Describe your labour...

[dabihp]

For all of us who are still waiitng, can u describe the beginnings of your labour...

how you felt that day?
Where pain started?
If waters broke?
etc...

general signs we can look out for... that maybe arent as obvious as painful contractions!

Waters broke 5pm (tidal wave) after second prostaglandin gel, contractions started immediately, every three minutes. Given paracetamol and told not to make too much noise with my moaning and groaning otherwise I'd upset the other ladies on the maternity ward. Had a bath for pain relief, moved down to the delivery suite 10pm and started on the gas and air; contractions still every three minutes and bl**dy painful, dh went to put more money in the parking ticket machine and could hear me bellowing all across the car park . Had several more baths while the midwives studiously avoided being anywhere near me, then at 4 o'clock the following morning I asked for an epidural and was put on a drip to increase the contractions; fine, except I was forgotten about and got the epidural four hours later. Went to sleep; woke up an hour later in time to find dh being given breakfast because he'd had such a hard night (shame). They came to top up the epidural at 11am and found I has fully dilated, pushed for three hours before anyone came and checked whether things were OK and found that dd was well and truly stuck, because although I'm a big girl I have very narrow hips, so whizzed off for an emergency c-section.

from 3 cm used gas & air + tense machine. had a shower that day, had show. labour slowed down a bit. walked around to get things going. forced to leave the labour ward, without pain relief and moved to normal ward. talked them back into going to labour ward as in too much pain. doing really well with gas & air, they try to find me a bed. going well, but then after about 28 hours offered pethidine, which made me feel really bad, gas & air didn't help anymore. they moved me to a room just off the labour ward. went a bit mad and rolled on the floor because of the horrible pain in my back. dh told them to get me an epidural, got that in. slept for an hour. waters broke. 10 cm. pushed for an hour and a half. failed ventouse, delivery by forceps. 32 hours after first contraction.
i collapsed after they took the epidural out. my blood pressure dropped very low. loads of doctors & nurses rush in and sort me out.
and i'm thinking of having another one!
dh and i were so very angry because they kept moving me.

Was given a pessary to induce me at 11pm ish, had period pains which stopped so slept all night.
Had another pessary at 9am ish, monitored then told to walk around, did this, got stronger, filled the bath up to the brim and got in. Found comfort lying on my front floating in the bath mmmmmmm.
I was very very excited about seeing my baby and kept thinking to myself "this time tomorow, it will all be over and i will be gazing at my baby"
Had a couple of paracetamols and walked up and down the ward.
Went to the loo, had to hold onto the bar in the loo as i was having bad pain which didnt come and go but was lasting a long time.
Managed to shuffle to the desk where no one was around, began sobbing as i couldnt breath the pain was that bad.
A passing physio saw me, gave me a cuddle and then went to find some one for me.
The midwife came, helped me to my bed and examined me.......i was 1 meesly cm and in agony! GUTTED doesnt come into it.
Pain eased and dh was called, walked to the labour suite,down some stairs and through double doors.
into a room were the holy shrine that is gas and air was waiting for me....fanbloodytastic stuff.
I kept getting excited about seeing my boy but have no more memory from then on as to what happened.
It was a good experience all in all.

Stretch and sweep at 3pm, another with pessary at 8pm, strapped to monitor for an hour and shared a pineapple with ds! Then went for a walk round hospital at 9pm and around 9.30 contractions started. Back to bed at 10pm, contractions getting v strong. Useless painkiller at around 1am and re-examined at 2am. Dilated to 2cm so taken to delivery suite.

Strapped to monitor for the whole thing, at 4am was 4 1/2cm and gave birth at 6.30am. Very quick for an induction and first-time birth! Had gas and air and pethidine, but managed, don't know how, to get by without epidural. Incredibly painful and horribly difficult experience for me. Had a second degree tear which noone wanted to sew up, so stayed about 2 hours with my legs in the air waiting for someone to have the guts to do it. Luckily, the pethidine meant I was pretty much out of it anyway.

