The gory details

We had hoped for an uncomplicated, low-intervention birth, but ended up with the opposite. 14 days overdue, according to the scan dates, Claire had to be induced. No amount of curries, bumpy roads etc could make the baby come out of their own accord. We went in on the Wednesday morning and they started the induction on Wednesday afternoon. From first (induced) contraction to delivery took 29 hours, including 13 hours of major contractions on the oxytocyn drip.

Claire was always steadfastly against having an epidural. But after 3 hours on the drip she was in agony, despite the gas and pethidine, and facing hours more of the same. So she reluctantly went for the epidural. The effect was quite miraculous, she was sleeping through the contractions within 30 minutes. When the anesthetist said he was going to explain the risks involve she pulled the gas and air mouthpiece out of her mouth just long enough to say "talk fast".

After 13 hours on the drip Claire was 2cm short of the dilation required for normal delivery. But the baby was showing signs of distress and had its head awkwardly positioned backwards, so they went for an emergency c-section. I wasn't happy about this with only 2cm to go, but I had to trust their judgment. With 20/20 hindsight I am sure they made the right decision.

I gowned up and went into the theatre with Claire. There was a scary silence as they pulled the baby out. They didn't even tell us if it was a boy or a girl. When I got up to look I was told to stay where I was. The baby looked pretty blue. After 30 seconds to a minute there was a wail, which was a huge relief. A boy weighing in at a whopping 10lb 1oz. No wonder he wasn't coming out! We later found out that his 1 minute APGAR score was only 2/10. But he recovered quickly to 9/10 after 5 minutes and 10/10 after 10 minutes.

The labour ward staff at High Wycombe General Hospital were excellent. Its very sad that they are going to shut down this unit, especially after they spent a lot of money renovating it. It beggars belief that a town with a population of 118,000 won't have a maternity unit. Instead expectant mothers will face a long drive to Aylesbury.

See the photos