"I wish I had been listened to"

I went in to EOU when in labor. I drove an hour from Coleraine and when I got there I was told I wasn’t far enough along and should leave to go walk around a bit. I was out into a trace monitor to watch my baby’s heart rate which was slightly elevated. I told the midwife this was my third baby and I thought it would go quickly. While they were watching the heart rate, they started trying to take blood all while I was laboring through contractions every few minutes. They could not get my blood so after a few attempts brought in a doctor who continued to try and told me that multiple veins had been blown and would bruise very badly.

I was not fully aware of what else was going on since I was focused on getting through contractions, but over the two hours they made 6 failed attempts and it resulted in very painful bruising and sweeping in my arms. The blood tests (which were never explained to us) would not have even been run or conclusive by the time I gave birth a short time later

One midwife noticed my progression and gave me gas and air and recognized that I was probably closer to having my baby than they initially thought. They were the driving force that then got me moved into a birth suite. while experiencing very strong contractions, I was wheeled on a bed through the hospital to the birth suite which was embarrassing. I arrived in the birth suite and had my baby 15-20 minutes later.

My experience of EOU is that they fixated on something that was not for my benefit- drawing blood. And kept me laboring in a small bay with so much chaos around me for far too long. If the birth suite was available I don’t understand why I could not have been moved there sooner and listened to when I said this was my third baby and I thought it would be a quick labor.

I was very frustrated after the fact that I had to deal with very sore bruising and swelling in my arms while trying to hold and care for a newborn, all for bloodwork that was unnecessary.

Midwives are super heroes and I am grateful to have been cared for and that one midwife noticed what was happening. But I also wish I had been listened to and my intuition trusted when I arrived in EOU.