June 2013 - thread 6 - will this thread see any early arrivals?

[AlohaMama]

Welcome back all June-ers, just realised we were about to run out of space on the old thread.

Morning

Howdy chickens. Raising a cuppa to you all and the new thread.

Bit sad at the news this morning. Anyone else think it isa little odd that it is the 20th anniversary of wako and then this happens?

hiya, checking in!

Just checking in whilst contemplating rolling out of my tempur bed for another day at work still no sign of any maternity leave hmmm may have to pick a date soon but it won't be for a while yet I don't think

Morning...and hello new thread!

You're meant to give 4 weeks' notice of mat leave, pink, so you'd best choose soon! 11.5 days left for me now. Yay!

Maw the news is full of bad news at the minute.
What pains etc are normal at this stage of pg? Bump has been very uncomfortable last couple of days, especially at top on on right side. Mw said baby wasn't engaged on tues, but lying loa which is good so should I be in this much discomfort? Starting to worry I'm going to be a huge wimp in labour!!

Horrible about Waco.

On other news, much less tragic, my innie is now officially an outie.

Hi everyone!

Littlemiss you're not alone in worrying about being a wimp certainly... I keep thinking when it starts I'm going to panic, trying hypnobirthing stuff for a bit of calm!

Morning. The day has not started well. I just poured orange juice in my cornflakes. D'oh!

Just marking my place!

Have such a busy day today, plus a consultant appointment and I Really want my C Section date!! DH is taking 2 weeks off, then 2 weeks working from home but as he works on a long contract rather than being employed he doesn't get paternity leave so he actually has to book it off, and if someone else has it, he can't! And my mum is going to book a week off when he has to go back so I really want a date... I bet I get told to wait another 6 weeks (till 36) and they both can't get it

Morning all, just marking my place.

Must find some energy today!

Morning All,

NCT classes last night were good. It's so obvious that everyone is there to make friends, lots of chat about general stuff and a reluctance to actually do what the teacher wanted us to! Six couples. I can certainly see potential friends amongst the group and that makes me feel quite a bit more relaxed about the whole process. Our baby will be the first though! The next due date is 10th June, and we are having a section on 7th. The last baby is due on 13th July, and so there could be weeks between us there!

One thing that bugged me slightly was the NCT Homebirth agenda, though I kind of knew that might happen. One couple were describing how they were high risk and booked for hospital delivery and they wished they weren't. The teacher said they could always labour at home and just call and demand a midwife be sent to them. Irrespective of whether or not you have that legal right I think that's a bit irresponsible. I think the message that you have choices is a good one, but I don't think you should make decisions and not tell the hospital that's what you plan to do - it should be a partnership yes? She told us how horrible induction was and that we should refuse it and that we should regard all medical checks and interventions as optional. Wound me up a bit. Especially as only 2% of births are at home, so I'm hoping this won't be presented as the norm going forward!

Mrsbri I work with my mum in a family business so think I will just wait and see when I give up

Ah, that's good then pink...aren't you tempted to give up soon?!

That's a shame Sarah, some NCT teachers can be a bit like that. Suppose it depends why you're high risk, although I wouldn't be doing that unless I had my own private midwife who had agreed to care for me at home. You're not going to get the best reaction from a midwife forced out to you. I don't think that many first births end up happening at home in any case so they would be better to labour for as long as possible at home and then go in. Induction can lead to a 'cascade of intervention' but obviously is necessary in some cases. I remember my NCT teacher (7 years ago now, ouch!) telling us that if an intevention was suggested, just to ask if it was medically necessary, so they have to give you a proper answer, ie rather than to just speed things up before the end of their shift! I did refuse induction last time even though I was 16 days over because I wanted my homebirth and my independent midwives and private sonographer agreed the baby was fine for a bit longer. The hospital weren't happy about it though!

morning all - 4 hours sleep = grouchy alert today. Awful pelvic pain and just couldn't get comfy, every time I moved I clunked

kinda scary thinking this thread might see some arrivals..... I really must buy the mattresses we need!

Gah one big purple stretch mark has appeared overnight :(
Can't remember who wanted to know about the lazy daisy couple workshop but it was really practical and gave OH some nice massage techniques to use in labour. More hands on than nct but have enjoyed social side of nct, we are netting for dinner with the men on say night then weekly coffee/lunch meet ups which I think will be grat once the babies are here.
Hope everyone is well... One more week until maternity leave!!

Morning all, chuckled at how the conversation on the last thread degenerated towards the end... I'm still getting kicks all over the place so baby definitely not head down yet. Went to NCT last night and they had this scary diagram of how your bladder gets squished when baby engages, so think i'm prepared to wait a week or two!

Aloha, after approx 3 months of being a flattie, my belly button is now officially an outie too. Does anyone know whether it returns to it's former state?

Sarah you should let NCT know about that teacher - fecking loose cannon. I will admit that the teacher at ours was massively anti intervention, although ultimately I made the decision to go overdue she was the one who rang me at home to 'talk through' my options for post term gestation and my baby was one of the 3% who suffered massive complications from post date gestation. The NCT has been reprimanded slightly in our area and there has been some new teachers brought in, not just because of the 'homebirth' agenda but because of their quite domineering stance of natural birth and the fact this has led many women (some who I know) down the route of PND.

I will hold my hand up to loathing the idea of a CS, I want a home water birth, I want my baby born as far away from hospital as possible but I don't have that choice. A CS is a safer exit route for this baby than going overdue again and being faced with interventions in labour. There are some factors which increase the chances of needing intervention and the cascade of intervention research is sound and it is true however when you look at why many inductions are carried out they are already being carried out for reasons which will probably increase intervention risk anyway for example small baby, mums BP issues, GD, etc - some of the research is available online and I think the NCT should have a more balanced and rounded view.

