"Having my birth taken from me..."

Pregnant with my 3rd child I was determined to have a natural birth as my previous 2 were caesarean births. I went to my consultant for support and although he didn't say I couldn't have a natural birth he wasnt very supportive and recommended a repeat caesarean.

At 37 weeks I started having contractions and because I am a gbs *(group B strep) carrier I went directly into Barnsley District General Hospital purely because my second child had been infected with gbs at birth. I was found to be 1cm dilated and told I was in slow labour and sent home the following day to wait it out.

One week later the contractions started again, even stronger, so again I returned to hospital and was found to be 2cm dilated! I was sent to the antenatal ward where the contractions died off and was visited the next day by a registrar who told me that if I was going to get scared with every contraction then perhaps I was better just to 'accept' a caesarean as this was probably going to be the outcome anyway and did I know the mortality rates of VBAC's? She obviously hadn't read my notes as the GBS is highlighted on every page and also there was a copy of my birth plan which stated that I am fully aware of the (very small) risks so there was no need to discuss it with me. I was told that I would be kept in hospital until my baby was born.

The next day I was being monitored and my baby's heartrate started to rise, another registrar came to see me and was talking about emergency caesarean which probably panicked me and made things worse. I was told that there wasn't much point in me trying for a natural birth as it just wasn't going to happen which knocked my confidence for 6. My baby's heartrate finally went to normal after 2 1/2 hours of monitoring and then I was given 3 days to have my baby or they were going to do a caesarean.

My baby's heartrate kept rising everytime I was monitored - probably because of the stress I had been put under (that was a quote from the midwife) and to be honest, if it wasnt for the GBS, I wouldn't have gone to Barnsley Hospital until I knew for definite that the baby was on the way.

When it got to the deadline for having my baby and the heartrate was still too high I was told that they had to deliver by caesarean or there would probably be a different outcome ie my baby would die. I was so scared by then that I would have agreed to anything when in reality had they given me a bit more support and not put me under so much stress, I would have probably had a natural birth to a healthy baby.

It't about time that Barnsley Hospital read the 'actual' VBAC statisticts and supported women who 'choose' how to birth their babies.