# Labour



## Steph

Ok...

i want the truth, and i'll experience it for myself so i'll hunt you down if you lie...

is it as bad as they say??


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## Jenny

:hugs:

lol, its the most painful thing you'll go through if you decide to do it without meds. Even with meds it can bloody hurt like me. Not even the epi was enough to dull the pain but I got it bad with the vaccum and forceps with my son. But its completely worth it when you see the baby for the first time. Its the most magical feeling in the world.:cloud9:


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## tibuRon

I think the more prepared you are going into it, the better. Research all the birth methods to see which one suits you & your partner the best & study, study, study... the more people you talk to, the more info you read or see, the better. 

It's VERY painful, but it'll go much quicker if you are as relaxed as possible & don't fight the contractions. Try to do whatever makes you relaxed... I enjoyed leaning on my bed while sitting on an excercise ball and just breathing through contractions. I know that with my first labor, I fought it. I was uncomfortable, rushed, etc. My 2nd labor, I was completely comfortable in my environment & when I had the baby, I had it, no rush. My TOTAL labor was 5 1/2 hours. 3 or so hours at home & 2 at the hospital. It was BEAUTIFUL!! No meds, no IV, no nothing!! I intended to do it med-free, but I don't think I would have had a choice, I progressed so quickly. I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Good luck with your delivery!! :hugs:


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## Steph

Best for me and my partner???You mean best for me and best for him not being strangled...

i take all the meds please

thanks for your advice :D


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## Tezzy

my labour was ok actually.. i had gas and air which was wonderful and the only thing i could think of at the time was the amount of energy it was taking to push Rhys out. i was totally shattered and really didnt think i had the strength to do it. the pain was tolerable and once he was out the memory of labour just melted away.

im not worrying about going through it again because if i did it once on just gas and air then i can do it again no problem :)


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## MrsE

I was induced (took 3 days lol) and I had terrible back pain and could barely move or it hurt, took me over 2 hours of pushing before he came out and I had 13 stitches inside and out.
I won't lie to you it was excrutiatingly painful but I did it with just Gas & Air which I'm rather proud of lol and like Terrie said, once you have the little bundle on your chest all the pain melts away. 
I was joking with the midwife after about her getting all the best jobs whilst she was stitching my nether regions :rofl:
I would do it again in a heartbeat.

What I hated thought was the bleeding after, for the first day or so its really heavy and uncomfortable so be prepared.

:hugs::hugs::hugs:

Cx


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## Amanda

Steph said:


> is it as bad as they say??

Yes. :shock:

Sorry hun, I ain't gonna lie - I hated everything about Kayleigh's birth.

But, each and every birth is different, and as long as you go in there with your eyes wide open, you'll be fine.:hugs:

And look - I did it again, and am planning on another!


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## Tezzy

am i weird to think my labour was ok? i hope its not worse this time!


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## Linzi

I really wish I hadnt read this! haha


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## nikkybaby

My mom had all 6 of us at home without meds, so from the time I found out, I decided I'm not going to have the meds. It will probably hurt like hell, but I would rather feel it and know I did it without being drugged. If she could do it with 6, I'm sure I could do it with 1.


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## Mango

Linzi said:


> I really wish I hadnt read this! haha

Oh my gosh me too!! :wacko: I'm so scared now. I'm hoping to have a nautural bith using a TENS machine.


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## shamrockgirl4

when i first went into labour the contractions wer really strong and yes they hurt i had epidural in the end and that was a relief i couldnt hardly feel much from waist down after that legs felt like pins n needles i think tho if u dont keep still while putting it in some women can still feel 1 half of their body pains n all my friend did,
anyway i was in labour for 18 hrs then i was pushing for ages and she wasnt coming they tried ventouse 3 times still no luck so i ended up having emergency c-section turns out her head was looking up hope urs goes smoothly though


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## Steph

ok.........

i don't want to do the labour bit AT ALL!!


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## Tilly

I have written the same thing a fair few times on this forum I think, labour hurts a lot but all women are going to have a different experience. I thought I couldn't cope with pain at all, but to be honest.. I think I did pretty well. I had terrible back pain for days before I gave birth, was left in a corridoor for a few hours because they had no rooms and still managed to give birth fairly calmly when the time came. I had gas and air and gave birth in a water pool, I had 1 stitch. Like everyone says, as soon as you hold your baby, you don't notice how much pain you were in!

You will find the pain hard no doubt, or then again you may be lucky and not know what all the fuss is about! I definitely want more children (although I wasn't saying that whilst I was giving birth lol) and I bet you will go on to have more as well. It's a few hours of pain for the best gift you can imagine.


