Anyone had a natural birth in hospital?

[MrsHuxtable]

I'm wondering. I'd like to hear some positive and lovely birth stories. Has anyone on here managed to have a natural and intervention free birth at hospital?
If so, was it hard to get it?

Am doing the bad thing of not reading all the thread but was wondering exactly what people mean by "natural". DS's birth definitely not natural - forceps delivery followed by lots of blood loss followed by epidural to sew me up again.

With DD I did have diamorphine but no stitches and no other trauma. Felt pretty natural and actually quite wonderful to me.

Seeker I think going into birth with maximum information and an idea of what you want to do can only be a good thing.

Maximum information includes the crucial point that birth is not predictable, and the resources available at the time of labour and birth are not predictable. I feel some women have been very badly set up to feel that there's only one 'good' way to do this thing, which is of course utter guff. Flexibility and compromise do have to be taught as part of ante-natal classes, and aren't always. It's a bit of a minefield really.

Very true proon - But wouldn't it be good if the "resources available at the time of labour and birth" could be a little bit more predictable ?

Yes, both times, though I did have gas and air with my first.
My body is designed to give birth and did so naturally without any interference from me or anybody else. DD was even born on her due date.
I wish I could say the same about being pregnant- had awful hyperemeses both times and was very ill.

Oh yes jugglingwithpumpkins - that's a given.

It's not a clear picture, though. Many, many women go into labour and have interventions and get treated well and are manifestly content with the way things went, and so they should be. Hospitals by and large provide an environment where you can have most interventions safely, routinely, happily-delivered. That's predictable. Midwives are now trained on this basis. The trouble comes if you want to be safe, but 'undisturbed'.

Hi proon
Has there been much research on how content/ happy women are with the care they received during labour, birth, and immediate post-natal period ?
I wonder how many are truly "manifestly content with the way things went" ?
I'd say many that are would be seeing things through the rose-tinted spectacles of utter delight in their newborn !
If someone really took the trouble to ask I'd guess most, though generally happy with their care, could suggest a few sometimes significant and wide-reaching improvements.
BTW Why is it every trivial course I go on asks for a feedback form, but for something momentous like the birth of my DC's, there's little opportunity to say anything in the way of feedback that might help others (except perhaps on here !!)

IME having a natural birth takes a lot of time, and nowadays you can't really occupy the facilities for the 18 or so hours it took me to give birth, twice, at home!

So I was surprised (but very pleased) that so many people have had such good natural birth experiences in hospital. But what really swung it for me was being, at the most, 10 minutes away from a really good hospital. With local hospitals closing - the nearest to us is now half an hour away and more at rush hour -I'm not sure I would feel quite confident enough to do it again.

Yes - but that might be due in no small part to ds1's appearance about 1.5hrs after we arrived at hospital.

I had an elcs with no1 then 3 vbacs. Vbac1 I had pethidine and gas. Vbac 2 I had nothing other than massage. Vbac3 I had gas and massage.

yes several "normal" births but I was more than happy for the unexpected intervention from medics for DD1...she would be dead if it had been left to 'mother nature'........having intervention is partly up to you and what you can cope with and partly what you need. I don't know any medics or midwives who WANT to intervene when it's not necessary...they want you to leave hospital with you healthy, a healthy baby and a nice experience...in that order...if it all goes tits up and you need help, well c'est la vie. Be happy they are there to help!!

Best of luck with your experience.;

I had a natural birth in hospital. For me the best thing I did was stay at home as long as possible though and keep moving. I had paracetamol and TENS at home, things were moving quite slowly and a little trip out in the car suddenly ramped things up a lot! I got to the hospital at about, hmm, 7pm.

I did have gas and air then as quite painful, but very soon after arriving at the hospital I started pushing, baby was born at 9.30pm :)

Does gas and air count as an intervention? If not then I had a had a natural birth with #2.

I was checked on arrival and then my sister (birth partner) and lovely midwife just chatted away and supported me. I even had to suggest to them that I might want to take my knickers off!

The pool was just about full enough to get in after DS was born so I had a lovely cuppa in there while discreetly washing some of the vernix off his masses of hair!

Oh, I got there at 8pm and he arrived at 9pm. It's funny how some people who have not had children go "wow that was easy then!" and I gently remind them that my toes were curling somewhat on arrival.

I have had 3 lovely, natural births in hospital. They were spread over 10 years and 3 hospitals and I didn't write birth plans.
I just count myself very lucky that for once childbirth hips are useful.

