5 October 2007 - Baby Fionna

[*EmJa*]

Congrats

[noobie]

Thanks everyone. Hmm....some tips for other first timers? My mum had quick labours so I'm not sure I have any tips for short labours except *believing* that it will be short.

My total labour was probably technical longer as my waters broke at 6:15 pm Thursday and they took me straight into hospital where I had painful overnight contractions 3 minutes apart. If you start from that time, it's more like 19 hours - but because the contractions slowed down by 9am Friday to 15 minutes apart and because I was due to be induced in two days anyway they put me on syntocinon on Friday morning and she was born that afternoon. I wasn't too happy about it but I was in hospital and didn't want to go home and find myself rushing back as I'm an hour away.

The hospital only time the labour from the time the hormone was administered so officially it's only a short labour, even though I was wrecked from being awake and on my feet all night pacing around. ;-)

I do have some tips on pain relief as I was surprised to find that even with the hormone drip, I didn't ask for gas until the final hour. If I had known I was so close, I probably would have gone without it as it just made me trip. At one stage I put a vomit bucket on my head and was cracking up laughing at some people I could see in the park outside! I was also apologising for scaring the other labouring women in the ward with my moans as I was sure they could hear me. ;-)

Far and away the best pain relief was my own mind. I found that music really really worked, especially through the overnight contractions. I also had in my head 'photos' of beautiful places that I had been to (mostly mountains in Scotland) and kept visiting those places through my labour when I felt I was starting to feel the pain. I don't know why, but this really really worked for me, more than I would ever have guessed. If you are good at that sort of thing, I'd say trust your ability to get through the pain mentally. I had planned to ask for an epidural when ready - and felt sure I'd take everything on offer - but I just somehow never needed it which really surprised me. I guess it pays to keep an open mind about how you will cope.

When you get to the pushing bit, I was so surprised to find that there was no pain - it's a moment of great relief when you get to that part and I really enjoyed being able to 'feel' her coming out and not have to feel any more contractions. I had to have an episiotomy which also wasn't as bad as I thought and was something I had been scared of.

Not sure if any of that helps?