... of what happened:
At 40+5, Abi's head was still very high and not engaged. The cervix was starting to soften, efface and dilate, so I was given Prostaglandin (Prostin) tablet on the cervix to help it move along... it made the contractions very frequent - about once every 1-2 minutes such that I could not distinguish one contraction to the next and it felt like a long continuous contraction. They were rather ineffective but getting more and more painful, so I ended up having some pethidine for pain relief... which helped (thankfully).
20 hours after the Prostaglandin was given, the cervix was still only 3-4cm and not much progress had been made. So I had an artificial rupture of membranes and syntocin drip to move things along a little bit. And the cervix did dilate nicely from 3-4cm to 9cm over the next 8 hours. But then it got stuck there at 9cm, and the head was still not engaged. Apparently the head shape was caput and the presentation was LOT so the head was just not descending. And because the cervix was not fully dilated, the doctor was not prepared to pull the head down due to risk of head injury. We have it a good 4 hours in hope that the contractions will make the head rotate and descend or make the cervix fully dilate. But it did not happen, so we called it a day and went ahead with a Ceasarean section 33 hours after the Prostaglandin tablet was given.
2 things I learnt not to underestimate - labour and a Ceasarean section.
1. Labour is tiring even with painkillers. It's not just the pain that drains energy out of you.
2. A Ceasarean section wound looks small but it still takes time to recover from it especially when you are trying to breastfeed and adjust to a newborn baby at the same time.
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