Positive birth stories please - so nervous

[janbaby24]

Please be kind. I'm so nervous of giving birth and have a fear of having a very painful, horrible or near death experience.

I keep seeing so many traumatic birth experiences on here and I'm getting so scared. I am 35 weeks pregnant and I have no idea what to expect, except pain! Please can somebody give me their positive birth experiences so I can read them in the lead up to delivery.

Thank you 😞

It's normal to feel really apprehensive as your first birth approaches. Just remember that your body will know what it's doing. Everyone is different in how they cope but personally I found the breathing techniques I learnt in a pregnancy yoga class, especially the low humming (probably sounded bonkers) really helped me manage the waves of the contractions. If anything doesn't go to plan then remember, you will have well qualified experts on hand to ensure you and baby are safe.

Really recommend Katherine Graves hypnobirthing book. I carried it around re reading the positive statements and visualisation around contractions. Once contractions started my visualisation was so strong, just got into a 'zone'.

I always massively feared birth and feeling contractions and actually refused to have my waters broken at first / panicked / had DH talk me into it. But from thereon, wow, I had such a surprising positive birth experience I would pay to do it again.

I had hormone induction so chose an epidural which didn't 100% take. However it took the edge off and all was very manageable, I was glad to feel what was happening in my body and even pushing out the baby was exhilarating, something deep in you takes over, almost a trance like state. I did move on to gas and air for a boost as you are exhausted if it's been hours.

You can do it!

@Musomama1 oh that sounds like such a wonderful and empowering experience. Thank you for sharing🥹

Aaa I feel like things might be starting. Deep breaths!

@janbaby24 you’ve so got this! Take all the pain relief! It’s there for a reason. Best of luck x

Good luck @janbaby24 you can do this

I don’t want another child but I would love to give birth again! I felt so empowered. You should do hypnobirthing. My friends did it and found it really helpful.

I'm jealous @janbaby24 I would love to give birth again. Such an amazing high. You're so close to meeting your baby. Remember your body really does know what it's doing. Listen to it.

All the best. Looking forward to hearing an update from the new mama!!!

Thank you so much. Our daughter arrived safely last night, we did end up with an emergency section in the end as her heart rate was dropping and things were not progressing as they would like. I'm very tired, but overall it was not too bad and we finally have our baby. Thank you all for helping me get through this. :-) x

Both mine were very straightforward, first one 2 weeks early, water birth, gas and air at the end. In at 4.30pm, home by 10.30pm.

Second, 5 days wary, I left it a bit late, set off at 6.30am, had him outside the hospital on the pavement at 7.00am. Home at 1pm.

No tears of anything with either.

I know I’m lucky.

Early not wary!

Congratulations

Oooh! Just seen this! Congratulations!!

Congratulations! I hope you can enjoy your lovely baby now that that's all over. Well done!

Congratulations! I hope all the stories helped calm your nerves in the lead up. Sounds like you were both in good hands which I'm glad about.
You'll be here one day sharing your own reassurance that even if you end up with an EC it will be ok. ☺️
Enjoy getting to know your DD and good luck with all that entails. ❤️

I wanted to jump in to say (just in case this is a concern) that my recovery afterwards was so straight forward. I had virtually no pain at all and everything felt physically pretty normal straight away. Before birth I'd been told horror stories of not being able to sit for a week or being in huge amounts of pain - I began to worry whether the spinal block had never worn off because I really felt pretty fine down below! 3 weeks after birth I was comfortably back in my pre-baby clothes which felt amazing. I expected after the physical changes your body goes through after birth for everything to take a while to feel normal again but it really didn't.

Good luck, everyone's rooting for you :)

Congratulations!

Congratulations, that's lovely news. Hope you are doing ok today @janbaby24

Great birth. Tried naturally. Did not progress.
Took 48 hours had an emergency section.
It went brilliantly.

I had a planned c-section, was brilliant, calm relaxed, uncomplicated, recovery was quicker than some of my nct friends that had a vaginal birth.

I have had four babies and absolutely loved every experience. First was a dream, laboured for three hours and expected to be told I was about 4cm but was 9cm and the elation of that got me through the pushing stage. Second was very, very fast, painful and a bit scary at the time - he was back to back, came out face first but it all happened so quickly. Third and fourth were induced with the dreaded drip - still only 4 hours labouring (no. 3) and 5 hours (no. 4) before they arrived, and that was with a very long pushing stage with no. 4. The contractions were more intense with the drip - literally went from nothing, but still manageable with gas and air with no. 3 and no pain relief at all with no. 4. With him, it only dawned on me as I started feeling the urge to push that I might be in “proper” labour! There is no feeling like it once you’ve delivered your baby and been offered tea and toast by the midwives - if you could bottle
it and sell it you’d be made for life! Good luck.

Huge congrats on the safe arrival of your gorgeous bundle @janbaby24 🥳💐