Didn't like the whole labour and birth experience much, but the relief and pride when I squeezed my gorgeous ds out made it worth all the agony!

I felt normal the whole day. Then waters broke at about 1am that night/morning. I stayed in bed trying to sleep but then the pain came - like period cramp. I also felt like I needed the loo a lot but didn't iyswim. I spent a lot of thast night wandering aroudn the house with a hot water bottle in between showers. At 6.30am I couldn't bear it any longer and phoned hospital. Went in and was going to be sent home as the midwife didn't think I looked in pain, until a contraction came and she examined me and I was already dilated. She said I was very stoic in my pain as she didn't think I was that far gone as i wasn't climbing the walls!! Baby arrived at about 7.45pm that evening - had epidural which slowed things down.

Think this is going to be long....

I was due on Feb 13th (Sun)..on the Mon morning before that I thought my waters broke - there was a massive gush..happened more than once. Rang hospital - they said come in so I did...they monitored me and baby and I wasn't ready (didn't do an internal examination).
Told to come back in early Tuesday morning if nothing had happened by then to be induced.
Induced Tuesday morning - excruciating strong contraction started immediately from prostaglandin at 11am. Couldn't cope with pain, was given co-codamol...tried a bath..could hardly get up corridor to get in bath...bath didn't help. Had a show in the bath.

Contractions still kept coming all day long..was awful. At 6pmish they checked me and nothing had hardly happened..couldn't believe it - more prostaglandin given. This is when they found that my waters hadn't actually broken as I had thought - seems I had had a 'leak' instead....so all this induction was unneccesary..but too late to stop now !
At 8pm husband was sent home as 'visiting hours were over' as I was still on labour ward. Grr...I couldn't cope any longer. Used my 'Sea & Surf' CD to try to help with pain using visualisation techniques. At 11pm I was desperate. They checked me...was only 2cm dilated but I was sent to labour ward at last to get some pain relief.

Was given gas & air, and pethidine and I actually smiled !!! Husband came back in at midnight and was suprised at how happy I seemed..hehe. Was still flippin agony though.

Waters broke around 2am....and there was so much it all went flying over the bed...all over the floor. They had to change the sheets and mop floor. After they did that more came out ! lol !

4am I was checked again and I was suddenly at 9cm dilated !! Yippeee....thought it would be over really soon.

No such luck. I got stuck at 9.5cm dilation. Had a second shot of pethidine. Started another tank of gas & air.

9am - checked again, and still no progress. Was put on a drip of oxytocin to help things. Doctor examined me then, and found babies head was facing wrong way, and I had an anterior lip on my cervix. He tried to MANUALLY move the anterior lip from my cervix. This is when I really lost it and actually screamed.

10am - checked again, still no movement. Was finally given an epidural & spinal - Sweet Jesus ! How good is that ! Unfortunately they punctured the dural sac on my spine though with the first needle (more on that later)

Finally, taken for an emergency C-Section. I was soooo tired by this time I was drifting in and out of consciousness whilst having it. I had this awful feeling that I wasn't breathing right and I was shaking something awful from the drugs. Nevertheless, my baby boy was born. He weighed 8lb 13oz and is gorgeous.

Felt like I was going to be sick when being wheeled out of theatre, and had to have anti-emetics. I also had to have anti-biotics during labour as they thought my waters had previously broken (which they hadn't).

Next day I couldn't sit upright without having the worst headache of my life. This was due to the dural sac being punctured on my spine and having a leak. If I sat up at all I just wanted to pass out with the pain and vomit. So I was stuck horizontally for that whole day.

Next day they took me for a blood patch on my spine to try to stop the leak. It seemed to work as the next morning I could sit upright. But...by the afternoon I was horizontal again as the headache was back.

Was taken for a second blood patch the day after that. This one actually worked !! Finally able to get out of bed properly and pick my son up when he cried and needed fed rather than ring the flippin buzzer all the time.

Eventually got home about 7 days after the birth.

