What happens right after you give birth?

[vix1980]

This is my 1st currently half way through and i suddenly started wondering last night what happens during the birth?

I know obviously you push the baby out and all that bit but then what?? do they take the baby away to weigh it and check it? how long for? how does the placenta come out, is it on its own or do you push it out? is it right after the baby is born or later on, and does it hurt? then how long do they leave you alone for? me and my oh are totally clueless about all this so it would be nice to have some kind of idea, even stitches and all, i can take it!

My Mum can be a cantankerous madam but I am eternally grateful for her passing on her ability to birth easily :)

Be prepared for lots of people in the room if ur vaginal birth requires ventouse and/ or forceps. Especially if u put that u don't mind students being present. However by that stage u are unlikely to care. With a forceps birth I think it is policy to check the baby straight away rather than give to the mother. This was done in the room in my hospital.

Drink lots of fluids so that first poo comes out easily....

Don't be too concerned if baby is having problems feeding in hospital although obviously ask for help and keep pestering. I wish I had. If it's high summer the baby may just be too hot and bothered and will settle down and feed when back homes where it's cooler and quieter.

Stay chilled! I was so stressed and I'm sure baby picked up on it and caused feeding problems. Easy to say now of course.

good idea Fliss :) baby being sneezed out onto sofa/bed/chair sounds great to me...oh how I wish!

Abcinthia a long lecture about BC after birth?!!! How seriously badly timed is that??!!! I would have swung at anyone daring to :) tbh you are so knackered after birth, any birth, never mind a complicated one, that the mere thought of doing it all again any time soon is pretty effective BC (for a few weeks, at least) :)

This is how it went with me:

The midwife offered DH the chance to cut the cord but DH declined politely , he also didn't take their offer to actually help them delivering DD. They asked if he wanted to hold the head.

DD was then checked, weight and measured and roughly cleaned up. i then got her on my chest, we were both naked. I opted for a natural delivery of the placenta and it didn't take long at all. I also started feeding straight away. I got my 2nd degree tear stiched up and after 30 minutes rest or so I got into the shower (the delivery rooms have en-suite) and DH got his cuddle time.

They then brought me to the post-natal ward, offered me tea and I had half a bar of chocolate. They then kicked DH out. It was 10pm b then.

We both actually managed to sleep fairly ok.

ohdearnigel yes, I remember now that I had the shakes really badly too - apparently (in my case) brought on by epidural too - it was so bad that I could hardly hold DD properly :( and completely uncontrollable - felt so strange.

I envy all of you who got fed and watered so soon after - I had just missed the dinner round (DD born at 18.31) and I got no dinner (after not having eaten for 24 hrs and not being allowed to have a single snack or energy bar or any sodding food whatsoever throughout labour)...they also forgot to give me breakfast on hdu the following morning, It got so bad (I was not the only one forgotten) that my DH was nipping to M&S down the road to bring me in bags of food. Fecking ridiculous
And even more envious of those of you allowed to SLEEP , instead of having thermometers shoved into your mouths at 3am when you had finally nodded off...and woken up by hdu nurses screeching with laughter at the nurses' station 2m from your ned at 4am...could have killed them all.

mammanetta The nurse giving it went to everyone on the ward but she stopped for ages at me. Everyone else had a couple of minutes of "planned/unplanned? Here are some leaflets on birth control. Goodbye". She actually sat down next to me and must have delivered at least a 30 minute lecture and an indepth talk about how to take each birth control and the pros and cons of each. I suppose because I was 17, she considered I needed it more than the others.

