With my 1st, I didn't have any BH at all. The morning I was to go in to check if my cervix was ripe for induction (as Ob said baby to small to let go overdue, which turned out to be crap as he was a good 7pound 8 baby). I had a really bad back ache so I stayed in bed, but I was busting to go for a wee so I got up and when I did I quickly crossed my leg and thought OH MY! I really need to pee, it felt as though my bladder just couldn't hold on any longer. When I was sitting on the toilet I did my pee and had a bit of a show on toilet paper (kind of a clear mucas with red streaks of blood in it) and (TMI) my knicker which were black had like a white film on them. After I finished on the toilet I was getting a bit nervous as I was thinking my waters just broke. I got undressed and while standing at the shower, I could feel what I thought was wee trickling down my leg, from memory this was sort of brownish (like blood stained water). At this point I know my waters had broke. I went to hospital and while back pains where increasing and contractions where being picked up on the monitor, my labour wasn't progressing so the next morning I was put on the drip (which is oxytocin) to give my labour a jiggle on. For me it was all in my back. its a weird pain to describe, but really really bad period pain seems to be the beast thing to compare it too. Actually just thinking, this is going to be another TMI but you know when your doing a poo and if your a little consipated and (well I get) you get cramps in your tummy, like really bad wind? This is probably a better comparison if your times that pain by about 20! I never experienced period pain, so I think this combined with back pain is a good description. When it came to time to push, it is like needing to do a poo, and thats how you need to push as well. The actual head come out was terrible for me, like having a burning hot iron put to your vagina and I didn't even tear, just some grazing. But once the head is out, my god does it feel good. Still hurts but the pressure is gone.

With DS#2 My waters didn't break untill just before he was born with some help from the midwife. I had cramps in my back again, its like a pressure building up. I went all night at home with these pains getting worse and closer together. I called the hospital at 3 am but still didn't go in until about 8 am. I didn't want to have to wake everyone up, lol Im always thinking of everyone else first. My labour was the same as DS#1 but I wanted to avoid the drip this time round so I just pushed on with the pain and eventually (like 30 odd hours after it first started at home) I gave birth, again that pain when pushing them out is amazing, Glenn actually got a little stuck and I was telling them to push him back in as I needed a break from the pain. I also kept getting a shooting pain/cramp in my right hip while pushing to get him out, apparently he was hitting a nerve (cyatic sp??), and this is what was causing the cramping, but each time I would get a contraction and start to push this cramp would hit and make the contraction stop. But we got him out in the end and again without any tears!