What a terrible experience...but...I would do it all again as my son is absolutely gorgeous

woke up about 3am with very mild pains every 15mins but went back to sleep. by about 10.30am they were every 5 mins. at hospital by 12.30 they monitored me and said at 1pm i wasn't in labour, just a urine infection and went to send me home but suggested i hang about for another hour just to make sure. by 2 i was in more pain but not dilated. By 3.15pm i was in agonising pain and was 4cm. Got me in delivery. It was all very quick and ds was getting destressed. Had to be cut lots. Just had gas and air. ds born at 4.14pm
Lots of stitches and pain but worth it

I had a show about 6weeks before ds was born. Then from my due date and upto ds being born (1wk later)I had a few episodes of BH's - i even made dp leave work- oops!

Friday 10:30pm. Woke up with blood and went to hospital. They monitered heartrate etc and sent me home saying BH's and a show. All night I walked around with contractions as previously BH's had stopped when i had layed down. Started using Tens machine.

Sat 11am: Went to hspital again and was 1cm. They were'nt sure if there was 'waters' in the blood that i kept having. 2midwives took my sanitary towel and smelt it to see if my waters had broken (yuk!). But they couldn't tell. Spent the rest of the day bouncing on a gym ball in hospital and being followed to the toilet by midwives to check my towel - nice!More blood and doc to come and look and said ds would soon be here - yippee!
11pm: ping! Waters broke, but it wasnt very dramatic, and pain intensified. Told midwife that i needed pain releif. She didn't believe me and i made her check me again. hallelujah, i had made it to 6cm
12midnight:into the waterbath (which did nothing for me) and onto gas and air, which made me sleepy. Got urges to push and was taken out of bath as i was still losing blood. When they strapped me up to the moniter and had a good dig around, they found that ds was facing wrong way (back to back) and cord was round his neck. They told me not to push (what?!as if i could contol that!)as ds's heartrate was dropping each time. This panicked me and i shouted at them to give me something to stop me coz i couldnt control the pushing. They gave me epidural and a drip to get the dilation sped up as i was still on 6cm. Then they discovered that the epidural dial hadnt been turned and i wasnt getting much of the good stuff!I even walked to the shower straight after birth.
2:35 Doctor to come and whisk me away for a c-section, found i was fully dialated and was allowed to push (hooray!).
2:45 Episiotomy and venthose and ds was born 5lb10.

Second birth was lucky - three days late, woke at 6am after a hot bath the previous night with irregular contractions, 10min, then 5, then 10, then two together etc. Called duty midwife at 8am who said she'd call in later as it sounded like things might be happening soon. Had a cup of tea and watched tv, feeling bad period pains and needing to go to the toilet frequently! Midwife came at 10.30am and examination revealed I was 8 or 9cms dilated! I wasn't planning a home birth so it was a quick dash to hospital. As soon as I arrived, felt overwhelming need to push, had gas and air, knelt down leaning on side of bed, husband massaged lower back, midwife broke waters and did small episiotomy and baby daughter born within half hour - just a few stitches and went home a couple of hours later.

The first time was much different, 16 hours labour, pethidene at 7cms dilated, then gas and air, episiotomy, ventouse and forceps leading to third degree tear, but beautiful healthy son 8lb 8oz.

Hell

turned up at maternity at 6:30am.

6:45am - baby minitored, mum's bikini wax admired by midwife ("nice and low")

8am - walked to theatre with Carlos the porter (he was very excited)

8:30 - spinal in, good to go!

8:46am - DS born, loudly!

8:47am - worried that his bollocks are enormous. Don't say anything as paediatrician doesn't seem worried. Cuddle DS lots.

9:15am - send DH off to the nursery to get DS's measuring etc done. DH in 7th heaven to left in charge of DS for a while.

9:30am - sitting up in recovery chatting with the nurses

3pm - walking about, figureing out how the hell to change a nappy whilst DS pissed everywhere.

7pm - ran off to bathroom and left DH in charge of nappies.

8 months later - still trying to run off and leave DH in charge of poopy nappies..........

