If you had an easy pregnancy how was your labour?

[Grimmfebruary]

I've coasted through my pregnancy with very little to worry about (29 weeks, no sickness, iron levels only recently low, etc) and am now starting to think labour will be a nightmare seeing as I've had it so easy 😂

So yeah, how did your pregnancy go vs your labour?

Unicorn pregnancy with my son, 9 hour labour on gas and air. 2 small 1st degree tears. No massive complaints really.

Very easy, under 3 hours with first and 45 minutes second, no pain relief, no tearing and back in my jeans in under a week! ( i was in my twenties though!!) Also very very easy babies who just slept and did everything exactly on time. Completely horrendous teen years though, so swings and roundabouts.

I had an absolutely beautiful pregnancy with my first baby. No sickness at all, beautiful skin, thick, glossy hair, tonnes of energy, no aches and pains - I kept saying the entire way through that it'd all go wrong at the end. And it did.

My waters went at 39 weeks completely out of the blue - I'd had no signs whatsoever that day that labour might be imminent.
'Great, this is going well already', I thought, we waddled off to the hospital to confirm it was definitely my waters - it was, we was sent back home and told to await contractions - the midwife was thoroughly encouraging and left us with a "We'll see you back here in a few hours no doubt".

Back home we went. And at home we stayed for almost two days. I was getting contractions, but nothing excruciating. Ended up needing to go in for an induction in which again, I was told it'd be a breeze and within no time we'd be holding our baby. I had the pessary and was placed on the drip for almost 15 hours. Still had only dilated 2-3cms after my waters being gone for so long and contracting for, at this point, nearly three days.

A consultant (an incredibly rude, horrible woman who I want nowhere near me in a few weeks time when I'll be back having my second baby) came bursting in to our room from out of nowhere shouting at my midwife and asking her why I'd been on the drip for so long. She turned to me, told me I could die, my baby could die, if we didn't die I'd likely haemorrhage and lose my womb - it was fucking horrible to say the least. She followed up by saying we needed an urgent emergency c section and left the room.

I obviously sat there in floods of tears, terrified for both mine and my babies safety, only for her to come back in and meekly say 'oh, id read your notes wrong, I thought you'd been on the drip for two days. Nevermind. You still need a c section though. They'll be taking you down now". No apology. No attempt to calm me. Nothing.

I spent the entire duration of the c section shaking with fear and sobbing my heart out. Still, our little bundle made everything all better once he finally arrived!

Given how smoothly my pregnancy had gone, I just knew I'd have a shitty birth ha!

It's all rubbish. I had an awful pregnancy and a horrendous labour. I was induced Sunday 345pm. Wasn't progressing. Had waters broken Tuesday night put on drip. Pushed for 2 hours with no joy. Attempted and failed forceps delivery. Resulting in emergency c section due to babies head rate not recovering fast enough x

Heart *

Easy pregnancy with my first, culminating in an easy labour - planned homebirth, first little pain just after midnight. Midwives came out at 9am and went away again, we pottered about, I had a nap, woke up in full-blown labour, rang midwives, they arrived, an hour and a half later I was holding baby DD. 1st degree tear, no stitches, no problems. Second labour was much the same but 3 hours from start to finish. I had my fair share of shit experiences when trying for both my babies, but happily labour/birth wasn't included in that category. It can all go well, OP, good luck!

I had a good pregnancy with only some sickness at the start. I really enjoyed being pregnant. Labour was fucking awful and one of the worst experiences of my life

Fuckin awful. But mainly due to not being listened to by the bastard midwives. Honestly, I think they were trained in Guantanamo.

Pretty easy pregnancy, morning sickness until about 16 weeks and some hip and back pain later on.
First contraction at about 7pm, but established labour started properly at 7am the next morning, DD was born at 2.40pm in the birthing pool. I did have a load of stitches though, from inside my fanjo and forward and around my urethra and the top of my clitoris, but I would class my labour as relatively easy

Very easy pregnancy and easy labour. Waters went at 38+4, went into labour 24 hours later. 12 hours from first niggly contraction to baby. Managed at home until dilated to 6cms, then ended up having a water birth with no drugs.

