How do you/will you labour?

Just for a little bit of fun, I want to know how you labour - AND/OR, how you think you're going to labour next time. Those on their first pregnancies, I want you to try to imagine realistically how you'll go with it.

What noises do you make? Are you loud? Do you grunt a lot? Do you space out and go silent?

What positions do you prefer? Do you actually prefer to be on your back? Are you a give-birth-standing-up type? Hands and knees? Crawl under the bed and have bubs there?

Do your labours start slowly, building up until your baby is crowning? Does it all hit you at once? Have you woken up one morning to find a new baby in your bed? :p

I'm not sure if you want stories from experience or what we expected but from experience mine were:

DD1 - back ache for a couple of days leading up to contractions at i think 1am the morning on the day she was born, contractions increased quite quickly, tried shower etc, on all fours worked for me.
Outside of the shower being on my knees leaned against the couch helped and i rocked through contractions, waters broke i walked to the other end of the house, speaking to 000 i laid on my back and delivered, puffing through contractions and sooking a little. 20min after my waters broke and 9hrs total from 1st contraction.

DD2 - slight contractions on and off all day, i cleaned like a freak, played outside with DD1, i found walking and rocking through contractions helped once they got more painful, we got to hospital and walked around a bit, then i found kneeling on the bed worked and rocking through them still. shower on all fours or the chair to lean on.
When it got BAD i lent up on the bed head sitting on my knees and rocked, water broke, rolled over and laboured laying down again.. She was out 8min after waters broke.
This time i remember yelling once.. like an OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW kinda noise not a scream otherwise i just kept asking for water... :rofl:

So i guess for me i really like the walking and rocking motions, all fours was great as you don't feel like you have far to fall from being tired :rofl:

IF i was ever to have another i would hope to be the same, natural drug free but possibly on all fours rather than on my back (is it true on your back is more painful???), you never know i would possibly consider a PLANNED Homebirth, not sure DP would agree though.

Not sure if thats what you wanted hun.... hope it's ok.

My labours were totally different and if I could I would have DS's labour all over again, though maybe without the weeks of prelabour! DD's labour I was loud and it was soooo painful. I was induced and in labour for 23hours. I was ab****ely buggered by the end of it all and so out of it because of the pethdine I'd had. With DS I went to hospital 8cm dialated and he was born within 2hours. I barely made any noise and I coped with it all sooo much better than I did with DD's birth, I had no drugs at all. I was on such a high afterwards I couldn't sleep for hours, even though the last week had been a horrible week for me with prelabour. Both times though, I laboured in bed, on my back. I would like to try to birth on all fours this time, though I think I like the support and stability of the bed....we'll see!!

I meant for first time mummies to give us what they think they'll be like, and for those who have been through it to say how they actually did go. Those with kids already that are preg again (or TTC, thinking they might have more, etc...) can tell us what they were like with their other kids, and how they think they'll go this time :) I'm not very good at explaining :lol:

It's all good hun, so was ours ok? i think we both explained ok... lol
You explained well... i am just having real mummy brain issues lately :)

Im hoping that my second one would be nice and peaceful and that bub would pop out straight away with only a few murmurs from mummy.

DD's birth was terrible lol i kept saying "I cant do this anymore!!!!" asked for all the drugs and she still needed a ventose to come out

As for me (just realised I never answered my own question!) I think I may be a grunter, based on Ianto's birth. I know that labour was very different to how it should have been - it was induced, there was all the emotional stuff behind it, I'd had pethidine, etc... But I'm pretty sure I'll be making the same kinds of noises with Cookie and others. I just hope I don't yell "I need to poo!" so much this time around :rofl: And the confusion over why they were telling me it was fine, I could do away with that :p

When I think of giving birth to Cookie, I imagine myself on the bed (although we're going to try for in the bath) and kinda on my side - maybe I "see" that because that's how it was with Ianto. On my side during contractions, on my back in the spaces in between. I think he actually slipped out as I was rolling back onto my back, but I don't remember clearly :)

Terrible! lol.. sorry, not going to sugar coat it, but my labours were hell.

Both started differently, DS with contractions and my waters broken by midwives before i started to push.. and DD with my waters breaking and contractions starting about an hour later.
Both lots of contractions started out mild but after not too long went intense. With DS it lasted the rest of my 11 hour labour, with DD once i hit the 11 hour mark i couldnt handle it any more and asked for an epidural. Which was BLISS! (ended up with a 16.5 hour labour)

I was very quiet when going through contractions. The midwives even asked if i was actually in labour as i didnt make a sound or complain about anything (bar the pain when i wanted an epi).

