How did you show yourself up during labour?

[garlicy]

I was off my head on pethidine and obsessed with the fire alarm going off Every time a new member of staff appeared, I would ask if them what would happen if the fire alarm went off, including the surgeon who eventually did my section.

I know to this day that I am known as the Fire Alarm Lady in that hospital

Punched the poor doctor in the face with my gas and air mask just because he said good morning cheerfully, before throwing the monitoring machine across the room, then kicked the midwife in the face when she tried to examine me.
Then I elbowed my poor husband in the face, bursting his nose when he learnt over me to mop my face while screaming that I hated him and I wanted a divorce ( I don't and thankfully he didn't take me seriously )
All while howling like a Banshee.
I was mortified with embarrassment afterwards.

Wow I'm seeing a lot of comments about the medication making (normally passive) people violent, or perhaps it's the labour itself inducing violence? I'm curious about the cause and how common that is?

The cause is the searing agony of childbirth.

while being prepped for an emergency c section due to preeclampsia I complained to the nurse that I had really bad cramps. She leaned back, looked at the baby monitor and said “no dear, you’re in labour”. In my defence DS was my first, nearly a month early and I really wasn’t processing stuff very well by that point.

I see. I had a relatively short labour and delivery for a first time mother so I guess I didn't have time to throw punches. I did yell at my husband to shut up though. 😂

@PissedOffAmericanWoman It's the only time I've ever been violent, I'm not a violent person honest. It takes me all my time to raise my voice, much less my fists normally.
The weird thing is, I was the complete opposite with my first.
I've just mentioned it to my husband, who instinctively rubbed his nose and told me that, over thirty years later he can't erase how I was howling like a rabid wolf in between growling at anyone who came near me 😳

my third birth was my second home birth, and I thought I had it all covered when it came to protecting my carpets and furniture.
Didn’t expect DD to arrive quite as quickly as she did, way before I’d even thought about getting the plastic covering on the sofa. My waters broke all over it. As she was coming out, I kept asking my ExH and the midwife if the sofa was completely fucked and then yelled at ExH to stop dicking about and get the cushion covers into the washing machine 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Also with my first baby, my only hospital birth, I was about 2 hours into a very speedy induction, yanked the cannula out of my arm, got out of bed and declared “I’m going home. I’m not having a baby today. She can stay in there” 😬
I don’t even have the excuse of drugs making me loopy. I’d just full on lost the plot due to the pain 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Ouch! I can't even imagine taking the cannula out! That sounds so painful! 😳😩 Although labour is such a bitch it probably felt like nothing. I got to admit that's kind of funny though. Imagine trying to go home while in active labour. 😂 Did the nurses have to call security on you? Lol!

Pain makes people do crazy things. I imagine hormones are at play as well! After entering active labour and not realizing it I started screaming "I can't do it anymore! I'm too tired! I need to sleep!" 🤬 Which was right when they offered gas and air and sent for the epidural. Haha!!! Once I had that epidural I was totally content for a total of ten minutes and then I had to push! LOL! The only thing that got me through it was my Douala telling me is almost over and once I push the baby out I can take a long nap. When she said that I pushed the baby out in 3 pushes. 😂

@PissedOffAmericanWoman i still have a scar from where I pulled it out 😬😬
My ExH talked me down in the end…well him and the fact that I started feeling the urge to push more or less as soon as I stood up off the bed. Dd was born about 40 mins later 😂 So I’m blaming the famous delirium that comes with the transition stage of labour.

@PissedOffAmericanWoman just seen your post about the transition stage 😂
The midwife who attended my first homebirth with my second baby told me that between 7-10cm dilated is generally where most labouring women lose their mind and get the feeling that they can’t do it anymore regardless of how fast their labour is. With my second, I remember laying on my sofa, sobbing to my ExH “I can’t do it. You need to do it for me” 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Your post actually explains a lot about my midwives confusion because right after I said that they insisted I move from the bath to the bed which I did. They checked me as I was on an oxytocin drip I was a four. They looked confused and I was deeply upset because I thought that meant it was not over yet. Then just a few minutes later I was a 9 and everything escalated very quickly. I was quite happy to get it over with.

