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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to wonder why some women give birth naked?

339 replies

sparklyknittedmacaroons · 26/11/2011 19:39

Just seen a video of a woman doing this, and I know a couple of friends who have chosen to. Am about to give birth to my 4th and personally couldn't bear the thought of being naked in a room of strangers, also don't understand why there is the need...not criticising anyone who does it, just genuinely asking the question so no rudeness or flaming please!

OP posts:
VioletNotViolent · 27/11/2011 14:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bonkersLFDT20 · 27/11/2011 15:20

I am going to have to ask my sister whether I was naked or not. I do remember asking her and my lovely MW to stop nattering and help me take my knicks off as my waters had broken, but I don't remember taking the top 1/2 off. The birth pool was full by the time DS2 arrived so we got in (very, very, very nice) and I was certainly naked then. The thought of having a bra on at that most beautiful moment seems odd. Nature absolutely told me to keep my baby close to my skin.

4madboys · 27/11/2011 16:04

with all mine i started off in jogging bottoms and a vest top as i was induced, once things got going i stripped of, with ds1 they tried to make me wear a hospital gown, whne i was kneeling up and pushing it kept falling down and was HUGELY irritating i kept trying to take it off and the midwife kept trying to put it back on, ihave NO idea why she did that it pissed me right off!

ds2 i laboured in a bath and was naked, but at transition i HAD to get out of the bath, i was totally high on gas and air and marched down the corridor from the bathroom back to my delivery room naked dragging the gas and air canister with me!! wondeful sight that was i am sure, hte midwife tried to put a towel over me but i think that was more to save the blushes of the other husbans that were around, i quite frankly didnt give a fuck,

ds3 again naked.

ds4 in the pool so naked.

dd i think i may have had a vest top on, purely becasue i ended up with the sytocin drip and i had it on when they put the drip in and couldnt get it off? tho actually i think i remember the midwife unhooking the drip for a moment so i could take it off?

i couldnt not bear anything or anyone touching me when i was in labour i HAD to be naked. i dont see anything undignified about that at all and like mathanxiety i felt on top of the world after igave birth, the best feeling ever each time. kind of sad i wont do it again tbh, but ihave 5, so am done now!

if you OP want to wear clothes fine, but dont equate clothing in labour wiht dignity and try and tell others they are being undignified. and i have no idea if my friends were naked or not, its not something we have discussed. i was a birth partner for a friend 10yrs ago and she was naked, didnt bother me, she was also there when i had my ds3 and i was naked nad she wasnt bothered either. but then we are close friends and have shared toilet cubicles, help back each others hair when vomiting and basically shared everything and it doesnt make us any less 'dignified' to each other!

grubbalo · 27/11/2011 16:17

Actually OP, I hope you didn't poo or anything while you were giving birth, just imagine how undignified that would be!

MandaHugNKiss · 27/11/2011 16:23

Actually grubbalo my Birthing Undercrackers have an optional extra buttplug to avoid such indignities. Only an extra £20.

Seriously, I'm going to make a bloody fortune and you may laugh, becaoooo but you know you want them! Grin

feralgirl · 27/11/2011 16:34

I had a T-Shirt on with DS but only because I didn't have time to get it off before a monitor was put on me. I ripped it off and got it all tangled in the wires the second he was out. I don't feel as though anything about that labour was particularly undignified.

I have no clue what I was wearing during my labour with DD as it was such a horrible experience that I really couldn't give a shit. If I did anything undignified then it was screaming "FUUUUCCCKKK" repeatedly at the top of my lungs as I was rushed into theatre for an emergency CS as DD's heart rate had practically stopped and I was in agony.

Rooms full of strangers both times (esp second, obvs), and the second MW lives up the road from me as well Blush but there are many more important things to focus on when you're giving birth imo.

CornflowerB · 27/11/2011 16:45

OP, it is quite unpleasant of you to suggest that women give birth naked through some kind of exhibitionism. It's hardly the time of your life that you would choose to 'exhibit' your body. I, and many people I know gave birth naked, because we were too hot and clothes were too uncomfortable. Surely women going through such an overwhelming momentous experience should be free to be dressed or undressed without some little prude suggesting they are showing off. Shame on you.

Honeydragon · 27/11/2011 16:46

ha ha ha ha aha! Can you imagine the birthing butt plug. Just as the babies head gets at the bottom of the vagina and squashes everything else...