But I'd only been awake a short time, was eating breakfast, so I just nodded, took the hundreds of leaflets she gave me and wished she'd just go.

blimey Ab! maybe as we were all old farts in comparison (all my bay coincidentally were women over 35!) they thought "Nah, they're too old and won't be bothering again soon" :)
assumption is the mother of all catastrophes though :)

I had an epidural and an emergency forceps- so I don't remember the placenta or the stitching- thank god. I do remember ladies coming in to wash me and dh eating the toast which I was really pissed off about as I hadn't had anything to eat for 9 hours because I was induced with the drip.
I do remember all the women in the postnatal ward had to pee into a jug to show their bladders worked and we didn't need a catheter. As they were so short staffed they didn't check and by the morning there were about 8 jugs of pee - I think the nurses assumed we could all go.
Our post natal ward was a shock at night- very few staff so you if you're going to bfeed I think you need to prepare yourself to keep getting up and trying it yourself.

First time round: v traumatic end to the delivery (blue light transfer to hospital, episiotomy, attempted ventouse, attempted manual rotation, emcs). DD was taken away, I didn't even know she'd been born. They brought her back dressed in a monkey sick brown hat and a horrid scratchy miniature hospital gown. She was a bit of a mess, very bruised and had some tearing to her head from the failed ventouse. They gave her to me but I can't remember much as I was distraught over the whole thing. I know she refused to feed and she cried a lot. It was v late so they sent dh home, plonked me on a ward with dd next to me and left me there with no buzzer and no food. Worst night of my life, in all seriousness. 12hrs post cs they were trying to get me to sign discharge papers. DD hadn't latched on, I was in a hospital gown and still had a catheter. I shuffled to the nurses station to ask for it to be removed and they did it right there in full view of everybody. They also gave me a cloth to clean up the blood I'd dripped on the floor. It was absolutely bloody shambolic and I swear caused the ptsd/pnd.

2nd time round was another emcs but completely different. My notes were very clear about my anxiety/trauma issues and everybody was brilliant. DH watched the cs from beginning to end and I was told exactly what was happening. DS was delivered and given a quick check over (theatre isn't really warm enough for prolonged skin to skin) straight away and then placed on my chest. I was stitched while the anaesthetist took photos of me and the baby. Wheeled to recovery where I had a bad reaction to some of the drugs and had to be monitored closely for a while but they kept ds right next to me, tucked in my gown and helped him feed. I sent dh out and ordered him to ring and get dd there asap to meet her new brother. Once I was stable again I was taken to the ward and met by dd, my mum and dad and a massive, massive plate of food (had been nil by mouth for 24hrs), lots of custard and some brilliant staff who were marvellous. They bathed me, helped me into a chair, put on the television, brought me a cup of tea and put a buzzer next to me. I spent the night feeding ds/reading/watching television and grinning from ear to ear.

:( showofhands that sounds grim...
Can relate to some of that too, sadly...
So traumatic that I had flashbacks for months afterwards and it has put me off from going back into a hospital to this day...

ahhh showofhands that first description made me cry. What a terrible experience. No wonder you had PND/PTSD.

Glad the second was better. :)

With my 4th we let the cord stop pulsating before it was cut, can't remember why but it was very important to me at the time.

always bring your own food to the hospital I have given birth in three countries and it was dreadful on each occassion.

gutzgutz DD was a forceps delivery and she was (I've been told by DH) put straight on to me - seemingly she was moved off me when they wanted to have a look at the undercarriage damage (and the PPH)

Let me start by saying that there is no wrong or right birth. There are lots of people who have lovely cuddly skin to skin experiences and others that have emergency c sections, forceps, etc. What is important is that you and the baby are healthy. None of the rest of the stuff like skin to skin, breastfeeding straight away really, really matters. I was hugely dissapointed and dwelled for months on the problems we had during and after birth. The baby was taken away from us for some time whilst they did resus, BUT at the end of the day he is a happy healthy boy and nothing I did or they did could have changed anything about the birth, so dont worry yourself about it, what will be, will be.
The only definates are - the baby will come out, somehow. You will go onto a ward or private room depending on what happens. You will be shown how to breastfeed if you wish. You will be shown how to bathe the baby. Everything else will depend on the hospital and how the birth goes. Mine didnt do cleaning the baby, they didnt show us how to change nappies and to be honest we figured it out, my hospital force you to get up and get breakfast - they dont bring it to you as they need to see you up and about before they can discharge you. I left after 3 days once he was feeding properly.
Never did get my tea and toast though....

showof hands - can relate to what happened to you - especially the cut and bruised baby!

