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Childbirth

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

Original poster

Naked in Childbirth????

80 replies

PinkArjuna · 27/10/2004 17:15

I know this seems really trite considering all that you will got through to actually get to the labour. However to me it is more abhorrant than the thought of all the pain blood and gore. I heard it is commen for the midwives to encourage you to take your clothes off. I can't think of anything worse or more humiliating than this. I have little of issue about bringing a baby into the world but find this modesty to be truly alarming and down right disgusting. Each to there own of course - no insult intended. but some people I have spoken to in my area say here they try to force you to be naked when you give birth. Also my understanding is most people do. Though I have never heard of this before. Of course I realise water birth would mean nakedness and that is why I am just not interested. I think anything that would make the mother distressed is bad for birth and if I have a midwife trying to rid me of my clothes as seems to be commen around here I am sorry but I count this as a total invasion of boundaries and would be deeply troubled. This is my number one concern. I understand the bottom half has to be free but I feel Nakedness too much. Way too much. I hate being touched and think it alarming that someone will physically try to remove my clothes in labour

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nightowl · 30/10/2004 23:28

i remember actually feeling absolutely horrified when my midwife told me about skin to skin...i couldnt think of anything worse..i worried about it for months that someone would force me to take things off and that i would be too upset/knackered to refuse. i am funny about things like that anyway...i get embarrassed about giving a urine sample!

jampot · 30/10/2004 23:31

I am, and certainly was pre-kids, very self conscious and definitely woudn't have done the skin to skin thing. I was so embarrassed at the prospect of having an examination in labour. By the end of my labour I didn't care a toss who saw it and even allowed 2 student nurses in to watch as well. Although i did have a temporary blip when I rememberd a lad at school was hell bent on being a doctor and I didn't know whether he did or if he did where he worked!!!

alexsmum · 30/10/2004 23:44

it's funny.When i was preg with ds1 I knew I wanted to use the pool in labour but was worried about being naked.I did go in naked in the end and it was LOVELY!!! when I got out, i put a t-shirt/dress thing on, but had to rip it off because I was so hot.( in a real 'get this off me!!!'way!)delivered him naked and had immediate skin to skin.Ds2 kept the same t-shirt on the whole time but pulled it off in a madly urgent manner the minute he was born, so I could feel his lovely body! it's so weird.I was so worried about people seeing me naked,having internals etc.but when it came to it, it could have been the bin man seeing me naked and delivering my babies, I absolutely did not give a fig!!!

Gretel · 30/10/2004 23:45

For my first my obsession was about keeping my knickers on until i was at least 10cms. (I am a nurse and Hubby a Dr) my other half couldn't believe it - we didn't have conversations re pain relief, what was best for baby etc -it was all about my dignity.
Needless to say - after 27 hours (the midwife did say 4 hours - but what would she know) I was completely naked and didn't give a damn - I just wanted the baby out!

alexsmum · 30/10/2004 23:47

I think the midwives are very good too.when I was in labour with ds2, the midwife said to me that a student dr had asked to be present at the birth,and she said'i've told him I don't think it's appropriate but i've said i'll ask'.of course the answer was no.But I was so grateful that she didn't just let him waltz in.And they knock before they come in the delivery room.

mears · 31/10/2004 00:03

Glad your midwife has been able to reassure you PinkArjuna. As I stared to read this thread I was horrified by your fears as I am a midwife and would never insist on a woman being naked. Naked women are such by their own choice. I have looked after women in the pool with gowns on - one woman had a bra, pants and nightdress on down to her knees in the pool and only took the pants off at the time of delivery. Skin-to -skin is easily done discretely up the nightie. IMO that is the best development in recent years - babies snuggled against their mothers skin as soon as possible after delivery. Women who have C/S deliveries have skin-to-skin in recovery usually. Hopefully mumsnet will be a great source of information for you PinkArjuna

linnet · 31/10/2004 00:17

When I had dd1 skin to skin contact was never mentioned. AS it turned out she was delivered in theatre by forceps and was immediately wrapped up in blankets and put into her goldfish bowl cot. We bonded just fine.

With dd2 there was lots of talk about skin to skin contact. I wasn't very keen on the idea but didn't mention it to anyone. dd2 was delivered naturally and I said to the midwife that I wanted her wiped down before she was handed to me, which she did. But after she was wiped dd2 down she undid my hospital gown, which was tied at the front, and opened it up a little and placed dd2 onto my chest/stomach. My breasts were still covered by the gown and I was too elated at having actually managing to have given birth with out medical assistance that I didn't care that my bottom half was on show. Dh did stay at the head end though as I had told him I didn't want him seeing anything down there and to be honest he wasn't really that keen to see anything happening at that end anyway.

I would have refused point blank if someone had told me to strip naked. I still had my knickers on until my waters broke and the midwife said that I should now take them off so they could see what was going on. and that was about half an hour before she was born.

nightowl · 31/10/2004 00:39

i didnt know that cs deliveries have skin to skin too mears...it was never suggested to me when that was how things turned out. baby under gown would have been absolutely fine by me but the thought of being naked i just could not handle at all. wish id have known this now.

nightowl · 31/10/2004 00:41

in fact what the midwife actually said was (well beforehand) "well when you have the baby, we'll pull your nightie up for you"....i could have passed out!!

KangaMummy · 31/10/2004 01:24

I wore a t shirt and SOCKS as I had cold feet

The rest of me was hot and kept having the fan turned on then off then on etc.

But my advice would be to take SOCKS

KangaMummy · 31/10/2004 01:55

socks may also help to make you feel less exposed with your legs IYSWIM

NotQuiteCockney · 31/10/2004 07:56

I had a CS five weeks ago - and had skin-to-skin in theatre, nursing in recovery. We just pulled bits of the gown out of the way. I don't think my breasts were visible, but I didn't care, too happy to have baby out, too happy things were going (relatively) well.

