POLL - for those of you who have had a baby in hospital...

[electra]

When you went into hospital;

1 On arrival, were you asked to lie down while examined to see how dilated you were?

2 Were you encouraged to lie down / labour on a bed?

The childbirth / pain relief threads have got me thinking about this and in 2001, at my hospital birth nobody told me I might find labour a bit easier if I figured out how to breathe through the contractions.

I am wondering if this was just my hospital / whether today the approach in a hospital has changed at all?

Notcitrus - excuse quick hijack everyone - what was the recovery like from your SPD? How long did it take? I have got SPD at the moment and I am really suffering.

1. Yes
2. Yes

1. yes
2. yes

1 yes
2 yes

hi boffinmum - the physios said i should be substantially better in 2 weeks after birth, and i certainly could walk up stairs and stuff. went back to them at 3 weeks postnatal saying 'it seems better but now there's a different pain'

she said 'that's your muscles reminding you they haven't beem used for 5 months.' D'oh!

so had to build up walking, getting out every day. 4 months on i've done the postnatal exercose class and been pronounced cured.

I should have got more help in for the first 2 weeks postnatal though as reaching over for the baby was hard. And mine was all hormonal, all my joints were fine so physios and osteopath couldn't help while i was pregnant - but that meant rapid recovery more likely.

Thanks notcitrus, that's very interesting.

never had a dilation check with any of my 3 as I was literally seconds away from crowning when I arrived.
I stood over bed. I never asked nor was told
I just did.
And always left within 1.5hrs afterwards

With all 3 DDs, lay down for examination. Was then encouraged to get up, move around, go for a walk, anything to keep moving.

DD1 was em c-s, so presumably was flat on the bed
DD2 and DD3 I had epidurals and delivered on the bed. DD2 I was flat as she was forceps, DD3 I was sitting up. Also, with DD3 I was induced (synto drip) and the lovely, lovely mw who looked after me examined me TWICE during the whole thing - once to check that I wasn't dilating naturally (had ARM first, and some irregualr contractions) and then once to confirm that I was fully dilated and could start pushing. I heart that mw

Had DD in 2002. Went in for induction at 10days overdure.

1. No, went in for induction. Did have to lie down for examinations following the inductions though

1. Yes, but that was due to having to have an epidural

Hmm.

With ds I was bleeding from some unexplained location and lay down while they had a root around. I was encouraged to labour however I wanted, which involved various positions over the course of 21 hours.

With dd I started off on my hands and knees but when the midwife heard that my waters had broken both times while lying on my side she suggested doing that to get things really moving. And it worked.

1. my community midwife had examined me at home so they didn't bother, just based it all on how my contractions appeared. did it on all fours later on

1. quite the reverse. i remained standing/kneeling swaying throughout. beanbags balls etc all offered but was fine on feet/knees

[sounds great, doesn't it, it all went tits up at 10 cm dilated, emcs followed]

yes and yes.

It was just expected that I would be on a bed, and I was too ill and scared to argue.

This time will be DIFFERENT.

had dd and ds at the same hospital so will just answer for both at once...

1 On arrival, were you asked to lie down while examined to see how dilated you were?

yes. they also insisted both times that i be monitored for about 1/2 hour to assess us. later monitoring is done standing up if you insist but they'd really prefer you to be on the bed. that said they do encourage you to move about a fair bit if all is well and provide birthing balls and acess to a bath if you're in the earlier stages and want to be in water for a while. no pools though so water birth not possible.

they also insisted i turn over to check how dilated i was with ds when i told them i was already pushing! which resulted in me giving birth on my back despite having asked for a kneeling birth and having been in that position when i began pushing. (i'm very mallable when in transition/pushing stage... i knew i didn't want to turn over and that i wouldn't be able to turn back but lost the ability to communicate)

2 Were you encouraged to lie down / labour on a bed?

the hospital's insurance insisted on births being on a bed... they did their best to allow kneeling and squatting births on the bed but were obviously unable to allow you to birth standing or anywhere that wasn't on the bed.... bizarre!

1 On arrival, were you asked to lie down while examined to see how dilated you were?

In both cases I was asked to lie down while they monitored the baby's heart and my contractions, but no internal examination until I was quite far progressed (like nearly ready to push!).

2 Were you encouraged to lie down / labour on a bed?

First time I was positively discouraged from lying down - was offered a giant bean bag to kneel against since that seemed to be the way I wanted to be.

BUT

DD1 arrived very fast and gave me a big tear.

Second time around I had asked them to help me deliver more gently. I knelt again all through the first stage contractions, but the midwife got me into a nearly horizontal position when I was ready to push. She was right - it did help, so that was OK by me even thought I probably swore at her at the time

1. yes
2. Yes because I was induced (my waters had broken 24 hours earlier) so I was attached to monitors and although i tried to move around I kept setting alarms off

1. DD Not on arrival but when I said I felt like pushing the MW asked me to lie down to do it, then encouraged me to get up again.

DS Had an examination on arrival because contractions were irregular and MW didn't believe I was actually in labour.

2)Not with DD
Yes with DS

in 2007:

1. yes, but I objected quite strongly and insisted on standing up again immediately afterwards

1. no

DS andDD 1) yes - liked it as could see how far along i was (6 and 7 cm repectively)
2) No way

dd1 yes was examined immediatey then remained in bed throughout.

ds1 no I wasn't examined and yes encouraged to labour in bed

dd2 not examined and yes laboured in bed

My oldest daughter is 17 and even when i was pregnant with her I was given internal examination, things changed so much by the time I had my 10 month old at home

1. No- I strode in, bellowing my head off, and without waiting to be told what to do, I stripped off and clambered onto the bed onto all fours. The mw managed to examine me in this position and found me to be 10cms dilated. My waters promptly broke over her at this point. Which was pleasing 'cause she'd sent me home 2 hours previously, saying I wasn't really in labour

1. I remained on all fours to push my daughter out.

A great experience!

Rofl at bellowing head off and stripping off. Labour's ace.

I was rather in the zone

dd1 2002 induced, i gave birth lying down as knackered after almost 2 hours of pushing.

dd2 2005 waters broke whilst inpatient and was encouraged to walk up and down hospital corriders. Only examined twice lying down then I was actve again. Used birthing ball to sit on gave birth stood up. I was more assertive second timme round as I knew what to expect. I refused constant monitoring so i could walk round. MW listerned in frequently to heartbeat.

dd1 in 1994 - yes and yes
dd2 in 2004 - yes and yes (and when I made it clear I wanted to be in a different position they tried to persuade me that lying on my back was best