The resulting birth injuries are another story but the actual labour and delivery was fine!

I absolutely loved my first pregnancy and labour! Found pregnancy a breeze and the labour, although painful, was a wonderful experience. Labour started about 3 am, stayed at home until 6cm dilated and was admitted to the labour suite about 10am. DD born just before 1pm without any pain relief. Actual pushing phase took less than a minute, but I did tear due to it being very quick. Fantastic overall!

Currently 31 weeks pregnant and have felt more much tired this time (6 years since DD was born) and also had worse sickness. I'm expecting a very quick labour this time around.

Thanks for making me feel a bit more at ease! Honestly I'm expecting a massacre after being so well 😂

There's no relationship really.

I had an easy pregnancy and a straightforward birth - no pain relief, no tearing, 19 hours from first contraction to baby in arms, walked away (literally) with only mild muscle soreness.

I had an easy pregnancy. It didn't affect me until the last month when my feet and ankles ballooned.

Labour was crap, as many are. 11 years on I've blocked most of it out.

You just never know!

Easy pregnancy, fairly straightforward birth. (Breastfeeding was a total nightmare though...)

C-section 🤣... twice!

But second pregnancy wasn't as good had spd at the end... could hardly move!

I had an easy pregnancy no sickness or anything like that, my bump was also fairly small so I had no reason to buy any maternity clothes either I would just get the next size up and my labour was just under 2 hours (From the time I got into the birthing suite that is, I was having contractions all day!) I also had very minimal tears so overall it was a pleasant experience.

I was very fortunate two very easy pregnancies and two natural labours, labour was much better than I expected, I was absolutely dreading it the first time.

10hr labour with DS1 and 2.5hr labour with DS2, I did not need any pain relief, I wasn’t adverse too it. My birth plan (waste of time writing one, IMHO) was full of pain relief options.

Good luck OP, try not to worry or listen to scare stories, every labour is different and not something you can plan for necessarily. If like me you are expecting labour to be dreadful, you may be surprised.

Easy pregnancy here - labour started naturally at term, but very slow (60hrs), back to back baby, syntocinon, ending in category 1 emergency section! So no correlation for me! We're all fine though so no long term issues x

My pregnancy with my first (and also this baby) has been fairly easy and straightforward, with the exception of some pelvic and low back pain (which I have problems with pregnant or not, but it’s exacerbated by pregnancy though I just get on with it). You may find things get tougher from here. My SPD didn’t even start until 29 weeks with my first but with regular exercise and a few osteopath appts it was completely manageable (I felt fine by the time I went into labour). I had a pretty comfortable straightforward birth with my first which I didn’t find to be especially painful (intense and tiring but only fleeting moments of discomfort). I chalk that up to staying active in pregnancy and preparing well (had a home birth, did hypnotherapy, felt very relaxed about the whole thing). I had an 11 hour labour from waters breaking but only about 9 hours of active labour with contractions. Didn’t need any pain relief other than a TENS. So totally possible. I imagine things will be similar this time though likely quicker and more intense.

I had four easy pregnancies, and three "easy" (straight forward, complication-free) labours.

The difficult one was all to do with how the baby was positioned.

Best pregnancy - not one symptom and very active til the end.

Labour- intense but in hindsight, pretty perfect especially compared to others in nct group. Came on due date, had extremely regular contractions for 17h at home, went into midwife led unit when I felt I couldn't cope any longer, was only 3cm but they were kind enough to let me stay. Plan was to put me in a quiet room with pethidine to sleep for the day. Stepped into the room, waters broke before I'd reached the bed and he was out in 2.5h! It was scary, I felt out of control and no tone for any pain relief other than gas and air.

Two lessons learned- listen to your body (I knew pain intensity was enough to get me to go to hospital, despite having 2 contractions in 10 (not the recommended 4).

Secondly- no two labours are the same. Everyone in nct had a different experience and I certainly had no way of planning mine. I didn't even open my extremely carefully planned suitcase until after he was born!!

Best of luck - it's amazing

Thank you for sharing your stories!