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## Steph

Aww thanks Tilly...*thanks*

Everyone talking about getting clued up has helped so i'm gonna try and prep as far in advance as possible. 

Like if i know when and how to breathe through the pain, what to think of instead of the pain, how to do it etc etc

Stay.Focussed. And get to 6 weeks before worrying about it haha


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## Tilly

Thats ok.

Try not to read the bad stuff, I started reading "what if things go wrong" in my baby book and scared myself. My mum told me off, so I decided not to go there again. With breathing exercises etc, I don't think you need to read up about how to do that.. when you need to do it, it comes naturally.

Do you know what pain relief you're having yet? if at all.


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## skiwi

had a bad pregnancy, easy labour, 10 min with my son 15 min with my daughter, it does hurt, just had gas and air, they did not break my waters, so i was pushing and pushing and it felt like a ballon full of water, it popped the midwife was about to put her apron on, just went all over her. i am surprise no one is having home births x


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## ColtonsMom

My mother had three of four kids natural.. including me.. I was her first.. NO meds.. TEN POUNDS! :shock:
I am definitally taking ALL THE MEDS.. this is my first, but I already know it will hurt. I dont have a high tolerance to pain and am expecting a big baby (we were both BIG), I will deal wiht it though as long as I dont have to have a c-section.. I want to be able to hold him and have those few bonding moments with him right after he comes out.


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## skiwi

i had my son in canada, and he came out so fast he tore me outside and in, had to have loads of stiches, they had to get a surgen to stitch me up, there was my doctor, the surgen, my legs up in the air, and they were talking about going bloody golfing, you lose your dignerty


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## Steph

I have a really low pain threshold so everything at this stage,obviously its something i need to think about nearer the time.

Still getting my head round the idea of actually being pregnant


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## skiwi

steph, its all worth the pain, when you hold that baby in your arms,


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## cheryl

I had an epidural with both mine and didn't feel a thing lol. I thought about natural this time but the more i think about it i think i will have another epidural lol.
I hurt down there once it wore off as well especially when you have a wee god it stung like mad, I had split alittle bit so it hurt.
Luv Cheryl xxx


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## muffin

i was induced and labor increased over 3 days, was ok for the first 36hrs then midwife gave me a really rough internal and within 2hrs i was on morphine, gave birth 31hrs later!it hurt like nothing i had expected(lets face it you want honesty!??!)i used morhine, TENS(irritated me more than helped)but i have to say gas and air was THE BEST THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! remember if you have GnA to make sure yr birth partner keeps giving you water, helps with the really dry mouth you get and the nausea. 
labor was THE hardest thing ive ever done, actually pushing my beautiful girl into the world was THE most exhilirating thing ive ever done(took 20 mins bizarly bearing how long id labored!!)

if you want any advice its to try and focus. when your really struggling and thinking this is soooo hard, can i do it, focus on you and your baby and tune out evrything else. i ignored the midwife when she told me to push(actually swore at her when she started shouting the word!!) and controlled my breathing, then pushed as my body was telling me NOT what the mw wanted me to do. i delivered a 8lb11oz baby after 20mins of pushing with no stitches, this hands down is the biggest achievemenbt of my life so far(infact the only thing i think could suppass it would be doing it again tbh)and i think about it almost every day. 

Giving birth is THE most amazing experiance, and just you wait till you clap eyes on your baby for that very first time, omg..................................................................................:cry::cry::cry:
xxxxx


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## Lil_Baby_Boo

The best advice I was told was 'remember that everyone and every labour is different.' Just because something happened to this person and another person had this its not going to be the same for you. 
When my midwife asked me about a birth plan I just told her I didn't see the point as I didn't know what to expect or what its going to be like so why worry about 'well I should be having this drug & I should be doing this etc!' You just don't know what its going to be like until you get there. I kept an open mind and thought I'll have what I need! 
I ended up hating the Gas & Air, I had 2 puffs and refused it, and just thought sod it, wack an epidural in and I'm so glad I did! 
I didn't have the best of labour's (having to go to theatre!) but I'd do it all again tomorrow! 
For most of my pregnancy the one thing that I kept thinking about was having a wee (silly I know) after labour, I was so scared it was going to sting I didn't wee until midnight & I'd had Noah at 11am! All feeling was back down there by then (I couldn't sit down!!) I didn't feel a thing weeing (and I had been cut) needless to say the midwife was quite shocked at the amount of urine sample I'd provided!!:rofl:

Just keep an open mind, listen to advice etc but remember its you going through it and you have what you want, don't feel you have 'failed' by having drugs......it aint called Labour for nothing!!!


