Any happy lovely childbirth stories out there?

[HolyGuacamole]

OK, long story short. Planning children in the near-ish future, I am completely and irrationaly terrified of any type of medical procedure and the thought of childbirth is like "whoa, ultra mega scary" and that's an understatement.

So does anyone have any really positive birth stories where things went really smoothly and to plan, (preferably with as little gory detail as possible)?

Only 4 here but all lovely and easy!(wow Juuule!)

DD4 was super speedy and pointed her little nose 10mn after I got in hospital! I just could not believe it! I remember getting on the hospital bed, asking for gas and air, finding my waklman and then here she was, I did not even have time to press the play button!

I had a great labour!

From first contraction to birth - 8 hours!
Went to hospital 6cm dilated, waters broke when I was fully dilated, DS born very soon after.
Gas and Air for 30 mins only and no stitches needed. No further pain relief needed on ward.

I kept active throughout labour and delivered him while standing.

Got home within 24 hours and back in size 8 jeans 2 days later. Most people didnt believe I had just given birth.

Cant wait to do it again but as he is only 6 weeks may have a while to go!

Good luck with everything and don't listen to all the horror stories, birth can be a positive experience too but it seems everyone wants to throw in how awful it is.

I had a great time with ds2
i would definitely do it again if I could - i would do it again tomorrow tbh - it was awesome
i had a doula and i attribute all the good stuff to her being there for me, really
i had ds2 at home and the midwives stuck to my birth plan absolutely - i mean too rigidly, really, i was struggling with some parts and could have done with some alternative suggestions, but they were determined to follow my wishes! bless them
good luck - i would totally recommend getting a doula, or even an independent midwife if you can afford one

My DD's birth wasn't exactly straightforward or easy but it was lovely all the same. I made the midwives aware of my fears of medical things/blood/needles/anything gory and they did an amazing job of shielding me from the worst. They were also suprisingly understanding, I thought they would think I was a bit of a freak! During this pregnancy my midwife has been absolutely amazing with getting me seen for various problems out of the hospital (eg. physio for SPD) and I'm hoping to be home within 4-6hours after the birth as long as everything ok.

I also have an irrational fear of all things medical and it did cause me problems during my first pregnancy, although have been absolutely fine throughout this pregnancy. Would strongly recommend getting some counselling for it if you can before you get pregnant as it's pretty hard to avoid medical people once you are pregnant.

Here's mine

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1365/583338

abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=6120045&page=1

HTH
x

I had totally natural) only pain relief was tens machine, and this was not used when actually pushing (no G&A either)

I did do hypnobirthing, and by this I mean bought am Mp3 off ebay and did it every day. Christmas eve came and I was watching Emmersale farm (had been uncomfortable all day) and then had a bad contraction. All the others did not make me panic and I just shrugged them off. Mum and dad arrived to look after DD1 and we set off to the hospital, listening to christmas songs on the radio in the car.

Reached hospital, was examined (nurse giving me looks as if I was wasting their time) and I was 6cms! I was chatting away, very happy and then wondered down to labour ward.

After bouncing on birthing ball to christmas songs on the radio, my little girl was born at 0110 on christmas morning. And when I think about the labour and the birth, it brings a tear to me eye, it was such a happy event.

Try hypnobirthing, but as I say, mine was a £5 mp3 off ebay but whether it did make a difference, or whether it was purely physcological? Who can say!

Go for it!

Contractions are like period pains that go all the way round your tummy.

They only last moments.

In between contractions, you feel fine.

Cups of tea between contractions are not uncommon.

Childbirth is hugely interesting when it's happening to you!

I've just had a bub and posted my birth story on my antenatal thread...will go and get it for you!

Hope its not too long!!!

