Are you near any of us BBers? Why don't you meet up with some of us in person (bring your df if you want) and ask some questions - if you're near me, you're most welcome over for dinner - dh caught our second bub at home so he knows a bit now too.

I know with both my labours, I read up on it a bit, got myself a good second birth support partner, wrote birth intentions and then just figured, what happens will happen - I'd practiced a bit of breathing, knew I wanted to use water for pain relief, but I really tried not to think too much about it. It's not the sort of thing you can fully prepare for, the feeling, how efficiently your body goes into its zone, all that stuff is new and instinctive and you just have to breathe and roll with it.

As for the transfusion - let me assure you that I had a transfusion with #2 (once I got to hospital), and it really was fine. There was an issue with the canula in my arm, but I don't think it was a super common one. But the transfusion itself didn't hurt, and I talked with them about the chances of contracting something (that was my personal worry).