Induction

After attending an appointment with ostetrics anaesthestist at week 38 of my pregnancy I was found to have high blood pressure (which I had had for months) and protein in my urine.  Both of these can be a sign for preeclampsia.  However, as I had no other symptoms the first step was to confirm if the protein was due to an infection.  As I said early in my blog this was not the case and my baby and I were at risk.

Two days later I had a check up but I did not see my consultant as he was not at the clinic.  The reg I saw simply told me that the results were not back yet.

A week later I attended my GP for a check up of my high blood pressure.  It was still higher than we would have liked despite taking a higher dose of blood pressure tablets.  Protein was once again present and although I mentioned to the GP that a culture had been sent the previous week he didn't call the hospital for results.  At this point I would have hoped more would have been done but it was only after I phoned the hospital for results that the GP made any enquiries and then finally sent me to the hospital.

More tests were carried out and the doctors came to the conclusion that the risk of a premature birth (one week) was outweighed by the risk of preeclampsia and I was admitted for induction.

If someone mentions induction my advice is to say 2 attempts only.  4 painful attempts,  41 hours of what seemed to be unproductive contractions and a lot of gas and air (which is not as fun as they make out) later and my waters broke.  Whilst I was being prepped for a caesarean.  Thankfully surgery went ahead.