What did you learn during your first labour that made the second time easier?

[emkana]

That the feeling of desperately needing to poo is actually the feeling of desperately needing to push - and so you shouldn't spend over an hour and a half trying to fight it out of embarrassment at the thought of, ahem, doing something, but go with it.

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AllBuggiedOut, yep, more than once, but I was pushing, and screaming. I know their argument is 'energy used to scream is wasted as it should be used to push with', but I pushed my boys out in 15 mins and 4 mins, not sure I needed much more energy!

And I wasn't screaming for the fun of it!

that you really need to listen to your body and go with your instincts where possible

take each contraction at a time

keep moving arouns where possible

remember that this is the last leg in the journey to meeting your baby !!

Did these midwives actually use the words "shut up"? Mine did tell me to try not to scream as it made pushing more difficult (and I have to admit she was right ) but she was pretty polite about it.

DS2's midwife: "Shut up, you're wasting energy, just push" expressed nicely but meant the same.

Did I mention how many times I told her to fuck off in my head?!!

DS1 I was completely out of it, midwife1 said to midwife2, "god I wish she'd shut up" as I said, I was out of it, DH wasn't

To be fair, I do make a lot of noise, but that is the way I do it, and I am sure I am not the only one to make a lot of noise. Some people just out grow their jobs I think.

Starlight - you're exactly right - the pain gets to its max and then stays there and doesn't get any worse.

You know what it feels like when your pushing, so you know when it isn't quite right second time - I was pushing 4 cms dilated second time around due to cervix slipping. Told midwife it wasn't right, but she said keep going. I insisted, and only 4cms.

that it might not happen