Hi everyone,
I was just wondering if anyone could share their second time labour recovery stories for some reassurance (and for some realistic expectations!)
Had a wonderful, text book pregnancy with my first born DS but a bit of a back story of my labour for relevance:
He came naturally at 37+5 after 34 hours from the first contraction. Started having very very mild period like pains around 8pm which were absolutely fine (and which I slept through) until 3am when they woke me up but they were still fine and I could talk through them. 8am I was checked and I was 1cm and baby was lying LOP so slightly twisted to the side but otherwise fully engaged; 1pm went into the birth unit and was 3cm, labour progressed steadily until 8pm when I hit 6cm and hopped in the bath for some relief; started G&A at 10pm when I was thought to be around 8cm (no checks to confirm), and then around 2am, started to really struggle. Waters still hadn't gone and I was getting tired but managed to push through. At 4am I hopped out of the bath and was checked and I was 10cm and my midwife broke my waters. Contractions ramped up and it took 2 hours of pushing to get him out (which we then found out was because he was in a brow presentation) so, because of this, I had a small episiotomy as by the time he was in the birth canal he was coming out almost face first. Because of this, the last 4 hours, particularly the 2 hours of pushing, were absolutely brutal and I genuinely thought he was going to break my pelvis coming out. I was black and blue from, and across my vagina - (sorry TMI), down to my thighs from the pressure of him coming out in a brow/face presentation and my midwife said it was some of the worst she had seen and that it was one of the toughest deliveries she had seen. I also had a lovely couple of prolapses to deal with (again, likely thanks to his positioning!)
Because of this, and now being pregnant with my second, I am slightly terrified of the recovery. The birth I feel pretty confident about and very much what will be will be, however I have a toddler to look after now too and I was almost totally immobile after my first which I would hate to be this time. It took me a good 2 weeks to comfortably be able to stand up and walk without feeling like, and apologies but for lack of a better explanation, everything was going to fall out.
Has anyone had a similar first birth with a slightly savage recovery and gone onto have a blissful second? Or am I in denial? 😂
Thanks so much for getting this far!