1st labour - natural, no intervention, no pain relief. same 2nd time around?

[Littlerayofsunshine]

Would like to hear your stories

I read Ju Ju Sundin's 'Birh Skills' and am a big advocate.

DD1 arrived after a straightforward labour that started with waters breaking at midnight then progressed steadily through early hours while I remanined at home. Headed in to hospital at 7.30am. DD arrived at 10.46am. No pain relief except for TENS which I used from around 2am ish I guess. All in all a positive experience.

DD2 was a planned home birth. Knowing I could cope and manage without an epidural meant I felt confident in going with my heart/gut and having her at home. It was a wonderful experience. Contracting on and off all day then regularly from 7.30pm. Midwife arrived at 11pm and I was 9cm. DD2 arrived at 1.16am. No pain relief again except for TENS.

Hoping for same again with DC3!

I hope so. I'll let you know in six weeks!:)

First was just gas and air (although I was induced, but didn't have the drip), but second was very different as I had grade 4 placenta praevia so had to be booked in for an ELCS,

Hope so too. I would love to hear stories!
My first labour was 8 hours at home with TENS and birth pool, baby born 45 mins after midwife arrived (no time for G&A, gutted!).
DC2 due in 8 weeks. I'm hoping for the same again. But a lot depends on how the baby is presenting e.g. back to back or hand up by the head, tilted head etc etc. You just can't predict it.
In my head I'm planning for it being similar to first time to surround myself with positive and optimistic vibes, while retaining the knowledge that it could all be very different!

My first labour was all natural with a birth in the pool in the hospital. I did have a second degree tear which had to be repaired. I went from 5cm (on arrival at the hospital) to baby born in about 4 hours.

Second labour was also all natural though no pool this time. I went from 4cm (on arrival at the hospital) to birth of baby in just over an hour! It was more intense and I didn't manage to remain as calm and focussed as I had with my first but it was quick! I had a second degree tear with my second also though which needed repairing (most unpleasant part of the birth with both of them, for me) but seemed to heal much quicker than the first.

GOod luck!

With ds1 my waters broke, no contractions for 24 hrs then quick progression to every 3/4mins, went to hospital and had gas & air, ds1 born 1.5hrs after we got to the hospital, minor tear.

Ds2 (who is only a few days old ) waters broke, regular but not v intense contractions for a few hours, stayed at home, suddenly got a lot more intense, went in to birth centre and ds2 arrived almost instantly I got
in there, no time for gas & air so no pain relief at all for the whole thing. Home a couple of hours later

Was lucky with both that they were in a good position

Ds1 laboured for 8 hours, pushed him out in 11 minutes. No pain relief, slight graze.

Ds2 laboured for 7.5 hours, spent majority of time at home. Baby born within 30 minutes of arriving at hospital, no pain relief. No interventions, no tearing/grazing.
Home in time for dinner.

It is possible to do it twice. You know your body can do it, mentally you are strong enough.. Good luck! I love giving birth

This takes me back :@
DS1 9.lbs 7= 18 hour labour from start to finish, had the works gas n air, dia-morphine and epidural, which the anaesthetist managed to put in on 3rd attempt (in the process damaging 2 of my discs and I'm still suffering now 17 years later ) the sodding thing didn't work at all anyway :( so I vowed there and then that I'd never have another if I gave birth again.

Less than 2 years later along came DS2 in quite a hurry! by the time I got to hospital, had the usual examinations and had my waters popped at 8cms dilated, there was no time to even show me the gas & air. less than 2.5 hours from start to finish He flew out :) all 10lbs 2 of him complete with red eyes!! they had gone bloodshot at the speed he came out.
I enjoyed his labour more than the first, more so because I could move around as I wanted and I didn't feel drugged.
So 3 years later when I was ready to give birth to DS3, I knew I wanted it natural again. I would have loved to have a pool birth but it wasn't available at my hospital then :(

I had to be started off at 5 days over (they knew he was going to be big) so I arrived at 8am, got wired up and started with the prostaglandin through the drip by 8.30am and away I went.....NOBODY tells you how sudden and bloody painful the contractions come when you are started off OMG.. I had to have some gas and air and managed until the the contractions were over, another 10 minutes and out the 10lb 12 bruiser popped.
All in all I can't really complain about my labours, very lucky all were healthy and I didn't need so much as 1 stitch- was always what I was most terrified of and seeing some of the other new mummies trying to get comfy/walk, who did have to have them used to make my eyes water I can't imagine what they felt like.

I'm planning to have another sometime soon, as I'm with a guy now who has no kids and we want one together.....Am I crazy :)

I preferred my first birth, I found my second more painful. He was only born a week ago :) anyway...
DS1 was induced using pessary, I laboured for 24 hours, had tens at the beginning, then dia-morphine, and gas and air which was stopped at the pushing part, I found biting down on the mouthpiece great though. No tears just grazes.

2nd DS, I was in slow labour for 5 days, contractions every 10 minutes with very little affect on cervix, couldn't sleep as was too painful, then on the friday at 5.20pm I got a super strong contractions that where coming every couple of minutes lasting about a minute, this happened until 6.30pm when I decided I needed to go to hospital (kept telling myself I'm coming home as its just another false alarm)...got checked at 7.30pm and was 3-4cm dilated, so could still stop, I walked and walked all the way round the hospital, to be checked again at 11.30pm and only be 5cm, but was then told that baby is laid funny, he's on his side but more back to back which was making me unable to progress well and making the pain excruciating, he was unable to move down enough to press on cervix and there was a gap so was threatened with cord prolapse if waters went.
I was finally ready to push at around 4am,waters hadn't gone, baby hadn't moved, I pushed with every contraction to move him round and was 1 more push away from having to have forceps and vacuum,I gave one good very painful push and I managed to turn him, after 1 and half hours of pushing he was born. I had gas and air, paracetamol and dia-morphine during this labour,overall time was 10hours.
I recommend dia-morphine, it really is a life saver!!
Good luck