Bristol University is doing a project about the floods in Gloucestershire in 2007. They are collecting accounts of people's experiences in order to build a record of how the floods affected people living in the area.
Here is my contribution to the project:
My Flood Story
My story is unusual. It shows how something positive can sometimes come out of adversity in the strangest of ways.
On July 20th 2007 I was nine months pregnant. I was actually more than nine months pregnant because my baby had been due on July 10th. I had an appointment at the hospital to prepare me for a possible caesarean section. My first child had been born by emergency caesarean four years earlier and I desperately wanted a normal birth this time around, but every day that passed that I didn’t go into labour made that less likely. The plan was that if nothing had happened by Monday 23rd July, the doctor would attempt to break my waters in the hope that it would start my labour. If that failed then I would be whisked away for a caesarean section.
We live in Tredworth, about 20 minutes’ walk from Gloucester Royal Hospital. I went to the appointment with my husband on foot despite the rain - walking is supposed to help to get labour started. We saw the doctor and the midwife. I was examined, weighed and instructed not to eat anything after midnight on Sunday evening. When it was time to go home it was raining so hard that we both agreed it would be unwise to attempt even a twenty minute journey on foot. Our umbrella would have been futile against such a deluge. We called a taxi and when we told the driver our address he said he was glad we didn’t live in Tredworth Road as it was impassable.
I spent the weekend waiting and hoping I would go into labour naturally. The rain continued. On Sunday I heard that the water supply was under threat so I filled the bath, all my saucepans and any other large container I could lay my hands on. Sure enough on Monday morning there was no water in the taps. I switched on the local radio station and heard that, due to the lack of water, no routine operations were being carried out at Gloucester Royal. Worried about what that would mean for my induction, I called the hospital. In the middle of the call the electricity went off and the line went dead. I called again using my mobile and was told to arrive at 8.30 am as arranged.
My mum arrived from Stroud to look after my son and I set off for the hospital with my husband. With no water and no electricity at home, hospital seemed like the best place to be. When we arrived, I spoke to a doctor who explained to me that she was going to try to break my waters. I was told later that my cervix was still firmly shut, making this a very difficult thing to do. Under normal circumstances, the doctor, having examined me would not have even attempted to break my waters and would have sent me straight for a caesarean section. But these were not normal circumstances and the hospital staff were under instructions not to carry out routine operations including planned caesareans. This meant that if the doctor was unable to break my waters she would have to send me home, which she was unwilling to do. So she persevered and in the end she succeeded.
Still I didn’t go into labour so they put me on a drip to help things along and eventually I started to feel the contractions beginning. It was a long hard labour and even harder as I had to do it all on an empty stomach. They would not give me anything to eat just in case I needed an emergency caesarean as I had done with my son four years before. Eventually after several hours of contractions and two hours of fruitless pushing I had no energy left. I was completely exhausted. A doctor arrived with forceps and my son was finally born at 7.36pm. It was the hardest thing I had ever done but I was so pleased that I had done it without needing a caesarean. My recovery was a lot quicker than it had been with my first son, and after two nights I was able to go home. It was hard living without water just after giving birth and with a newborn baby to look after, but if it had not been for the floods, I would not have had the normal birth that I had so wished for.
My story is unusual. It shows how something positive can sometimes come out of adversity in the strangest of ways.
On July 20th 2007 I was nine months pregnant. I was actually more than nine months pregnant because my baby had been due on July 10th. I had an appointment at the hospital to prepare me for a possible caesarean section. My first child had been born by emergency caesarean four years earlier and I desperately wanted a normal birth this time around, but every day that passed that I didn’t go into labour made that less likely. The plan was that if nothing had happened by Monday 23rd July, the doctor would attempt to break my waters in the hope that it would start my labour. If that failed then I would be whisked away for a caesarean section.
We live in Tredworth, about 20 minutes’ walk from Gloucester Royal Hospital. I went to the appointment with my husband on foot despite the rain - walking is supposed to help to get labour started. We saw the doctor and the midwife. I was examined, weighed and instructed not to eat anything after midnight on Sunday evening. When it was time to go home it was raining so hard that we both agreed it would be unwise to attempt even a twenty minute journey on foot. Our umbrella would have been futile against such a deluge. We called a taxi and when we told the driver our address he said he was glad we didn’t live in Tredworth Road as it was impassable.
I spent the weekend waiting and hoping I would go into labour naturally. The rain continued. On Sunday I heard that the water supply was under threat so I filled the bath, all my saucepans and any other large container I could lay my hands on. Sure enough on Monday morning there was no water in the taps. I switched on the local radio station and heard that, due to the lack of water, no routine operations were being carried out at Gloucester Royal. Worried about what that would mean for my induction, I called the hospital. In the middle of the call the electricity went off and the line went dead. I called again using my mobile and was told to arrive at 8.30 am as arranged.
My mum arrived from Stroud to look after my son and I set off for the hospital with my husband. With no water and no electricity at home, hospital seemed like the best place to be. When we arrived, I spoke to a doctor who explained to me that she was going to try to break my waters. I was told later that my cervix was still firmly shut, making this a very difficult thing to do. Under normal circumstances, the doctor, having examined me would not have even attempted to break my waters and would have sent me straight for a caesarean section. But these were not normal circumstances and the hospital staff were under instructions not to carry out routine operations including planned caesareans. This meant that if the doctor was unable to break my waters she would have to send me home, which she was unwilling to do. So she persevered and in the end she succeeded.
Still I didn’t go into labour so they put me on a drip to help things along and eventually I started to feel the contractions beginning. It was a long hard labour and even harder as I had to do it all on an empty stomach. They would not give me anything to eat just in case I needed an emergency caesarean as I had done with my son four years before. Eventually after several hours of contractions and two hours of fruitless pushing I had no energy left. I was completely exhausted. A doctor arrived with forceps and my son was finally born at 7.36pm. It was the hardest thing I had ever done but I was so pleased that I had done it without needing a caesarean. My recovery was a lot quicker than it had been with my first son, and after two nights I was able to go home. It was hard living without water just after giving birth and with a newborn baby to look after, but if it had not been for the floods, I would not have had the normal birth that I had so wished for.
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