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

Take each stage as it comes, i did this with DD and i had a positive experiance. It was tough going, epidural only working on one side and had vac delivery with cut. Just take it as it comes.. DD was born in Jan 06 and were hoping to have her sis/bro in Nov 2006.
Its the night feeds i found hard..

I had a great 1 st birth - waters broke at 5.00pm, m/w came out (planned home birth), no contractions, she checkd my temp and BP, and said, go to bed, sleep, eat, relax, do what you want.

Just after she left I started contracting (9.00pm) and by 12.00 they were 2 mins apart and I thought I should ring the labour ward to get her back!!

I did have a long 2nd stage (2 hours) but no pain relief (G&A made me sick) but had a huge 9lb 4oz baby by 4.50 am.

I had to go into hosp after which was awful - babe was fine but my back locked up and i went into urine retention - but the actual birth bit was great, and my 2 m/w were lovely throughout esp as neither had had any sleep.

third birth, much easier.

still working till birth date, because previous two births were late. waters broke on the wednesday as i arrive through the doors at work and said hello then turned around drove home.

children sent to gran's house and then we waited and waited.

due to be induced 9am friday if contractions hadn't started by then (arggghhhh!).

thursday night at 11pm contrations began, building in intensity. by 2pm was in hospital.

contrations rising and falling quicker and quicker.

had two midwives, with one in training, helping throughout the birth. execllent aftercare. baby breast to breast, while being stitched-up. and cleanup and sent to post-baby suite.

was sent back in due to breastfeeding jaundice (baby yellow and recieving light treatment) and my friend was on duty and came in to see me and directed another midwife (also a bf supporter) to take care of me after her shift.

best thing was that my dd2 was born on my birthday - so double celebration.

if your worried about the birth, i can only suggest (after having 3 babies):

-learn relaxation techniques
-make sure your partner can help you with the same techniques
-consider having the birth at home (two midwives all the time!!)
-wear non-clingy nightdress afterwards that you can bf in
-go with the flow....

oooh, and no drugs/no intervention of any sort.

very positive birth, and woul go on to have more babies if it we could afford it.

I'd say I had a very positive experience of labour and childbirth, and I was induced, which isn't ideal. I was given a prostin pessary at 9 days over. Pessary was inserted at 6.30pm. By 8.30 I was having powerful contractions in the bath on the ante-natal ward, one and a half minutes apart. I was examined and found to be 5 cm dilated. At 10pm I was taking down to the labour suite, and my daughter was born at quarter past midnight. Yes, it was sore, especially as I went straight into established labour with no preamble of early labour contractions, but I did the whole thing on gas & air (and not because I was trying to be brave) which I discarded for the pushing stage because it became a distraction.

Lovely supportive midwife, speedy straightforward labour, couple of stitches afterwards but no biggie, beautiful baby daughter at the end. Can't complain!

Had back ache all day on the wednesday had a good night sleep got up at 6.30am went to the loo felt like a big kick on my bladder went back to the loo and was bleeding called to DH to get up and take me to the hospital.

Got there about 7am still not having any contractions had to wait till about 8am for a dr to examine me and i was already 8cm dilated.

The only bad bit was when the midwife gave me a ptherdine injection without asking me if i needed it. Went to sleep till about 2pm had dd 15mins later with only about 5 contractions.

She was 9lb 4oz no tears. (i'm only 5ft)

I am hoping for the same in august for my second without the injection.

I found the birth much easier than I expected - when it was over my overwhelming feeling was 'is that all?'.

I woke up with my waters breaking at 7.30, contractions started as I arrived at the hospital at 9.30. They were very intense from the start (but they stayed the same all the way through). I felt an urge to push from the beginning, which was a bit scary and hard to control, so I had a pethidine injection which made me feel relaxed and dozy between contractions. I was allowed to start pushing at 1.30, which was a great relief and the end of the pain. I had a small episiotomy, which didn't bother me at all (I was much more scared of tearing) .Ds was born at 2.45. All in all it was an amazing experience

I had a positive birth experience, although long!
Got first contraction at about 3.30am the morning after EDD (so no long wait!), had contractions getting progressively stronger/closer all day, with a few calls to hospital with them telling me to go away basically because I could still talk lucidly!
Top tip if you are a stoic kind of person but really want to go to hospital don't put on a brave face to the midwife in the delivery unit over the phone because they will put you off going. By the time I got to the hospital I was 5cm dilated and the car journey was the worst 20mins of my life! I really needed to be standing up to cope with contractions (I spent pretty much the entire 21hour labour standing up) so sitting in a car was absolute hell. In hindsight going earlier would have been a bit more manageable.

