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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Does anybody else remember really random things from their labour?

42 replies

GrimmauldPlace · 14/05/2016 18:59

I was chatting to a friend who is due to give birth imminently and I was talking about my own labours and births. With DS I don't remember loads, only being screamed at by someone to shut up and stop pushing. They didn't believe I was fully dilated as I was only 3cms half an hour before. How wrong were they! Again, with DD I don't remember a lot apart from the really vivid image of my mw who had a piercing on her forearm. I remember bending over the bed and she was on the opposite side trying to get a cannula in and I was mesmerised by this piercing. Friend thinks it's quite strange that I don't really remember the specifics of the contractions and whether I was on the bed etc but I do remember a piercing.

Anyone else seem to have blanked out most of their labour but remember random things? I do remember pushing both kids out though, 6 pushes with DS and 2 with DD The midwife just about caught DD in time!

OP posts:

Xmasbaby11 · 14/05/2016 19:01

My labour was over 24 hours. I remember seeing my feet up in stirrups - with Xmas socks on. I can still remember how the forceps felt too. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Junosmum · 14/05/2016 21:10

I wish I'd blanked it out. Instead I have flash backs and nightmares.

VikingLady · 14/05/2016 21:23

I remember screaming that if they weren't going to drug me could they please just cut me open. I started yanking cupboard doors open to find a scalpel.

I remember no one looking when DS came out. He was stopped by the cord, right at the edge of the bed. Whilst they complained about the noise I was making. With their backs to me.

I remember believing I would die, and making DH promise to look after DD.

I remember the weird but very satisfying and warm feeling of the afterbirth coming out (and the midwives not looking or listening again)

Mostly, I remember the name badge of the total bitch of the midwife in charge of me, thinking "I'll remember you"

Caillou · 14/05/2016 21:23

I asked dh to press the button to call the midwife, and I kept on shouting at him that he wasn't pressing it right.... it happened with both labours!

MeMySonAndl · 14/05/2016 21:23

The room filled up with midwifed having a go at mine, saying she should have called for help much earlier. My midwife had had a good go at me 20 minutes earlier when there was meconium and I said "I knew it was going to happen..." (I thought I had pooed) thinking of that today... I wonder why on Earth she waited so long to call for help after that.

The doctor who came to get DS out, had just become engaged and dropped her new ring on the floor while trying to get the gloves on. I remember the commotion of people looking for it under the bed while the monitor showing DS' heartbeats was showing waves rather than peaks.

I lost a lot of blood, I remember trying to tell my ex that something was wrong, while he was chatting away with the nurse and I was starting to black out.

MetalLaLa · 14/05/2016 21:26

I was out of it most of the time due to all the drugs I had, but I do remember Hallucinating a pair of giant Chupa Chups lollies (the type you can get from the seaside) on the table next to the bed. My helpful DH found it so hilarious he filmed me ranting about it on his phone he still mentions it to this day to everyone!

PinkParsnips · 14/05/2016 21:28

I remember the pethidine injection sending me a bit wappy and I thought DH and the midwife were laughing at me

NeedACleverNN · 14/05/2016 21:29

I remember biting on my husbands hand with Dd and the midwife being more worried about him than me! I also remember my hair being very annoying as it wouldn't stay hung up.

With ds I remember my leg constantly cramping. That hurt more than the labour! At one point I had my leg over my Dh's shoulder trying to ease the cramp

AdoraKiora · 14/05/2016 21:34

I was out of it with DC1 (looooong induction ending in emergency section), so dont remember much.

DC2's birth was better, but I was still slightly out of it, only in a happier morphine induced way. My main memory is of the midwives...almost like angels floating in and out of the room. A wonderful French midwife who sat with me until I'd established breastfeeding and who had a beauty mole above the lip like Marilyn Monroe. And a cute Irish nurse who looked like Mrs Doyle from Father Ted and kept saying 'will you have some tayyy, will ye?'

HalfpintPixie · 14/05/2016 21:35

I was a bit like you op - they didn't believe I was fully dilated and they were telling me to sit still so they could give me an epidural. I was screaming that I couldn't because he was actually coming, and they told me not to be silly, it wasn't time yet.
When they finally laid me back everyone panicked when they realised how close it actually was!
I remember that very vividly through the haze of everything else.

Mermaid36 · 14/05/2016 21:40

During my emergency section, I was chatting with the anaesthetist (sp?) about chickens and ducks (as in pet ones) whilst they were cutting me open and stitching me up...

