First time labor & delivery

[Mopey]

I would love to hear about how things were or were not as you had thought or expected they would be. Or whatever you think a first time Mom should hear :)

I have a few months, and strangely am not scared at all, but would love to hear from all of you (instead of just reading quotes on sites).

Thanks so much for taking the time to share :)

[hoodlims]

I hope you surround yourself with some great and positive birth stories!

I was late and my midwife suggested an induction on day 11. She wasn't pushy, but just put it out there. On day 7, I decided to get my membranes stripped. I also took a mixture of blue and black cohosh in my tea to naturally induce labor (was NOT about to be induced medically). I went to dinner with the hubby that night, enjoyed a good meal.

Went home and slept, woke up at 2am feeling indigestion. I went to the bathroom to get business done. Felt it again a few minutes later, so went to the bathroom again. At this point I was awake, so I started reading. An hour later, I realized, "Hey, this isn't diarrhea, this is labor!" So I drew a bath and chilled in the tub for awhile (30 min) before waking the hubby. He came in and started timing my contractions. They were about 3 min apart and lasting for 45 seconds each. At this point I had been in labor just under 2 hours and it wasn't very painful.

He called my midwife and she said I needed to come in, NOW. We threw stuff in a bag, drove down the street to our hospital, walked upstairs, and I puked. Nurse said, "Great! You are in transitional labor, let's check you!" I was at 7cm (this was after about 3 hrs of labor). I said, "Well, I feel ok now, but if it gets worse later, can I get an epidural?" They looked at me and said "If you feel ok now, then there is no time later. You can do this without." OK...so here goes. 3 more hours of labor, 1.5 of pushing, no drugs, no episiotomy, and I felt like Superwoman.

Totally doable to have a good and easy labor for your first. GOOD LUCK! I think a lot of it is mental. If you are calm and open, I think your body follows that.

[flashy09]

The one thing that helped me immensely (was close to having a c section during the pushing stage, rather eventful delivery) was my husband reminding me not to "let up" and relax at the end of the 10 second count. The nurse would count to 10 and I would push and then be done and relax and then take a deep breath and start again for the second count of 10 (it was three 10 second sessions per contraction). Remember to keep bearing down and just take a quick half breath and keep the baby where she is. It made all the difference in her making progress!

[SnuggleBuggles]

The one thing that helped me immensely (was close to having a c section during the pushing stage, rather eventful delivery) was my husband reminding me not to "let up" and relax at the end of the 10 second count. The nurse would count to 10 and I would push and then be done and relax and then take a deep breath and start again for the second count of 10 (it was three 10 second sessions per contraction). Remember to keep bearing down and just take a quick half breath and keep the baby where she is. It made all the difference in her making progress!

Congratulations!!! I missed your update! I'm glad that worked well in your birth. :) That's what matters!!

For me, I never pushed to a 10 count. I read that it wasn't the ideal and caused too much straining (I also skipped the stirrups). When baby was crowning, I did things different with both births. With ds1 I didn't stop pushing when they told me too and I got a tear. With ds2, I did stop and as he was crowning I just waited through a contraction, with deep breathing. Everything stretched naturally (with the support of warm compresses and my midwife). All was much better but hard. It was worth the patience!

I am a weird one but I really loved childbirth! I went with no meds or interventions with both (none were necessary). After ds1 I felt so empowered and just amazing. I had never tried to do anything physically hard before so I didn't know what I was capable of. It wasn't easy as he was posterior but I just stuck it out. I wish I had known ahead of time about posterior babies...somehow I missed that!

I made a gazllion birth plans (induction, c-section, common complications and ideal :)). I found that I was more confident and secure about the whole thing when I learned what choices I had and the risks and benefits of them. I read things by Simkin and Sears and others (those 2 were my favorites). I also hired a doula with ds1 and it was great to have someone to talk to before the birth and during. She was there 100% for me and gave me extra support and reassurance, though my dh would have rocked if he was solo. My dh was the greatest. He was totally supportive of my goals, understood my choices, had read books and done classes with me and just knew what to do.

I keep thinking we should start a birth story thread. I am happy to share mine, if you are interested.

Beth

[sweetsue98]

I don't think anyone will understand the birthing process until they have gone through it. I was all about the meds until I got to the hospital and I chickened out. After a few hours of feeling like I was losing my mind I opted for nubain but that didn't do it for me. 2 hours later I was begging for an epidural. I always heard an epidural was awesome because you were pain free....wrong! I had less pain but was definitely not pain free. I applaud women who give birth naturally but I was not one of them! Good luck!

[edurnemk]

I did not expect it to be so fast! I was in transition thinking I was in the first phase, so naturally I freaked out thinking "if this is going to get worse I'm going to pass out!". Once I got to the hospital and they said I was fully dilated, my perspective changed completely and I was able to cope with the pain and everything very well, I didn't even get an IV. Pushing did take longer than I expected since DS was posterior, but at some point my OB managed to turn him.

From first contraction to DS being born it was 7.5 hours, my case is not typical at all.

As far as what it will feel like, I found that no matter how many birth stories you hear and how many videos you watch, you won't really know until you actually go through it.