When in the delivery room the first midwife was awful - kept trying to push pethidine on me when my birthplan said I didn't want it and I kept telling her I didn't want it. Also she couldn't find baby's heartbeat - basically because she was looking in the wrong place, but thankfully even I knew that so I wasn't worried..
The next midwife was great and just left me to it. I basically ended up with no real pain relief because I couldn't cope with sucking the gas and air (the mouthpiece made me want to gag) but was terrified of an epi, but I somehow survived -- mainly due to dh's support and standing up!!
Then the joyous relief at 11.30pm when the mw said I could start pushing, fairly quickly followed by me wondering why the hell it took so long and was such hard work when I thought it would happen quickly then! For some reason I was quite surprised at what hard work it was! I can now understand why womens' pelvic floor muscles are shot by labour! An hour and a half later ds was born on to the floor as I refused to sit down on the bed to deliver!
No interventions at all and just a couple of stitches inside where his shoulder tore me, but seemed to heal fairly quickly.

No real complaints about the staff/equipment etc - apart from lack of a face mask for the gas and air and the one annoying mw.

To be honest, labour was ok, it was the few weeks after that were the complete nightmare!

I had a very positive 2nd birth after a very bad 1st birth.

Had pre-eclamsia with DD, spent a week in hospital prior to birth and then 3 days getting induced - very painful as only 38 wks and not at all ready to give birth naturally, lots of pain from being induced which I had togo through on my own at night as DH not allowed to stay. Resulted in very long labour, all drugs available as pain had been going on for so long and eventual forceps delivery.

2nd birth could not have been more different. Went into labour naturally at 38wks. First contractions at lunchtime. By 6pm called DH and said that not sure if this is it (completely different to being induced!) Got to hospital at 7pm - still not sure if definately happening, but 4cm by then. DS born at 11pm, with only G&A.

After the birth of DD I was expecting the worst but was very surprised by how well things went 2nd time around. Now have an (almost) 4 wk old to show for it, and would even consider having more (not just yet though!)

I started having pains at around 11pm didnt think anyting of it. gradually they got worse and Every time I had a contraction I felt like I needed a poo tmi! this went on all night, but I was in denial that i WAS in labour lol. finally at 6am I decided time to go hospital, pain so too much. Te midwife examined me, I was already 7cms dilated

the pain was so bad at tat point I asked for an epidural, it was divine!

had two wonderful midwives (one of whom wasa a student) attending to my every need. wasnt left on my own at all.

I pushed for 20 mins then dd was born at 13:49 with no problems or interventions

waters went at 10pm, first contraction 10.30pm, got to hospital at 11pm, got harder, had gas and air, felt the need to push at 11.30pm, m/w said "lets just see how you are doing, OH you are fully dilated", an hour pushing and ds1 born at 00.36am.

waters went at 11.30pm, first contraction at 11.40pm, 3 or 4 contractions later I got up (had been sitting on the bed) so dh could cut some bubblewrap to go under me when I gave birth (planned homebirth), started another contraction and thought I better just check that it wasn't coming yet, put my hand down and delivered his head. The rest of him followed on the next contraction and dh phoned 999 at 11.57pm.

I had two wonderful water births, first in hospital, second at home. Best days of my life along with my wedding day.

i had a fab first time birth - really positve experience with a labour of 2.5 days at hom, only made it to the hospital with 7 minutes to spare. no pain relief and no tears/ stitches etc with a 7lb15 daughter! it wasnt planned that way but I- believed the midwife in the hospital who told me i couldnt possibly be in "real" labour as i appeared too calm / in control. i was so mellow before labour - i had spent days chilling in the sun with flasks of raspberry leaf tea and hynpobirthing cd.
i look back on my labour as the best thing i ever done - it gave me so much moe confidence in myself and what i am capable of. thanks to my wee girl for that!
my advice - be positive& believe you can do it

3 births/3 babies: no complications and no stitches. Fastish labours: TENS machine, pool and then GAS for pain relief at the final push. No doctors. Cup of tea afterwards.