So?on New Years eve I had a few twinges when I went to bed but they didn?t amount to anything.
Same thing when I sent to bed on New Years Day and DH suggested plugging myself into my Hypnobirthing. I managed to doze off but when it finished I came too with a bigger contraction (but still nothing to write home about). After a while I suddenly felt that tell tale POP and managed to leap out of bed to avoid soaking it! Checked the time and it was about 12.15. I then rang the maternity unit and they said that they would send someone out to check on me. I started to get a few more contractions so I rang my Mum and she said that either her or my sister would be round to sit with Oliver in case he woke up.
I plugged in the Tens, started up contraction master on the laptop and took a couple of paracetamol. No midwife yet and slightly alarmed to see that the frequency on contraction master was about every three minutes although pretty mild.
My Mum and sister arrived in their PJ?s having decided that neither of them could cope with waiting at home for the phone call. Needless to say, my Dad and brother didn?t have the same feeling!
A midwife arrived at about 1.30, loved the contraction master as she said it helped her to see exactly how the labour was progressing. I was standing at my breakfast bar, holding onto the back of two chairs and rocking from foot to foot. I?d managed to scoff a banana and a cup of tea before it all got too strong. The midwife said that all looked good but she?d have a cup of tea and decide whether she should leave me to labour for a while. Needless to say, she decided to stay as the contractions didn?t let up and an examination showed that I was 3 cm and whilst she was ?in there? so to speak, progressed to 4 cm. I basically stood and rocked until about 2.45 with progressively more intense contractions which led to the utterance of the odd ? oh gosh? and ?oh lordy? (well my mum was sitting behind me!!!!). I did whisper the F word once or twice but I think I got away with it! At 2.45 ish I felt Heidi travelling pretty fast!!! Go gravity! The midwife scrambled DH to lay out plastic sheeting and pads and I knelt on all fours leaning over the sofa footstall. Ten minutes later with a few more not so whispered F words, she was out! Mum and sister left the room for the gory bit but could still hear what was going on. I felt that I was more ?anti pushing? than pushing (ie trying to slow down the birth) and managed to avoid any tears or bruising?bloody miracle!
I was a bit stuck for a while?.shaky legs and all that so couldn?t move! DH held Heidi whilst I recovered myself and then she was bought over for a first go at feeding! Mum, sister and second midwife arrived and we all had a cuppa (see a theme here!) and some biscuits. By 4.30 everyone had gone and DH, Heidi and I were sat on the sofa drinking Bucks Fizz and waiting for DS to wake up. DH was twitching to call people and then remembered he could call his sister in Oz. DS woke up at 6.10 (late for him) and DH bought him in and pointed out his new sister. He asked for chocolate milk and then we all settled down to spiderman 3.

All in all it was fantastic! She is now a week old and feeding really well. Long may it continue!!! But lets not count any chickens!!!!

My three were natural, active and over in under 3-5 hours each time. With 2 and 3 I was home in under 4 hours. Obviously it was sore, but with lots of gas and air and a husband who made sure I was touched and spoken to as little as possible, all was fine. I quite liked it actually, it's amazing how you get into the zone, your body just takes over and out pops a precious amazing wee person....aah!

I'd do labour again no problem, it's the thought of late pregnancy that makes me cry!

had to answer this thread, beacause dd2 is 4 now and I still can't believe how lovely her birth was !

DD1 was straighrforward - 7 hrs, 3 days early, no stitches, in hospital,

but dd2 was 10 days early and a waterbirth, 4 hrs, no stitches, and no pushing! She literally shot out of there ! I remember thinking I should be pushing, I should be making an effort, but she just forced her way out and I picked her up out of the water, held her, unwrapped the cord which was wrapped all around her torso, to find out what sex she was. I can still relive that moment then, I laughed and cried, it was that amazing !

had ds 19 mo ago, and another short labor at 4 hrs, but couldn't get in water as not enough staff - was much much harder and more painful, plus had stitches for first time !

So my advice is, get in that water if you can!

"In between contractions, you feel fine" makes me smile when people say that, and my friend who said she was fine between contractions - she did the washing up.
After the first 2 or 3 I didn't really have "between contractions" then just rolled into each other.
I did have good births though, ds1 was 2hrs from first contraction with gas and air for pain relief and no tearing. ds2 was 15mins from first contraction, at the side of my bed at home, slight grazing.
I would do childbirth again tomorrow, it was the 8mo of pg that knackered me.

fwiw I was really scared of giving birth the 1st time, to the extent that I blocked out the fact that I had to do so. Given I choice I would have jumped at a section. I did nothing to prepare and am not overly fit and don't have a high pain threshold. Just lucky!

Hi HG!
My labour with ds was pretty much text book I think.

