp pain, it was so bad I screamed & totally forgot about the contraction I was having. I told the midwife what I had felt and she just told me to breathe. After this pain I was having severe stabbing pains in between each contraction. Again the midwife just brushed them of as normal labour pains, despite me saying they wasn't and despite the fact I was meant to be monitored for signs that my uterine scar had split. The original midwife popped in to check that all was ok & when I told her about the pain she had me scanned by a consultant to see what had happened. The scan showed nothing so I was just gave an epidural. The epidural only partially worked so I was still having the pains but now all in one place. I had totally forgot about my contractions now, all I could think about was this pain, Not long after my epidural they decided to give me a c-section as they could see she was getting distressed,

Karl got into his scrubs and came down to theater with me, we was worried but not too much as we had been here before with Elsie. However while I was having my spinal done it all changed. There was a sudden change of atmosphere and a lady said 'we haven't got time we need to get her out now'. Suddenly everyone was rushing around and Karl was shown out and taken back to the delivery room. This is when I thought I am never going to see my little girl alive, I've lost her. I was more scared then I have been in my whole life. I made the lady next to me (I say lady as I have no idea if she was a nurse, doctor, midwife or what) I made her promise me that my little girl was going to be ok. I tasted garlic & that was it.

I awoke back in the delivery room and the first thing I saw was Karl holding our little girl. She had made it, we had made it. Karl had been left in the delivery room for an hour before Rosa was brought into him and an hour after that before I was brought back. He had thought during that time that he had lost us. Turns out that pain I had felt was my uterine scar splitting and when hey had opened me up for my c-section they had actually found my bladder inside my uterus. I was very lucky that it had happened while I was in hospital. Just when I thought the worse was over I was told not to try for another child. My uterus isn't strong enough and the risk of it splitting before labour & killing us both is very high,

I am still to get my head round not having any more children, I think it will take some time. I know there will be some of you thinking that I should be happy with the 2 I have & I am. However I always had visioned myself with 3 & it will take a while to change that. I do blame the second newly trained midwife, for upping the hormone too much, not doing the second eyes & ignoring me when I was telling her something was wrong. that is just another thing i will have to live with. Me & my girls are alive & healthy , that's what really matters.