Some positive birth stories please!

[tigertum]

Having been following and contributing to the forceps damage thread, I thought it would be good for the board to have a thread full of positive birth stories, maybe even a few accounts of good NHS treatment, good docs & midwives. The forceps thread is very important, but if (like me) you have only experienced one side of childbirth like that, or are pregnant for the first time - I think some positive stories could really benefit allot of readers (myself included).

Come on, lets have a 'feel good' thread

bump

I didnt have a magical labour but i wouldnt say it was bad or traumatising, hope thats ok for your thread tigermum.

I was induced by pessary at 9pm i was given a sleeping pill and slept untill 11pm when i woke with mild contractions, i was monitored for half an hour then a lovley midwife ran me a warm bath and gave me some time alone in there to relax.

1am she helped me out and let me dress then gave me a hand with my tens machine, i then got into bed and read a book untill about 7am. My own midwife then came and got me and walked me to the labour ward whilst i phoned ahead for my DP and Mum to meet me there.

When i got there i was examined and settled with some gas and air, this made me sick i asked for an epidural and within about 20mins the dr came and set it up for me.

I was comfortable then and was able to relax and chat to my family and the midwifes untill 3.30pm DS crowned by himself and i gave 2 pushes and he was born.

Like i say it was painfull and i was sick so not a magical experience but not unpleasent.

The 2 midwifes who looked after me were lovley one was with me through the whole pg, they came to visit me on the ward afterwards and signed my going home notes to say well done.

Had a lovely VBAC2 (apart from the hospital bit )

When I started having contractions I pretended it was not happening (obviously this was early) carried on shopping at sainsburys, making tea, had a bath with a glass of wine, as they increased sat on the edge of the sofa but was doing ok.

The next bit ambulance hospital etc (not brilliant) but dilated from 1cm to 10cm in 10mins, after about 6/7 pushes he shot out, all done in about 6 hours and how fantastic when I first held him even though I was to knackered to lift up my head to look at him.

DS - Woke up at 8.30am with mild contractions. by 10am they were really starting to hurt. Had a shower and felt more relaxed but the pain was no less. Got to the hospital at 11.15am they told me I was not in labour as all the pains were in my back and didnt register on the monitor. 30mins later they did an internal and found that I was 9cm. took 45 mins to get rid of the last centimetre and lip. 6mins and 2 pushes after they told me I was good to go, out he came!(No pain relief BTW, not even G&A)

DD - was in hospital with 'supposed' high blood pressure. Was on the bed eating a chocolate muffin at 11.40am and felt a 'gush' and out flooded my waters. Went down to the labour ward and debated about pain relief, decided against having anything again, told I was 5cm at 1.30pm and that they would examine me again at 4.30pm. by 3pm I said that they best see if I was full dilated yet and they said I wouldnt be. 10mins later after 3mins of pushing out she popped to show them!! lol

Thanks for your posts - nice birth stories. I like how they were quick too!

Well although i posted on the forceps thread, (they were tried and i made them take them out as it was agony) minutes later i pushed out dd1 and she was perfect. I had gone into hospital at 6 ish and she was born at 8.58. The midwife stayed past her shift to see me deliver and she was an angel. I had asked for pethidine when i was in transition and she kept saying how i didn't really want it and i did it without. She came the next morning to give me a cuddle. They brought me tea and were all lovely.

DD2 i went in at 7ish in the morning and had another nice midwife (not such an angel as the first). Basically it was a textbook Birth. By 10.30 i needed to push. The midwife wasn't going to examine me as it's not practice to examine so often (she'd just examined me) but anyway she did when i 'persuaded' her to and then said, 'oh are you ready to push?' DD2 was born 9 minutes later. By 7 p.m that evening i was back home.

The main downside was being told to get up half an hour after giving Birth both times to shower with blood still pouring! If i have this one in hospital i will state that i want at least an hour to recover first but other than that both experiences were very positive.
I'm having number 3 at home hopefully but have no fear if i have to go in to Hospital as i think i'm lucky with our maternity unit.

hi tigertum

had a 12 and a half hour labour - with contractions from 3 in the morning until she was born at 3.36pm that afternoon. Went to hospital at 2.30pm, got examined by the midwife (felt sick) she said I was 8cm dilated and then I went in the bath and felt the urge to push not long after. A few good pushes and she was born. Had a lovely midwife (in australia).