@PissedOffAmericanWoman I refused all examinations during my home births, so I have no idea how dilated I was at any point…but I knew I was reaching the home stretch when I got that hopeless, defeated feeling of not being able to keep going!

Some workmen's feet were visible through the ceiling height window and, after pointing them out, I started crying inconsolably (off my tits on laughing gas)

I can't blame you. The examinations are so uncomfortable. In the movies they make it look like it's just nothing. But every single time it hurt! Even though the midwives tried to be very gentle with me. It still amazes me that I pushed an entire baby out with minimal tearing.

Straight after labour this, but waiting with my feet up in stirrups for stitching, I picked up the wad of gungy, blood soaked dressing between my legs so the approaching doctor could get down to it. Just drop it straight down, he said. In my befuddled state I threw it right at his chest. He’d only just changed into a pristine new white coat as well…..

@PissedOffAmericanWoman With my first baby, it wasn’t presented to me as an optional thing - I had so many hands shoved up there I felt like a glove puppet. I felt violated. So with the next two, particularly with them being home births, I made it clear that no one was to touch me unless is was a real medical emergency…and as if by magic, two entire babies exited my body of their own accord, without anyone needing to know how open my cervix was 👀👀🤷🏻‍♀️😂

My God. That is awful! I'm so sorry. My hospital didn't do it that often but I do think some places get very carried away. Not the same but my mother has a very severe and rare form of psoriasis and your story made me think of how she was not informed of her rights and they literally just had a class of 30 medical students walk in and "examine" her while she was sitting on the table naked and just a cloth over her lap. She said she felt like a caged animal being prepped for a science experiment. They didn't ask. She went home and cried. Some medical professionals take things way too far. I'm glad you advocated for yourself after that awful experience.

I kept saying that David Dickinson was at the bottom of my stairs and the he needed to go to a certain chip shop (when the hospital called me to go in to be induced I was watching “real deal” my mum was with me and she’s gluten free and this particular chippy does a lot GF but that had been 2 days earlier! 🤣) pethidine is insane!!!

@Angelil My mother told me she just rolled over and popped the babies out. I was totally into natural birth and was very fit with my first and yet I had preeclampisa and a non elected emergency C section. Lucky you and congrats, but its not that easy for all of us!!!!

I was furious. Just so angry and shouty. Pain rage, you might call it! I definitely showed myself up and I feel a lot of shame as I feel I really tainted my son's entry into the world and it affected me for months after.

Preeclamsia is such a mystery it is totally not your fault that you got it. It has a lot to do with genetics. I read up that there is a strong link though not proven that in fact the sperm can even sometimes cause it as it has everything to do with the baby's genetics NOT the mother's (well it is the mothers genetics as they are passed down but it is the fetus that causes it to develop)! The placenta grows tiny blood vessels and by the time you are in third trimester your blood supply is literally bottlenecking into the placenta which is what causes the high blood pressure and is why sometimes the baby is born small because the nutrients is not flowing into the baby as well as it should.

There is research that suggests that if the child's father's mother had preeclamsia that it raises the chance of his partner having preeclamsia! That's interesting but also terrifying. Lol.

Although obviously there does not have to be a family generic link to get it and sometimes it can be caused by lifestyle factors but not always. In fact I had a strong suspicion I would get it because the last four generations of the women in my family had it!

First baby - pooed repeatedly and tripped out on pethadine - 'the cherry blossom - it's so beautiful..'

2nd baby - shouted 'motherfucker' repeatedly while demanding an epidural. Too late for epidural but the anaesthetist was so scared he gave me one anyway. Sprayed blood everywhere when the midwife tried to put the cannula (?) in my hand. Laughed hysterically saying ' I never have to do this again' as they wheeled me out of the delivery room with baby in my arms.

Dream patient.

Off my head on pethidine, I thanked them for putting a spotlight on me and tried to sing there's no business like show business.
My husband was absolutely mortified.