I feel compelled to share my birth stories and see if anyone has experienced similar.
with DS1 I had a very long, slow and painful labour. I wasn’t coping well (to say the least). Evebtually I was given an epidural. When I was fully dilated , I was told when to push, but because I couldn’t feel anything and I didn’t know what I was doing, nothing progressed. This continued for an hour until the midwives intervened and I had a very unpleasant forceps delivery.
My second labour couldn’t have been more different. Everything happened really quickly (5cm on arrival to baby born within 1hr 15 mins). My body pushed the baby out completely involuntarily. I didn’t have an urge to push, in fact I didn’t even recognise my body was pushing as it was completely out of my control. I recall saying to my partner that I thought something was wrong, because at the end of my contractions my body was ‘seizing up’ of its own accord. I was just a bystander. At this point he pushed the emergency button and the midwives all came rushing in. I still had my leggings and knickers on!
I asked for an epidural, but was told there wasn’t time as they could see the baby’s head! I was completely bewildered as I was only 5cms just a short time before.
The midwives said next contraction baby’s head would be out, but again I didn’t do any pushing. I was laid on my back. I distinctly remember feeling very far away, inside myself. Baby’s head came out on its own. I didn’t experience any crowning / burning pain. My partner said I was silent at the end.
I have since learned my second labour could have been FER, but have also read this is very rare? The experience was totally bizarre, but far preferable to all the unsuccessful pushing and straining of my first.