The one with the retained placenta
Hettie Alice Pritchard
IVF Pregnancy @ivf.ourstory
Known Baby Girl
Due date: 8th December 2021
Actual delivery date: 3rd December 2021
Stretch & Sweep to induce labour
Natural Vaginal Delivery
7lb 1oz
Birth on delivery suite, Bolton
Pain relief: Gas & Air, Breathing
20 minutes pushing
2h 53m in active labour
I’ll start with a brief note on how we conceived Hettie, however if you are interested in out IVF story, please feel free to follow my instagram page mentioned above for our full journey :)
We started trying for a baby in 2019. We fell pregnant in 2020 but sadly miscarried at around 5-6 weeks. We then tried for a further year with no success. We had no diagnosis, just unexplained infertility, but their was mention that I was possibly not ovulating every month.
We under went our first round of IVF in April 2021 with Care Fertility, Bolton and Manchester. We had 4 eggs collected, all of which fertilised, one who led us to our baby girl.
I was due on 8th December, but was told with her being an IVF pregnancy that I would not be allowed to go over my due date (there are all sorts of reasons and stats for this). on 2nd December I was booked in for a stretch and sweep at 15:30. I was told I was 1-2cm and that babies head was low. I got home and didn’t think the sweep would lead to anything but just an hour later I started cramping. Id been having Braxton hicks for weeks but they already felt different and stronger. Rhys got home from work at around 19:00 and they had gotten stronger already. I decided to start timing my cramps on the Freya app, at this point I was unsure if they were contractions. They were anything from 2-20 mins apart until around 21:30 where they changed to around every 5 mins and strong. I honestly thought at this point that this was as bad as they were going to get….(little did I know :’) ).
I decided to have a bath around 22:00 but my contractions stopped, so me and Rhys got into separate beds in the hope to get a bit of sleep before a possible long night. As soon as my head hit the pillow I had an almighty contraction. I shouted Rhys and was hung over the bed. After a couple more, we decided to call. The midwife told us to hold on and see how I was in an hour but after half an hour I was in a lot more pain and really wanted to go.
We arrived at hospital, contracting every 2-3 mins. The midwife said she would examine me but said I’d probably be sent home. I was only 2cm but bled quite a lot on examination so they kept me in for monitoring. I was in a lot of pain but trying to breath through the contractions. Im not sure what time, but they decided to burst my waters to try and speed up labour, I soon progressed to 8cm. I also started on G&A around 2:00.
I pushed for 20 mins and Hettie entered the world at 4:36 with a pretty quick and straightforward labour & birth. She lay on my chest, wide awake but so chilled. What a moment <3
My issues started post-birth….
There is no way I can detail every single thing that happened to me postpartum, I would have to write a novel! But I’ll do my best to piece it together in a few paragraphs.
The midwife started to stitch up my 2nd degree tears almost straight after giving birth, however she spotted something that she wanted the Dr to take a look at. I had developed a 5cm heamatoma on my vaginal wall. Due to this, I was taken to surgery straight away and given a spinal block for the procedure to drain the haematoma and stitch all of my internal and external tears. I was in surgery for a total of 3 hours. Daddy was left with Hettie to dress and feed her, all of which I missed out on :(
As I was being wheeled out of surgery, the midwife was waiting at the end of the corridor with my baby girl, they placed her straight in my arms and its a moment I’ll never forget! I was so happy to be reunited with her after 3 hours!!
I was taken to the high care ward until my spinal had worn off. I also had some packing and my catheter to have removed. I was then transferred up to M4 where I spent the next two nights. I was on an antibiotic IV drip, and also had an iron infusion.
1 week later I had to go back in for a 2nd dose of the iron infusion.
I struggled with emotions and hormones for a couple of weeks but knowing what I know now, this is the most normal feeling!!!!! I was very naive to the baby blues/ emotions etc.
Over the next month my recovery was really slow. My stitches opened and infected which was really unfortunate, and thought that was the reason for the pain I was in. I struggled to shower or stand up for more than a few minutes without going faint. And I had a terrible throbbing feeling down below. This pain just continued until 3rd Jan (a month to the date after giving birth). Around 21:00 I went to the toilet and blood just started pouring out of me. It was constant. My mother in law came over and instantly rang an ambulance who explained it would be 2-3 hours. So Rhys decided to drive me to A&E. I was wearing the biggest human nappies (if you know, you know), and bleeding though them in 5 mins. We got to A&E and told to sit and wait. I was losing A LOT of blood, bleeding though pad after pad and a towel I had taken to sit on. I eventually ran out of pads and started to feel faint. Rhys went up to the desk 3 times to explain his concern and they just kept telling us to wait our turn, and also that Rhys had to leave due to covid. At one point he even said to them “what if she bleeds to death”.
I ended up sat on the disabled toilet in A&E because I had run out of pads. It was still pouring and also clotting so rapidly. Rhys managed to flag down a nurse who came to see me and straight away rushed me though. I ended up collapsing. My body completely seized up and I was uncontrollably shaking. At this point I was rushed through to resus. They gave me lots of fluids and 2 blood transfussions as I just kept passing out. I lost over 2L of blood in total.
They did two internal examinations, which trust me after giving birth just 4 weeks before, with unhealed tears….it was no walk in the park. In fact I required G&A. With the amount of blood in my uterus, the exam or ultrasound was too unclear so they decided to take me to emergency theatre where I was given a general anaesthetic. They found a significant amount of retain placenta in my uterus which they removed. There I was back in high care and back onto the maternity ward (for the 3rd time). I came home and started my recovery again. My tear had been re-torn, however the throbbing feeling had completely gone and I felt a lot more well in myself.
Exactly another month later I passed another small amount of placenta. I couldn’t believe it!!! So back I went to be scanned, where they could see yet another small 1cm piece of placenta. I was told after 4 hours of waiting that this would just be treated with antibiotics.
Although that’s a lot of reading, I have missed out sooooo many details. I have been left mentally and physically scarred from childbirth, and although I have only touched on my negative story, I have been blessed!!!
We have the most beautiful baby girl I have ever laid my eyes on! And I grew her and birthed her all by myself!!!!! I will forever be in awe of how brave and strong I have been over the last couple of years!!!
And now we live happily ever after. Rhys, Lyd, Hettie, and Percy cat xxx
