Anyone want to share a GOOD birth story?!

[BellaCB]

It just seems like everyone has horror stories! And not just the people who are overly keen to share horrific stories - for all my family and friends who have had babies over the past few years its been a litany of forceps, 4-day labours, emcs, inductions with pain off the scale, filthy hospitals...!

I'm 32w with DC1 and could really, really do with hearing about a pretty decent birth before I terrify myself into utter panic!

should have said 11.30pm

DD will be a year old as of this coming Sunday and I'm still pleased about how well her birth went.

She was born at home in a little under 12 hours with no tearing. I moved about and vocalised a lot. There were some funny moments too which I will share though one is extremely geeky. At one point, DH told me I sounded like a Klingon warrior woman. I asked him if he wanted me to throw things at him as this is what Klingon women do to men they fancy. He thought I was having the stereotypical sense of humour failure and meant it, but we had a good laugh when I explained I was joking.

The other one came near the end when a particularly strong contraction made me say " Arrrgh, fuckin' hell!" My midwife's response?

"Oh good, you're swearing."

I also kept in mind something I read on here which was that contractions are finite. Every one brings you one step closer to your baby. I would say let your body guide you.

Ds2. Went in at 10.30 with contractions every three minutes. Wandered, got bored, got tired. Went to sleep. Got woken up at 6.10 a.m. Can you push now Dawndonna, we can see baby's head. Ds2 Born at 6.15. No stitches, no tears, nada. Went home at 2.30 that afternoon.

I've had 4 good births - all different but I do love giving birth. Of course - it's painful but more the pain of effort and endurance than of injury or illness. And you and the baby are a team - in it together. My first was 26 hours - hospital birth. At home until contractions 3 mins apart and had an epidural towards the end since I was exhausted but not stressed - all felt safe and full of anticipation. Yoga ball really helped and TENS machine. A little graze but nothing bad. It gave me the confidence to have a home birth with number 2. 12 hour labour, went for walks round the block, sat in warm bath, gave birth to my son standing up in the bathroom. No tears or grazes, all very peaceful. Number 3 also at home - no tears etc and a 3 hour labour. Midwives only in the house for an hour since she was born as they came up the stairs of our flat! I was on all fours. An hour after she arrived I'd had a lovely bath, DH had done all the washing and 3 uncles arrived with champagne. Brilliant!

Just had number 4 on Monday - he is about to be a week old. Had gestational diabetes so more clinical and managed than the home births. Was in hospital for 3 days being induced - a bit tense because talk of a C-section if the prostin didn't work. But tablet 3 worked to dilate me gently to 3 cms and than had my waters broken. All kicked off within half an hour and I had 15 mins contractions and 7 mins pushing - so 22 mins and then another 28 for the placenta. Lovely midwives, let me be on all fours, no time for monitoring, very very supportive and peaceful, dimly lit room with radio on. Tea and toast afterwards. Really wonderful in the end, despite not being able to have a home birth. SO...I am fine after giving birth a week ago - no stitches, tired from feeding but very happy. The thing that has always helped me is calm steady breathing, sort of ride the contractions and let your body guide you. Good luck - there are lots of great birth stories. And some people like a horror story so are more willing to tell them! Enjoy your birth - it's really the most profound and glorious thing when that baby is put in your arms. And that's what all those contractions are bringing you to.

I had 2 nice births, first was an induction but with very little intervention and the second was a planned(ish) homebirth. My contractions were very mild but as they started to get uncomfortable I went for a lie down while DH had dinner with DD1 and within minutes it all intensified and he was on the phone to the hospital who sent out the paramedics. DD2 was born in my pants while I still had all my clothes and slippers on, DD1 bouncing on the bed and DH had a slice of pizza in his hand.
It was such a funny and quick experience I almost feel I managed to skip labour altogether.

I had two hyperemisis pregnancies, followed by two emcs. I haven two lovely, healthy dc. That is what I consider good birth stories.

