This is the first time I have written a blog, but just wanted to share my experience to help those who are scared of the delivery like I was this time.
Before I gave birth to my 1st child, a son in December 2010, at the marvelous age of 40. I wasn't scared of the birth. I expected it to be painful and figured it wasn't called labour for nothing. With him, my waters broke at 4am on a Monday morning then nothing. No contractions. As I was GBS positive I was admitted into hospital the following day to be put on the hormone drip to start the contractions and have the intra venus antibiotics. Wow, contractions came on strong and quick. I wanted to be able to walk around and change position as needed, was allowed to stand and sway next to the bed until the midwife walked between me and the bed and stood on the line causing it to slide out of my arm! She had to insert a new one at the side of my wrist and told me now it was Better I stayed on the bed. I was in so much pain with little progression that I ended up having the epidural and my son was born by forcept delivery after an episiotamy (being cut)on the Wednesday at 8:50am. I felt so out of control and didn't realise how affected I was by it until I was pregnant recently. just thinking about the birth made me anxious and want to cry. It also took a while to heal down below, and for about two weeks after the birth I couldn't walk for too long at a time as I had a "knot" in my ligament which the GP thought had been cought by the forcepts during labour, was on ibuprofen for it.
Moving on to this pregnancy. I was nervous of the birth, and didn't want to feel so out of control as last time but wanted to feel empowered in the way I had heard others speak of their experiences.
Again, my waters broke early morning at 3am on a Sunday, I told my partner that we may as well snuggle down and go back to sleep as our son took another two days to arrive. I put the bedside light off and snuggled down..... between 4 and 5am contractions came on regular and got stronger, phoned the hospital to be told to take paracetomol and take a bath until she heard me have a contraction on the phone and told me to go in. The hospital was 45mins away, I had contractions every 2-3minutes by the time we arrived in the carpark. I was about 20feet from the entrance when I had a contraction and felt a movement going down, I couldn't move, my partner asked me to walk to the door as he was scared to leave me, but I couldn't move and was convinced I had pooped my pants. I shouted towards the door,"HELP! the baby's coming". The receptionist came out,took one look and went back in, then two midwives came out with a wheelchair, I said that I was sorry but I thought I'd pooped my pants, and couldn't sit down, so they told me, after laughing, to kneel on the wheelchair instead. I was wheeled into the delivery room, examined, and was told I was fully dilated and they could feel the head, and to go with nature and to push as I felt to.I was told I was too far to have pain relief and one midwife said that I didn't even need gas and air which I promptly said "Just give it to me", if nothing else, it helped to control my breathing. We had arrived at the hospital at 6am and my beautiful little girl was born at 6:09am, weighing a healthy 9lbs 2ozs. No episiotomy, no major tears. In 90 mins I was sitting up, showered, dressed, and eating breakfast. By the way, I hadn't actually pooped my pants, but it was actually the baby's head starting to come down the birth canal that I was feeling.
It was an amazing experience, completely different to last time. I did feel empowered and so proud of what this 43year old body was actually capable of. x
Written by
bobby70
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Congratulations and enjoy those well deserved baby girl cuddles xXx
What a great blog to read Honestly!!
You've definitely given me some encouragement as I'm Nearly 20wks pregnant with my 2nd child & just like yourself had a terrible / very similar experience given birth to my son in October 2008.
Even though I hear (from many mothers) that every birth / child is different it hasn't stopped me from threating imagining what this birth is going to be like.
I'm will be finding out the gender of this baby tomorrow morning & I'm quite anxious (to be honest) as I would love to hear it's a girl, but I'll honestly to happy as long as the baby is fine with no major complications.
My 1st thoughts for ensuring a have a smooth delivery giving birth to this child (due in November 2013) is to use maybe one more form of pain relief as I remember the midwife I had on duty ( when I was having my son) saying something like I actually did quite well considering only using gas & air.
My 2nd thoughts are hoping that this child won't be as stubborn as my son was ( in 2008) as he was just over 1 week overdue and even when my labour finally started the midwife had't to make a decision to break my waters as he was delaying the process a Lil too long despite having quite strong contractions.
But congratulations, I'm sure your absolutely delighted, Wish you all the best. xxx
Thank you very much for sharing your birth stories! All births are different and each story is important and moving.
I hope everyone else will share their birth experiences with us when the time comes :).
Best wishes,
Alice
Ahhhh brilliant so glad it was a happy experience wow lucky u did go in lol that's something u can laugh about thinking pooped ur pants and being wheeled in on ur knees lol xx
wow Thanks for sharing, I had my little girl 7 years ago and like you had an epidural and forceps delivery (not nice!). Im 40 weeks today and totally not knowing what to expect, reading your story has put my mind at ease thinking it might not be as bad as im expecting Well done xx
Thanks for sharing, I had my first 10 years ago, no epidural and forceps it was awful I didn't feel the need to push and the doctor and nurses had to put the arm in my stomach to force the baby to come and I lost too much blood being cut. Now I am scared of being told its too early and having the baby at home or in the cab, I mean like labour is unpredictable as we see by your experience and nurses know that why do they say you should stay at home? Well at least everything was ok in the end happy for you
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Well done xx
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