What did you do when you were in labour?

[CharliesMummyMeg]

I went into labour at 9.30pm while i was in bed reading a mag, i had full back labour no pain in my tummy, I was so tired i just wanted to sleep. My only regret when i was in labour was that i for some reason didnt go downstairs. I shouted down the stairs to my fella that i was in labour and ended up staying upstairs making trips to the bathroom for baths and use of toilet but didnt actually go down stairs until i went to hospital at about half 1.
I wish i went downstairs and did more instead of just try to sleep, and i wish i held out longer at home but i didnt have a very supportive other half and felt i needed to go to hospital so i was in the right place with support.

I feel really bad because i pictured myself going downstairs and saying "im in labour!" and i pictured pottering around the house but instead i stayed upstairs lay in bed and pottering around the bloody bedroom. I kept trying to sleep which made my labour longer because of lack of movment, i know im being silly because i did really well. Do you have any regrets when you went into labour? did you picture you doing something other than what you did? How long did you last at home? Was your partner supportive?

With ds I decided to empty a big wardrobe of all the crap that I had chucked in there. I filled up 6 black bags of rubbish. It took me about 6 hours and by the time I finished I knew I should get to the hospital. I was 7cm.

My ex-p was very unsupportive too. I woke him up to tell him I was in labour and he told me to have a bath and went back to sleep. Didn't even open his eyes. Once in hospital I got onto the bed and refused to move off my back. Wild horses couldn't have moved me at that point.

with dd1 I ended up flat on a hospital bed being monitored as my waters went and there was meconium in them.

Dd2 I was adamant that I was going to be up and mobile as much as possible. The reality was that as soon as I sat in the birth pool I refused to change position again. Dp and mw's tried their best but I am a stubborn person and would not budge.

You were obviously just doing what your body was telling you to do at the time.

thank you for your reply. My partner also told me to have a bath and went back to sleep only to wake a few hours later to shout at me for being to loud...
Thanks for being supportive of me, feel like an idiot moaning about it really.... next one i wish to be more mobile maybe do some housework but then again i am forgetting the pains of childbirth already i guess

I woke in labour and went into full on panic. Even the neighbours heard me screaming. Got to hospital and it all stopped

Spent 5 hours wandering the hospital grounds before demanding to go home. We went and bought a new car (felt like the thing to do at the time) then went to my mums. Stayed with mum another 5 hours or so and got back to hospital to discover I was 3cm they let me stay though, and I laboured in the delivery room for another 8 hours before DS finally decided to appear. I tohught I would feel confined when in the delivery room as I like to move about, but I stripped off (mum wasn't impressed but I didn't care) and just pottered about

Please don't beat yourself up over how it all started, obviously you just went with what felt right. I thought if I woke in labour I would calmly wake DH and go for a bath. Instead he was woken with a thump to the head and me screaming bloody murder at him!

Haha sorry to laugh i had an image in my head of you whacking your dh and screaming at him - bless you.... thank you xx

Charlies I doubt whether going back to bed had any effect on the length of your labour so please try not to worry too much about that.

I think we often have ideas of how we will behave when we are pregnant, in labour or with our newborns and very often this picture does not match upto the reality. It doesn't mean we are doing wrong though, in fact by following your instincts and not your imagined plan you are usually doing exactly the right thing.

For my first labour I went back to bed and tried to sleep. When to the hospital when I needed the drugs. With DC2 I didn't even bother trying to stay at home at all, rang the hospital after the second contraction but DC1 was quickish and DC2 was even quicker so going back to bed with DC1 didn't seem to cause me any problems.

thank you :)

With ds1 I didn't realise I was in labour as I was being sick and had the runs ( as well as getting pains) so thought it was food poisoning from our night out I spent most of the time pacing the front room thinking I was never going to cope with labour if I couldn't cope with this.

