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Childbirth

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

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Original poster

best bit of childbirth

137 replies

grannycrackers · 20/02/2007 13:26

my ds is 6 months old on saturday and i've been thinking back to his birth. it was an emergency c-section which was a bit scary but i have the loveliest memory of the night following. i had him lying on me almost all night, bf him every now and then, with the lights all dim. i know i nearly lost him but there was something magical about that night and it is one of my best memories ever.

wondered what were the best bits of childbirth for other mners ?

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Pheebe · 23/02/2007 09:49

Its funny, having read back through the posts lots of people say seeing bub for the first time or first contact and describe a sudden rush of love. Hate to admit it but I never felt that, in fact they whipped ds off so quick (think they actually had to resus him but still not sure to this day) and he was all wrapped up when he came back. I told the nurse to give him straight to dh and she gave me a really funny look but I had my legs in the air and was being stiched and didn't think I had the strength to hold him anyway. I never felt the rush of love at first sight for him other people describe just this incredible urge to protect him. DH thinks I did all my bonding in the last few weeks when he was so active in my tummy and making it all funny shapes, sometimes he was virtually in my armpit! Anyone else have a similar experience?

edam · 23/02/2007 09:52

Childbirth was traumatic - didn't have a 'best bit' as it was all bloody painful and frightening beyond anything I could imagine. So, unorginally, I'd say seeing ds for the first time.

daisyhun · 23/02/2007 12:55

I had been waiting to see the first episode of Dancing on Ice all week (the series on now) and was ready to push when it started on the TV in the delivery room. I started to cry as I wanted to watch it but the midwife was trying to get me to concentrate on pushing!

I suppose that was the funniest bit - either that or me freaking out when one midwife told the other that the batteries on my epidural monitor were about to run out and I thought it meant the epidural would stop working!

Runninglate · 23/02/2007 20:07

DD's head crowning and then her head being out and thinking well that's the worst bit done, now home and dry!!! HUGE surge of relief that I'd survived the whole ordeal magnificently and was about to meet my baby.

The midwife said to me afterwards that it was the funniest sight, seeing DD's cheeks surrounded by my cheeks !!!

hex · 23/02/2007 21:45

dd2 slithering out of me the warmth and wetness - and feeling of being so proud that I'd achieved the birh I wanted after a cs first time around. I've got this brilliant photo taken by my doula of dh (who'd caught dd2 in his hands), me turning around to look at her and us both with the happiest smiles on our faces. Her umbilical cord was still inside me and we're all connected in one of those rare moments. Funny thing is, if I'd been asked whether I'd wanted pics to be taken of the birth, I'd have said no - and now they're my most treasured possessions.

foxabout2pop · 24/02/2007 19:26

I was give pethidine with DS so he arrived all sleepy and couldn't latch on properly for two days (which led to problems BFding him)...so my best birth memory was DD arriving - all lively and cross - and latching on immediately.

I remember her lying all chubby and angry on the bed and then her strong suck - it was great!!

WriggleJiggle · 24/02/2007 19:31

The party earlier in the evening before going into hospital!

Fodders · 24/02/2007 20:06

DD1: suppose this is a bit weird...but after a chaotic c-section with a general a for me, the best bit was when I was in recovery and dh told me that my mum and dad had already cuddled her - no jealousy on my part that I was the fourth family member to cuddle her. I was just so glad that dd1 was out and fit enough to start greeting her world, in spite of me still being in a bit of a pickle. Then a day or so later, being alone with her at night in the quiet hospital and having nothing more important to do than just cuddle and stare stare at her - bliss.

DD2: ...seing her being lifted onto the scales and hearing her first squawks and then after a more successful c-section, in recovery only letting dh have her for a few minutes before I wanted her back for more cuddles.

DaisyPip · 24/02/2007 21:02

When I arrived at the hospital I was still convinced that my labour was only just beginning (despite the fact that I could hardly get out of the car). I even told my DH not to bring in my hospital bag because they were probably going to send me back home. But as it turned out I was nearly fully dilated. That was certainly the best news.

thewill · 24/02/2007 21:39

similar to daisy pip, being glad to be fully dialated, also delivering dd myself in water birth, and being advised before it was to late that i had confused lube with toothpaste

loopybear · 24/02/2007 21:42

As most have said the first cuddle. But watching DD fall in love with DD as he held her for the first time.

I didn't get tea and toast!!! I got a glass of water and the strawberries my mum had brought me whilst I was on the antenatal ward because the food was dire.

loopybear · 24/02/2007 21:42

mant DH falling in love with DD!!!

tortoiseSHELL · 24/02/2007 21:44

Best bits for me -
ds1 - coming home from the hospital
dd - mw arriving and saying 'you're 10cm', finding out she was a girl
ds2 - mw coming and saying 'you'll have the baby today' and collapsing into bed after everything (he was born with me standing, and after 2 hours or so I was exhausted!)

PrettyCandles · 24/02/2007 21:47

Feeling my child's skin with my skin for the first time. Meeting my child for the first time, looking at him or her for the first time, and drinking them in with my eyes, not in any rush to find out the gender...and then finding it out for myself.

Original poster

grannycrackers · 25/02/2007 08:32

i have loved reading all these. also, after the birth of my second dd, which was an active birth, i felt so good afterwards, that i went for a walk around the hospital corridors, at 4am, about 4 hours after her birth . i couldn't manage that after the others 'though

OP posts:

MrsTittleMouse · 25/02/2007 19:14

After a long and difficult OP labour we were thinking that it could go on forever, and concerned that I was probably going to have a C section, and the lovely MW said to me "whatever happens, you'll have your baby by 7.45pm". I was so relieved that it would all be over soon and we'd have DD, it gave me the strength to deliver her.

izzybiz · 25/02/2007 19:20

I think with both of mine it has been the moment the are born and lifted naked and new straight on to my chest! It is the most overwhelming, ecstatic feeling i have ever had.

Also with Dd i had the joy of feeling closer to Dp than i ever had before, that moment of holding our child and eachother was amazing!
I didnt have that with Ds but he was my first and always that little bit special.

Muckypup · 26/02/2007 13:56

Holding him for the first time. He was born in water and passed straight to me. It was such an incredible feeling.

mckenzie · 26/02/2007 16:50

For me it was looking down into the birthing pool and seeing a female version of DS staring up at me. Fantastic. It's making me have goose-pimples even now just thinking about it.

Summerfruit · 26/02/2007 17:41

Message withdrawn

Rantum · 26/02/2007 18:12

lying in the hospital bed, numb while I was being stitched up, holding ds and thinking "thank god the pain has stopped and my gorgeous baby is here!"

DonnyLass · 26/02/2007 20:06

on our own after the hubris evaporated

her on the bed with me

looking at each other

hello mummy

hello daughter

mum2seb · 26/02/2007 20:35

With ds1, knowing that he was alive (born at 33 weeks, emergency c-section after 3 hours of pushing, he has spina bifida too).
Ds2, the last bit of pushing him out - even though he was delivered with the help of an episiotomy and forceps, I felt such a huge sense of achievement! I just lay there saying "I've done it, I've done it" over and over again!
Oh, and holding him skin to skin - I couldn't hold ds1 for 12 days afterwards, because of his back, and the fact that he'd had a pneumothorax (poor little man!). And, if it's not being too greedy, looking at his back, feeling it, and knowing for sure that he didn't have spina bifida too (then feeling really guilty for ds1).

DonnyLass · 26/02/2007 20:58

Big hug to you sweetheart. Nothing to feel guilty about at all x You sound like an ace mummy x

Smellen · 26/02/2007 21:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

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