Am rusty on research, juggling, but just from my own circle of friends, there are plenty of women who've had births they class as "good" and they range from absolutely no intervention (home or hospital) to "went in for 2nd birth desperately wanting another go at it, decided quickly on 2nd CS and am glad I did". I would say that the thing they have in common was being treated well by staff.

There are also some women who were surprised how variable the same hospital can be, and felt they didn't get the same chance to labour "actively" than perhaps their friends did. That disparity feels very unfair, I think. And I wonder how you can prepare people for that. Most of us ask around our friends to find out about the place we're going to give birth in, but we just don't get the chance to choose a midwife, yet she's pretty much the one who defines the birth experience for a lot of women. I'd love there to be one-to-one care throughout pregnancy. Hard cheese though if you get a "ha ha first timers always say the same things and it never works" kind of midwife though.

Yes, I have had two positive labours in hospital, with the only interventions being G&A
Not sure what you mean by "hard to get it" - it's what they assume unless you ask specifically for e.g. an epidural, or unless things go wrong

Bonkers that was the number 1 bit of advice I got when preparing for birth: stay out of hospital for as long as you can. It makes sense. Labour better at home, take up less time in hospital so use fewer resources, less time for interventions to happen = usually better if nothing wrong.

At the time in our area, you could ring the community midwife to get her to come to your house and assess your progress. I think that's a great idea but of course it costs money.

Both of my dd were natural births at hospital. Stayed at home, walking around, hot baths etc, till toes were curling. When I arrived at hospital I was sent to the birthing centre and two hours later babies were here.

Both experiences were very calm, lovely and positive. I think trusting in your ability to deliver and going with what your body tells you helps tremendously. I really wanted to be on my feet as much as possible, and found the ability to pace around the room good! It was reassuring to have the midwife and technology there though, but ultimately knowing as much as possible about the process and ' going with it' was what I found to help.

Yep, it helped that I was already 9cm when I left for hospital, waters broke in the car, she was out two hours later. I was very lucky to get my ante-natal midwife who knew me and my desire to go au natural, and the fact that we were on a 1-2-1 scheme and she stayed with me. We got the pool room but didn't have the time to fill it. My body did its thing and my brain went all stone-age and just went with the flow. Didn't even have the syntometrin (sp?) jab. I had one gulp of gas and air for stitches (minor) and was very very glad I hadn't had it before as I made me feel ghastly. We were left alone, skin to skin, on a mahoosive bean bag to gaze at DD1 with her enormous blue eyes and feed. I think the staff see people arrive with their cushions and birthing ball and know exactly what you're about ;-)

Whats missing in this thread is...INDUCEMENT.... once you are under pressure to drop within the week or so after this stupid EDD (which can be 5 days out either way) then you have no option other than be under the control of the hospital.

So many lucky lucky ladies go into labour naturally and both times I didnt. What I read if you go in natural then your more likely to have the birth you want.

Once chemicals are induced into your system you can forget it.

To this day the both events have saddened me - far too much pressure. I dont feel I can discuss 'birth' as I was never given the opportunity to do what my body was designed to do....I wanted a VBAC on the second and that ended in a crash section. There was no reason why I couldnt have gone into labour naturally if I had been left alone. I see no reason to induce if 2 weeks over as not all badies are ready at 40 weeks, many are 42 and if the scan dates are a few days out then its more 43 weeks.

Must point out too if you havent slept for a few nights and havent eaten all day with gas and air - its difficult to have mind over body.

Anyway, enough about you. My ds's leg. What's going on?

Oops. Wrong thread. Sorry!

DS1 was induced two weeks early but I had no pain killers or other drugs and the birth was fine, DS1 I walked in the the hospital and said I was having a baby and 19 mins later there he was, again no pain meds

Although DS1 was induced (two weeks early due to him having stopped growing) All I had was one pessary to start laboure and then nothing else I had a VB and it was all fine

my ds1 was born at home. not a fantastic labour, felt very out of control at times, but ok. I knew it would be better second time round, but second time round turned out to be twins, which I was scared to have at home and normally means a very medicalised hospital birth. I started discussing a birth plan with a senior midwife and my consultant and got it signed off by both. it basically said "no doctors"

I got great midwife care, when the doctors didn't stay away as they had promised the midwives told them they couldn't come in, and I had two normal births, with gas and air and electronic monitoring the only intervention. and this wasn't in a birth unit but the attached delivery unit about which I had only heard bad things.

my advice is: do your homework, be assertive, get your plan agreed and signed off in red ink by someone senior, and have a birth partner or doula who will help you stand your ground.

my hospital birth was a million times better than my homebirth, so yes, it is possible to have a lovely normal birth in hospital. good luck.