Went to see out of hours gp who said I was in labour as I had then had a show so went to hospital where I was examined and full dilated. 1 1/2 hours later ds1 was born 5 weeks early, bless him.

With ds2 my waters broke about 2am but as I didn't have any pain I went downstairs and watched a dvd while writing a list of things for my mum to cancel/do while I was in labour. Rang the hospital to let them know I would be coming in later and then had a shower, put on make up and did hair beofre leaving poor DH was telling me to hurry up. Ds2 was born half hour after we arrived at hospital.

Always said if we had any more ( not going to now) I would have just stayed at home.

inchoccyheaven wow two very diff laburs there!
nappymaestro thank you

Charliesmummymeg I never believed people who said they had good labours as I just didn't understand that being in pain could ever be classed as good, but both births were brilliant and not at all as I had expected. I gave birth to ds2 standing up, holding onto the edge of the bed and all that gravity might have helped speed him up lol.

Yeah I am not convinced things ever go as planned! I would have loved a water birth. I had a mound of bleeding for the 2nd time at 33 weeks so packed bag for hospital, not expecting to actually give birth on this trip... Due to bleeding, I didn't get anywhere near the birthing pool, was induced in the end and baby came out not breathing, then was whisked away and put into and incubator.

I regret not being able to hold him right away like most people get to do, and it freaked me out that he wasn't breathing.

At the end of the day though, we have a beautiful, healthy little boy who has not suffered at all due to his abrupt arrival. What a blessing! So even though it wasn't anything like we expected, we're no worse off for it now :)

I was a week late, and I remember bursting for the toilet at 2.50am ( I hated getting up constantly for the toilet ) and actually i thought i was peeing once i stood up!! i tried to stop but i couldnt, then i realised my waters had actually broke! i panicked and sat downstairs for about 30 mins then contractions started so i had to tell my other half. then the hospital finally let us in about 6am. little one came at 4.32pm.

at 7cms when midwife examined me

20mins later i was a mummy (home birth; i had called midwife cause i thought something was happening, and then i was sick... but it didnt really hurt much and i thought it was supposed to hurt so i didnt think it was labour)

My birth pool was too hot so i gave birth in the sofa instead

With both DC I lay on a hospital bed, being monitored unable to move after needing an induction.
With DS1 I had the drip - hellish the only way to cope was to have epidural.
With DS2 I couldn't move because if I moved his heart rate drop - only way to cope was an epidural.
Both delivered in theatre 1 forceps 2 emergency CS,
If I did it again I do not intend to labour at all. I will just head straight to theatre and cut out the hell I went through before.

Ds1 was a nightmare and I don't really like talking about it.
Dd1 was brilliant. 7hrs, very mobile. I walked around a lot and transition was about 10mins.
Ds2 I did nothing in labour at all as it was 20mins start to finish and I didn't get to hospital obviously. It was great though.

Hi OP it sounds like you did just fine! If it makes you feel any better, I did all the 'right' things in labour with DS - was supposed to be a home birth, moved around loads in birth pool, stayed in 'good positions' but despite this, he turned and got stuck at the last minute, cue emergency transfer to hospital and EMCS. With DD I was asleep and woke up fully dilated and within 5 mins had a baby! So I think going back to bed is a good thing!

Ps my DP said when I woke him up at 7am to say I'm in labour with DS (I'd been up since 5!) "oh I'd better have a lie in then because I can tell its going to be a long day" and then didn't get up till 10!

Honestly my only regret is fretting for at least a year after DS that I hadn't had a 'good' labour and I'd somehow failed by having a CS. Sense has now prevailed, I blame my NCT teacher for giving me bad eye and sighing when we recounted our birth stories

thank you everyone

I went into labour a week early and had a brilliant birth experience. It was during last September's bizarre heat wave so I spent most of my labour taking seriously vigorous walks outside the hospital trying to get my stubborn DD to come out.

I think I just wish I had not panicked and rushed to hospital about 3 times before I actually had to go in and be induced.