Started contractions at 3am the day after his edd. By 6pm they were close together, went to hospital and was 4/5cm dilated. By 11pm felt the urge to push and was fully dilated. Pushed for an hour and a half and ds was born at half past midnight.

For pain relief I used tens (still not sure if it actually helps or not but gives you something to do!) and gas and air. I did beg for an epidural at one point but midwife put me off (as birth plan said I didn't want one and I think everyone begs for one at some point!) and I got through it anyway.

What helped for me was staying upright the whole time (I even delivered him standing up onto the floor!), I couldn't bear to be lying down and only did so a couple of times for the midwife to have a look.

I'm not saying the pain wasn't bad and even felt unbearable for a while (when there was no gap between contractions) but the feeling of getting through it and producing a child at the end was pretty amazing!!!

(Btw, not judging anyone else for having more pain-relief/epidural, I have a huge fear/phobia of having a needle put in my spine and would rather go through the pain than have that!! How anyone else does it is up to them!!)

A final thought is that my approach throughout pregnancy was just not to worry about childbirth and just to look on it as something to be got through that would only take probably about a day, which in the grand scheme of things is no big deal (ha ha!!!). It helped for me anyway.

Good luck!!!

PS ds2 is due in 4 weeks so hopefully I will have another positive story (hoping for a homebirth this time), but I also think it is important to be prepared for something going wrong - eg, you can't determine how the baby will be positioned.

I'm an ENORMOUS wimp - take paracetamol and nurofen just to get my legs waxed - and I was absolutely terrified of labour. In the event, my waters broke, got to hospital, got into water pool which killed the pain of the contractions, told everyone to STFU and sit down and let me focus, and then did just that. At one point it started to really hurt so I started using gas and air. It never hurt to any significant level after that, including when DS crowned. It took 4 hours from my waters breaking to the birth itself, and I actually remember thinking "God, this is boring, I wish there was a telly in here" at one point early on. Immediately afterwards I said I wanted to do it again. It was lovely, and I was so thrilled and excited.

A nice birth is down to luck, but they can and do happen. (I had an absolutely shitty pregnancy, and three days latent labour - strong but irregular contractions - before my waters broke and things started, so my lovely birth was a welcome surprise!)

I don't think it is scary pain, tbh. It is quite painful, yes, I don't think there is any point pretending otherwise. But it is the kind of pain that is ok. This will probably make sense when you are in labour and not before. It was quite interesting to me that the fact that the pain was productive seemed to make a huge difference to how much I minded it. It still hurt but it wasn't at all scary.

The best thing I can compare it too would be the last bit of a marathon run, where you are pushing yourself beyond endurance because you are looking forward to the result.

Anyway, from what I hear, you can have an epidural which will get rid of all the pain (I think? Have never had one), and really, if you are this scared of pain its worth considering, i think. its all weighing up pros and cons.

I think it best to be realistic about the pain that most women experience in labour, first because I think that that demystifies it, but second because I think women can think they have failed if they end up taking drugs to get them through it.

Oh and there are lots of resources on pain management during labour, there are types of breathing, hypobirthing etc. Also, if you are this afraid, then seriously consider hiring a doula, who will be at the birth to look after you.

Oh and births seldom go to plan. I have had one in a high tech hospital, one in a midwifery led unit (both these were transfers from hb but this wasn't scary). and one home birth. All special.

look at hypnobirths on youtube some lovely ones on there

OMG, I just realised this thread is still going Wow, fantastic!! I was away over Christmas and thought it had been killed.

Right, I am away to catch up

Just read all the responses, absolutely beautiful stories, some of them gave me a happy tear in my eye Shucks.

My attitude has changed considerably from reading these experiences. Thanks to everyone for responding and please add more, more, more I'm sure a lot of people will find comfort in these stories

Here's mine, coincidentally posted on our PN thread yesterday so just copied and pasted below:

Waters went (trickle) at 7.30, so DH was home and I got him to do the school runs at 8.30 while I phoned the hospital. Went along to the hospital to get checked (stopped off for magazines on the way) - all fine on the scan, small contractions, nothing imminent - they said I could stay or go as I wanted. Decided to stay, to save the shall-I-shan't I go in decisions later. They showed me to a bed in the AN ward, then DH and I wandered off about 12.30 to the hospital cafe for lunch. Lovely until I stood up - waters gushed down my leg blush Scuttled back to ward holding coat round my waist while DH went to car to get spare trousers and rest of hospital bag stuff as I figured I wouldn't be going anywhere now!

