"induction + hospital closures"

Anything else?

I wanted to have a natural birth, use yoga positions to facilitate delivery and have late cord clamping. Constantly pressured to have labour induced: - I gave birth when I was 40. Because of my age and having had a streptococus b infection at the beginning of the pregnancy (treated successfully that early on), I had to have a meeting with a doctor three times during the pregnancy in which I was encouraged to set a date for an induction for the day I was due. They called it "offering an induction", but the insistence on it and a date did not feel like an offer. Two offers would have been more than enough. -When I broke waters just hours before my due date, I was relieved thinking this would not be suggested again. I called the new birth unit to have a natural delivery, explained everything and was told to go over for a check. On arriving I was told they had changed their minds and that I had to go to the Delivery Unit. There they confirmed I had broken waters and said the longer it took for the baby to arrive, the more likely it would be for the baby to catch an infection. When I asked what guarantees there were of having a faster birth with an induction I was basically told none, so I did not see a point in having one so early on. I stayed there on antibiotics, just in case, and every day I was "offered" an induction. Two days later (after walking round the hospital a lot to see if help making progress), despite of not being keen in a process that makes delivery more painful and in my opinion more traumatic for mum and baby (one is highly likely to have forced, a cut, and even a c section after days of ordeal), I agreed to an induction which went ahead immediately. I had started contractions naturally but there weren't many or strong. They gave me the artificial oxytocine equivalent and things speeded up. I tried for seven hours with yoga and a TENS machine but after all that I was told I was only 2 cms dilated. I asked then for an epidural and 5 hours later my little one was born. A few issues with the Delivery Unit: -I asked repeatedly for a better position when immobilized with the epidural, but none lowered the end of my bed (it was only lowered by the practitioner who did the episotomy) -In my notes I explained I did not want an episotomy, that I wanted late clumping and that I wanted skin to skin contact. I had the cut without even being warned, no late clumping happened and the baby was taken from me after a few seconds -birth balls are old and not inflated correctly (knees higher than hips...) -overall look of unit is run down, particularly comparing it with the flashy new MLDU. Why is not money shared more equally within the hospital? After delivering I spent 5 days in the Lady Mary Ward, due to the baby being in antibiotics in case of a possible infection. On day three, I was told that they were struggling admitting new patients and was asked to go home and leave my baby there for 2 days... Which I refused.