So this pregnancy.. im going prepared in that, as soon as the pain is unbearable, im asking for an epidural. I dont see the point in putting myself through that pain, there's no heroes in labour, when the end result is the same.

I was on my feet during labour, that is just what felt best. I was on the bed a few times for different reasons and hated it. I had an epidural (really late, bit of an oopsie, so it was epidural then pushing) and was still able to walk around and stuff but then I was happy to lay down!

I did a weird noise, kind of an 'uuuuuurgh' sound. My MW thought it was the unproductive screaming sound but it was actually that focused disappearing into your own world kind of noise.

I dilate quickly! Talking to mum she describes dilating more like flicking a switch than a build up, and I must say I think that is what it was like for me. I was feeling things where happening but was still going OK and confirmed to be 2-3cm, then literally 1/2 later I was in FULL ON triple-peaked-contractions-no-rest-between-contractions-transition. The 'flicking a switch' nature of it made it harder to slowly build up and match the pain as it increased...it was just like WHAMO! Unfortunately not knowing what transition felt like I just thought this is what early labour felt like and thought oh my god I can't do this for hours and hours more (I was 2-3cms only 30 minutes earlier and figured I was probably still about the same) hence the oopsie epidural! No that is not totally true, I also had BP that was rocketing dangerously high and the epidural was a fantatic tool for getting it into a safer range so I didn't lose consciousness, so I wasn't without its own positives!

Next time I hope I am in hospital when transition hits (I was with DD but as it happens quickly there isn't much time for getting my butt there, and the thought of it hitting while I am in the car scares me witless) and I hope I will know when things are getting serious so it doesn't come as such a shock when suddenly it is time to push and I have a baby! I thought I would instinctively know first time but I sooooooo didn't.

LAst times-
FLAT on my back strapped to a CTG machine!
This time-
i was going to request 10min CTG every hour if they felt it neseccary to use it, but thats subject to change depending on what we're told about Bimby's heart in a few weeks, obviously i'll keep it on the whole time if theres a problem with his heart.

As for noises, im pretty sure if u stood outfront of the hospital you'd hear me. Pretty queit through the early stages, happy to do my thing but once i hit transition thats it, i dont even realising im doing it it just happens. its not screaming more of a deep deep moan, that i dont think i could recreate not labouring if i tried.

pushing wise first time i had a mid and DF holding my legs right back which was wonderful and gave me some leverance. Last time i ended up requesting the stirrups to have something to hold onto and get some leverence.

Next time hoping to be in water, or atleast on my hands and knees, but that all might be out of my hands

I'm hoping that walking around and some loud music with swearing in it will get me through to transition. Then some peaceful tinkly music and lots of encouragement :)

I'm gonna TRY and make noise, usually when I'm in pain I don't say anything and that can make the pain worse, so vocalisation here I come!

Hopefully I won't yell at DH too much, and he won't freak out. We have a deal there :)

What noises do you make? Are you loud? Do you grunt a lot? Do you space out and go silent?

I can't remember during the build up, I think I was fine, and then when things got super intense I turned out to be a screamer. I grunted a lot during pushing though.

What positions do you prefer? Do you actually prefer to be on your back? Are you a give-birth-standing-up type? Hands and knees? Crawl under the bed and have bubs there?

I was on the toilet for a lot of it, in the bath for about an hour, and birthed next to the bath (biting onto the side of it) and kneeling. I tried crawling, but it does stuff all for the pain, so won't bother going there again. I will try more hands and knees this time, and rocking. My squatting during contractions was good too. I was only on my back once for an internal, and omg, never going there again.

Do your labours start slowly, building up until your baby is crowning? Does it all hit you at once? Have you woken up one morning to find a new baby in your bed?
Waking up to find a baby would be lovely - I'll take that thanks. Mine started slowly, irregular contractions for about 7 hours and they weren't particularly painful, then they ramped up to intense,then super intense, then omg-I-just-want-the-pain-to-stop-now-give-me-drugs-woman-what-the-hell-do-you-mean-you-don't-have any-omg-i'm-going-to-die sorta pain, and then she was coming down.

Sooooo.. this time round, hopefully I will be a little bit more calm and confident that I will get this baby out and it won't kill me. And hopefully no screaming banshee either. Ooh and in the water. And a shorter labour would be nice too.

What noises do you make? Are you loud? Do you grunt a lot? Do you space out and go silent?
I'm a moaner. I space out. I hate people talking or touching me.

What positions do you prefer? Do you actually prefer to be on your back? Are you a give-birth-standing-up type? Hands and knees? Crawl under the bed and have bubs there?
On my feet, leaning over with the hot water running down my back. I birthed DD1 & DD2 on my back, and DD3 on all 4's.

