Nice first birth stories please!

[BorgLady]

I'm currently 31 weeks with my first baby, and to say that I am bricking it about the birth would be an understatement.

Everywhere I seem to be reading horrors about people's first births! People keep telling me that you never hear the good stories, only the bad, so in the interest of redressing the balance, please could you share your nice birth stories with me please and hopefully calm me down!

Of course, if this thread goes unanswered, I probably shan't sleep at all for the next nine weeks!

Well despite recently starting a thread about stitches I had a lovely birth even though it was premature and v high tech and interventionist...labour lasted about 5 hours I think and was only pushing for half an hour despite epidural. Midwives and partner were fantastic and I was so happy to meet baby. So you can have a birth that some people might think will be awful that is in fact wonderful. Can't see why people share horror stories with people awaiting their first baby.

Congratulations! You'll get loads of responses - this is a good idea For me, first baby, first sign of any kind at 4pm, nothing really happened til 6.30pm, the going got tough at 9.30pm and the baby was born 11.15pm. So much shorter than I feared it would be!

My first birth was absolutely text book - couldn't have expected better.

It was 12-13 hours long, and I coped without pain relief (I'm usually a pain wimp so that was a surrise - I had planned on having an epidural if necessary). The last two hours were really tough, but with a good midwife and dh, I got through it, and dd1 was born without any problems. She was given to me immediately and I breastfed her almost immediately.

Good luck BorgLady!

My first was 4.5 hours, a bit panicky (because of course all first labours are 24 long) but a great experience and a beautiful girl at the end.
However yours goes it will be a great experience for you.

My first was fine. No pain relief. I honestly didnt need it. It was painful but not unbearably so.

waters broke at 8am, went to hospital at 2pm, told to go home, went back at about 5pm, DS born about 5.45 with about four big pushes.

you will be absolutely fine honest.

oh mine was a breeze. total piece of piss. and really, like made me feel at one with the universe and connected to my foremothers and all that stuff.

was water, no pain relief needed, no tearing. baby utterly delicious. i was even back in my size 10 jeans in ten days. 'mazin.

that the kind of thing youre after?

Hey good luck BorgLady...mine was a breeze. I had first pain at 3am, in hospital at 7am, DD born at 10.15am. Only G&A as I was 9cm when I got to hospital (the only thing on my 'birth plan' was an epidural and DH nearly had a fit when MW said I couldn't have one)!! Yes, it did hurt, but it was over quickly and our beautiful 9lb 9oz daughter was born -- no stitches, no tearing.

The week before giving birth I had a false alarm and the GP sent me to hospital. I was scared witless. When it came to the real thing, I was as calm as anything. I am sure it was to do with good old Mother Nature kicking in and my body doing what it needed to do.

Best advice? Every birth is different. All you can really be prepared to do is go with the flow.

Mine was fab. Went into labour suddenly and unexpextedly at 36 weeks 2 days. First twinge at just after 9am, DD born at 1pm. Had no time for pain relief and managed a couple of puffs on gas and air before they took it away from me. Actual deliver took just under an hour. Was up and about and absolutely fine just after the birth. She had no problems despite being a bit early.

My first was born after 4 hours in the hospital with just gas and air and I only pushed for 2 mins

Mine was fine - contractions started about 4pm, admitted to labour ward around 9pm. Transition sucked (not least because no-one thought I was that fully dilated, so the mw tried to leave & do some paperwork at that stage - that was the only stage where i felt 'out of control' & lasted about 15 mins according to my notes. Managed with G&A only.
I did find the pushing stage hard - but had wonderful support from a lovely midwife - I went over the 'official' length of time they allowed for pushing, & she went & found another mw rather than getting a doctor involved as she knew I wanted to avoid more medical intervention.

It really wasn't as bad as it looks on Casulty

Contractions started around 5 am. DH took me to the hospital after about 10 minutes, where they asked me how far apart contractions were. I told them I wasn't timing them, and they said I should have, and told me to wait in the triage room. I think they weren't very fast about checking me because they didn't think I was that far along, but when someone finally got around to seeing me, I was 9 cm. Fortunately Dr. was already at the hospital.

DS was born at 8:18 am, and most of the time was spent pushing. He was 9 lbs, and the Dr. kept saying how big his head was afterward. I'm in the U. S., and they don't do gas and air or tens machines that I've ever heard of, and I was too far gone for an epidural, so I got a totally natural childbirth. Not fun, but bearable, and when I had DD, I wasn't so far along I couldn't have an epidural, but I declined, because having DS wasn't too bad. (She was smaller and was under 2 hours of labor and maybe 5 pushes) I was very happy with the experience.

Well, my first birth was a planned CS because DS was breech. I never had a labour pain. I think it is fair to say that I was very apprehensive about labour during that pregnancy, and was secretly relieved that DS didn't turn, even though I claimed to want to give birth naturally. But the elcs made me realise that there had to be better ways of doing it than that and so I planned a home birth with DD.