Sorry. I have as you can imagine strong feelings towards the NCT and their advice - I should add that after my child came home from NICU I never heard from the teacher (who was v upset apparently) and I got no help whatsoever in terms of support from their various helplines.

That's an awful story redwelly. I have to say I made my decision to go so overdue with the help of my amazing midwives and a sonographer who backed them up saying there was plenty of fluid etc. I went in for daily monitoring at the hospital too. I agree that the NCT teacher wouldn't be qualified in helping you make that decision.

I can't speak more highly of the NCT breast feeding counsellor though, she really helped me through my first. I contracted nipple thrush and my ageing GP had never heard of it, said breastfeeding just gave you sore nipples and advised me to give up. If it hadn't been for the NCT counsellor emailing me leaflets and telling me what i needed the GP to prescribe then I would have given up less than a month in.

Hi all -I start my NCT class on Saturday and I have to say its the anti-intervention nonsense they may spout is what I fear and is the reason i signed up rather reluctantly. Here is a little story about anti-intervention and not listening to medical advice....

SIL was strongly advised to go for an elective cesarean due to her medical history and was classed as high risk. After sitting on Dr Google my brother and his wife decided they wanted a natural birth - fine that is legally their choice. SIL was very overdue. At 10 days they were advised to go for an induction. Again using Dr Google and going against the advice of medical staff they decided they wanted it to commence naturally. At 16 days overdue labour started naturally. During labour baby became very distressed and an emergency cesarean was needed - heart rate was dropping and they were in danger of losing baby. Thankfully SIL and brother allowed this and baby was born hale and hearty.

Now once baby was born SIL really really wanted to breastfeed. She was told because of her past history it may prove tricky for her to produce milk and that they should have formula on standby. She tried and tried and tried. The health visitor unfortunately didn't go to see them til a week after baby was born. Baby at this point was in serious trouble as SIL hadn't manage to produce any milk and it was starving. Baby ended up back in hospital on a drip because it had lost over 25% of its birth weight.

Thankfully at this stage 'choice' is a different thing. The consultant had a 'frank discussion' with them (Brothers words). They capitulated and fed baby on formula.

Now this baby was dearly wanted. They spent a lot of money and heartache going through IVF to get baby and I've no doubt they thought they were doing the right thing. What was distressing is how often they relied upon Dr Google and not the knowledge of medical staff directly in front of them. They are both very intelligent people but felt that training and OTJ experience was irrelevant and didn't need to be listened to.

Sunny My story didn't have such a happy ending sadly - I did have lower fluid levels but they were signed off by head of midwifery and I continued with daily monitoring, the complications which arose would have been mitigated by the hospital carrying out an EMCS - the trace which we have records of showed DD as 'pathological' for hours before delivery (ventouse) it was a combined fuckup by me listening to poor advice from someone not medically qualified and then the hospital not having snior staff at a weekend and a junior doctor denying a CS which would have prevented the brain injury (leading to seizures, week long coma in NICU and eventually cerebral palsy). DD was eventually born at 40+18

Breastfeeding support seems to really vary by area, I recommend having the numbers of the NCT, the La Lache League and the Breastfeeding Support Network. In our area its the last of those 3 which are the best but other areas then LLL are better etc etc.

Morning all.

My NCT antenatal teacher (from 6 years ago, blimey!) wasn't too bad re natural birth etc, but then I'd told her on the phone before the first session that I would be having a section and there was no choice about it.

For those that don't know about it, the NCT run a helpline where if you're facing any issues in particular -whether advised to have section, or PND, or NICU post delivery etc etc - then they will put you in touch with another parent who has gone through the same thing who can talk to you on the phone and chat through their experiences, what helped them, and also just understand what you're facing. It's called the shared experiences helpline, I'm a volunteer on it and tend to get calls about Twin to Twin Transfusion/losing a baby in utero but having to stay pregnant for the other/having a baby in NICU.

I've had an interesting morning today - slept really badly last night thanks to SPD & DS combo, then slept through the alarm so didn't wake up till 8.25am. DD is meant to leave for school at 8.30... She was already awake and watching telly downstairs, it hadn't occurred to her that nobody else had turned up and it was getting late... . Managed to get her fed, dressed & off to school in the car with DH within 10 minutes (WHY does it normally take an hour?!), then got DS up, fed, dressed and ready for preschool by the time DH got back from the school run. Luckily, preschool doesn't start till 9.15 so we managed to get him there in time too! But I don't want to have to do it again in a hurry, I'm sure my blood pressure was through the roof :o Off to collect him in half an hour, think I'm back to normal again now though.

Morning - well had our first NCT class last night, run by what I suppose is a reassuringly middle-aged school teacher type, but which of course resulted in me behaving a bit like I did in maths class in high school. 8 couples in total and she wasn't too hardcore on things like hospitals VS homebirths which I was grateful for.

Hated her constant references to us as 'mummies', though. Genuinely riled by it.

She did introduce us to, and I quote, 'an acronym we just love her at NCT' - BRAINS - did you get it too? Basically it's the decision-making process they want you to go through in birth if the hospital staff are suggesting a particular intervention. I truly can't imagine that being something I'd refer to when I'm being told 'the baby needs to come out NOW'.

People also there seemed nice, and one particularly entertaining Charlie Brooker type, and less posh Chiswick types than I had feared. And no one really young (ie: I didn't feel too old)...am the only one there giving birth at C&W and having a CSection though.

Followed all that up with the whooping cough injection this morning. OW.

Hope those of you feeling a bit off feel better soon. I'm still coughing up lung, figure my intercostal muscles and diaphragm must be well fit by now.