Do your labours start slowly, building up until your baby is crowning? Does it all hit you at once? Have you woken up one morning to find a new baby in your bed?
All of mine have started with a bang. Once my waters break, then it's all on. With DD2, I went from being 3cm, waters breaking, and her being born 50 min later. With DD3, I was 5 min, my waters broke, and she was born 2 minutes later!

All of my births have been the way I wanted them, and as a mega plus, they've all been quick as well (9hrs, 6hrs & 3hrs). After DD1, I knew I wanted to try drug free next time, which I did. After DD2, I knew I didn't want my mum in with me, and that I wanted to wait as long as possible at home. Which I did.

I know this sounds weird but i actually enjoyed my labour with DS and am looking forward to this one in a few months! I just grunted and beared down when i was in the transition and pushing stages. I apparently got quite verbal and angry at a few of the midwives while i was still dialating (around 6-8cm) which apparently they had a bit of chuckle about but apart from that it was great. Total labour was 6hrs from first niggle to when he was born so not too bad for a first time round. No pain releif apart from a tiny bit of pethadine right at the start which i didnt ask for but oh well - Made me vomit a few times but nothing too bad. All in all great experience and cant wait for round 2!! (im a bit concerned but excited!)

Mine were all so different it wasn't funny.
DD1, slow build up, lots of winging, but no swearing. On my back/side & gassed up to the eyeballs, lol.
DD2, slow build up also, hummed through contractions, right til the end, but then the devil came out in me. Swearing, trying to bite DH... the difference with no drugs I guess, lol. Birthed on all fours. Shower was blissful that time.
DS, Hard & fast from start to finish. No time to settle into the groaning/humming I did with DD2, so loads of sooking & saying 'no, not again, give me a break!!' Mostly on all fours, but birthed on my back again... silly me.

This time I think I'll be in the shower alot. It really does work for the pain for me if I move the shower head from my back to belly as the contractions hit. I can even see me birthing in the shower... we'll see. Thinking all fours again this time, possibly, just coz it takes so much pressure off the back.
Hopefully I'll be able to let you know for sure soon! lol

My births were all different also

DS1 - Had a S&S started have mild contractions and leaking fluid about 4 hours later. Went to hospital at around 10.30pm just to have fluid checked, was admitted as was 4cm. Went to birthing suite, tried the bath (didn't like it) tried the gas (didn't like it) ended up with morphine (huge regret) made me nauseas ended up vomiting. 7am DR comes back bubs is posterior then the fun began by now I was quite dehydtrated ended up on toilet with legs on DH shoulder and Midwifes (must not have been a pretty site) trying to push with absolutely no urge to do so had no idea what I was meant to be doing. By 11am I demand Dr to see whats happen. He decides to try Vacumm as bubs starting to get a bit distressed. Cap went on first go one push he turned next push out. (Thank goodness) about 18 hours in total

DS2 I had already decided didn't want morphine and that I would try really hard with the gas. Labour started slowly had the gas fell in love. Think it was a distraction as much as anything. I realise now I go into myself in labour (when it starts getting serious) don't talk to anyone and just get through it with the occasional grunt. I remember listening to DH and Midwife talking about needing to get the gas off me. I just ignored them and kept doing what I was doing. I made sure I stayed as upright as possible trying to prevent another posterior birth. Due to Dr having bad back couldn't birth on the floor but was told could be on all 4's on bed. Ended up like that leaning over a bean bag (didn't think I would ever birth like this) Bubs took a lot of pushing as he was big and posteriour he ended up crowning with his head on the side.

Ds3 - Brilliant wish they were all like him, I stood in the shower for the majority of the major contractions, finally got moved to birthing suite, DH said to midwife is that what I think it is (which was his hair) panic stations as she was on her own (small country hospital) she hits buzzer I get up on bed (again all 4's) and next push head was out. All I can remember thinking was pant pant pant while the head was crowing to prevent tearing, obviously I remembered somethings from the 2nd delivery.

Last time I could only picture myself birthing on land (ie. not a waterbirth) even though I thought waterbirths seemed fab. I had no desire to get in a pool but I did LOVE the shower. I saw myself on all fours for labour and birthing but as baby was posterior most of the time I wanted to be upright so I spent most of the labour holding onto things and standing/squatting.

This time I'm planning a waterbirth and I can see myself in there. I picture I'll be kneeling at the time of the birth and will either birth baby out the back for my H to catch or I'll manage to reach down and birth baby into my arms. We'll see! :D