Postpartum Hemorrhage
I am 1 week out from a VBA2C. Was so ecstatic to try for a vaginal birth this time. Of course all precautions were taken - I was delivering in a great hospital with all the interventions and specialists needed should a complication arise. Of course with any VBAC one risk is uterine rupture. So my mind was focused on that and didn’t even think about postpartum hemorrhage from other causes. The delivery itself went well albeit very quickly (water broke, had labored naturally but wasn’t having cervical change for 12 hours so started the tiniest dose of pitocin which took me from 3 cm to complete in 1.5 hours). I had gotten an epidural about 30 minutes before it was time to push. My son came out with his hand up by his face (compound presentation), which they are assuming is what caused the issues. They said they saw a lot of bright red blood right before I pushed him out, and after the placenta was out and they confirmed my uterus was clamping down normal , they went to look at my tears. I had a 2nd degree perineal tear, some superficial labial lacerations and when they were trying to stitch the 2nd degree tear, they kept seeing more and more blood coming from the vagina. Due to being unable to see well, they rolled me to the OR and eventually found 2 long sulcal tears (deep tears along the sides and top corners of the vaginal wall). These are apparently very difficult to manage because they are hard to see, and there is a ton of blood flow to that area. It took them needing the help of a urogynecologist, over 2 hours of time, lots of stitches, a clotting agent tons of surgical packing in the canal, and 2 units of blood plus fluids and blood pressure medicine to get me stable. I lost over 2.5 L of blood. I also got an iron infusion before discharge. It was very scary and I’m thankful that they were able to get everything under control. That being said, I feel so run down on top of being in pain from all the tearing. I’m trying to breastfeed but understandably my body just went through trauma so I can’t produce as much as I need right now. It’s all just a lot. I’m blessed to have my mom and husband helping so much. We have 3 other kiddos so that is an added amount of physical and mental exertion. Just wanted to share here to help me process everything and also let others who may have gone through something similar know they aren’t alone. One day at a time. We will make it.