BAM! Out it pops concussing the MW and leaving her blind in one eye Grin

There you are sat smugly dignity intact, MW out cold on the floor with no one to fix your tattered fanj.

garlicnutter · 27/11/2011 16:54

Following a link from another thread, I watched a beautiful (imo) video of a Brazilian woman delivering her breech baby in a pool. Most of the comments seem to be from teenage boys, unequipped as yet to see a naked woman as anything but a sex object - an inadequate one, obv, while giving birth. You sound a bit like them, OP Hmm

MandaHugNKiss · 27/11/2011 16:59

Shhhh! honeydragon You're costing me money by pointing out the glaringly obvious! THe demogaphic I am aiming at won't realise this stuff and if you don't shut it, they're going to realise this a natural process that can be messy, painful, funny, embarassing...but a natural process none the less. They'e going to realise the 'right' way is the way that suits them at the time whethe it be clothed or naked. I'm neve gonna be rich nowwww

Add disclaimer to Deluxe Birthing Undercrackers with Poop Preventer that any and all injuries inflicted on healthcare professionals (or any persons at all) are not the liability of BU Ltd. (how perfect that my future company name, which of course is the initals of Birthing Undercackers, also means Being Unreasonable here at MN Smile)

bemybebe · 27/11/2011 17:05

garlic I have seen that link, it was a very beautiful birth, i wish i have something similar in June...
what the hell has happened to the other thread? did it get pulled? rightly so, if it was... i was wondering if the OP on that one and the OP here are the same person - certainly the same immature attitude to women in labour

garlicnutter · 27/11/2011 17:07

the same immature attitude to women in labour - Indeed! Grin
Yes, that thread was deleted pronto.

Moominsarescary · 27/11/2011 17:27

I missed the other thread, what was it about

Splinters · 27/11/2011 17:32

Birthing undercackers! Better and better Grin

Robotindisguise · 27/11/2011 17:36

I totally understand, OP - I found the thought cringesome as well. I think people are forgetting that you haven't been there when you haven't been there, iyswim! As it went, I took my togs off to get in the pool and when that wasn't working (I needed an episiotomy) I had a towel round me to get back into my room again but it ended up on the floor at some point. And I really didn't care. But if you find you do - you can keep your top on. No-one's going to make you strip to prove you're worthy of motherhood!

Honeydragon · 27/11/2011 17:38
ProjectGainsborough · 27/11/2011 17:38

Sorry, it's about a million miles upthread, but I am crying at bigkahuna's birthing story.

As you were. Think I was in the nud. Can't remember, really.

mousymouse · 27/11/2011 17:46

I was naked giving birth to dc2.
couldn't bare having clothes on.

Honeydragon · 27/11/2011 17:47

Robot the op has had babies she seems insistent on pointing out that her way is the only civilised way to give birth.

Although obviously she was not quite up to standard as she was not wearing the MandaHug Birthing Undercrakers and Birth buttplug

ThePathanKhansWitch · 27/11/2011 18:01

Do you know i can't even remember if i was naked or not Confused it was only four years ago. I will ask dh when he comes in. I was in my own home, does that make it anymore dignified OP?.

AlwaysRocking · 27/11/2011 18:10

Before I had dd I was convinced I would keep covered up but during the birth I wouldn't have cared. As it was there wasn't time to get undressed. Word of advice, don't wear your favourite skirt to hospital, even if you think it's a false alarm! Grin

BelQ · 27/11/2011 18:10

Between the copious vomiting and labour ward hotter than the sun nakedness was pretty much inevitable!

grubbalo · 27/11/2011 18:14

I am loving your butt plug idea Manda, FAR more civilised. Although would have meant I couldn't have indulged in my shitting in front of people fantasy, of course

Becaroooo · 27/11/2011 18:20

I do want some!!!

In purple jacquard fabric with fringing please

Ta

RedHotPokers · 27/11/2011 18:23

Undignified things that happened during the births of my DCs:

1 Screaming like a banshee (commented on by MW Blush)

  1. Noticing poo floating past me in the birthing pool
  2. Nearly having DS in the hospital car park
  3. Ginormous Piles

Clothes were the LEAST of my worries. I was naked for DD (brithing pool) but nearly fully clothed for DS. Made not a jot of a difference (and I am normally VERY body conscious/shy).