I had my ds in West Africa in 1970-dh was working there and I didnt want to come home alone 12 weeks before the birth.I started with mild back ache about 8pm and dh insisted on our going to hospital.I was in labour but the mw said a long way to go but I was Rhneg so they wanted me to stay in.About noon next day the obstetrician came in and examined me[still really mild back-ache].I said ,@Cant I go home for a bit,I am bored'.He said,'Stop talking and push your baby's here!!!'So I did and 15 minutes later...there he was :)
DD was born in England 4 years later and once again I needed no pain relief just breathing exercises[Erna Wright-The New Childbirth].The worst part was when the kept insisting on pressing gas and air on me even though I said I didnt need it.
My dd had similar birth experiences with her two although they were both very quick.With her ds2 she went to hosp at 9pm and rang me at 11.50 to announce his arrival.Its not all gloom and doom.

I had an induction, contractions started after 3-4 hours and I gave birth 4 1/2 hours later using lovely gas and air and pethidine. No tears and no tears! It was lovely.

Strandedunderthemisltoe - oh my goodness that is one amazing story.

two exhilarating yet calm, planned sections. i remember every moment of each with happiness and so grateful to my wonderful ob/gyn (one in singapore, and here in uk)

wonderful recovery, was treated with such kindness, and both girls safe and easy feeders.

i have a lump in my throat thinking how lucky we were to have such treatment

Two best days of my life - short labours (7 and 5 hours), easy deliveries. I did have an epidural on both occasions so don't rule it out (lots of horror stories about those I remember when I was planning my own first birth in France where it was that or nothing). I would just add don't worry about it - I worried like mad before the first one, but it's totally pointless. There are so many variables you have no control over - length of labour, position of baby - I think you have to be prepared to go with the flow. Don't get too stressed out if you have to deviate from your plan - it's something that is very hard to plan for until you have actually done it iyswim. Good luck - and enjoy it!

My DD was two weeks late so I was admitted to hospital to be induced. At lunch time I met with other women on the ante-natal ward. One woman (who looked around 50) told us she had been feeling ill after a holiday to Florida. Her doctor could find nothing wrong with her. Her twenty-something (age) children took her to Harley street for a second opinion. She was pregnant. I laughed so much (we all did), my waters broke and I just about made it to the labour ward before my daughter arrived!

Good Luck!

Just wanted to add another c-section 'good' birth story. I've had 2 planned c-sections as both my DC's were breech and refused to turn. Theatre staff we came across were great, lovely relaxing atmosphere in theatre, radio playing, all very calm and reassuring, skin to skin contact as soon as they'd given them the once over. Recovery was a doddle, which I wasn't expecting! Up and about within 12 hours, I suppose you're a tad delicate/wary because you've got stitches but not in any pain afterwards. With DD it was the norm to stay in 4 nights but with DS it had changed to only having to stay in 2 nights, felt great when I got home and able to get about as normal. People think I make it up when I say how great it was, but honestly it was a really positive experience for me and DH

OP, I can honestly say I LOVE giving birth!

DS1 was a longish labour (27 hours from the first contraction, 20 hours from 5cm dilated) but still a positive experience - no complications, and I felt happy with my decision to have an epidural.

DD and DS2 were both three and a half hours from first contraction.

And by the way I also love gas and air!!

My waters broke on the wednesday morning about 9 am and i continued as normal, my mum in law came up to see us and be about for the birth. Went through all of thursday out shopping, buting carpet, playstations, a new bed and a whole load of shopping. Nothing else really seamed to be happening so my MIL went back home to margate, and then at about half 11 on thursday night the pains started to get quite bad so i phoned the labour suite. I then during the early hours of the morning and was assessed and put on the monitoring ward, as i was only three cm but my husband didnt want me to go back home. So they sent my husband home, telling him i would be hours yet, so he went home to bed as i hadnt been able to sleep cos it was too hot for the previous three nights, only to get a phone call 1hour amnd 20mins later to tell him to get to the hospital quick or he would miss the birth. My baby son was born at 7.32 am on friday morning. I only had gas and air, he was born perfectly healthy and i didnt even tear or need stitches. I also remember as my sons head was being born turning round and saying to my ex-husband, that it was friday and he had a driving lesson at half nine in the morning. So labour is not that bad at all. So much for all those other screaming women i could hear. x

4 births, 4 inductions and 4 healthy babies. All births were "good" - but hard work! First 3 induced on each occasion for a different reason, epidural, vb and very quick recovery. Planned the same for the 4th, but obstetrician had a gut feeling something may not be right during birth, so kept me in for another induction with particular care to be taken when arm due to worry over prolapsed cord - which apparently becomes a higher risk on us 4+ mams. All going well, then babies heartbeat disappeared, cord prolapsed, pushed down corridor at speed, general anaesthetic and 1 baby born alive..... Came round with my husband holding baby on for a breast feed! Maybe not traditionally a good birth - but a live baby and I have no regrets or bad feelings about it.

