Pregnancy after loss and now PTSD

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When you’re experiencing pregnancy after loss you expect to be stressed throughout the entire 9 months, so every scan becomes a milestone and you count down until the next scan or check happens. It has actually believe it or not become easier as time has gone on because the more positive scans and checks you have the better you start to feel too.

PTSD

What you don’t expect only 2 weeks before D Day, which for me is C day really, is to suddenly start getting horrendous nightmares that stop you sleeping.

I spoke to my GP about it and she said oh that’s post traumatic stress disorder because you’ve had two extremely stressful birth experiences previously. The closer you get to your c section date the worse these might get, not to mention the stress and grief from losing two previous children.

Great just when I thought I’d nearly done it and we were finally on the home stretch my subconscious seems to want to remind me of the previous nightmares.

WARNING anyone who is pregnant stop reading now as you don’t want to read this part, if you’re squeamish too or eating at the moment (don’t worry there are no photos)!

Previous birth experience

In my first birth experience I was induced to give birth to Violet at 37 weeks of pregnancy. They said it’d be less stressful for her, given we knew she had a heart condition and the crash team would be on standby to whisk her straight to the neonatal unit.  Unfortunately I wasn’t offered any positioning scan to check her head was definitely engaged. All the various midwives and consultants that examined me told me she was in a perfect position. We were induced on the 14th June 3 times in total and she was finally born the night of the 15th.

Undiagnosed breech

Both of us nearly died. It turned out she was undiagnosed breech and no one realised until her bottom appeared instead of her head. She was classic breach too so like a resting frog or a roast chicken with legs tucked either side because of that her legs wedged her into my pelvis so she was stuck for over 10 minutes. They eventually had to use brute force to yank her legs out then tear her out of me quite literally. The afterbirth shot out with her like a pressure cork across the room along with nearly 2 litres of my blood.

Violet wasn’t breathing when she came out. They had to resuscitate her before taking her to the neonatal unit and they had to take me into the operating theatre to repair the third degree tears caused.  Oh and did I say I was given no pain relief either, despite requesting some repeatedly for well over a day?  I now know the excruciating pain I had felt too for over a day was her toe nails and elbows scraping along my insides on her way out.

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Decided to insert a happy photo of me & Violet – it makes me smile!

Giving birth to my TFMR

My second birth experience wasn’t any better as this time I had to deliver Arthur sleeping at 22 weeks. We had had to make the difficult decision to terminate him due to severe medical reasons a few days earlier. Apparently I was told it would be much easier physically than birthing a larger full term baby. As he wasn’t alive I could have maximum pain relief.  I opted for diamorphine injections so got my first one when contractions began and could have another 4 hours later. So 4 hours later happened and, as they were preparing to give me more pain relief, I starting birthing him so they couldn’t continue with the injections. It was explained to me that it’d be easy to push him out as he was so small. Then all they’d do is give a little tug on the umbilical cord, once he was out, then the placenta would come away easily.

More complications

So my poor tiny sleeping baby came out and then they gave a little tug but the cord snapped. I started haemorrhaging, they hit all the alarms and the crash team rushed in. I still had no more pain relief but was told to take deep breaths while a consultant put his hand inside my womb. Yes my actual womb meaning my cervix had to open the width of a normal sized baby’s head! He manually scraped the placenta out. Then another consultant had to do the same to check they got it all. In the meantime I’d lost a litre and a half of blood. Over the next week I found myself in and out of hospital. I had infections of my womb. Extremely low iron and blood pressure. Not to mention dealing with the grief of having delivered my dead son, almost a year after we buried my daughter too.

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Here’s another happy photo – I actually hate my frizzy hair/no make up in this shot but her facial expression is perfection.

First step to conquering PTSD

Today I achieved the first step to get over my PTSD as we had a tour of the labour ward and operating theatres in the hospital.  It was the first time I had been back on that particular ward/area since having Violet. I broke down into tears, as I was taken right back to just over 3 years ago.  I was proud I did it. Hopefully now it will be easier for me to go back there again in a few weeks time.  Fingers crossed I will be much less stressed.