After 2 sections I've had 3 vbacs, the last one was a home birth. All the vbacs were a wonderful experience for me. The sections not .
The labours were quick and easy, painful of course, no drugs, no complications and no post partum problems.
For the last birth my midwife asked to be called out even if she wasn't on duty because she wanted to support me during labour. She did come out off duty and got a telling off from her boss. How wonderful and dedicated to her job is she?. It was so comforting to see her arrive. Even had the last birth filmed for T.V so now I have a permenat record of that wonderful event. There, hope that's positive enough

see, what worries me is that a 'positive stories' thread gets 9 replies, and all the horror story threads get about 3,000!

(can't you tell I'm 30 weeks and scared stiff!)

Wait for me. I had two great births - no interventions other than induced , both in great Princess Royal in Glasgow. (Brand new for ds1). Ds1 born early hours of morning, gas and air, laboured 4hrs 15, pushed for 15. Fantastic midwife Sue. 18 months later, ds2, laboured 1hr15, pushed for 1minute . Gas and air. Lovely hospital, brilliant midwives if slightly overworked. Great support from NCT Breast Feeding counsellor when all went wrong with ds1. Even had private room each time. They thought they'd see me again in another 18 months. Well if I"d been younger maybe. Funnily enough get broody reading all these birth announcements. Who knows.

No horror stories here either. Waters went 8pm nothing happened. Induced with drip and went into full labour next day at 12.00. Needed to push after 3 hours, 25 mins later DD was out. Had gas and air and injection in bum but wasn't really time for anything else. Was quite shakey after.

I had 40-hour labour ending in unplanned c-section, but I still think of it as positive. I think it helped that I was prepared beforehand (factually and emotionally) for what might happen beforehand, the fact that the staff were very upbeat and positive and apart from one irritating woman good at communicating, and that I was sure at each stage that what was happening was the best thing under the circumstances.

I suppose what I'm saying is that it doesn't need to be a quick and "easy" labour to be positive.

Mine were positve too

Ds1 was a long and hard labour but not traumatic. I had the most amazing midwife, who despite being the senior midwife with responsibility for the whole ward, stayed with me for 80% of her shift to keep me going as I got tired. There is no way in the world I could have done it without her and she stayed past the end of her shift to see me to the post natal ward. It's thanks to her skill that ds1 was born with no interventions and I had no stitches. In fact on my discharge it said, 'indications for instrumental delivery', but she knew as ds wasn't in distress I just needed time, she said at the time she could give me an episiotomy and 'yank' him out, but she didn't need to as i could do it myself - and she was right. She came to see me the mext morning as I was being discharged to give us all a hug and she told my Dad that I was amazing He cried.

DS2, very straightforward, I'm sure because I'd been able to do it myslef the first time. I'm not planning anymore, but if I was it wouldn't worry me.

Oh, and my boys were 9lb 11 and 9lb 12 and I had no stiches either time

Hiya...
I was induced, then baby was in distress so I had to ditch water birth and stayed on bed on the monitor. I had to have an epidural, episiotomy and ventouse. But it was brilliant!!! The TENS really helped the 1st few hours ,and I was racing DH up the stairs at hospital to try and get thinhgs moving along . Then when the epidural kicked in, I had the laziest birth! I slept and was woken up to give a few pushes and then there was a beautiful baby! I felt abit of a "silent partner" in the whole affair, but, it was more brilliant than I ever imagined it would be!

I had dd at home while watching trinny and susannah. Really quick and really calm. It didn't hurt enough for me to need pain relief and I didn't tear. Took my beautiful dd to bed with a glass of champagne 1 hour after the midwives arrived. No mess and no fuss, everyone healthy and happy.

Don't worry Gem, there will be thousands of positive birth stories out there waiting to be told. It's just that people are much more enthusiastic about retelling bad experiences of ANY kind than they are about the good ones, don't know why, but that's the way it is.
You only have to look on here to see which threads get the most postings

Well I supose my labour could have been considered an easy one, if not exactly by the book.

Went into hosptial at 8.30 with contractions every 5mins. Was 2cms dialated, sent home at 9.00. Came back at 11.00 checked again and was 8cms going on 9cms contractions every 3mins lasting 1.5mins each. Midwife was fast and effecient and got the gas and air set up quickly for me. Gave birth at 12.27 with out tearing etc.

Was very happy with my treatment in hospital and want a hospital birth for no2.

