can anybody share their experience of a physiological third stage?

[whenskiesaregrey]

That's it really. Hoping for a home water birth and considering natural third stage. First labour was induced in hospital, so had the jab with no complications. Would like to try this labour with no pain relief other than g&a and water.

Any experiences, positive or negative welcome!

Had 2 physiological third stages after normal vaginal deliveries with no interventions:

DD1 - placenta took about 4mins and I didn't even notice its delivery at all.

DD2 - placenta felt like it took blimming ages. Was probably about 40 mins. I would much rather have been cuddling DD2 than squatting waiting for the bloody placenta. I even said "can't I just have that injection thing, this is really boring" but the midwives basically ignored me and it did come eventually.

My birth plans both times said I would plan for a physiological third stage but have an open mind with the injection. Think I would do the same again.

I don't do squatting and pushing for 3rd stage. I do sitting in pool drinking tea and feeding baby. After half hour I might try standing up, cough etc. I nothing - another cuppa!

She truly was fab. I opted for an out of area hospital, so had a different team from my community midwife and didn't meet them before the labour.

The midwife and the student that were in with me were great - when I'm in labour I just want to curl up. Even when the student couldn't find the heartbeat with the monitor due to my position, she just showed her how to try different angles rather than asking me to move.

Other than checking the heart beat, they didn't come anywhere near me - just stood a discrete distance away, chatting with DH who was holding my hand and giving me water between contractions.

When I started feeling the urge to push, I told them as with DD1, the midwife had told me not to push for a while. This time she told me to just do whatever my body was telling me to do. I did and a couple of contractions later, DD came out with just one push.

The midwife launched herself across the room as she realised what was happening just as I was turning onto my back - she said it was the quickest pushing stage she had ever seen

It's a cliché, I know, but the whole experience was extremely empowering and the natural third stage only added to that sense of empowerment.

Just to add - I'm rhesus negative and they managed to get cord blood no problem. I'd not even thought to mention it to the midwife either, but thankfully she picked up on it and it didn't alter natural 3rd stage and cord being left to pulsate. Maybe they didn't leave it until it had totally stopped.

Had two HB with physiological 3rd stages. In my case, they were very unremarkable. Baby born, held baby for a bit, placenta plopped out within 1/4 hour.

A friend's HB baby's placenta held on for so long that even her independent midwife started to get twitchy and moving towards hospital (8 hours). As she stood to walk to the ambulance, it just dropped out.

I've been lucky that it's always been a very uneventful part of the labour. I don't get afterpains or strong contractions to expel it.

Completely anecdoctally, my two babies with managed 3rd stages got jaundice, the two ones with physiological 3rd stages didn't.

PS: and am RH- and didn't cause any problems.

I had a physiological third stage a few weeks ago. I freely admit I wasn't too bothered after delivering dd I just wanted cuddles with her really but the midwife encouraged me as it was in my birth plan and I'm very glad she did. I struggled a bit to push the placenta out, but I'd put that down to being shattered rather than struggling much. I delivered it 1 hour exactly after dd came out into a bowl held by the midwife over the toilet.

Dd was a bit yellow but was back to normal after a few days. I found I felt a huge sense of accomplishment having managed the entire birth with just my tens, pool and a little entinox. I think I would have regretted not even trying for a physiological third stage.