OP I also had images of pottering around the house but ended up shut up in my bedroom and didn't want to get out of bed either.

My DP didn't believe me and rolled over and went back to sleep. In fairness it was about 3:45am and he had work at 8am. Actually I had told him about half an hour before this but he seemed a bit too sleepy to understand. He was totally unbelieving that my water had broken even when I was on the phone informing my mother of what was happening. It was only when a good gush of fluid presented itself instead of a trickle (sorry for TMI) that he started rushing around the house like a madman.

My labours both started around midnight so trying to sleep as much as possible was definitely the best thing to do!
Worked better with dc1, as with dc2 I had a stonking cold and needed to blow my nose around every contraction!

Both times ran a bath at around 6am, first time enjoyed the bath for over an hour until MrNC wandered in, then waters broke, hospital confirmed we could stay put or come in but there was a pool available if we'd like that - we went in a couple hours later when there was bleeding, and I enjoyed the pool for ages. Until getting out after 12 hours, and pelvis problems required epidural, syntocin, and eventually ventouse as ds was getting distressed.

Second time had to phone my parents to ask them to come over ASAP to look after ds, then bath was OK, but then skipped the 12 hours of tedium I'd had in first labour and went straight to 'SPD pelvis falling apart' and MrNC got me dressed and to hospital, where they flipped through my notes, I got the epidural, then eventually the consultants thought that as we couldn't get me into a good pushing position even though it was almost working, might as well use a ventouse again. It would have been nice to go to hosp earlier this time so could cuddle ds first (rather than DH hiding him from my crying) and might have got pain relief before needing the epidural, but suspect it would have made little difference - ds really didn't care as he had 2 days being doted on by gps!

I was induced so in hospital. We played pass the pigs to pass the time.

DS - stayed in a dark room once it started hurting. In there all day (about 8-10 hours).

DD - went shopping/walking, stopping to breathe through the painful contractions. Got home, ate dinner, put DS to bed then tried to snooze. Went to hospital once i realised it was close - DD born 45 mins later.

DD's was better as I didn't focus on labour all the time and walking def helped. However with DS I think needed to focus as it was my first.

I am terrible - I went to the pub with DH actually it was just for lunch and alcohol wasn't involved but our home was full of builders and dd had gone the gp's so we had a meal together on out tod. Wasn't the most relaxing but actually made for a nicer labour as I was aware of other people enjoying their lunch. I also bumped into a colleague so didn't want to be screaming the house down or the pub down !

1st labour I was induced and sat on a bed, walked around the hospital and went to visit a friend who had just had a csec in the same hospital. That was nice. The rest of it was a bit of a pethidine blur tbh......

This thread makes interesting reading as I believe I am actually in latent labour now. Lost plug on sat morning, plus v loose bowels. Irregular contractions coming and going all day but not hugely painful....tried to do as much as could but have severe SPD so not very mobile anyway. Had a bath before bed, and slept fairly well....nothing doing all day sunday so we went out for lunch! Sunday evening another bath, and then seemed to lose ANOTHER plug which threw me slightly....again, slept fine overnight, and today am uncomfortable and have had a few contractions but nothing remarkable. Have got a session of reflexology booked this afternoon which I hope will help. Am 39 weeks today and really want him out! Its my first and the waiting is killing me, as is the SPD!

My first labour lasted about 27 hours. My waters broke at 5pm on a Sunday and contractions started almost immediately. Watched Lord of the Rings on TV with a towel between my legs. Went to the hospital around 11pm - I was 5cm when the mw examined me, which seemed pretty good, but I progressed slowly from then, so most of my labour took place in the hospital. Not sure what we did really! Moaned a lot. Tried changing position etc. DH went out to the all-night supermarket round the corner for snacks a few times. DC1 was born at 8pm on the Monday.

DC2 and DC3 both born 3.5 hours after the first contraction.