How did you feel after the birth?

[Katy_89]

I did a plan last time and they stuck to it to the letter. If you want to see the type of thing on it let me know and I'll post it

Yes please Lisa

My LO is breech at the moment still, I really hope he turns because a planned section is not the type of birth I want. I think I'm going to write 2 birth plans, one for if he turns and I have a natural labour (what I want) and one for if I have to have a section. xx

 

[Rosie's Mummy]

Im definitely going to write a birth plan this time; I think its the only way to reaffirm what you really want to happen

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

i'm so glad i didnt write a birth plan this time, i spent hours on it when i was havin katie! this time i got as far as my name, OHs name and phonee number and gave up! and i wrote it in my sister's law notebook without realising

tezzy you're lucky colin made it, i rang OH, he didnt answer cos he was driving, by the time he rang back my mum answerd the phone and shouted that the baby was here! he then had to drive thru rush hour traffic!!

 

[mrsH2009]

I never wrote a plan cos I'm a control freak my hubbie says I'm like monica from friends and if things weren't going to plan it would have been counter productive for me!

I started having contractions 5 mins apart and after 12 hours went to ward and was told was only 1 cm dilated and sent home. 8 hours later I was having contractions 3 mins apart and went back to hospital to be told I was 2 cms dilated! I totally lost it and my bp was high I was kept in and given pethidine, pain went awoke 4 hours later in agony and needing to push was 10 cms and jack arrived 30mins later on gas and air!

I didn't have a clue what to expect and was totally unprepared

i didn't have offical baby blues but developed an inability to do anything for about the first 8 weeks! I just could not comprehend anything i'd gone from been a manager to beenanaged by something that weighted less than a stone and found this very hard to cope with

in my opion fore armed is fore warned

 

[leatherjackets99]

I had a vaginal delivery. 9 and a half hours of labor.
When it was over, I felt so much RELIEF that my baby was out and perfect .. and then about 5 minutes after delivery my body started shaking uncontrollably. It was very scary for me (and my husband!) but come to find out that is perfectly NORMAL and almost always happens. I wish they had made that more clear when it was happening because it's very scary to be shaking uncontrollaby and not know why. So please if you start shaking .. don't freak out!
As for after the shaking ended, they have you go pee (and you will be bleeding A LOT) and your legs will be very weak (if you get the epidural) so you will have to have assistance to get to the toilet. After that first pee .. you will most likely be transferred to the room you will be staying in for the remainder of your stay. At that point, you should feel fine to see people. I did. I felt great and was ready to show off my baby! (I barely slept the whole time I was in the hospital .. I wanted to just sit and adore my baby ... I never let the nurses take him out of the room except when they needed to check his daily vitals.)
My sister in law, however, had a c-section and she was emotional and started crying because so many people were coming to see the baby. She just wanted to be alone with her husband and baby. And she insisted that the nurses take the baby into the nursery for a few hours so she could get some sleep.
I guess it all depends on the person

 

[CatBana]

If your labour is impending you might not want to read this - just a warning.

This thread is a great therapeutic idea, my daughter is four years old this month and I'm still not over the trauma of her birth! (I'm going to get therapy when me and DH can afford it -not just for labour but my other 'issues' too!!)

My labour lasted about 39 hours,I started having contractions on the Monday morning and my daughter was born at nine oclock on Tuesday, the following night. I knew I wanted a natural drug free birth all along because I'd read that all pain relief can have adverse effects on the baby, and also I felt like it was an experience I wanted to know about and say I'd done. However I also knew that if it came to it and I needed a csection for her safety then I wouldn't be devastated.
I just had gas and air and I would definitely do this again, the pain is nothing your body can't handle and for me it disappeared when I started to push. This was no doubt the worst part of labour though, the discomfort and the exhaustion are the two things I'm dreading having to go through again. But next time I'll try and get more sleep! I had no sleep on the monday night due to the pain and the excitement.

I went to hospital after calling to let them know I was on the way at 6am on tuesday morning when contractions were suitably close together. The thing that I look back on with most anger and hurt is the treatment of the midwives - one in particular. When we arrived she opened the door, blocked it with her body and said 'yes?' I was like ehh hello, I'm in labour? Then she disappeared, returned and made it seem like the biggest inconvenience that she was letting us in. i got examined and turned out I was 6cm dilated already, I was like in your face beatch! I was rushed to delivery suite but unfortnuately the process was a bit slow and I was moved around a bit before finally being put on a drip to speed the labour. I also had my waters broke for me - I didn't want either of these things in my birth plan but would welcome them next time, ANYTHING to speed the process up!!

I think I was pushing for two hours and the exhaustion is nothing like I've ever felt before. I was falling asleep in between contractions. They eventually decided to give me an episiotomy - again something I'm now a fan of because she came out pretty quickly after that. I got sewn up which took ages and was able to give my daughter her first feed.

