Did it turn out as expected?

Just wondering what some of your thoughts are on L&B. Was it what you expected? And seeing as we have had a few C/S's lately just wondering how you coped with recovery, and if it was second time around for C/S did it differ (in procedure or recovery) from your first?

*hugs*
Cailin

My labour wasn't quite what I expected because I developed pre-eclampsia and was induced at 38 weeks. I expected that I would go into labour naturally at 40 weeks and then go to hospital and have the baby. So being admitted to hospital and then having my waters broken and the oxytocin drip and the drip with BP medication was quite overwhelming. As far as the pain goes, I knew that the contractions would hurt so I was not surprised by it, but I did wonder how I could cope. Then I had pethidine and later an epidural so I felt no pain after that. The birth itself was as I had pictured (except in my imaginings I didn't have my legs in stirrups!) and I wasn't surprised that I got an episiotomy. What I didn't expect was to feel so tired afterwards and for the bleeding to be so heavy! In all it wasn't the labour that I had hoped for but at least I had a beautiful, healthy son so I got the best outcome.

Bon

Hi there! For us nothing went according to plan... I had every intervention imaginable... down to the c/s. I planned a completely natural labour/birth. The first few hours after surgery I was in shock, my jaw was clamped shut etc and I couldn't tell you what happened exactly other than Matilda fed straight away and attached perfectly first time around when I didn't even have the energy to stress about it! The recovery was hard the first 12 hours and then steady from then on. I don't handle drugs too well and the pain relief really made me disorientated and anxious. To the point where at 2am I was trying to pull out the drip... but after the morphine came out at 5am I was heaps better. Sore & sorry, but better, I was up and showered & walked around the room that morning. Once the drain & attachments came off the second day I was heaps better. Walking up & down the corridor at the hospital and that was about all. Its now 7 1/2 weeks later and I feel almost normal, lifting anything over 10kg is still scary, but thats okay... it does take time to heal!

I was like Bon. I expected to go into labour naturally, with waters breaking etc.

But also like Bon I was induced at 37wks & 6 days due to pre-eclampsia. I imagined having the whole legs in stirrups thing but thankfully that didn't happen. I was strapped to the bed though cause they had to monitor Kameron. I was also expecting to be there for hours and was quite suprised that my actual labour only went for 3 1/2hrs.

I had to have an episiotomy but at that stage i didn't care. I had an epidural and I think they upped it right before I pushed Lachlan out. I lost alot of blood in labour and when i finally got up to have a shower i nearly passed out. I wasnt' expecting to feel so sick after it, and the next day I couldn't walk and my legs were like rubber and I definitely wasn't expecting that either.

I was expecting all of that with Lachlan but I never had the epidural, still had to have episiotomy though and I was amazed at how great I felt after the birth and after I heard Lachlan was okay. Mum was on hand in case of the passing out in the shower but it never happened and I was feeling great. even got into my proper nightie dressing gown slippers etc and went and sat on the lounge while everyone else had cuddles with Lachlan. I wasn't expecting to pass alot of clots though which happened this time.

Love :smt049

Well I did have the birth I wanted, but not exactly where I wanted it!

Brandon was born with no intervention or drugs, in a water birth. It's a good thing we didn' need intervention because he was born at home in the bath, five minutes before the ambulance arrived.

The only thing was I was in shock, (as you do) and didn''t get Brandon breastfeeding straight away, and it was four hours before we started trying properly, which led to lots of problems breastfeeding, and lack of milk supply.

But I didn't have an epistiotomy, and didn't tear either, so thumbs up for water birth!