Oh my God Show. I'm speechless. Poor you. That's barbaric.

I live in a country where birth does tend to be very medicalised (eg I wasn't asked if I wanted the injection for the placenta- everyone just has it, and "natural birth" means vaginal, not "drug free") but to be fair to them they are very kind and big on basic dignity.

When DS was born (at 6pm) he was put on my chest. DH cut the cord. The paediatrician took him for a couple of minutes to check him and do the AGPAR test. His breathing was a little uneven so they gave him back to me but with a tiny oxygen mask which I had to hold up to his face. The photos taken at this stage show us both looking pretty stunned. The Obs stitched me up (guess placenta must have come out too but no recollection of that). Then DH and the midwife took DS off to be weighed and cleaned up and I was wheeled up to my room to have a shower (nurse stood in bathroom with me to make sure I didnt fall over as had had epidural, but I actually felt fine). DH and DS came back. Midwife showed me how to latch DS on, but he wasnt very interested, and just slept for the next 7 hours. DH and I had dinner and called everyone, and then I tried to sleep but was too psyched up.

Three straight forward births.
Things I wish I had been told before having the first-
-That your downstairs dept doesnt snap back into place straight away and no matter how hard you try to squeeze your muscles you wont be able to stop peeing. (I wasnt too bad but sneezing and coughing was a bit awkward)
-That the first shower would look like a scene from psycho.
-that every time you stood up for the first day or so would result in flooding. Take plenty of nightdresses and spare pants.
-and yes bring your own food, there isnt much choice at 2am, egg sandwich or digestive anyone?

• and remember its YOUR baby, if your not happy about something say so. The nursing staff aren't always right and are sometimes too busy to remember everything.

oh and last of all congratulations and the moment you hold your baby in your arms is the most amazing feeling ever.

Just remembered another thing, I couldnt get any of mine to latch on, midwives tried too so they all ended up bottle fed, would have loved to have breast fed too but my boobs thought different.

Sorry I haven't read all posts but just wanted to say that when I had dc2 there was no beds left in the post natal ward so I had to stay on labour ward which they keep a lot cooler and the rooms are v big. I found it uncomfortably cold during the night and they forgot to feed me the next day :-S
So just in case that happens take some prepuce sandwhiches and v warm socks/housecoat.

I think I had injection to deliver Placenta but tbh I can't remember (terrible as dc2 is only 3mo)
She was delivered straight onto my chest for skin to skin and a feed. She remained there for about an hour before I was encouraged to have a shower they weighed checked and dressed her while I had shower. Then we were left alone.
Your dh won't be able to stay all night in my hospital the men had to leave at 9pm
You will be left to feed/change baby on your own if ur struggling or need help/advice u press a buzzer for nurse. Baby stays with you overnight unless it needs to go to scbu

kellykate - I didn't have any problems with controlling wee, even if laughing or coughing, doesn't happen to everyone. No need to panic OP by making it sound as if everyone experiences that

Prepuce sandwiches! Best autocorrect ever

didn't even notice it damn iPhone!
prepared

Well I got put the water pool, sat down, dd was put on my chest, she had a feed, placenta was stuck, so I had some tea and toast whilst dd was weighed and with dp. Placenta delivered, shower and home!

DS was different as he was a forceps delivery. He was taken to be checked, still in the same room, placenta delivered as he was handed to me, again a quick feed, then I shuffled off for a shower totally exhausted. I am amazed I had dd after DS as his birth was horrible! Hers was lovely!...but generally you get to hold them right away as the placenta is delivered. Good luck and congrats!

Ps agree...first shower after...lots of blood. I wasn't prepared for this and thought I was dying

Have just googled definition of prepuce you are of course welcome to some prepuce sandwiches if you wish