I had a sweep on the Friday morning. @40+3 wks
05.30 Sunday morning (40+5) - Woke with contractions 10 minutes apart.
07.30 - Called the hospital and was told to stay at home until 5 mins apart or until the pain got unbareable.
Contractions didn't fade all day but varied from 8-15 mins apart. Took plenty of paracetamol which didn't help.
16.00 - I had a show.
17.30 - Me & DH went to MIL's for a meal, had contractions throughout - really painful! no-one belived I was in labour because my SIL was due 4 days before me and hadn't had any signs.
20.00 - We came home still in emense pain - paced up and down our hallway trying to walk out the pain.
00.00 - Went to bed only to be doubling up in pain.
00.30 - Contractions were 5 mins apart, called hospital and was told to come in.
00.35 - Monday morning called our friend to come and get me - she thought I'd only have 3 contrations on the way for a 15 minutes journey - oh how wrong she was, they were every 3 minutes!
01.00 -Arrived at hospital, went straight into my allocated delivery room, was examined to be told I was 7cm dilated, needless to say I went straight on to gas & air. Ooooouch!
More walking for a couple of hours and sitting on the loo thinking I needed to poo.
04.00 - Gas & air made me sick which in turn broke my waters from the movement I made. Gave up on G&A.
05.00ish - I had a shot of pethidine which made me sleepy so I rested on the bed - big mistake, it slowed everything right down. In hindsight I should have just kept moving and stayed off the bed.
09.00ish - I was put onto a drip to get the contractions back on track, I was so tired at this point.
11.00 - The decision was made to help DS on his way by ventouse and an episiotomy.
11.47 - DS finally born screaming and pooing all over the room! He came straight to me for cuddles and a feed.
11.48 - lots of stitches and more pain!
Didn't get any sleep until I got a MW to take DS away from me at 04.00 Tues morning, only managed half an hour of sleep before DS was brought back to me.
SIL went into hospital to be induced on the evening DS was born, 32hrs later she had an emergency C/S and I had a beautiful little neice

Hi all
First baby so didnt know what to expect, 10 days b4 due date was at a friends house when kept getting very strong branston hicks, managed to get in the car and to my house between them. (8pm). DP sed your in labour and I was soo excited, but didnt believe him but then had a show at midnight and it seemed real! they were 5 mins apart. He slept, I stayed awake until 2am when I woke him to put on my tens machine, it was great I'd recommend anyone to get one .

Went to hospital and was 6cm dilated (3am) and went straight into a birthing pool, it was a lovely huge bath, had dimmed lights and a choice of CD's. It was lovely being able to move about but a few times I had to be brought out to be examined. I floated around with the midwife pouring warm water on my tummy everytime I had a contraction, which amazingly helped the pain so much. Gas and air didnt make amy difference for some reason to me, though my partner loved it . Waters broke in pool and was really excited when it came to the pushing stage but the contractions slowed down so they pulled me out into a room and attatched a ventouse. I pushed with all my might, It actually feels like relief when your pushing, very strange and little Jack was born screaming his cute bottom off.

Only used Gas & Air for the stiches, which for some reason did help at that time, but definately not because i'm a martyr, I was ready for every drug under the sun. But I thought I'd just post this as I can honestly say I read lots of horror stories before I gave birth but every one is different. I cant say I enjoyed it but it's a good pain that's the only way to describe it, you know there is an end and a wonderfull result. Am planning the next one in a few months so it cant be that bad

how you felt that day?
Where pain started?
If waters broke?

Starting with the last: My waters broke two weeks early. I was just getting out of bed when I realised that there was a lot of liquid coming out of me - initialy thought that I had pee'd in bed!

Lay in bed listening to my dh and neighbours arguing about how to put the pool together - ended up getting up and telling them that the bit they were putting on the bottom was actually the lid! (My neighbour's work then didn't believe his reason why he was late!)

