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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Best part of childbirth

121 replies

Thefoxsbrush · 05/07/2011 22:45

I've just been reading the 'ring of fire' thread! Yikes! Feel like we should re-dress the balance and share our favourite parts of giving birth.

For me with ds1 it was being able to have the natural waterbirth I wanted and it being everything I imagined it to be. With dd1 it is the memory of her being delivered by my husband (didn't make it to hospital) and with ds2 it was special as the midwife had also delivered ds1 and she remembered me. It was lovely to share that bond.

So come on, what were your best bits?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

minimuffin · 08/07/2011 11:55

Oh God this thread is making me broody and DS3 is only 8 weeks old... can't believe I'm never going to do this again...

Yes to the excitement of knowing everything is kicking off - I have felt strangely calm and powerful each time. And yes to the feeling of delivering the body - I thought I was a bit weird for liking that bit but I remember it vividly with DS2 (his head crowned then I pushed out his body as well with one almighty contraction!) and was actually looking forward to that bit with DS3. Flobbery is just the right word.

Have hated delivering placenta each time but then the relief when it's out that FINALLY it's all over

The sense you have in the following days that you have just done one of the most amazing things you will ever do, ever. At the time you just deal with what is thrown at you, then you piece it all together and re-live it in the days that follow and it becomes part of your story.

Stepping out of the real world for about a week after the birth, drinking lots of tea, getting congratulated on being amazing and snuggling your snuffly new baby - it's heaven (in spite of the grim after effects!)

And lying in bed with my newborns, in the darkness of the first few nights - a pair of tiny, deep, dark little almond eyes blinking back at me through the gloom. Made me feel like a space traveller coming face to face with another being who had travelled a long way through space and time to meet me. Made me cry in astonishment every time and is making me cry now! Still hormonal, think I always will be!

RegLlamaOfBrixton · 08/07/2011 17:46

Gas and air! Oh my god it was amazing!

And meeting DS of course.

LittleMumSmall · 08/07/2011 22:00

Best bits? Apart from transition, pretty much all of it! Have been lucky enough to have two straightforward and quick home births with wonderful midwives and a really supportive husband. And ooh, the bliss of the first post-birth cuppa! A bit sad I won't be doing it again but so happy I can look back on births with positive memories.

Schulte · 08/07/2011 22:32

First birth - the excitement, it's such an adventure.

Seeing the sun rise at 9 cm dilated and knowing that this is the day your baby will be born. Realising how amazing it is that life still goes on around you - the radio is on, you can see buses go past, people going to work, and for you life is about to change forever. (Although how much it's going to change you don't realise at that point.)

Feeling like superwoman because you gave birth without pain relief.

All the fun you have sharing your birth stories with friends and complete strangers afterwards.

Not so sure about meeting the baby - I was a bit freaked out by that bit

Second time round I had a CS and I think the best bit was realising that the feeling in my legs was coming back after the spinal block and I wasn't going to be paralysed for the rest of my life after all.

But then the first feed with DD2 was lovely.

FunnysInTheGarden · 08/07/2011 22:42

G&A, the 'being looked after' at hospital but most of all the feeling that you knew your baby all along. Like greeting a long lost part of yourself. Not a stranger after all. I remember saying to DS1 as a tiny baby 'I know you' and I felt I had known him all of my life. Just wonderful

SootySweepandSue · 08/07/2011 22:53

Realising my baby was a girl. Best surprise of my life

hermionestranger · 08/07/2011 23:07

Best part was the spinal after 19 hours of 3 in 10 and no progress past 2cm. The feeling of sheer relief that it's all going to be over in the next few minutes. The consultant saying here's your baby guys as he was lifted over the screen for us to see.

Seeing your baby for the first time. DS1 was just a little blue foot and off to the resuss table and waiting, waiting for that first cry. Then him being brought over and I just thought. It's you!

That part in the recovery room when your all quiet and peaceful with your brand new, warm baby.

With DS2 it was about 0330 and -10 outside. There was snow on the ground and no one else in recovery. So peaceful. I had the most amazing, amazing midwives.

DS1 meeting DS2. I've never seen him so amazed and overawed and pleased all at the same time!

DS2's second morning after his first full night. Peace, perfect peace and snow as far as you could see. The sun glinting off the perfectly white hills.

The feeling of power. I MADE THAT! I DID THAT!

Aww maybe just one more baba.

Cutiecat · 08/07/2011 23:22

The feeling of them slipping out, being told that i have not torn and holding that lovely new born bundle. Just had number 3 and have forgotten the pain already. It is pure magic. X

thelittlefriend · 09/07/2011 13:45

funnys I agree, I saw my dd and just thought I'd known her forever. she looked so familiar to me. All through my pregnancy I had no image of her in my head, but when she was born I thought "thats exactly how I knew you'd look" if that makes sense!!