I had read up on it (only, I would add, the positive stuff!), and was expecting a very long labour (I'm old and my mother had long labours). In the event, my waters broke at 9am, I was in pre-labour at 12, full labour at 9ish, and fully dilated by midnight. it took me a while to push DD out, and I needed an episiotomy in the end, after which she just fell out with one contraction. It was awesome. Truly. It bloody hurt but it was a good pain. I would do it again tomorrow. Except that I loathed being pregnant and am never doing that again!

I had a lovely homebirth with gas and air and a pool delivery No stitches, pain wasn't as bad as I thought... it was long-ish (28 hrs 13 in established labour) but very manageable as contractions every 4 mins begininning to end.

I waited as long as possible before going to hospital and was 6cm by the time I got there. Stayed calm, no pain relief although I was tempted!, gave birth to 9 pound baby 11 hours later. We look forward to hearing your happy story soon!

Mine was so much better than expected.
Contractions started mildly around 4pm when I had a show. I strapped on the TENS at around 8pm when it started to hurt a little. Trick with the TENS I think is to put it on early and not wait until they really hurt.

Phoned at 11.30 and they said have a bath. I think they always say that with first babies cause they assume you're going in too early. I went in around 12.30 and DS born at 1.45. No stitches and he BF well so they let me home a few hours later. Didn't need to transfer to PN ward and DH never left my side. It was lovely. I had G&A and Pethidene.

Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't bloody hurt because it does. But, it's unlike any other pain in that a) you know what is happening is natural and b)it's a means to an end.

Finally, don't have any firm birth expectations. Go in with a positive attitude but be prepared that things may not work out as hoped. You may not want pain relief but really need it. You may need an episiotomy and/or an instrumental delivery. You may need a C-section. In the end all that matters is that you and baby are safe and that it was as positive an experience as was possible on the day.
Good luck!

my first birth was lovely

woke with niggly contractions, had a bath, decided it was nothing, packed a picnic and determined that dh and i would still have a day out

went to the loo before we left, had had a bleed, phoned labour ward and they wanted us to go in

arrived at hospital, had a scan to chekc on placenta, had some lunch, they did an internal, found i was 4 cm and decided to keep me in

i was CONVINCED that i wasn't in labour so made them let me go for a walk. they agreed if I was back by 2pm. at the furthest corner of the park, at about 1.30pm the contractions were suddenly AGONY.

was back at hospital about 2pm, TENS for an hour, was 7cm, started G&A and ds popped out before 5pm.

home for lunch the next day. lovely

(few stitches, but you don't need to hear that!)

you'll be fine...what you're feeling is natural...i'm 35 weeks with number 3 and feel much the same!

Hi Tassisssss! Have you changed your name from Tassis? I think you were on my antenatal thread with no2. I had to name change after a strange stalker woman at toddler group. Nice to see you're expecting no3. Hope you're well!

it wasn't nearly as bad as i expected. i had very mild contractions for 3 days (not strong enough to stop me sleeping) on day 3 of contractions my waters broke at 4.00 ish went to hospital at about 4.45 as my contractions were by then very strong and about 3mins mins apart. was 7 cm dilated when examined when i first got to hospital. went into a pool and ds was born at 7.45pm. altogether not too bad.

just had gas and air and the water to deal with the pain, which although is obviously very painful was bearable.

good luck, i'm sure you'll be fine

At 39 weeks, my waters broke spectacularly while I was nodding off to sleep in bed with dh.
I phoned the hospital - they said take my time! My contractions built up steadily over 5 hours during which time I lay on the sofa alone(wanted to be alone, btw!) watching night time tv - a whole new world! I also ate tons of breakfast cereal as I was paranoid about running out of energy.
Woke dh at 5 and we arrived at the hospital on a beautiful sunny morning at around 6. Roads were really quiet.
Straight down to the labour ward as I was 8 cm - very chuffed. Gas and air was fantastic. It did hurt a lot, but I didn't care, plus in between contractions i was elated.
Ds arrived at 9.26 am and I only needed a couple of stitches from the wonderful midwife.

Good luck! you'll manage - lesser women have, lol!

hey cushioncover, yeah someone wanted to be tassi which annoyed me greatly so i changed to make a point and haven't got round to changing back. who were you? do update us with your chat on the Sept '06 thread... hope your wee 20ish month old is doing well!

Thank you all sooooo much for these stories, I wasn't expecting so many so quick!

I've got no birth plan, just seeing how it all goes, and I'm prepared to do anything and everything that is necessary to keep the nasties to a minimum.

Like a couple of people have said, I too have really hated being pregnant, it's been like being ill for a year, so at I have got that to look forward to (as well as my lovely baby boy of course)!

I'm hoping that a rubbish pregnancy = easy birth, because before I got pregnant, I always said I would like three children and if I have a nasty birth I really don't think I will ever do this again!

Please keep your nice stories coming, I actually felt the first flutters of excitement as I was reading them. My birth worries have seemed like such a brick wall that I haven't really been able to imagine the nice bit afterwards where I get to meet my baby!

i had a rubbish pregnancy too (felt ill from before the moment i saw the line on the test). Birth was easy compared to 9 months of feeling like shit