what was the worst bit of giving birth or afterbirth for you?

[ogri]

mine was, had to have an emergency c section, so had a drain in the cut. the next day i was in agony , felt like the drain was rubbing on something inside me. i couldnt move.
i couldnt let the doctor or nurse take the drain out as it was so sore. i had to eventually pull it out little by little myself. it was in a good 6 inches, not 2 inches like i was told. as soon as it was out i was like a new woman. i was up and about. couldnt believe a little tube could cause so much pain.

The "pushing" out bit of dd head..oooowwwccchhh.! Only did it on gas & air but the feeling is so bizarre...bit like being suffocated (not that I know what that feels like..LOL..why do we say these things?!). The stitching afterwards was bad but after several intakes of gas & air and then constantly breathing it in for the 30 mins or so (must say it seemed like an eternity)it took to stitch I must say I quite liked the feeling of flying and was too of my head to care!

the worst bit of labour was just before my epidural at 5-6cm dilated, i was starting to not cope too well and was feeling out of control (felt like i needed to push but was only 5-6cm) after that everything was numb for hrs, so couldn't feel the pain at all well pushing and him coming out (i'd highly recommend it to anyone) the epidural didn't hurt either whick i thought it would

the worst bit about after birth was the grazing down there, i never tore so didn't have any stiches, (but the grazes are sometimes worse ive heard anyway) when you go tot he toilet it stings like mad.

the overtly racist hateful old bag of an auxilliary who made me beg her to come and wash off the loquia and blood from my wound in the middle of the night and remonstrated with me for calling 15 minutes earlier than she wanted to come. That was the Whittington hospital. And when she did come she refused to help me was my ...downbelows which was really where the problem was coming from. God she was a foul mean hateful woman who shouldn't have been doing that job.

Shame suzywong. Medical professionals like the woman you described have no place in healing professions. There's one woman who I'll remember for the rest of my life because of her careless treatment of me.

We should report them, but we often don't have the emotional stregth at these tough times.

i broke my gas and air and since i had already had a load i was high as a kite, so when i fixed it myself i did it wrong and cut off most the air so got mostly gas and poisened myself i was so sick i could look after DS for a while, and i could breast feed as i was on medication for my blood clots which bummed me out aswell

What an old cow suzy! My care was generally good,but remember one m/w telling me at about 3:00 am that no,there were no more disposable knickers left (I'd forgotten mine) then turning back to her crossword.

Why do these people do this job????

oooh suzywong. it really is often the personal interactions that affect us more than the actual pain isn't it. I remember a rather busy Midwife shoving my nipple in dds mouth and tutting. it wasn't much and she was busy but i was a post birth blithering wreck and ended up in tears.

am determind to wander round ward helping 1st time mums to breastfeed. ermm if I can walk, if I can rememver how and if they don;t think i'm a meddlesome old vusy body. which they would of course

Mine was twofold

Being left in the delivery suite with dh and my newborn dd placed on my tummy for over an hour whilst they "did the paperwork" and tried to find me a bed, surrounded bu a blood filled floor.

Being in floods of tears as dd was screaming for a feed and no-one would help meto get her latched on. I was desparate and I hate the hospital for it. I will never ever recommend that hospital to anyone.

Bad care pre-birth (see nipple confusion thread!!), Birth wasn't so bad,with ds2 and ds3 it was positively enjoyable!. Really! And with both I was shopping on the way home. The pregnancy is the only reason i won't have ds4 (I assume ds!) yet.

Grim maternity ward conditions - filthy, bins overflowing, one shower for around 15 women. Plus total lack of aftercare, once I had given birth no one was interested any more. I was left in the labour room for two hours unwashed as there were no bed available in the maternity ward, and then I was not offered any food or drink. I had to ask for a cup of tea and was told I had missed dinner. Disgraceful! I wish now I had put in a formal complaint to the hospital but at the time, I was too drained and emotional and in shock!

The epidural being turned down so I could push. In the meantime, the syntocinon (?) had amped up the contractions so much I could hardly breathe let alone push when the epidural wore off.

Shaking uncontrollably on the operating table as they urged me to push one last time with the forceps or it was going to be a caesarean.

Weak from a haemorrhage, standing in the bathroom pulling the call cord because I couldn't bend to clean the blood off the floor and didn't want to leave it dirty for the next person, only to be shouted at by a midwife: "what are you crying for? You've only had a baby!"

Being sent home with drugs that gave me uncontrollable bowel cramps and faecal incontinence and being readmitted to hospital a week later, terrified that the incontinence would be permanent after my third degree tear. My baby being rushed off to be fed as I had so little milk from the diarrhoea and dehydration that she had gone from 9lb 6oz at birth to 8lb

(Back breastfeeding now though! )

Whole experience was totally dreadful, really. I still get flashbacks. If it wasn't for the gorgeousness of my daughter and the fact I REALLY want at least one more child, I would definitely never ever do it again.