To ask you to share your childbirth experiences?

[xoguineas]

First time mum due on the 18th Jan and would love to hear all the good, bad and gory details

Emergency C section after pushing for over an hour and being in labour for over 24 hours. Baby nearly died but is now a teenager. Little tip - if a midwife tells you that she doesn't think you'll be able to give birth naturally, don't be fobbed off with the next one saying "oh I'm sure it'll be fine"

First arrived at hospital ready to push, midwife didn't believe me as she thought I looked to calm for a first timer. Baby born shortly after 8lbs 15oz with gas and air. No tears or grazes at all. Second baby again midwife tried to turn away born quickly again with just gas and air but a whopping 10lbs 5oz. Had a small graze. I won't lie it was painful but not as bad as I thought.

Contractions at 6pm
Got to hospital by 11.30pm
Natural birth at 3.30am.
As you can tell OP,each birth is unique and you forget the pain once you have you arms around the most precious baby in the world.
The feeling is amazing.
Good luck 🌼🌼

I was induced at 39+3, water broke and I went into labour but contractions weren't doing anything so they put me on the drip. This made my contractions so intense that my daughters heart rate was going down with each contraction. They stopped the drip and I didn't progress so ended up having an emergency c section. All in all I would say it was down to her being too big (9lbs and I'm only 4ft10), her being back to back (get on your birthing ball to make sure your baby isn't back to back, I really regretted it) and the fact that my body wasn't ready to go into labour itself. I wouldn't have another induction tbh, I would just ask for a planned section!

Waters broke at 36+1, cue lots of faffing and having to stay in hospital for days on a postnatal ward due to lack of space - v little sleep but on the plus side all the crying babies made me leak colostrum like crazy so I was able to collect loads for the freezer which was ace as DS was v sleepy for the first 24 hrs. After a few attempts at induction I finally had an EMCS under GA after a scary sprint to theatre. All went well though, I felt fine after a couple of weeks, was driving 3 weeks post-section and running after 5 weeks (this isn't usual though, I was v lucky and in good physical condition throughout pregnancy).

Good luck, please do come back and update us post-birth (or even during if you need a distraction)! Do you know what you're having? Got a name picked out?

1st baby.

51h labour (15h from going in and being 5cm to delivery. Did a lot of early labour at home). Stalled at 6cm, ended up on drip. Natural delivery in the end but I was lucky as I was so tired and pushing for over the recommended amount of time. No tears or grazes but I was a physical mess.... pulled muscles, blood vessels in eyes and face had popped, massive brusies from cannula which had to be shoved back on my arm during the pushing stage. Was kept in for 36h as there was a little meconium in waters (should have been a 24h stay but baby was born at 1am)

2nd baby. 4 hours from waters going to delivery. Went in at 4cm, baby arrived within 80 minutes. No tears or grazes,was home 6 hours later.

3rd baby - due in 5 weeks. Will be in induction at 38/39w though due to gestational diabetes. We'll be in for absolute minimum of 24h and that is if everything is text book. Expecting a very medicalised birth this time, like DC1.

@AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered wow, that's amazing! I've been so lazy whilst pregnant so hoping to try and get into some kind of routine afterwards with lots of walking.

Having a little girl and names been picked out since before I fell pregnant moving into a new flat next week though so will be a bit manic the next few weeks!

DD 11 days late. 9am got pessary inserted then had my waters broken a little later. 1:45 labour pains started. Entered birthing pool at 6pm. 9:05 DD was born. Gas and air. 7lb12oz. Had a small graze, no stitches needed. Highly recommend waterbirth good luck

The pain really isn't as bad as people make out and the medics will help make sure things run smoothly. Whatever you're worried about, don't be. I'm sure there are many horror stories on this thread but they are probably exaggerated to an extent so don't read into things too much. Focus on preparing for baby and getting lots of sleep in before D-Day. When I was in labour I just kept telling myself 'this can't last forever and it will be over soon', I was never scared of labour or delivering and I made an effort to NOT ask other people their labour stories. My labour was far from perfect, lots of things went wrong, but I kept telling myself I was in the best place and things would be okay. You have to be very real with yourself about what could happen and how you would actually cope with certain things and put the control into other people's hands. But please remember the doctors and midwifes know much more than you do and there will be nothing you can do if things suddenly change for the worst (and that is okay). Don't try to control things and make it all perfect or else you will drive yourself crazy, and that's when EVERYTHING will go wrong.

