how quickly do you get to clean up?

[kiki22]

I'm a bit of a clean freak and am really worried about what happend once the babys out about getting cleaned up and mess on bed getting cleaned up... I know everyones going to say you won't care but i might i have a friend who is the same and she was totally frekaed out when they put the baby on her while he was all gunky am i may very well react the same, i'm hoping i won't care but feel like i need to know what will happen so i can relax about it.

So basically i want to know what happens to all the gunk on the bed and sheets? when do they clean them and when do i get cleaned up? i'm not talking fully showered just a wipe down.

I know i'm a freak but i can't help feeling sick at the thought of being covered with blood and god knows what else midwife didn't help by laughing and saying if i don't like mess i'm in for a shock :( I feel really guilty for feeling this way i know all i should care about is baby but can't help it.

It's good to have an hour or two of skin to skin after baby is born, then the MWs will help you to get washed etc as soon as you want/feel up to it really. They will wipe most of the gunk off the baby if you want - I just asked them to be dried a bit so they didn't get cold, but not washed as such.

It was next day for me after sections - went for a lovely bath and felt much better, I felt filthy with unwashed hair and visitors seeing me. But

Well I had home births and all the really soiled thongs were cleared immediately into rubbish bags- I don't even remember seeing them. After being stitched I was given clean pants, maternity towels and nighty and cuddled baby for a bit. Full shower within an hour and before the midwives left.

I didn't have soiled thongs!! I meant things

at NickNacks soiled thongs things

I agree it depends on so much. Both SIL and I (with dd) used a birth centre where the delivery room had an en suite bathroom with a shower, I held her baby when she showered and changed less than an hour after birth and dh hold dd when I showered and changed. There were no beds there though, just huge bean bags covered in sheets.

I had ds at home (not planned) and just jumped in the bath, changed then into bed. Dh was in charge of washing/wiping babies all over with wet cotton wool before dressing them, so they were cleaned fairly fast too.

I had 2 waterbirths and my babies did not seem gunky and nor did I so maybe the quick dip sorts it out? They had a quick dry from the MW with a towel and then I had skin to skin with them under the towel. It was lovely.

DD was born at 6.39, I went into theatre at about 7 for stitches and placenta removal. I was out by 8 and the lovely MW passed me my stuff from my washbag and helped me get cleaned up in recovery - so 90 minutes and that's with a surgical interlude! I imagine downstairs was given a decent clean in theatre anyway but I think as soon as you are able to get clean, you can. They shouldn't leave you too long, mainly because it means they can get the room ready for the next birth once you're out

Great

My friend tells the story of her sons birth and her asking not to have baby passed to her until he was cleaned up, MW delivered her DS on to her tummy to which she started screaming 'GET IT OFF GET IT FUCKING OFF' at the top of her lungs and waving her arms around like a looney! since hearing this i have been having visions of me doing the same lol. Friend says she'll forever be ashamed of her insanity :(

I'm not a clean freak but think I got in the shower after about an hour. I feed dd2 and then let dh have skin to skin while I showered. Midwife cleaned up sheets while I was in shower.

Maybe opt for a water birth instead! I would have lived to hVe seen everyone's face when your friend shouted that Kiki

I don't think the midwife should have laughed at you. We all have different anxieties about giving birth. It doesn't get really messy until the end - I was at home for 10 hours out of a 13.5 hour labour and had bath and shower during that time and washed hair.

The bed had a padded mat thing and a kind of folded 'draw sheet' under me that were changed when my waters went and almost as soon as DD was born. This took care of most of the mess.

I had a really nice bath about 1.5 hours after she was born despite lots of stitches - couldn't have managed a shower at that point mind!

I loved skin to skin with DD and she wasn't as gunky as I'd thought she'd be but if you don't like the idea why don't you put in your birth plan you'd prefer her to have a quick wipe down first?

One if the most important things is to talk to the midwife when you arrive and to make sure your birth partner helps if there is a shift change before you deliver.

It's nit an unusual concern so they will have heard it all before.

It all depends on so much, I wasn't aware of tge mess ie blood etc for quite a while. In fact with ds the waters broke whilst I was pushing so extra messy but I was a bit busy pushing him out to worry about it. That said tge first thing I said to tge mw when I got to deliver was that I was taking off my trousers because they hadn't gone yet and I hadn't packed any spare trousers

my midwife is lovely but doesn't have kids and has never been pregnant and i find at times she doesn't 'get it' she obviously does from her years experience and study but doesn't really understand how pregnancy can make you a bit all over the place.