Unfortunately this is when the real trauma started. I couldn't breathe and it turned out I was haemorraging, so was rushed to theatre. I can remember all the midwives crowded round pressing my stomach to try and get the blood out. Just before being put to sleep I had to sign something and the nurse said there was a possibility I might have to have a hysterectomy. Well I thought it was the end for me. I prayed for my daughter who I thought I'd never get to see growing up and all I could think was that I hadn't told the people who were important to me that I loved them enough.
I came round and the relief of being alive was overwhelming, it turns out I had a tear in the vagina and thats why I was bleeding. They put a pack in (basically about a MILE of dressing) to staunch the bleeding and gave me two blood transfusions.
After the general anasthetic I had double vision for about a day and my hands and face swelled up from whatever antibiotic drip I was on. As I was breast feeding I couldn't have any morphine but tbh the pain now wasn't bad. It was the exhaustion that sucked. i was eventually moved to the ward with the rest of the new mums. I couldn't even hold the cartons of milk they had, they felt like a bowling ball. And I was expected to get up and change my daughter in the middle of the night. The midwife who was nasty when I arrived laughed at me when I explained I'd had to have anasthetic and said 'oh that has worn off it was 12 hours ago' as if I was making it up.
Started to feel a bit more normal and was getting on well with feeding my baby but think the nurses could have been a bit more informative in this respect. Even a poster on the wall with general guidelines would have helped because I know they're understaffed and busy. I fed her at 7.30 am and then nursed her as she was sleeping and I'd had hardly any time with her till 12, a nurse came round and asked me when she'd last fed and when I told her she looked horrified and said 'oh that wee baby needs fed what are you doing holding her??' making me feel like a failure as a mum. How was I supposed to know they needed woken up to be fed?

After 5 days in hospital I was able to go home. Then unfortunately when my daughter was 6 weeks old I was rushed to hospital with abdominal pain and it turned out some placenta had been left in and my womb was infected. I needed a D&C and a week more in hospital.

After all that however, I would still say that my birth experience was a POSITIVE one because my baby was absolutely fine, I got the drug free birth I wanted and I got to breast feed like I wanted!!!! I'm also willing to have another one!
It was scary but the attitudes of the midwives is seriously the worst memory - although I must say 99% of them were complete angels who really helped and the doctors were nice too.

I don't talk about this with anyone so thank you for letting me get it off my chest, it has helped.
x

 

[Toonlass]

Wow sounds like you had a terrible time, i think your a stong woman to find the positives in things xx

 

[berit87]

Looking back I can't remember it being so bad but my god, I absolutely hated it! I was in labour for 14 hours. Waters broke around 1am and I was in pain about an hour or 2 after that until Brandon was finally born at quarter past 6 in the evening. I had epi and it didn't seem to have worked at all. I was in soooooo much pain I do remember asking one of the nurses to shoot me And then asking my mum to do it
I was hungry and thirsty and tired and... Gosh. I did think "NEVER AGAIN!!!" It wasn't a nice experience but once he was out... My god! The pain disappeared in a second and there was just him! Now that was amazing!
Here I am, pregnant again Only trouble is that last time I was scared of giving birth and I didn't even know what to expect, now I know and I am even more scared But can't have been that bad if I am willing to do it again x

 

[Chica]

Well with my son, it was Saturday Night and he had been measuring ahead all the way along my pregnancy,i was convinced he would arrive early well that was wrong lol. so that Sunday i would have been my exact due date.

I had been trying the rasberry tea, i eat spicy food all the time, i was walking alot shopping in my maternity leave and then that Saturday night, i decided to again try again at some s@x to try and get things moving. So This time i did it at a more deeper angle ...far too much info i know ...lol! That night i had my bloody show and i started to get the twitches i hadnt had before.

The next morning " football day for OH" 8am i went to the toilet and my waters broke, so i thought ok i m going to make myself some breakfast and get fresh before the day starts cos i had read that sometimes your waters break and then it can be a while.
Well that thought disappeared as half an hour later contractions came every two minutes... midwife came out and check me i was only 1 cm or 2cm , i was fuming. So she went and said if the pain gets too bad just call back... well one or two i was on my way to hospital she said to me oh its good that your contractions are every two minutes as by tea time he will be here. haha famous last words.

Pain was so bad so i got a epidural, that took the pain for about an hour a way but i wasnt dialating so fast i can remember at 8pm begging for a epidural i was hungry as i hadnt eaten from the night before, i was thirsty and i wasnt mobile.
They ended up giving me a drug which caused by heart rate to go up, the machine starting beepinga nd i was so scared and stressed. Anyway what seemed to be forever i ended up with,
vacuum, esptimoy(can never spell it), catheter, stitches and an extra night in hospital.

Recovery was 10 days i couldnt walk due to the stitches, my iron was low, and i got the worst water infection which is quite a common thing after a cathater. It really was not the birth i had in my mind at all, i was in the netherlands so it is a different language all together.

5 days after i got baby blues and i must say it hasnt stayed a nice memory.

I am now pregnant with no 2 , and well needless to say i m scared shitless...lol!

I m going to express my concerns at my appointment with midwife, and try as much PMA as possible.

This time around i want to be mobile and drug free, i really do.