RatOnnaStick · 14/05/2016 21:40

With Ds1 I seemed to get tunnel hearing, where DH had to repeat everything the MW said as I could only hear his voice clearly. I remember needing sips of water in between each contraction and I remember feeling quite logical inside and counting down to the next one out loud.

Ds2 in contrast I was entirely aware of everything and only in the last.minute.or two when.i turned round to push him.out I retreated into myself.

hobybabo · 14/05/2016 21:40

Being high as a kite on g&a, the lovely midwife asking me very nicely to keep my leg still because I was swinging it side to side. I almost burst into tears in apology and she was just so nice, she stroked my hair and said "I'm so sorry lovely it's obviously helping but I need to get to baby's head".

gunting · 14/05/2016 21:42

My labour was 3 hours long and I still managed to eat a steak in the first 30 minutes

I can't remember much I think because it was rapid. I do remember spewing the steak once I got to the hospital and they said the midwife did an internal and ran out of the room for a wheelchair saying 'I can feel the head'

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 14/05/2016 21:43

I remember the midwife putting on some relaxing music on a tape player and how when it finished she kept turning the bloody tape over and replaying it. For four hours.

Also being told to push and instead farting well, she did say push into your bottom.

twirlypoo · 14/05/2016 21:48

My labour was rapid too - I went into shock so my memories are weird. I remember very logically and calmly stripping off all my clothes when I arrived at hospital, and the midwives and my mum trying to cover me up in front of some builders who were doing some work on the delivery ward. I didn't give a toss!

I remember trying to bite the midwife because I desperately needed to bite down (no pain relief at all and episiotomy and forceps)

Lastly I remember the calm they came over me as the crash team took DS away, and telling my mum to goto him and her telling me she couldn't. It wasn't calm in a nice way, it was an utterly terrified detached feeling - I was strapped to the bed and couldn't move. It was horrific on reflection!

YorkieDorkie · 14/05/2016 21:52

I remember being mid-examination, my feet in stirrups and there was a random girl entered the room. The midwife turned and said "hello?" But she just stood and gawped at me spread eagle then made a quick exit.

Mummyme87 · 15/05/2016 06:41

Brushing my teeth whilst being consented for a crash CS

Panicking my OH wouldn't get dressed in time for theatre

Hallucinating after pethidine

lonerboner · 15/05/2016 07:02

Yes. Mesmerised by midwifes tattoo which was a plaster!?!

KnitsBakesAndReads · 15/05/2016 11:19

I had a PPH and the medications they gave me to control the bleeding made me really nauseous. The anaesthetist kept telling me they'd given me anti-sickness medications and I remember being determined to know which medications they'd used. I used to work in a medical job so I guess that's why I was so interested. I have an odd memory of trying very hard to form a coherent sentence while feeling pretty out of it due to blood loss, and of seeing how bewildered the anaesthetist seemed that a patient would even care about this!

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 15/05/2016 12:09

After a few hours on gas and air, I remember my dh telling me that the mouth piece had detached from the tube and I hadn't noticed so I was essentially just inhaling air.
I remember saying 'bloody NHS' and laughing hysterically. It wasn't even funny.
I also felt like I was under water and that my voice was too loud on the gas

kiki22 · 16/05/2016 07:59

I remember the guy with the drugs clear as day don't even remember seeing ds but this guy I will never forget his name was David and I hardly took my eyes off him terrified he would leave.

I also remember a plastic cup of water sitting close by and begging for a drink of it turned out by this point I was badly dehydrated.

Everything else was a bit of a blur and confusing but these 2 thing I remember clear as day the funny thing is I can't even remember what the water cup was sitting on just that it was on my right hand side slightly higher than I was.

kiki22 · 16/05/2016 08:03

Oh yeah and also wanting to put some more make up on to go to theatre, this midwife laughing at me and been tempted to tell her she could do with a bit of slap on her ugly mug!!! 😆

Stoodonlegoagain · 16/05/2016 08:20

I remember the aneasatist telling me I'm having a baby not dying so be quiet (while she inserted the 3rd failed epidural in 40 hours)
I remember DP eating a stew while the crash team came in and I remember being in theatre and feeling them cut me and then kicking the surgeon in the face to make them believe it Didn't work.
Don't remember anything else!

LumpishAndIllogical · 16/05/2016 11:09

With my labour of DS I remember thinking everyone was drunk and starting to worry, I could smell alcohol! Turns out it was the hand sanitizer everyone was using.

I blame the pethidine for my confusion

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