One Born Every Minute

[mellmumma]

I'm 8 weeks pregnant, first time.

I like to know everything (bit of a control freak) and this is the most out of control period of my life ever! 😆😆

Really enjoying reading the childbirth section here, wondering whether to start watching OBEM?

Never seen it before, swore I would stay oblivious until I am pregnant and have no choice! 😉 But heard it is just scare stories and worried it might not help me at all!

Any thoughts appreciated x

I found it helpful when I was pregnant. I'd never watched it before but I also did a lot of my own research (for example a lot of obem births are on their back which isn't optimal or water births, which may not be available at your hospital).

If you watch it on YouTube a lot of similar programmes will come up

Thanks everyone. I'm super keen for a water birth if I can.

Like I say I want to know everything, from the lingo to the different things that could happen.

I want to feel as in control and knowledgable as possible!!

And nothing too 'cutesy', I need cold hard facts.

I'm hoping I'll have a no bulls*it midwife and not a 'fluffy' one haha.

Failing that I'm bringing in my no b*ll mother! 😆😆

I'm watching it (35+6 today) and keeping an open mind about the whole lying on the back thing.
What I'm finding useful is:
The number of 'big' babies that are delivered naturally with no interventions (I already know I've got a larger than average baby)
The number of babies that come out slightly tangled up in cord and the midwife just casually flips it off (a huge fear of mine).

One thing I wasn't prepared for, the colour of babies when they are born!!!

If you want to feel in control (as far as possible), then I'd recommend doing some hypnobirthing CDs beforehand as they are very good for teaching you to get in a relaxed frame of mind.
But my biggest recommendation is Juju Sundin's "Birth Skills" book- it's all about physiological pain management techniques (i.e. using your body in ways that are more full-on than just breathing through it), and having a variety of these prepared in advance can help enormously. Also, it has a section especlally on ways to cope if things do end up with a lot of interventions etc, plus advice on pushing techniques and crowning. For the latter I also found perineal massage really useful for preparing me for the type of physical sensation that would be as I was pretty terrified of it (but you have to do it vigorously, its not a relaxing massage!).

Every labour is different.

Televised labours of random women, heavily edited and carefully selected for maximum screen value - is IMO not useful.

Having been pretty sure, thanks to my mother and my consultant's view of my medical condition, that I would end up having a horrible emergency c section, I found OBEM really inspiring and reassuring! Which tells you a lot about my incredibly low expectations.

I'm really glad I watched it prior to birth. For me it I found it reassuring because stuff did go 'wrong'/they weren't the perfect nct births and there was (99% of the time) a healthy baby at the end. And that's all I was focused on.