Myself and the midwives were expecting my pregnancy to go well past the due date (as a lot of 1st pregnancies do!) and we had already prebooked an induction for 10 days after my due date.
However it didnt go quite as expected, as my waters broke a week before I was due, but labour hadnt started, so I was induced about 12 hours later.
I spent more time having holes punched into my hands, (trying to get the syntocin drip in) than I did in actual labour!
I didnt expect the pain to be as bad as it was, and I also didnt expect the epidural to be as good as it was!!!
I think I went into hospital expecting the worst, but I was actually very lucky and had no complications, no intervention needed, only 20 mins of pushing, and no tearing or episiotomy either, so I have to admit I was happy with that! But even happier with beautiful, healthy boy!! O:)
Oh! but I definately didnt expect to feel so completely wiped//exhausted/sick for the few days afterwards...

It wasn't at all what I was expecting............

First i was hospitalized with pre-eclampsia, then I was induced, then when I was 1cm dilated I was given Pethidine (sp?) which sent me straight off the face of this earth hehe. Then Jack came out upside down (face up)

I was expecting to go into labour naturally and for the labour to go on for hours......it was only 2 hours from start to finish. And I certainly didn't expect the drugs to give me such a severe side effect.

Jo

I had pre-eclampsia and Kimberley was delivered at 35.4 weeks by c-section. The worst bit was she was taken away right away was not able to hold her just has a little look. :(
Was sick after it all happened could not keep anything down for 24 hours after and looked awful as my SIL told me. What did she think i would look like.

I was not able to be with Kimberley for four days as she was in special baby care unit and i was still not well enough to be with her. but when i was well i was able to be with her.

I hope that when we have another one it will be different. :)

Hi - there seems to be (or seemed to be) a lot of pre eclampsia out there. A woman I worked with had her son at 29 weeks because of it and lost her second son at 30 weeks. Very sad.

I was a bit wary about having a plan, other than that I wanted to be mobile, I imagined lots of pacing .. but I was two weeks overdue, sat on a drip for nine hours, had my waters broken, a couple of hideous IE's, a pelvic scan which revealed caitlin was not even engaged properly, was on the monitor for ages, started getting bad pains that hardly registered on the monitor, threw up a lot, lost my mind, had a C/S.

Still can't get over the number of people in the theatre, there were at least 15 and a Paul Kelly song was playing.

End result was the same, so I don't care. Was out of bed 12 hours later - drip on one side, and a tube from the cut on the other side. I musta had lotsa pain killers cos I can't recall any pain afterwards. I went to the kiosk the next day for the paper and big M. I drove 10 days after as well.

Barb.

Only just saw this topic, so here goes...

We didn't have too much of a plan. i had decided on a few details but couldn't make up mind on drugs. So we didn't have too many expectations.
In the end it was good I didn't have a set plan for labour. I was sent to hospital at 38 weeks as they thought I was starting to show sign of pre-eclampsia. Thankfully i didn't stay in hospital for the last 2 weeks.

I went up for my 40 week visit to be told I was in labour. I didn't end up having any drugs and got as far as pushing for 2 hours before they decided my baby was "stuck". The epidural didn't work and I had to be knocked out.
DD ended up going without a feed for about 3 hours while the nurses waited for me to wake up and get my permission for DH to bottle feed her.

Ended totally different to how I expected.

Nic.

Anyone else want to add to this post?

For me, labor and birth were not what i expected at all. I went in there blindfolded. I didnt expect to be induced for one. I had the whole, waters break, contractions start, go to hospital kind idea in my head. Also didnt expect to go overdue, that was the biggest thing i was worried about. But with the pain and all that, yes it hurt like HELL, but i actually thought it would be sooo much worse! I also said to myself 'i'm never going to do this again' but when i had her, i said 'i'd do it again tomorrow!'

I went in with no expectations or a birth plan...but I was prepared for the worst.

I knew what I definitely DIDN'T want and that was all I needed - G had the 'directive' for if anything needed to be decided and I wasn't in a deciding condition (IYKWIM) and we took it from there.

I'm like you in the "I'd have another tomorrow" department...I'd do it all again in a second.

I had planned a completely natural birth with no epidural. How wrong was I? I ended up like Christy with every possible intervention - gas, pethadine, epidural & then a c/section.

