Like pp, I had a c-section, even though I did many of the "right" things (educated myself about natural childbirth, planned a home, water birth, etc.). I was nearly 42 weeks and was set to be induced on Wednesday, so I had an appointment with the on-duty OB on Tuesday morning. Monday night, labour started naturally, but my contractions never got to the 1-1-5 threshold so I didn't call the midwives until Tuesday morning, and even then it was just to see if I should still go to the appointment since labour had started. My midwife said to go to the appointment anyway so DP and I drove down to the hospital (only 5 minutes away). The OB noticed my contraction and said she'd like to check me before we discussed anything else. So she did, and announced that I was 7 cm dilated, and said she could arrange for me to go straight to the birthing floor, but since I was planning a home birth, I told her we'd just go home. She said she'd call the midwives. They showed up probably around 11 am, just as I was planning on trying to get some more sleep. This is where I think things went off track, although I'll never really know. The midwife had me start going up and down the stairs to keep labour progressing (although I hadn't thought there was much trouble with this to begin with). Long story short: at 8cm she ruptured the membranes, and an hour or so after that (stuck at 9 and obviously tired) she suggested that we transfer to the hospital. Got an epi so I could rest, and was fully dilated before the epi set in. Beb's HR would drop when ever I pushed though, so eventually they started getting worried and presented me with options. I decided to skip the forceps, because likely the c/s would have happened anyway. DS was born at 9:10 pm. I wasn't in my room until 11 pm.
Factors that I feel contributed to my experience, and that I would change if I could:
* time that labour started - our alarm clock goes off at 5:30 am and labour started that evening, so by the time I was 8 cm, I'd been awake for nearly 30 hours. I should have tried to sleep at 6 pm when I felt labour starting.
* feeling like a hostess when the midwives arrived (next time I won't worry about them, there are others to do that)
* Having the midwives arrive and feeling like 'okay it's business time', again, I should have remembered it was all about me and the beb.
* I'm pretty sure DS was posterior (so more spinning babes next time).
Despite everything, I was happy about the time I had at home to labour, my recovery from the c/s was fast, and I didn't have any problems breastfeeding, so although the experience wasn't what I hoped, I feel well prepared for next time, and I know what I'll try to do differently: sleep more and wait longer before calling the mw.