I've had 3 problem free pregnancys and labours (touch wood). All 3 of my births were fine, my first was very quick we arrived at the hospital at 9.15am and my little boy was born at 9.32am nearly down the toilet! My next 2 were born at home again pretty quick and I have to say much nicer at home. All 3 were without any pain releif or stiches! Am due number 4 in October so fingers crossed all be well this time around. People only ever hear about the crappy labours/births so I hope this thread is making people feel a little bit better if they're nervous. I would say don't worry about it the baby has to come out so it's pointless stressing. X

wonderful, fantastic birth experience last August: one week overdue, went for long walk and sat down to dinner in Indian restaurant when first contraction came just before 10pm. Another 1 hour later. Went home, got on the birthing ball, walked around, rolled around, while dh rubbed back and mum timed contractions. Midwife arrived at 4am, I was 7cm. Got in the pool, squatted, got on all fours etc etc - no gas and air or anything, just lots of breathing, and dd was born at 7.31am weighing 8lb13oz. Did not tear or need stitches. She went on the breast straight away, the midwives left, my husband cleared out the pool, I had a lovely long shower in my own bathroom and got into my own bed with dh and the bub between us, mum bought us both a cuppa, we fell asleep. The perfect day! About to do it all again this December and can't wait, just hope it's as good as the first x

I had an elective section with my second baby three weeks ago. It was a fantastic experience, the staff were so lovely. Everything was really calm, I got to have a cuddle with my son while they sorted me out. The ODA took lots and lots of photos of my son being weighed etc. It was totally great!

I absolutely loved giving birth to my two girls!! Both were long labours until I got my water's broken and second time was a transfer from home to hospital so not entirely to plan...however for me, nothing beats actually pushing them out (I watched in a mirror for DD2!). The main factor in my broodiness is doing it all again but in reality I find the actual parenting once they get past the baby stage very tough going so won't be having any more methinks.

no horror stories here!
went into active labour at 9pm, ds born in birth pool at 12.08. it was lovely.
also had some fantastic post natal care. ALL the midwives i met were wonderful.

Had a wonderfull birth with my 2nd and 3rd.
Awful with 1st really wasn't expexting it to be that painful!
My 3rd birth was the best.
Waters broke when i was 5 days over and putting the christmas tree up!
Next morning went in to labour.
She was born 2hours after the midwife arrived at our new house. Tens , gas and air are the best thing in the world!

OK, here's my easy peasy second birth story.

It was so easy peasy I thought I couldn't be that far along, so we only just made it to the hospital in time, and ds slithered out after 2 pushes.

This was at 8 in the morning, I had a nice bath in the hospital and was home in time for lunch.

I was admitted after my waters broke at 3.30am (had high blood pressure)I was expecting a long drawn out painful labour after hearing all the horror stories and so when my contractions began I didn't say anything thinking i'd have hours more to come.

When husband & mum came to visit I had to stop speaking as contractions took my breath away then cried I can't do this (still thinking this was the beginning of hours of labour) Hubby asked nurse to check me and I was 10cm dilated - was starting to push as I was wheeled through the ward & didn't make it to delivery suite. My son was born within 15 mins, and my entire labour lasted 2hrs 10mins with gas and air at the very last push.

And this was my first!

Am typing 1 handed - boobing with the others - so won't go into details. Just to say I've never felt so empowered and in charge and goddamm womanly as when giving birth.

Ok DS2's birth (first I was ill so expectinga repeat)

Went to Weston Super MAre Genral which doesn't ahve the best rep but boy were they eonderful! The MW we ahd from the start was lovley- one day i had flu and theyc ame rushing out to check my BP JIC (related to DS1). And afterwards when DS2 didnt feed so well to start with they were there every day with books etc- and cried when I was dischrged lol {grin]

The hospital birth- OK, very stop and start due to positon (postrior) of abby but was admitted after 24 hours, they knew I was dsperate not to be sent to the unit 30 miles away so worked with me to enable a natural birth- exercises,a romatherapy (NHS unit!), amssages- in the end after a long but relatively quite painless birth ahd DS2 exactly where I wanted and was home in 12 hours. I would happliy have a longer albour again if it was so painless!

Oh and when I was having ds1 they took the ady in the next bed (just in to be monitoreed as overdue but not wanting an induction) a cup of tea- 2 minutes alter she called, they ran over, grabbed a delivery apck and her baby was with her in under 5 minutes end to end LOL!