Undecided about 2nd birth

[berrypicking]

I had a rather traumatic labour with ds1, 32 hour labour, back to back & pushing for 2 hours. I spend 20 odd hours in the water before wanting to get out and have an epidural as the pain in my lower back was horrendous with him being back to back. The midwives kept pushing me not to have an epidural which I found awful.

Basically I was am classed as low risk again with this second pregnancy so they automatically will send me to the same mlu and I will have to beg again for an epidural. I can say that I want to go straight to the labour ward and probably have an epidural but I keep thinking this birth could different. I just don't know if I can mentally deal with going back to the midwifery unit again.

anyone else had a similar experience and what did you do in the end?

I will add it had to be wheeled off to the labour ward in the end & be put on a drip as I wasn't having enough contractions to push ds out. I eventually gave birth naturally. I am just so undecided this time round what to do.

Hi I had a back to back with my 1st and also spent 2 hrs pushing !I only had gas and air and pethidene .
So like you I decided in following pregnancy I would have an epidural and I did it wasnt a problem at all . I think the 2nd time onwards you take no crap and put your foot down , it is your body .
The midwife is your advocate and as such should support your wishes . Put Epidural in Capitals in your birth plan !
I ended up having a great birth experience with my 2nd actually enjoyed it , so I will be doing the same for my 3rd shortly .
Ps you give birth naturally epidural or pain relief or not , its a c section thats not natural . No offence to those who have a c section obviously

I had a similar experience, and am 34 weeks with number 2. I realised I wasn't at all prepared for labour last time, spent far too much time in early labour pacing then by the time I wentin was exhaexhausted, had 2 lots of pethidine and pretty much flat on my back, pushing for 2 hours & ended up with a ventouse. Midwife was actually encouraging me to have an epidural but I refused (god knows why, wish I had). In hindsight I had a lot of features of a posterior labour (back pain, frequent contractions, premature pushing urge).

This time I'm hoping to have a few more things in my armoury. Doing antenatal yoga, natal hypnotherapy which I hope will get me through the early stages and reading birth skills by juju sunjin to help when it gets a bit tougher. She has a great chapter on posterior labour, how to recognise it & how to encourage a better position (ot at least not exacerbate a bad one). If I need pain relief I think I want to go straight for epidural, don't fancy pethidine again, was way too spaced out.

Who knows if any of it will work, but I feel a bit more confident about it at least. Doesn't help that our local hospital has been downgraded to mlu and consultant unit is an hour away, so have to decide where to go. Dreading an hour in the car in labour but preferable to being transferred a long way if things aren't going well.

Sounds so similar to my labour. I think the pethidine really spaced me out too. You both have made me want to definitely make it clear to the midwives right at the beginning that I probably will want an epidural. I also think I will ask to opt out of the mlu and go straight to labour ward. I just have too much fear of going back there and having a similar experience. They had no idea for hours and hours that ds was even back to back as they leave you more to your own devices. Thanks for the help!

p.s junemami ~ I know what you mean about feeling more confident if you avoid mlu altogether this time, especially being so far away for you! I remember thinking straight after the birth I am never doing that again if it means going through that experience again, so I need to remember that and go for the epidural this time I think! Good luck to you x