prolapse, but have a perfect pelvic floor

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Hi i am another newby to the site, an aussie mum. My son now is 4 years old, and after quickly reading some of the posts, thought i would put my situation out there and see what anyone else may think.
I lost a baby at 11 weeks gestation therefore needed a d and c, to take my very precious pregnancy away, yes it did devistate me at the time but i dealt with the grief and my loss and moved on, today as i said i have a healthy happy 4 year old, but his birth was tragic, my placenta was still attached underneath my sternum, unfortunately this was not noticed during any of my scans and there were several, due to the past history already described. Dakota my son, was only 5lb 12 oz born, tiny eh, but the delivery went from bad to worse when they discovered my cervix would not open, to allow him to be born, although i was fully dilated, (this still causes me much confusion). However, eventually my son went into distress and there was no time for an emergency c section, so i ended up being cut in 6 places, three either side of my normal bits. sorry about the graphic detail, but this along with suction cap was the only way my darling was going to get into this world, he was not breathing when born but eventually after what seemed an eternity, the doctors told me he was breathing and ok, from there i felt overwhelmed and relieved, finally, i was a mum, however, i did have massive blood loss and lost over half my normal bloody supply, my lights basically went out and i passed out, when i came round i could see my son in my mums arms and the sheer will to live kicked in with a passion. I very near lost my life but am thankful for the work the staff did on me, to this day i do wish they had given me a transfusion to replace my blood lost, they chose not to, i was not asked and did not know i could anyway onto the later stages, i discovered i too had a prolapse, at 6 week examination, i could hear noises coming from down there and knew something was a miss, but after the events of the birth thought that may be why, so, prolapse, how come i asked my doc, as i did all my pelvic floor exercises etc and was totally shocked however my pelvic floor was perfect, confused.... i got all depressed and was not going down the surgery road either, but want to let all of you who are worried that it can improve, it does take time and patience and in my experience no matter how many pelvic floor exercises etc you do, they dont seem to be the only thing that matters. For the first three years of my sons life i was continually sick with all sorts of inflictions due to my immune system being at rock bottom from the blood loss, even though i ate well and took iron supplements for 6 months, i breast fed him and he thrived thankfully, and he was an extremely great happy new born, no trouble at all and made mothering even in the face of all my illnesses which ranged from glandula fever, to ross river virus, a bout of 38 boils, and numerous other horrible colds and flu's and tonisilits nearly ever other month, i am finally feeling like a healthy mum, i got to a place after the first year of all of this and thought hey what the hell i have a happy healthy baby no matter how bad it gets i only have to look at him and the positives far out weighed the negatives, but the day i coughed in public and wet myself certainly threw me into a spin, this got progressively worse, exercise was out of the question and when my little man turned two i could not pick him up without leaking, not happy, no confidence, lack of self esteem, and feared going out with a passion, but i slowly and surely got through all the illnesses and the leaking and somehow or other today, dont leak as much and hardly at all now when i sneeze, mind you as i said he is now 4, and yes i can pick him up for hugs and piggy backs and wrestle around the floor without the wetness. So for all you wonderful mum's that are feeling a bit low please find some hope in that time is definately on your side, find your own inner patience and look into the eyes of your children and if lucky enough to have one your loving other and know that there strength is with you even if they dont understand what you are going through, Thanks for this site to by the way shame i had not found it heaps earlier... if anyone has any input or ideas on the issue of my cervix not opening please feel free to list them as i am yet to get any answers from the medical world, very rare, apparently and that being the case no body here really wanted to deal with it or face me with any explanation but it plagues me to this day and will probably do so for some time to come.

Thanks so much for sharing your story, gagetgirl. I have no idea why the terms fully dilated and open didn't mean the same thing in your case. I do know that for a while ob's were trying to even further manage labor by actually cutting the uterus as you describe. The morbid practice was abandoned shortly after it began.

Your story is a wonderful example of the strength of natural female design.

Christine

Thank you too Gadgetgirl,
your love for your child glows through cyberspace and certainly reminds me to always be grateful for everything that I have! Sending you lots of hugs.
Michelle xxx
P.S I don't see how it could be that you were "fully dilated" but your cervix wasn't open either?

Hi Gadgetgirl

Oh my goodness, what an horrific childbirth experience, and how amazingly far you have come. I can see how much you will have ahead of you, as you unravel the circumstances of your labour and Dakota's birth, as I hope you will.

No woman or family should have to suffer what you have suffered, today, in Australia. And yet you seem to have risen above it and recovered yourself to a point that you can encourage others to perservere when faced with great difficulty. You're a spunky young lady, and what a lucky boy Dakota is to have you as his Mum. You will be able to teach him so much from the heart about toughness and perserverence.

The story about your being fully dilated, yet your cervix not being able to open sounds like a fragment of the story. I imagine that you just wanted to get on and get feeding established and look after Dakota in hospital, and sort out all the stuff about your body later, and understandably so.

There will be a reason why you were told what you were told, and no doubt the hospital concerned will be hoping like hell that you won't come back and ask questions. I hope that, in time, you will, for your own sake and the sake of other mothers. The process of finding out will probably be very unpleasant for all concerned and may take some time, and my thoughts are with you as you consider the prospect of taking on the health system to get some answers.

Though I hesitate to mention it, make sure you get good legal advice before you even begin to ask questions of the doctors and hospitals, as it will be important to do things in the right order, and approach the right people, so you don't get messed around by a process that will possibly attempt to put you off finding out what you need to find out. Don't be put off. It may be that nobody was negligent, and that your labour was handled in the best way possible, but maybe not. Even if it was the former, I believe that you have the right to know the whole story. Apart from anything, there may be legitimate medical reasons later in life for your knowing exactly what happened, especially if you have another baby at some point.

Cheers

Louise

Hi Gadgetgirl, You have found in your child an inner strength that you thought you never had, well done. I had a baby 6weeks ago and only found this site three weeks ago after discovering I had prolapse after a shower one night. NOT HAPPY JAN I can assure you. But also when I went to see my family GP, after a ER exam and a flimsy gyno appointment, My doctor told me that my pelvic floor was not stretched and looked good. Unfortunately to date I still have a lovley bulge in my vagina that doesn't want to go but am seeing another gyno tomorrow. Anyway after what you have been through my ordeal is just a walk in the park.Your positive outlook is great even though the road to get where you are has been hard best of luck.