The pain really isn't as bad as people make out

For you maybe.

2 children - both extremely positive experiences. Both epidural - first ventouse and cut, second tear out in 6 hours. Cut was more painful than tear. Both two healthy bouncing baby boys!!

I'm sure there are many horror stories on this thread but they are probably exaggerated to an extent so don't read into things too much.

Nope, I've left some of the worst bits out and kept it factual. Why are you denying some women have very painful and traumatic labours? Doesn't do anyone any good.

9lb 7 (baring in mind I’m 5ft2 91/2 stone) I was huuuuuge.

Got induced on my due date as the baby was big, 10hrs later, contractions every 30 seconds for 8 hours, emergency c-section due to unknown preeclampsia and had a seizure, I had a gorgeous little (big) girl with a full head of black hair 🙂

Would go through it 10 times over. Now a cheeky almost 3 month old, giving all the smiles and coos. Would definitely do it again for the cheesy grins!

Congratulations xx

I have two children. DD was a slow labour (over three days) before I went to the midwifery centre at 5cm. I laboured in the pool for a further 11 hours and they broke my waters but unfortunately I made no further progress so was ambulanced to the hospital. They started a syntocin drip and I made it to 10cm and tried to push for an hour but I was completely exhausted and DD was going nowhere. She was born via emergency c section (after I used the last of my strength to fight with the dr who wanted to use forceps against my wishes).

DS was a planned c section

Sorry ... a planned c section due to placenta praevia.

My first was all back pain and no break in intense pain but thankfully only 4 hours. I was more scared with my second but then I had ‘normal’ contractions where the pain went up and down and it was only 2 hours!

Won't give you a blow by blow, just the preconceptions V the reality.
Thought TENS pointless - it saved me up until I got into the water.
Thought I'd care about a pretty room and what the midwives were like - I didn't notice who was in the room or what the room was like.
Thought I'd have control over when to push etc - I didn't, it all just did it by itself and led to 2nd degree tear.
Didn't realise shoulders were worse than head.
Didn't realise my leg would hurt so much from baby pressing on sciatic nerve.
Water did help. Gas did help. That was all I had. Next time, however, I'm having absolutely everything, epidural included. I felt like I wanted to escape my own body because of the pain and couldn't.
Thought I'd forget about it soon - two years later I haven't. Which could be because:
Thought I'd recover within a few months - my body will actually never be the same in some inconvenient ways.
Thought there'd be instant love - it took several months. I was on sleep deprived auto pilot for the first 9 and remember little of them.

2 weeks overdue so went in on the Wednesday evening to get induced. First night get a pessary put in and spent rest of evening and next day trying to get it moving. Nothing happened, except for the pessary slipping and chemically burning my inside canal and making rest of the cervical checks agony

Waited around for hours then at 1am got a space in labour ward. Cervix was open 1cm so they managed to get the hook in to break my waters.

Got induced via drip and was on gas and air til 9am. Got an epidural (about 3 hours after I asked for it!) got checked again and cervix was still 1cm. Epidural worked on all my stomach except for a random grapefruit sized patch so still took gas and air for the small area that still felt contractions

Surgeon advised baby was getting a bit stressed as trying to push down against closed cervix. So went for emergency c section. Lost loads of blood and was in surgery for two hours after she was born while DP sat on a bed with her back in ward. He'd tried showing me her just as she came out but I apparently just vomited and then fell asleep!

Wasn't the best experience in my life but a good story now I'm all recovered and have my gorgeous little healthy girl so no complaints

Had ds after 6 hours of pushing at home. He got stuck. He had mucconium (spelling wrong, tired) and needed resuscitation.

Didn't hurt that much, didn't even have a paracetamol.

Fabulous, easy pregnancy, nightmare birth...