It's now 5 weeks post c/s and I feel pretty well back to normal, only I don't like the thought of lifting anything too heavy. Zander was born at 1.27am on the Sunday & my staples were removed at lunchtime on the Friday. I felt so much better once they were out cos they kept catching on my underwear - OUCHY!!

I'd hoped for a natural birth as I was going through the family birthing unit at the hospital. Unfortunately I had to be induced 11 days late, and this meant I was in the normal birthing suites, but I still got to have the FBU midwives which was fantastic.
Because Jenna was persistantly OP (posterior) the pain was excrutiating, and I ended up having an epidural - at the last minute. 10mins after it had gone in and they could prise my legs open for another internal, I was fully dilated!
Contractions stopped, and even with a syntocin drip in my arm, they would come back, so I was prepped for a c/s but they hoped to deliver by forceps.
After an episiotomy, and a few pushes, Jenna was born using forceps.

I hated the epidural, even though it took the edge off the contractions. I liked that I could feel everything they were doing with the forceps, but it wasn't painful, but I had the most atrocious shivers and shakes from the epi. It was awful, but it worked, and I have a healthy little girl.

Fi

I was planning (with Alex) to have a natural birth, hopefully just gas, and at my local hospital.

I certainly wasn't planning on being in Melbourne (200kms from home) and in hospital from 31 weeks, not being allowed to walk ANYWHERE except to the bathroom etc etc.

I'm glad I was at least asked whether or not I wanted to try natural birth, they said with my BP they gave me a 90% chance of a c/s, but at least I got to try. And they knew heaps about how Alex was going to be, in terms of health, because he'd had HEAPS of u/s and ctg monitoring beforehand. His heartrate dropped dramatically after the first contraction, and he was born 55 mins later by emergency c/s.

Which was at least "expected" IYKWIM!

I was very lucky, I had a lot of information about my choices (Monash hospital is FANTASTIC) and was always made aware of what was happening, both to me and to Alex. I am also lucky in that my brother is a doctor at Monash and my DH was a nurse at Monash! I guess I got "star treatment"!

I had no real plan or expectation.. Just figured I'd go into labour & then go to Hospital & have a baby?

My waters (hind) broke on Tuesday morning, I had mild contractions about 5 mins apart for the whole day tried to sleep that night after calling Hospital, but was too nervous, scared, excited & worried I'd miss something (?) All Wednesday (exhausted nothing much happened, I just walked & braced myself with each contraction, on Wed night exhausted I hopped into bed, but again my heart was raciong with excitement & I could not sleep, at around 11pm, I heard a pop in bed & my waters gushed everywhere! I called Mum (living at home at the time) I hung myself over the bath, no real contractions & so she called Hospital they said time any contractions & come in if they got within a few mins... By 5am, I was exhausted with no sleep at all for 2 days & I was feeling worried, so we went to Hospital, they had a look & said I was fine to take Panadeine forte & go home, but I then began vomiting blood & there was meuconium in my constantly leaking waters! So a quick call to my Ob, who said induce her, so around 7am, I was given 2 drips of electrloytes as my body was exhausted & thjen a drip of Syntocin, gradually I started having regular contractions & eventually they got so bad i had no time to catch my breath! I was given a pethadione injection & was still only about 3cms dialated, so I was offered a hot bath which I accepted, after about 10 mins in bath I felkt the urge to push & so gave a quick push & a heap of blood started coming away so I panicked, went back to the delivery suite & was 9cms dialated & could push... Manb that felt good like I finally found the itchy spot!

maddison was delivered with some tearing at 12:28 pm on Thursday!

Phew & yep I'd do it all again ina heart beast... Ok it's taken me almost 7 yrs but I woulda gone back sooner!

My birth experience was nothing like I had though it would be. It was different in ever single way. I ended up having an emergency c/s and am still recovering 11 months on