I had an elective CS and is was magical. The staff chatted away and informed me of everything as it happened, even covered me with warm blankets whilst waiting for the fluids to go in. I was worried about being naked and cold on the table and they were unbelievably respectful. They automatically quietened down when DS was delivered (I didn't think to ask for that, but it was nice) and commented on how gorgeous and alert he was. I know, they say that for every baby, but it meant a lot to DH and I at the time

Can't wait for October

I know a lot of you will hate me, but I love being pg, and in a funny kind of way I also love giving birth. It is without a doubt the most painful thing you will endure, but it is for a reason. I have had 4 babies, and all were quick labours.6 hrs, 2.5 hours, 45 mins and 2 hours, so I know I am very lucky!
I just always get through the contractions by telling myself that each pain is bringing me closer to holding my baby. Just go with your body and don't fight it, it does know what it is doing, so do what feels right. good luck and don't let people scare you! x

I was in labour for 18 hours it was not dreadful unbearable pain it felt different and I had gas an d air and pethidine injections, even managed to sleep a little, when the baby was crowning it did not feel unbearable either in fact it felt numb and I did not tear at all and this was my first and so far only child. So child birth was okay, not the most awful thing that has happened to me it was the most wonderful thing that I have ever experienced and the horror stories don;t always happen to everyone, and I was told by my Mom that it would feel like dying as she had a bad caesarean with me and had pre eclampsia with me, all she did was scare me.unecessarily. Actually the worst bit for me is the newborn stage and the lack of sleep and help.

Had a 'show' in the night but no pain..went back to bed woke up 730am ish with back ache not sure if started....by 815am contractions started erratic 2.5 mins apart then 7 mins then 1min had bath went to hospital arrived 9.40ish hardly able to walk went into delivery suite 9cm dialated baby born 10.20am gas and air no stitches (gave birth on knees leaning onto bed!) A wonderful experience....albeit a bit shocked! but i do feel very fortunate that each of my births has been quick! I used to dread hearing horror stories when preggers, but we are all different.

I had a lovely non-intervention birth at Swindon Hospital. Wanted a home birth but baby's heart rate was elevated so went to hospital. Midwife was absolutley wonderful as was the consulting doc. Both looked after me really well. Had good follow-up and was allowed home 12 hours after giving birth. Used tens and no other pain-relief, had an episiotomy but didn't feel it at that point, had ventouse but again, didn't feel it. DD was put straight onto my tum and had her first feed within seconds of birth. DP was brilliant and really supportive too. Good luck and a good thread idea.

waters broke in the loo at 8am no pain until 2pm with slight pains. Pretty painful by 4pm so went to hospital. Out he shot at 5.45 after about 4 big pushes. No pain relief. No stitches, very slight grazing but thats all. Sneezed a few days later and didn't even wet myself !!!!! Doesn't get much better than that IMO!

I had an emergency c-section with ds1 after 14 hours of unproductive labour. Our midwife was wonderful and the doctor very communicative and we also had a doula which made a huge difference to our levels of calm etc. ds1 was fine although I had to have a general aneasthetic so we missed that magic moment of his birth. I had an elective c-section with ds2 and it was a truly beautiful moment when he was born, we felt like we had our moment this time which was wonderful. Although my first birth may not have been the natural water birth I had hoped for (in fact it could not have been more different and I had every intervention possible I think) it ended positively. I think thats my point, go in with an open mind. It may not go to plan but things have a way of working themselves out. There have been enormous positives from my difficult first birth, 2 perfect precious sons and a new career direction (working in post natal counselling!) I hope this is positive, it was meant to be! Good luck :-)

i saw the mdwife on thurs afternoon and she commented i looked a bit large and arranged for me to have a scan on the monday.
thursday evening i started to get contractions and had a show so rang mum who came round and started timing. as they got stronger we called dh from work.
they didnt get any stronger past this point tho as dh went to work on fri and they grew over the course of saturday.
saturday night i was in full swing and dh fed me chicken and chips between contractions...
'chip...mayonnaise'
'chicken' 'no i said chip!'
then we went up to the hospital.
(here i had some problems with actually getting admitted but this is a positive thread!)
I got into the birthing pool at about 11pm and was in there all night until 6.29am on sunday morn when ds was born. he came one week early at 9lb9.5.
it was a lovely experience and the midwife whom i had never met was lovely but gently took control which was very reassuring.