So there you have it the main reason behind my PTSD. Plus the reason why this time they are giving me a Caesarean section so just hoping this one goes smoothly because I bloody deserve it (excuse the pun & the language!).

NCT

The amusing thing is that after I had Violet the National Childbirth Trust contacted me to ask would I consider becoming a volunteer to talk to expectant mothers about my natural birth experience! I said I didn’t think that’d be a good idea, as they would have nightmares, not realising at the time that it would be me having them.

Childbirth and PTSD

Not many people talk about PTSD from childbirth experience so I wanted to share in the hope others come forward or feel less alone.  I know the vast majority of people have relatively straightforward birth experiences and I don’t want to scare anyone. No one really supports those that go through horrendous ones. I felt I should share my stories in the hope others feel they can share theirs.

I have now been offered help in dealing with my PTSD but the treatment isn’t advised when you’re pregnant so they will work with me on it in a few months.

Thanks for the love

Sarah

Always Violet Skies x

Pregnancy talk

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I’m now heavily pregnant so that means that strangers and anyone I meet can tell instantly that I am with child, which is fine I’m happy to talk about it. 

Is it your first?

The difficulty comes when they ask if it is my first pregnancy and I have a policy of always telling the truth so when I say it is my third.  I get comments like “wow you’ve got your hands full then”, “you must really know what you’re doing”, “you’re a glutton for punishment” and “are your other two excited about their little brother or sister”.

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A photo I took of a mother with her two children paddling in the sea in Morocco

Try to move conversation on

Often I let them make a comment and then I move the conversation on without having to tell them that neither of this baby’s siblings are alive.  Occasionally the person I’m talking to will bring the conversation back around again by asking what my existing two children are? Are they boys or girls?  Then I have to explain that they were one of each but unfortunately they are no longer with us. I’m sure they would have been excited to have a little brother or sister.

What happened to your first two?

They then usually ask me what happened to my first two children and I tell them honestly or they nervously say “I’m so sorry” to which I answer “it’s ok” when clearly it isn’t then the conversation moves on.

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Third time lucky?

People often tell me “oh hopefully this one will be third time lucky then” and I know this comes from a very good place filled with love. I know we were very unlucky to have had the situation with Arthur but I don’t feel we were unlucky to have had Violet.  I know we were extremely fortunate to have known such a special little person if only for 15 months.  We were very unlucky to have lost her but would happily repeat the time over again and again in the style of Groundhog day if we could – well maybe not the very last 6 hours or 10 days in hospital!

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Here’s Violet having a showdown of attitude with her bigger cousin Evelyn.  Sometimes I wonder what she’d have been like as a sister.

It makes being pregnant bittersweet and we are simply hoping this time to have a stress free birth experience too, as with Violet bless her we certainly had a lot of drama.

Love Sarah

Always Violet Skies x

Our second rainbow

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This was the best kept secret, until recently, as anyone can testify if they have bumped into me. At 34 weeks pregnant with my third pregnancy I’m now pretty big.

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Not very honest

Those of you who regularly read my blog you will know that I like to write in a very honest and frank way. I apologise if I haven’t been forthcoming about this massive development in my life. I hope that after reading this post you can understand why.

Third pregnancy

We were lucky enough to fall pregnant again with our second rainbow pretty soon after the loss of our baby Arthur. Unfortunately were told that there would be a 50/50 chance of the new baby having similar brain issues, as it’s older brother. We wouldn’t know if it had these issues until the 20 week scan.  So we would have to wait 5 months until we knew if our pregnancy would be viable or not.

The scans

In the meantime we were of course offered additional scans so we had one at 7 weeks, 12 weeks and another at 16 weeks where they checked baby’s heart.  At the 16-week check we discovered that unlike Violet’s heart the new baby’s heart was perfectly formed. We had received this news about Arthur’s heart at 16-weeks too.  So although it was good news we weren’t celebrating yet.

