Giving birth!!

[kidsareok]

Hi! I am 14 weeks pregnant and for some reason I lay awake last night in bed worrying about giving birth!! I just got myself really worked up about it! Not the actual birth but complications after, I know it sounds so silly but I'm terrified of bleeding too much or something going wrong. Just wondering if there are any more nervous mamas out there or anyone who can reassure?!

Hiya, I've just had a read through another thread on here today called Positive vagjnal birth stories - really nice to read through them all. I'll try and tag you!

Agree with @mrs87
The thread is really useful and positive! Long, but worth a read ☺️

I was so scared, and I spent many days reading through everyones birth stories and prepared myself for the worst.
In my head I expected to go in, try a water birth, end up needing every drug and epidural cus of the pain (I wasnt bothered about that)
I'm reality I had a very long contraction phase (36 hrs total) 3rd time I went into hospital I was 10cm and that 'pressure' I kept telling them I had was me pushing. So I did the entire labour at home with no pain relief apart from paracetamol.
From me going into hospital, DS was born 20 mins later on just G&A. Only had grazes and a tiny 2nd deg tear which needed just 1 stitch. My hospital bags were still in the car. It went absolutely nothing like I expected, and I came out so proud of myself afterwards.

I've had a VB. Best advice would be to not put undue pressure on yourself. Read and be realistic but if you want a natural birth but nature conspires against you and you need some drugs or assistance - take the drugs and don't feel guilty!

My midwives and hospital staff were lovely and I mean lovely :). I wasn't treated badly, talked over or ignored in any way and my MW was giving me a foot massage at one point! This is a regular hospital where they were so busy it was closed down that night and people redirected.

I had to have an epidural and needed some stitches in the end but it was all fine and not traumatic; my care and health visitors afterwards were great. Genuinely.

Best thing about giving birth (apart from the baby obvs), is the 4 rounds of thick white buttered toast and a gallon of tea. You will not ever have a Michelin started meal that tastes so good.

You'll be fine