i was brilliant. birth was only 5 hours, all me. It was post birth here things went awry.
the cord came away from the placenta after the baby was born in the water, but before the placenta. turns out the cord was velamentous.

this led to an emergency transfer to a different hospital with a NICU. I do not believe this was needed, but the staff panicked at the cord. My placenta was removed manually, and I received syntocinin in my thigh. My husband had to demand that I was transferred, otherwise they would have kept me at the original hospital and removed my baby to the nicu half an hour away. We had to make our own way to the other hospital. I was never checked again after the manual removal of the placenta.

In the NICU, we heard "why is this baby here? oh well we better do something". Baby was placed on a glucose drip - just in case. they stated possible blood loss through the cord. The baby was very alert and obviously fine.

I was to breastfeed overnight and we were to be released the next morning. Over night, the nurse increased the glucose drip, causing the breastfeeding to not happen, and meaning another day in nicu and a night on the ward before release. Our breastfeeding was 6 horrendous weeks before we got the hang of it (bleeding nipples, pain, distress) but I was well supported in that journey.