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Baby at 12 week scan

Arthur’s scan

I remember after our 16-week scan with Arthur we had been so happy that his heart was ok. We felt so lucky, relieved and excited we told friends and family we were pregnant.  Everyone of course was delighted for us, especially after the loss of Violet. Then after Arthur’s 20-week scan we got the devastating news about his severe brain condition and our entire world collapsed.

Kept this one quiet

For this very reason we refrained from telling our close friends about the new pregnancy until after our 20 week scan.  This scan turned out to be the very first 20 week scan we have ever had that hasn’t resulted in us being pulled into a separate room. To be spoken to by specialists and midwife counsellors.  The first 20-week scan we have had that hasn’t resulted in us having to have a second follow up scan with a more senior specialist a week later. 

So when the two specialists that performed our 20-week scan told us the baby was perfectly healthy we didn’t know what to say.  We were in total shock.  We were asked if we had any questions and all we could think of was “what do we do now?” We were told we could leave and come back for another scan with a specialist at 28 weeks.

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Baby at 20 weeks refusing to have a photo taken turning away!

A mistake?

Since then we have been waiting for a phone call or letter from the hospital to say that they are sorry but they have made a mistake.  We had the second specialist scan at 28 weeks and again we prepared ourselves for the knock out punch. That didn’t come, again we were given positive news.  To anyone reading this we must sound ungrateful. We were just so used to being given bad news whether it was devastating or minor bad news that we almost couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

More scans

We currently have a minimum of one baby or pregnancy related appointment each week. Either to monitor my heart (as I have an ASD see my post about a broken heart). To check baby’s growth (the amazing Tommy’s clinic gives us a scan every 3 weeks). Child loss counseling or midwife appointments.  I’m under so many different departments and teams that we have gone from having an horrendous level of obstetric care when we had Violet to now having lots of specialists who all know who we are and will give us priority level care.  The NHS now feels like it is working for us!

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With my sister at the baby shower she & my sister-in-law kindly organised for me

Trying to be hopeful

I’ve recently been to a few different Manchester events and I’ve bumped into so many people now that I think most know about our impending arrival.  People constantly ask me whether I’m excited about the new baby. The truthful answer is simply that I will be relieved when baby is here safe and well, when I can see with my own eyes.  Until then I can only try to be hopeful for the future.

Thanks for reading.

Sarah

Always Violet Skies x

Delivering good news

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Pregnancy news

Delivering the wonderful news that you are expecting a baby is usually a happy time and I’ve seen people make announcements in the most creative ways via social media. Including an older sibling announcing they are going to be a big brother or sister, a written sign in front of a pet dog, a cutesy family cartoon and even an eviction notice on the side of an older siblings cot. There are of course those that simply post the classic 12-week scan photo with their announcement.

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Arthur’s scan photo

Baby news can be a kick in the teeth

For those of us who have lost babies, or perhaps are struggling to conceive a much desired baby, seeing these posts can feel like a real kick in the teeth or like rubbing salt into our open wounds. Of course we are delighted by the announcement and pleased that someone else, a friend or family member, has good news to announce but it still stings.

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Violet in hospital

Personal rather than social media

We have some friends who kindly contacted us first to tell us personally about their news before they then announced it on social media and I felt this was an extremely kind gesture. If you have anyone in your circle of friends or in your family who have struggled to conceive or have had a baby die or have lost an older child, then please think about telling them your news in person before you announce it on social media to the whole world, as they can then prepare themselves for when they see it online. They will really appreciate the kindness of you telling them in advance of a more public announcement.

FOMO

For some people baby and pregnancy announcements can bring a whole new meaning to FOMO on social media!

Be caring and considerate to any friends who have suffered loss or struggled to conceive.

Love Sarah

Always Violet Skies x