Labor and Birth

[soul]

Is it what you expected it to be when you were pregnant for the first time?

[visitor1]

Labour and birth with DD1 was easier and painless then what i expected!!

So i thouight DD2 would be the same and it was the opposite..hurt like hell!! But the labour was much better in how i handled it. Was more full on..but i was more prepared

[rosehannah]

It took a lot longer then what I thought, but the pain was what I thought. The emotional high I got when my son was put onto my belly exceeded my expectations.

[Enchanted]

Mine wasn't how I planned it and it was a lot more intense than I thought it would be (I was induced though). Fingers crossed for a natural labour next time

[StrawberryMumma]

Easier then I expected (but still not easy as such!) I absolutely prepared myself for the worst and I think in the end that was a good thing because things turned out really well.

I also didn't expect the imense (sp?) relief after it was all over! I was tired but on top of the world. I think having a previous mc put things into perspective for me.

[Emma1979]

an absolute nightmare, i thought i was going to die, i actually wanted to die..... horrific and scarring emotionally and physically.... very traumatic...... 28 hours of pure torture.

am hoping for a natural calm birth/hypno birth next time around.

[maddysmummy]

no not at all!! i didnt want a c-section at all!! but ended up having a emergancy c-section!! i was scared out of my mind and was crying and shaking!! now i look back and what was i so afraid of nothing it was fine!but as for the labour pain it was what i expected!
pain you can never imagine!!LOL!!

but having said that i would rather go thru labour again than ever deal with a gallstone attack!! NOW THATS PAIN!!

[soul]

It's amazing after bubs is born how you get this sudden burst of energy and just sit up all night starring at your new baby. I remember the nurse coming and saying to me, you need to rest I will take the baby for you. And I said no please leave him here I could hold him all night! She roused at me, and treated me like a 2 year old, I told her I was 16 not 6!!!

[Tobily]

It actually was you know!

I didn't expect it to be easy, and I also expected it to be reallllly long - and it was long for me.
I've always been the person that asks people all the gory and inappropriate details about their births so I went into my first birth with my eyes wide open

[Jayney]

I was expecting what I got for the first bits. Transition is tough. But what surprised me was the pressure of the pushing. I was expecting to be comfortable in between contractions like earlier but I wasn't. It was still okay but harder work than I thought. Also it seemed like a very long time.

[Ginger]

it hurt about 100 times more than i expected. it was way more brutal than i thought....mind you i think it may have had a lot to do with getting induced, oh and ds being 10pounds3...but i have to say it was worse than i could have imagined.
motherhood though...is 100 times more lovely than i expected.

[Jac]

It was expecting it to be really painful but it was actually worse than I imagined. Like Emma, I felt traumatised by the experience. The other thing was that I had been told by everyone that the pain is forgotten once baby is placed on your chest - this was not the case for me and I needed 24hours before I could look at the baby and feel OK as he reminded me of that pain. My birth experience was considered quick and straight forward by the way - no intervention.
Having said that, I would do it again - exactly the same way, for another baby.

[sconeonamission]

Heck no!
I was expecting mine to go for longer, and be far more painful than it was. Don't get me wrong, it was and it was a shock!! I don't know what I was expecting, but I sure wasn't expecting that! Each time I looked at the clock, more time had passed than I realised, possibly due to napping between contractions. I was expecting to squeeze DH's hand and break his fingers/ swear like a trooper and say "you did this to me, don't touch me!" but I was somehow pleasant and kept appologising to the midwife! Looking back now, I'm gonna try a bit harder to do it without pain relief!

[Jac]

For those of you that say the pain was NOT as bad as you expected, did you have pain relief? I find it hard it believe that anyone having a natural birth for the first time would have expected that pain (unless I'm a total wuss!).

[StrawberryMumma]

I was expecting to squeeze DH's hand and break his fingers/ swear like a trooper and say "you did this to me, don't touch me!" but I was somehow pleasant and kept appologising to the midwife!

lol I was the same! I thought I would get really angry but it didn't happen.

And on the 'how the hell could it be less painful' thing, I can't say how, it just was. That's not playing it down, or being unrealistic, that's just my own feelings. It's not saying it wasn't painful, and afterwards it did take a lot to get over the intensity of the contractions and what had just happened but it was better then I expected. I didn't have any pain relief, and laboured at home for most of it. Being at home was the key for me.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Hmmmmm. This is tough.

The baby bit was a lot easier and less painful than I thought - less painful than a period for the contractions and pushing!

But I can't comment any further because I then didn't give birth - I couldn't feel a thing thanks to the spinal.

I also didn't expect so much bruising that I was incontinent for a few days - but that isn't normal (that was thanks to my obs). I didn't expect the ward midwife to be so rude and cruel either.

Everything was easier than normal apart from my so-called support, which was an on-going battle of me being told I didn't know what my body was doing nor did I know what to do and could not be trusted. That was half-expected but a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm also still traumatised, I didn't ever realise birth was so traumatic!

[Emma1979]

yeah im interested to know the same thing Jac, how the hell could it be less painful???

oh and sconeonamission how did you manage to nap between contractions???!!!

my contractions were about 2-5 mins apart for about 15 hours!!

[maddysmummy]

i fell asleep between contractions.. its the pethadine shot you have makes you drowsy enough to have naps!!