Josie was born yesterday at 4.41 am!
In theory it was a 'perfect birth' - a waterbirth with no pain relief or interventions - so I can only conclude that all vaginal births are pretty horrendous and I honestly don't know if I want any more!
We went into hospital when contractions were about 8 minutes apart but frankly I was tired and wanted some pain relief. I'd been contracting on and off all day. We got in at midnight and I was 5cm dilated! I was so happy! When it came down to it, I couldn't decide what pain relief I wanted because I found them all so useless last time (dd1 took 27 hours with failed epidural etc.) - the birthing pool suite was free so I asked to go in there.
I sat on the birthing ball for three hours and then got into the pool. I honestly managed ok just with the birthing ball - actually it was REALLY good for pain relief. The midwives were both excellent and encouraged me to use breathing and showed DH how to massage me to relax me (there's a first!). I got into the pool at around 3am and Josie was born at 4.41am - pushing stage was 45 minutes which was longer than I expected (and I REALLY hated!). I was praying a lot!! A small tear but no stiches.
I don't feel that I really made 'the right birth choices' - I don't feel that I really had many choices because I found all the drugs offered last time so crap and/or useless. I was very lucky that the midwives were EXCELLENT and supportive 100% and showed me ways to cope. I was also lucky that it was so much shorted that my first birth.
Josie is absolutely amazing and I'm so happy to be a mum to a newborn again!!!
p.s. I am the biggest wuss EVER and I fainted when the optician tried me out for contact lenses, so I hope this offers hope to all other wusses out there. I'm not sure that your birth experience has anything to do with how you normally cope with pain.
p.p.s. Special thanks to motherinferior for all her wise words about second births!