I'm really hoping once i'm there with baby in my arms i won't give a fuck but you never know!

It depends! For example, DD was born in theatre and was whisked straight to the resus bed as she wasn't breathing. By the time they brought her to me about five mins later, she'd been wiped down, wrapped in a sheet & had the hat we'd taken in popped on her head. As soon as I'd been stitched up, I was transferred from the operating table back to onto the bed on which I'd been labouring being going to theatre but they had changed the sheets.

I spent about an hour on the post labour ward cuddling & feeding DD & having skin to skin and then got wheeled back to the delivery suite. As we got there, the emergency button sounded and, as the MW I'd had was the head MW, she disappeared to deal with that and DP, DD and I were pretty much left alone for the next 2 -3 hours (which was bliss - just gave us a chance to chill 7 vaguely figure out what to do with DD). Only after that was I brought tea, toast & given a sponge bath. It wasn't until they started cleaning me that I even noticed my lower body was covered with blood & gunk. How I thought I would have stayed clean, I have no idea! The delivery room I was in was en suite so if I hadn't had an epidural, presumably, I would have been able to get up & go & get washed.

That evening I had my first post-birth shower & it was bliss. I felt as though I was able to wash my feet properly for the first time in MONTHS.

I must be a bit the opposite as I think brand new babies when they are all covered in gunk are THE most beautiful thing in the world.

Does anyone remember that Benetton billboard ad from the 80's which showed a brand new baby with umbilical cord still attached? It offended a lot of people because it showed a baby covered in blood & mess...as if we don't all come into the world that way! (Of course it was still a stupid advert because the baby had nothing whatsoever to do with Benetton clothes, but that's a different matter...)

On the other hand I do regard the rest of the gunk - umbilical cord and placenta - as a bit 'eurrrgh' and hope it is all got rid of as soon as possible without me seeing it.

There wasn't any "gunk" as far as I could tell. I had a home water birth and my baby was clean when I lifted her from the water to take her first breath in my arms. I guess as my waters broke in the pool any debris was in the pool so once that was emptied (which I wasn't aware of - my partner did it and says it only took 30 mins. most of that time he was with me and our baby, he only had to go to the kitchen where the pool was to check it every so often) there wasn't anything else to clear up. I sat on a big maternity pad and a paper mat thing the midwives brought to catch any drips afterwards but I didn't lose much blood, only 50ml according to my notes. I didn't tear or need stitches so there wasn't even much to do afterwards, except dress my baby, an feed her. Once she feel asleep, about an hour after her birth I had a shower before the midwife left, then we were ready to eat our tea etc. I don't remember there being anything to do - one of the the midwives helped my partner pack the pool and they took the placenta away with them in a box after I'd had a look at it. The midwife caught the placenta in the box as it dropped out of me so there was no mess.

The umbilical cord is an odd thing, but it's not messy, it's just a strange soft thing, it's not dry and wrinkly as i had thought and it looks quite pale too, almost white, not how I expected, like a bit of sinew or something, and stretchy, it wasn't red or bloody-looking at all. The only time it looked pink, wrinkly and dried out was when the bit still attached to our baby fell off after about 5 days. Even the placenta wasn't too bloody, it was just kind of jellyish, a bit meaty looking, but quite interesting, smooth on one side (the bit not attached to me) and kind of pock-marked with tiny craters on the other side where the blood vessels had been and where it had been attached to me. Quite an amazing thing really. I couldn't help being thrilled by the fact that we grow a whole new organ when pregnant!

I loved seeing mine with cord and gunk etc. Seeing them like that made them feel really new and really mine if that makes sense. I wanted ds1 and ds2 to see ds3 like that but he was born at night so they couldn't. I don't think they would have been impressed though . I think it was about an hour after birth each time that I got cleaned up. I had toast and a drink before that though so I expect you could have a bath first if you wanted. I found it easier to leave it as long as possible because once I was wearing clothes I was worried about leaking blood onto my jeans/pj trousers for the first day or so but when I was just sat on the padded mat thing I wasn't worried about leaking.

gourd I thought the placenta was amazing too. I asked to see it with all the boys. With ds2 I had a student midwife and she got quite enthusiastic when I asked to see the placenta and she shiowed me the blood vessels and explained how they can tell that it was complete. It was fascinating.

Ha. I was just about to assure you that some babies aren't that hunky, but checked with dh first and he assures me they were both very hunky but were wiped down before being handed to me. I'm not convinced because I am sure hey were both born straight onto my belly .

Hunky!

Oh ffs. Gunky. Not hunky. My babies were not hunky.