Love to hear your birth stories

[SophieRules]

As 39 weeks approach I’m thinking about actually giving birth and I’m interested to hear how varied peoples experiences have been. Having veeery mild period pains, no idea if this is an early sign of labour?

Could be! My contractions in my second labour felt like period pains, but that was so wildly different from my contractions in my first labour, that I didn’t even realise it was contractions. I’d been so used to lots of aches and pains during pregnancy. It was only when I was mopping the floor (yes really!) and kept being doubled over with pain that I thought I probably ought to go to hospital. DD2 was born 4 hours later. At least my floors were clean 😂
Good luck @SophieRules

Could be. Could also be Brixton Hicks. Make sure you’re all packed and ready so you have no last minute panics!

Could be. I woke up with period pains about 8 mins apart before the penny dropped.
If it's labour the pains will stop being in the lower pelvis and will feel like they're over the top of the bump and round your back and it really feels like your body is taking ref to squeeze a baby out. I felt slightly sick with each contraction. In the early stages I'd encourage you to be upright and gently pottering about unless your midwife has said otherwise.

I had two fairly quick straightforward labours with no complications and am very thankful, good luck with yours!

My labour started with a period crampy feeling on a Tuesday morning and baby finally arrived on Friday afternoon. So keep an eye on it!

My waters went at midnight when I was 38 weeks. The afternoon before I had a sharp pain in my bump that passed quickly but after that my bump was squiggly rather than super tight.
I went to be checked and they confirmed my waters had gone and booked me in for an induction at 10pm the next evening. They were going to do a sweep but the ctg monitoring showed I was contracting I just couldn't feel it.
I went home and at about 3 am I started having contractions I could feel. I quickly found I had to be stood up during the contractions. They were 3 in 10 minutes right from the start and by half 7 they were all 1 minute long so I woke up my partner and phoned maternity again. They said to come in and I had an internal exam and I was 2cm this was about 9am
I was given some cocodamol and sent home for as long as I could manage. I'd been home just over an hour when I was really struggling. I phoned back and the first midwife was dismissive but the second said there was space on the midwife led unit and I didn't have to be 4cm.
I got there about 11 and another internal showed I was fully dilated. The midwife has run the birthing pool whilst I was on my way over so I climbed straight in and was ready to start pushing about 20-30 minutes after arriving at the hospital, baby born at 12.
Her shoulders got stuck but managed to free themselves between the midwife pressing the emergency button and a stream of people running into the room.

One sharp pain lasting a minute or two at 9am then mild period type pains started at 1pm, went to hospital at 3pm and was 7cm, gave birth 6 hours later, second time I woke up at 5am with the same mild pains, went to hospital, 6cm gave birth 6 hours later. No pain relief either time as it was uncomfortable not painful at any point. Had stitches the first time, the needle for the local anaesthetic hurt more than labour!

9 days early.Lost a bit of my mucus plug about 6am, all my friends family said to have a bath it would be ages contractions ramped up very quickly phoned the hospital about 9am they told me to get there as soon as possible as they could tell in my voice I was bearing down. Must have got there about 9:45am partner panicked and dropped me off far away from the maternity ward then went to park, walked with my mum to the ward, felt like miles! Fully dilated waters bulging so they broke them 10:25am and she was born 10:38am. Pain was immense and the gas and air made me feel sick think this is why I pushed her out so quick and I couldn't stand the contractions. Feel very lucky!
2nd labour also very quick went in for induction (I was terrified after hearing horror stories)1pm on my due date as had low papp a and consultant led however having had a sweep the 3days prior this seemed to bring on labour as midwife just needed to break waters as I was contracting without knowing, unfortunately she had a poo so rushed off, luckily another quick labour as she was born 3pm, enjoyed the gas and air this time! Baby came out with her hands on her head so did tear pretty bad and needed stitches.
Found the consultants very pushy they wanted to ramp things up in terms of the induction felt like myself and the midwives won when they didn't need to.

39 weeks how exciting! My contractions started about 11pm just as I went to bed and stayed steady and manageable until lunchtime the following day. I could even snooze between them, just rousing to click the app that I was using to track them. All of a sudden between 1 and 2pm they went from 10 minutes apart to not being able to tell where one ended and the next one began so we rang maternity and went in. I was 7cm dilated and he was born just before 6pm, just with a TENs machine and a bit of gas and air. Good luck OP!

I was in slow labour for about 3 days, just cramps fairly mild and just going about my days, they got a bit stronger so I went to the local midwife and they said I was 4cm dilated. My active pushing labour for my first baby was only 4 hours as the slow cramps meant I was 9cm by the time I went to hospital, and I had gas and air which was great.

My 2nd baby I had the same, cramps walking about and the waters went and he turned up in 40 minutes, almost didn’t make it to hospital and gave birth in the room they just check you over in, not the labour ward. I think I had about 2 puffs of gas and air..

I did have retained placenta with him but both babies were fast, no cuts or tears no stitches, no horror stories and both really quick recovery’s and healthy babies.

I consider myself very very lucky, but then my whole entire life has been plagued with endometriosis so I did wonder if my tolerance to cramps and labour was high as I didn’t find the experience too painful. Just the rest of my life I’ve been crippled..

My midwife raised her eyebrows when she saw the blank piece of paper where a birth plan was supposed to be. I explained that I thought it was completely pointless to plan for something when I had no idea what it was going to be like.

And I turned out to be correct as the one thing I thought I might like to do - move around- I couldn't because my back seized up completely and then they decided to keep on a constant monitor as her heart rate kept dropping and then bouncing back.

Pain wise it was very easy, managed with a TENS machine and Gas and Air - and doesnt even rank as my most painful medical experience (Thank you, crown fitting from hell for making childbirth seem easy) but it was a tense time because of the heart rate issue.

I had a few issues after the birth but at least by then I had my lovely baby.