The latest clinical guidelines say you should have skin-to-skin asap with a section, as with a normal birth.

They also say you should be able to leave the hospital after 24 hours, if you have no fever, which we managed (without signing ourselves out!), but I gather is something of a rarity.

Eshay · 31/10/2004 20:40

I wanted a waterbirth and was a bit worried about being naked as well so I'd bought a Sloggi support top. Unfortunately I could not go in the pool so I was super happy I had my support top as I did get very hot too but did not want to be completely naked. The funny thing was that by the time I decided I wanted an epidural I couldn't care less about putting on a gown to walk down the hall. I would have done it completely naked naked but the midwife was nice enough put the gown on me. Beforehand I was also quite worried about breastfeeding with people around but I am glad to say it's not an issue anymore. Good luck!

Shimmy21 · 31/10/2004 20:54

And by the way, Pink Arjuna if you're still keeping up with this thread. Skin to skin contact is a lovely idea if you are able BUT if you can't it doesn't mean you wont bond with your baby. I told a bit of my birth story earlier (home/naked/bath etc) except that it ended with a bedroom full of ambulance men, ds2 dumped on the bed while everyone bundled me off to hospital. I didn't get to hold ds2 until about half an hour later when they tried to get me to bf him at the same time as I was having a complicated episiotomy gone wrong sorted out at the other end!In spite of all of this bonded with my beautiful boy no problem just as I guess millions of other women do who don't do the naked thing. I'm damn sure our mothers didn't do anything like this!!

Tommy · 31/10/2004 21:18

I hardly had time to take my knicks off before DS2 flew out and still had on the T shirt I had been wearing (it washed up surprisingly well!)
But SOCKS - definitely, for afterwards

Wallace · 31/10/2004 21:40

This brought back a funny memory. When I was in labour with ds I was in the birthing pool (starkers of course) and dh bumped into an aquaintance of ours (from antenatal class)in the cafe, and invited her to come up to see me. She stood and chatted to me for a while. It wasn't even 'til afterwards I realised the I had just been making small tlk whist completely naked

mummylove · 31/10/2004 21:53

Beleive me when it comes to pushing or even before you have gone out the window, i bought a brand new stylish elle nightdress for the occascion during labour i slowly turned into a cave woman, speech replaced by grunting and clothes replaced my nakedness and i did not care once a bit. in fact i think this whole going primal helped me cope with the pain, kind of like tunnel vision i got into the swing of it and in my own world. the tens machine and gas turned me, i swear but i wouldnt change it - it was an experience that i look forward to again... well not for awhile... and hopefully it will be shoter...

mummylove · 31/10/2004 21:55

oh by the way, no-one told me to get naked, when the midwife told me it was time to push, i kneeled up on the bed and whipped it off and threw it god knows where and prepared myself like i was entering the ring - a woman on a misson!!!

NotQuiteCockney · 01/11/2004 06:27

Sure, skin-to-skin is lovely, but you can do fine without it. Ds1 was put into special care for over 24 hours after he was born (he was absolutely fine). I didn't get to cuddle him, or try to feed him, until he was 30 hours old or so. I think this may have been part of why we had a bit of a hard time with breastfeeding, but certainly the two of us got on, and now get on, very well. (And I nursed him to 18 months, so we did get the hang of it.)

captainCOD · 01/11/2004 07:53

my mum always said she never ubderstands why women have to be naked
I remember saying to dh " hen do you take oyur pants off, but I cant actually remember now any of the htreee times

throckenholt · 01/11/2004 09:10

I was naked with DS1 because I threw up all over my t-shirt (had be cut off because I was on a drip) - by that stage I didn't care what I looked like - I just wanted to get rid of the smell which was certainly not adding to the experience .

NomDePlume · 04/11/2004 12:37

I was butt naked for my labour and delivery with DD (my 1st baby). It was a very fast and furious August labour (3 hours in total), I was hot and felt horribly restricted by my t-shirt so took it off. I thought I'd feel quite inhibited pre-birth but TBH it was a blessed relief to be able to move about freely and comfortably (as comfortably as you can when you are getting no breaks in contractions and there's no pain relief).

FWIW, I wouldn't worry about being made to take your clothes off. The majority of MWs are very receptive to your needs and wants, I would take the advice offered here and make sure it is on your birth plan, records and make it clear to your birth partner.

HTH

Nikkichik · 04/11/2004 13:41

I felt like you PinkArjuna and started off in a t-shirt as I was induced and everything took a long time. Planned to try the pool but had an epidural. Ended up having an ECS due to one thing and another so guess I was naked in the end but can't really remember much about it I was so doped up!! Also seem to recall that DH was the first to hold dd as they were busy stitching me up! I just remember the whole thing being awful as I was all wired up for 2 days so couldn't do anything for myself, dd cried all the time and my milk wasn't coming in and I got really bad baby blues!! Will definitely try for the skin on skin next time (if there is one!) - believe me, when you are in labour all you care about is getting the baby out one way or another, not what you are wearing. Childbirth is a great leveller and any dignity you think you have will go out the window in that delivery room! however, nobody can tell you what to do so still to your guns!

Original poster
PinkArjuna · 07/11/2004 20:26

How do you contact people through mumsnet? Is there like some mail thingy or something? I know different bulleten boards have different options. I would like to contact Pupuce as was recomended

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hercules · 07/11/2004 20:30

I havent read the other messages here but I know I couldnt do it naked. The thought horrifies me. You are so vulnerable. I had to keep my glasses on the whole time as I cant see without them despite the mvs wanting to take them. I guess I felt so out of control of what was happening I needed some thing to hold on to iyswim.

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