I had the most fantastic birth. I was petrified but when my waters broke, I was so calm and excited.

Our midwife at hospital was fantastic and my husband and I had a great laugh throughout.

Its painful but manageable with help! ha.

The best bit was our daughter Maisie was born on her sisters 10th Birthday!

There is nothing about my birth (which took 30 hours by the way) that i disliked.

I hope you have a fab experience.

Lindsey x

Me me me!! I did and I'd do it all over again tomorrow if i could without. Hand on heart. It was so very very special. I was prepared for the worst pain ever but it was managable. I chattered in between contractions and rocked/bounced through any pain. I had what I though were braxton hicks from lunch time and then about 9 i knew i was in labour. Popped along to the hospital and I was 8cm dilated and gave birth soon after.

My advice to you is to do everything to get your babe into the correct birthing position and to avoid having a back to back. That means sitting forwards and using gravity to have the spine at the front of the belly. Start in the next week or so.

The other thing you can do is stay relaxed. Don't let the fear of the unknown work the birth into something really massive, unbearable and dramatic in your mind. Believe you can give birth well - like lots of women. Yes it will hurt - but you can do it!

5 hrs in labour with 1st DC; 2.5 hrs 2nd DC. The most stressful thing about both was wondering whether we'd make it to hospital in time..Arrived at 10cm dilated and ready to push in both cases. (I did have a pretty nasty stitches experience with DC1, but that's another story!). I felt like superwoman after both and was so so proud of myself, my DH and of course overawed and in love with the baby in each case. As they were both so quick there was non of the water, candles, whale music stuff, and in some ways they were quite frenetic but from my point of view the speediness was definitely a good thing! Having said that, there's a range of 2 to 60 hours in lengths of labours amongst my good friends and the majority of the girls would say they had positive birth experiences, even those who had long labours and more 'medicalised' births. Don't worry, be happy...!

And good luck!

Similar to bigkidsdidit I had induction and a few interventions so you can definitely have a good birth experience even if it isn't a natural birth. I was induced with the pessary because I was overdue and then my waters broke but no contractions happened. So I was put on the drip to make contractions stronger. Gas and air didn't work very well after a while so I had an epidural which killed nearly all the pain. I pushed DD out with no need for forceps or ventouse. Had some tearing but it healed up nicely and DH and I started having sex again when DD was around 3 months old and everything is back to normal down there! Don't listen to the scare stories. People always tell horrible birth stories to pregnant women for some reason!! :)

I had a good one! Only had 1 birth so far...

Planned homebirth. Waters went in bed the night before but had no contractions or twinges etc. 9 am rang midwife who came over, confirmed it was my waters but then left as nothing was happening. 5pm twinges started and a midwife came at around an hour later. Used TENS for 2 hours then got into pool. 1 hr of gas and air and DD born at 11.20 that night. About 6 hours start to finish and painful but definitely manageable.

Best bit a gorgeous lasagne in bed at 2am with the 3 of us snuggled up.

The next 4 months were much harder and the least well planned bit of the whole "having a baby" thing.

3 dcs, all home births, very straightforward and fine. 6hrs first, 3 hours for 2nd and 3rd. Hugely empowering and wonderful events. Interesting how many of the births on this thread are home births.

looking back my first two were relatively straightforward births, both shortish labours and my dd1's birth I was so chilled and not panicky at all. I did have an epidural but I felt so in control about the whole thing. No tears, n o stitches and I was out the next day. Fantastic.

Didnt have a good time at all with the third dc but thats not for this thread.

fourth baby, elective c section, done well, recovered quickly, out of hospital 3 days later, very chilled.

oh and I got shitfaced on morphine on the last c section, quite an experience!