Midwife arrived a couple of hours later and said that there was meconium staining and I would have to go to hospital

Spent next few hours walking up hills and going shopping, to try and get my labour going, but in the end we gave up and went to the hospital. They were a little surprised we hadn't rushed in and did lots of monitoring. It all looked fine, but they wanted to keep me in and induce me. My dh said why? and that we were going home. So they did a scan. Turned out that ds was transverse oblique, and well and truly stuck. I had at that point been examined by about eight midwives and doctors (including a trainee who was being told "that's the head, and that's the bottom" - how wrong they were!). Consultant stuck his head around door, and within about 30 minutes ds was born by c-section.

We were in shock! We had bought nothing and not planned for a hospital birth, so we didn't even have a car seat!

Second time round same start (one morning felt the waters go), and eventually same outcome, but a pretty nasty time in between as I (god knows why) opted for an induction three days after waters broke instead of going straight for the c-section I sended up with.

I wasn't expected either to be early, and didn't feel anything in the night. Didn't have any pain until the medical interventions kicked in - whatever you do, try and avoid cyntocin!

Good luck. They are all different. The key thing is to have a good midwife, but unfortunately that really is the luck of the draw.

i had pain in my lower back (something my mum always pointed out would happen) and then had period like cramps.
when i figured the pain was slowly coming and going i stayed surprisingly calm and we started writing down when the pain came. waters didn't brake until i was nearly fully dilated, 30 hours after my first contraction.

Shit.

No BH no pains no indication whatsoever 37+5 weeks.

Waters broke 6.30pm thought I had peed myself, went into hospital examined, cervix closed sent home.

11pm back in hospital as pains were coming every 5 mins examined 1cm, was told I could go home or be admitted, told as I was making too much noise I could just lie on the bed and use the gas ans air

3.22am DD born

Was utter agony, sorry theres no dressing it up I think being shot would hurt less, thought I was dying.

Couldn't believe how anal it felt, it is like doing the biggest poo of your life, I did a little poo according to DP the midwife swept it away, please do not worry about pooing in labour it's very common and honestly you will not care.

Afterwards you will be on the biggest high of your life, I'm praying for a quick 2 hour labout this time (10+6 weeks)

how you felt that day?
Where pain started?
If waters broke?

1st time - back ache on wednesday night, show thursday morning, felt quite normal.
Sick big time thursday afternoon, contractions started about the same time, felt very scared.
Waters were broken by midwife at some stage, DS born 2pm on friday on the operating table, 90 seconds away from c-section.

Second time - had bit of show about 11am wednesday morning , mild contractions wednesday afternoon, feeling excited, waters broke 6pm on the dot, DD born 8.35pm in birthing pool at home. fantastic!

my labour was induced as i was 12 dyas late and nothing happening still.

i went into hospital at 8am and had the prostein inserted at 8.30am. contractions started at 1.30 pm and were coming every 2 mins from then on. had waters broken at 2.30pm.

i managed to breath through them until around 11.30pm and was started on the drip, then started using gas and air which helped for a short time but them at midnight i had an epidural(the best invention in the world) and was 5cm dilated.

was checked again at 3.30am and was 8cm, then checked again at 5.30am and was fully dilated. was left for another hour as baby was facing the wrong way,

by 6.30am baby had turned and started pushing. matthew was born on 07/06/05 at 7.30am and weighed 7lb 11oz.

1st time -
had been havign contractions for days, felt shattered. Started like period pains and built up.
Went to hospital and waters broke then labour started properly.

2nd time -
a show about a week before, no pains whatsoever, then woke up with stomach and back ache - steady not contractions. Somehow I knew it was the start tho (instinct). that lasted an hour then Contractions started and got steadily worse.

3rd time - bouts of diarrheoa, and sickness (sorry) for a few days, lots of BH type pains for a few days. Had elective section, but was told on prep that I was partly dilated.

2 very different labours - 1st was emergency c-section just 1 hour after arriving at hospital and second VBAC with forceps and episiotomy. A common thing to both labours though was that although DS was 2 days early (8lbs 12) and DD 8 days late (7lb 14.5) I went into labour with both of them just when I truly felt I'd had enough. I was weepy and honestly felt I couldn't do it any more - both times I went into labour that same night!

Nightmarish. I will never do it again.