Full term, waters broke and then nothing for hours. Hospital said to come in just to check everything ok. Was expecting to be sent home, instead midwife determined there was meconium in the waters and this meant I went straight on oxytocin drip to induce labour.

All was good for about 5 mins until the midwife put the HR monitor on and it turned out that at each contraction (so mild I couldn't even feel them) the baby's HR dipped as normal and then disappeared for long enough for the alarm on the monitor to go off!

Dr explained what was happening and said "this will likely end up in an EMCS". "Ok", I said, "let's get on with it then, where are the consent forms?"

Apparently though that's not how it works and we continued on with an increasingly distressing (and painful) labour.

Rather inevitably, we ended up with a EMCS of the proper emergency sort after HR didn't come back at all! baby whisked off the scbu but ultimately fine. Recovery was very long due to less than relaxed csection.

Turns out baby had his cord wrapped around his body and in particular around his shoulder which caused it to compress with each contraction.

Will be have be having an ELCS if there is a next time.

4 very straight forward births.
Last baby born inside membranes, (amniotic sac??) The midwife had to break the waters after she was born, I heard a popping sound and all the fluid gushed out everywhere.

36 hours labour, most of it at home. Constantly ringing maternity suite at local hospital as pains worsened and they continually told me I wasn't in labour and needed paracetamol/hot baths. Got to hospital at 9.15am, waters had to be broken, episiotomy, forceps and loads of stitches inside and out, 6lb 7.5oz baby born at 10.45am, oh followed by a suppository painkiller.

I was off my face on gas and air. I was like the random drunk in the corner, falling asleep after every gobful. Once the anaesthetic and painkillers wore off in my fanjo though, that knacked!

Have had 3 very short and relatively painless labours - took 2 paracetamol for the drive to hospital for each and that was all I needed. That's not to say it was pain-free, but it wasn't pain-full, if you know what I mean. I had short bursts of intense pain and some intense burning, but my time in active labour was only a couple of hours and I just never got to a stage where I wanted someone to take the intensity away.

My third delivery was absolutely wonderful - I experienced the birth ejection reflex, which I hadn't heard of before, but meant that baby birthed themselves. I had been in labour for a couple of hours, in delivery room for maybe 35 mins. My waters broke and midwife encouraged me to stand because I had said I wanted to give birth in an upright position. Two contractions and 5 mins later, baby arrived. No pushing at all - baby was born without me consciously doing anything. It was just amazing. And the best part was that I had zero pain afterwards - no grazing, no tears, minimal swelling (all gone within 12 hours). I had had a 'graze' with baby 2 and that was the most painful experience - had to steel myself up to go to the bathroom for 10 days. The graze was significantly worse than the stitches I had after an episiotomy to deliver a breech baby first time round!

It's so interesting how people's experiences can be so different. I'd love to see proper research into what it is that makes childbirth tortuous for some women and a pleasant experience for others.

Best of luck to you, and to all the expectant mums. Here's to a good experience

I had a fairly quick and uneventful birth after going into labour at 38+6. Went to hospital at 4pm as contractions were becoming quite painful and my waters went not long after. I was only 2cm dilated when they examined me at 5pm, but I didn't want to go home so they let me use the birthing pool. Soon I was getting absolutely no breaks between contractions and felt like I wanted to die (poor DH was trying to be encouraging and I splashed water at him and told him to shut up 😬).

Midwife kept telling me I was being dramatic and that early labour is painful (yeah no shit), she also wouldn't give me any pain relief as she said it was too soon for that. 10 mins later I had the urge to push and she finally agreed to examine me again. Was 9cm! DD was born at 9pm that evening, with just gas and air, weighing in at 7lbs.

I needed stitches for a minor first degree tear which took bloody ages, though it meant DH got some nice skin-to-skin time with DD. I also had a graze so trying to pee was agony for about 5 days afterwards. Was allowed home the next morning though and felt pretty much back to myself within 2 weeks.

Best of luck OP, am sure you'll be absolutely fine!

Elcs, went perfectly, and was a wonderful and pretty much pain free (for me) way to have a baby. The most painful bit was putting the drip in. Up and about before most of my friends with a vaginal birth.