Contractions still OK - I'd basically not sat down on the bed, and spent all day walking up and down the ward (they should pin novels on the wall, page by page - must have read the MRSA poster a thousand times!)

4.00 DH went round to his sister's to see DD2 as she'd picked her up from school (DD1 hadn't started back at school yet and was at her dad's till the next day) - he brought her in to see me together with my mum who was going back to ours to look after DD2. When they left at 6 I told DH to come back and put the TENS on as it was getting uncomfortable now.

6.30 - DH back, TENS on, getting painful. Tried watching Gok on the telly but finding it hard to concentrate.

8.30 - bleeugh - threw up - knew it must be getting close as did this last time. Painful now, MW came round and said that the shift change was due at 9, could I hold on 10 mins? Then looked at me and said, Actually let's go now!

9.00 - in labour room, kneeling on bed holding the headboard bit - MW gave me the gas and air, I made some grunt which DH translated for them as "she likes the mask not the mouthpiece" (bless him for remembering)

9.34 DD3 born.

Was absolutely wonderful - I asked MW if I could go home and she said OK if I came back for the doctor's check in the morning. So I gave DD3 her first BF, texted everyone (!), she dozed off, DH held her for a bit, I had a shower (luckily got the ensuite room). The MW was so lovely - she dimmed the lights and left us while she filled out the paperwork next door. I was home by midnight, mum was waiting up for us as I'd called to say we were coming home. Next morning was brilliant as when DD2 woke up, DH brought her in to see the new baby. I'm welling up as I write this now...

I loved both of my labours even though neither one went to plan.

First labour with DS started a around 7.30am contractions weren't painful and very irregular, I called maternity and was told it wasn't worth going in until contractions were regular and painful, They never got painful until 11.30pm and never regulated either. I arrived at hospital at 11.55pm was monitered and DS was distressed so I was rushed for an emergency C section at around 12.50am. I got the urge to push and DS was born on the operating table at 1.08am, I had no pain relief, and just a couple of stitches.

second labour with DD was supersonic. Lol. I woke at 6.15am having a huge contraction so woke up DH and told him to call his mum as she was going to look after DS. Next contraction was 10 mins later so I thought we had plenty of time until the contractions then came on top of each other, I called for an ambulance because I knew we weren't going to make it to the hospital but while I was giving the operator my details I had to pass the phone to DH because the contractions became really intense. The operator gave DH instructions over the phone and he delivered our DD before the paramedics arrived. Her birth was logged at 6.59am so 44mins from start to finish

Hi. When I had my son, not at all according to plan I would not have said it was a very positive experience as I had been very keen to deliver at home (I don't really like hospitals so I didn't even go to see my local labour ward) but my beautiful and beloved little boy is now 14 months and nothing could be more wonderful. I would not only go through labour / childbirth / complications again - I would do anything you suggested to have him again - or in fact a little brother or sister for him . So I know it is cheesy but for what it's worth I suspect that any experience that ends in having your very own baby to love and cherish is a beautiful one!

I've had 2 children and both births went to plan. Yes it hurts, yes it is a bit gruesome with the blood etc, but it's over pretty quick (relatively speaking). Had amazing midwives, waterbirth first time round, on all fours delivery second time, TENS and gas and air both times. Never was I lying down with my feet in stirrups screaming like you see on TV.

I used to think about all the drippy women you know/see around who have kids. If they could do it then so could I.

To be honest, the really hard bit is looking after the children once you've had them

Also meant to say, I didn't do any proper hypno-birthing classes or prep but when I felt a contraction building, I'd start puffing on the gas and air, DH would rub my back, I'd RELAX (it hurt twice as much if I tensed up) then start to rock and roll on the birthing ball and visualise me, DH and DD1 sitting on a beach watching the waves coming in ... they'd start of small then build up to be massive crashing waves then go small again. It really helped me as it gave me something to concentrate on and kept me focused on the fact that no matter how much the contraction hurt, it would fade away again. That and the thought that you have a finite number of contractions to experience, and each one is one you will never have to do again.