TheProvincialLady · 09/07/2011 13:50

Apart from the baby part, I think it was the feeling of having put one over the midwives, who were annoyed because they couldn't 'do' anything to me and were desperate for something to go wrong so they could say I Told You So. Silly bints.

TheMadonnaWithTheBigBoobies · 09/07/2011 13:52

I'd gone in to be induced following my waters breaking and not a lot happening. Four days after they'd gone, I had a show and I practically cartwheeled my way down the ward to tell DH

And there really aren't the words to describe the moment that baby is pulled up onto your chest. DD is 7wo and born with just a little help from the good ol' g&a, and I just remember saying 'Hello darling' to her perfect, scrunched up, screaming little face :) We had my ipod on too, and 'Feels Like
Home' came on minutes after she was born and DH and I just blubbed.

DS was a venouse baby and I didn't have that same compelling feeling as I did with DD. The best part of his birth was discovering that everying - apart from his talipes - was perfect. We knew to expect severe talipes after my 20 week scan but had been told he good have umpteen other conditions going on. But he didn't and he doesn't and that was just FAB

Hormoneoverload · 09/07/2011 14:58

Congrats-cutiecat! remember the waiting days?

FunnysInTheGarden · 09/07/2011 22:20

oh lord thelittle I am living that "I know you" feeling all over again and it is wonderful!

VelvetSnow · 09/07/2011 22:28

being wheeled into the ward with my daughter in my arms - the proudest moment of my life.

thursday · 09/07/2011 22:36

first time: the drive home from hospital, i didn't start feeling the euphoria or happiness or anything til i got outside. My husband looking at me like i was frigging genius goddess type for months afterwards.

second time: i have very fond memories of being off my face on g&a, music blaring in the delivery room (and it was a lovely room, wish i'd got to stay there) and nearly bouncing clean off my birth ball because i was having such a good time. And then when i finally got to meet her when she was 12 hours old, the relief that i knew her and she knew me. was terrified i wouldnt recognise her. and the lovely mw's man handled me on to my side and then held DD to me so i could feed her, our many drips getting tangled together. was a perfect moment in the worst week of my life.

MynameisnotEarl · 09/07/2011 23:03

What a lovely thread - all first timers should read this

All of the above and the huge rush of love I experienced when I first saw my babies - each time I was totally overwhelmed by the intensity of it.

The whole experience of labour and birth is so exciting and empowering. Women are awesome.

QTPie · 09/07/2011 23:04

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

fotheringhay · 12/07/2011 13:26

The midwives were all lovely, especially the one who held off the doctors because she believed I could push ds out naturally (I did).

Dh was wonderful, and said he was really proud of me.

The epidural worked perfectly and felt all warm and glowy (contractions never got that bad, just needed it because had the drip to speed things up). Gas and air was also nice and gave me some amusing hallucinations.

The tea and toast. In fact all food and drink tasted great afterwards.

Relief that ds was fine, perfect in fact. I could go on but this is getting a bit sickening!

beckynbump · 12/07/2011 22:04

That realisation that labour had started, the lovely newborn baby smell as I cuddled them and feeling so so so proud that once again I had given birth with gas and air only to a wonderful little girl. One week on wth baby number 3 and I still feel so proud of myself.

DancingWind · 13/07/2011 19:27

I agree with QT Pie and Georgimama.

RugbyWidow7 · 14/07/2011 10:41

Amazing thread. I'm nearly 35 weeks, so perfect timing and such a relief from all the horrid usual stories! Thanks ladies! I can't wait now.

MrsVidic · 14/07/2011 10:43

The moment just before we left for hospital when I looked into dp's eyes and we shared the same thought " it's really happening, were having a baby"

The baby coming out and seeing she was pink and well

Seeing the look of pride and awe in dp's eyes

Skin to skin as she fed for 2 hours.

The bath after where I was amazed my bump had shrunk so much and I could see my bits again.

baldbyfifty · 14/07/2011 11:21

When its over!!!!

And that wonderful empowering feeling of how powerful the female body is.
But mostly just it being over was a very very good feeling!!!

Also I think no matter what kind of birth you have there should always always be a sense of pride.

Us women do amazing things!!

KTisPG · 14/07/2011 12:57

Tea with sugar in (I never usually like it) and toast afterwards

Jdub · 14/07/2011 15:13

I just loved EVERY single minute of giving birth and was scared that I wouldn't enjoy my second delivery as much as my first. (Fortunately I did- both with just gas and air!)
I LOVE the fact that what you are doing is just so mind-blowingly amazing, and I pictured every contraction like I was scaling a mountain, and really tried to focus and use the pain constructively! I remember thinking 'big and wide, big and wide!!'.
Best days of my life and would happily give birth every day if I could!!

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