Pregnancy Stories

Pregnancy stories wanted! Do you have a story about your own pregnancy or childbirth experience that you'd like to share? Or maybe you have a video clip or some images? Was it a straightforward experience or did things turn out differently from how you'd expected?

They Took My Newborn Baby Away!
My first baby was due two weeks before Christmas but by the 20th December, still there was no action. At my checkup the doctor said that he wanted to induce labour but I was reluctant, as everything seemed to be going fine and I figured the baby just had its own ideas about when to arrive! He said he'd give me another couple of days.

I tried everything to hurry things along, chopping wood, hot baths, going for long walks...and nothing worked. But then, at 5am on the 20th December, my waters broke. I called the hospital and they said to come in right away.

By late afternoon we were still waiting for something to happen. So I was put on a drip to induce labour...and still, by next morning, things were still pretty slow. I'd have a contraction, then nothing, then a few more...so they increased the dose. The day wore on and the contractions got to be more regular, but by 6pm I was exhausted. This wasn't how I'd planned things! I was finally given pethidine to ease the pain and from that moment it all felt weird and remote...like a strange dream. I've always been sensitive to medication so it really hit me - I was almost hallucinating!

Eventually, at 9.30pm, after a lot of pushing, which felt great after so long in limbo, our daughter was born. She was handed to me right away, which was amazing!

But then a doctor said he wanted to take her to the nursery for a chek up. We asked what was wrong but they wouldn't tell us. I had a few stitches for a small tear and then was whisked up to the ward, where five other mothers were with their babies beside them. I kept asking, 'Where's my baby?' but no-one could tell me.'Just have a good sleep, dear, and she'll be here in the morning,' said the nurse. But I was horrified, convinced there was something dreadful wrong that they weren'y telling me.

By 11pm I still hadn't had a sensible answer out of anyone. So I got out of bed, put my dressing gown on and headed out of the ward towards the elevator. A nurse came running after me, shouting, 'Hey, you can't leave the ward! Get back into bed!'

I ignored her and pressed the lift button. In moments the ward sister arrived, very cross and forceful. Ususally I'm not a person who rebels a lot but this time I was furious: it must have been the 'mother tiger' syndrome! I just kept insisting, 'Unless you take me to my baby now, I'm going to search this whole hospital until I find her!'

A few minutes later a whellchair arrived and they took me down to the nursery, where my daughter was sleeping in her crib. They said she was fine, she'd just had a few red spots on her tummy that they'd wanted to check out, and that she'd had a bottle. Since I'd made it plain I wanted to breastfeed, I was none too pleased about this, but soon she woke and I was shown how to feed her. It was a struggle at first, as she wasn't very hungry,and I still think the first weeks would have been a lot easier if she'd been able to stay with me from birth. From that moment on, she stayed by my side!

Because of this experience, I had my second baby at home - but that's another story!

Laura

Videos of Childbirth

Some Pregnancy Stories are presented on video. To start off, take a look at this delightful story posted on YouTube by kjroz...

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