Martha Grace first few hours

She was delivered at 7:53pm. She came out screaming and was a beautiful colour. But 10 minutes later and she'd been taken away to NICU.

I had to shower, get dressed, be sick (I always vomit after giving birth) and organise my things to go back to the ward. I'd requested that I had a bed in the antenatal unit as the thought of being the only woman in a
Maternity ward without her baby was far too upsetting.

After booking a Hotel for Mam and Mark for the night and  getting all our things together, we were taken across to NICU to see our baby. By this time it was 11:30pm.

She was in an incubator with ECG leads on her chest, a feeding tube down her nose and a peripheral line for the all important "Prostin! - the hormone/drug that would hopefully keep her alive until she had her Operation.

I wanted to reach in to the incubator to take her out and cuddle her, but the only way I could touch her was by putting my hands through the tiny doors at the side of the cot. I kept staring at her Monitor and watching her heart rate - which is silly because I didn't know what I was looking at (compared to what we know now) The machines were beeping and my baby was crying, I couldn't do anything about either of them. I couldn't cope. I asked Ivan if he would take me down to the ward as I was far too tired to handle not being able to hold my baby that night.

As we were leaving a Doctor came over and warned us not to be surprised if Martha would be on a ventilator when we came back in the morning, as babies on Prostin can forget to breathe for themselves.

My legs we're still weak from the epidural so had to be wheeled down to my bedspace, Mark and Ivan had to lift me from the wheelchair and on to my bed. Once I was in bed I was stuck in there all night or until my epidural wore off - no chance of sneaking a visit during the night to see my baby!

I drifted in and out of sleep all night - this was only the beginning!!!

GM

x

You can read Martha's Labour and Delivery story too.