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## Louise

Hi ladies, long time no see.
As some of you know, I am/was the most paranoid person you will EVER meet, so labour and pregnancy for me was possibly the worst thing I was going to go through in the 22 years I had been on this earth (exageration you're thinking?) 
Anyway, all through pregnancy, I was terrified- I thought my baby was going to die, I thought I was going to die during labour, the whole experience (at the time) was a nightmare for someone like me.
When I FINALLY was admitted to the hospital with contractions, I was ready for it being bad, and I could never see me getting passed the labour stage, I just couldnt see my baby being born because I could not imagine going through something so shocking (this was all in my head of course)- but after that epidural went in (that wasnt pleasant as I kept throwing up and it only froze one side of my body) I was ok- I was sat in my bed for 2 days (gross) pooing myself lol, being sick, I couldnt eat, could only drink water (which makes me gag) and was having tubes shoved up my pee hole every few hours (NIIIICE) but couldnt feel much pain at all.
I had labour complications, my babies HB dropped dramatically and that was my worst fears confirmed- dr's were running in and out all over the place and I thought we were both going to die (you're probably thinking "this aint helping", but wait a sec :) ) anyway, within seconds my lil boy was out, screaming like a trooper and althouth my worst fears were confirmed, when I saw my baby I didnt even feel like I had just given birth- (sounds silly I know) This of course was until I tried to walk (I had an episiotomy)
I think the point im trying to make is that no, in my opinion its not that bad- I feared EVERYTHING going wrong, but at the time when I knew things wern't going to plan due to a couple complications, I dealt with it brilliantly and the dr's (despite not speaking much english) were brill.
There's really nothing to fear at all-- I miss being pregnant, so much so that I want to go for round 2. 
If I can do it Steph, you can;
Having a baby totally changed me.

PS: Make sure you have someone there supporting you. I could not have done it without my dad- even though he wasnt with me when I gave birth. I would not have done it on my own....


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## Lauz_1601

Terrie said:


> my labour was ok actually.. i had gas and air which was wonderful and the only thing i could think of at the time was the amount of energy it was taking to push Rhys out. i was totally shattered and really didnt think i had the strength to do it. the pain was tolerable and once he was out the memory of labour just melted away.
> 
> im not worrying about going through it again because if i did it once on just gas and air then i can do it again no problem :)

I was exactly the same I was so tired and thinking I dont have the energy, I wasnt really thinking about the pain, I had TENS machine and Gas and air and that was enough for me, it was a strange feeling what I remember, more than actual pain, there's so much going on you dont really think about it, the thing that hurt me the most was the tiny injections to numb me for an episiotomy!

you'll be fine hun you will probably be surprise at how well you cope! I was!


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## lorrilou

it does hurt but it's one of those pains that u forget about! 

I only had gas and air with first one and i suppose i had quite a gud labour. But its different for everyone, every baby and birth is different.

You'll be fine though!! its all worth it in the end.


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## Tezzy

Lauz_1601 said:


> I was exactly the same I was so tired and thinking I dont have the energy, I wasnt really thinking about the pain, I had TENS machine and Gas and air and that was enough for me, it was a strange feeling what I remember, more than actual pain, there's so much going on you dont really think about it, the thing that hurt me the most was the tiny injections to numb me for an episiotomy!
> 
> you'll be fine hun you will probably be surprise at how well you cope! I was!


haha oh my gosh i was the same about the episiotomy injection pmsl!!!!


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## Linzi

I always thought Id be scared of the pain, but Im really not. Its the only way he's going to come out, so its what needs to be done. Im ok with pain, had a few piercings and tattoos and always come out giggling, so I think Ill be ok.

Im going for an epidural and gas and air I think. If you're allowed both anyway. I would love a water birth, but someone told me if you have one of those you cant get an epidural.

Itll be reet :) plenty of people do it again and again after having one so it cant possibly be that bad.


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## VBACMama

My first birth was with Pitocin....and that pain was just UNNATURAL. It hurt so bad. I felt like I was being ripped open by the jaws of life. I wound up getting an epidural and then a C-Section. If you can avoid an induction, please do! My second birth was natural. No Pit or epidural. It was painful. Very painful...but it was different. I just kept thinking that this pain is just a means to an end. With every contraction I told myself that I was another step closer to meeting my beautiful son. So yes it was painful but it was worth it. It was a good pain!


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## mickey

guys, tbh I do not remember anything of the pain!!!

I had a completely natural birth, without any pain relief and the only intervention was a sweep where mw did not ask my permission for.

but on the other hand everything was really quick after she performed sweep! only two and a half hour labour and only three pushes!!!

I must say, I found the body produces kind of its own pain relief and I def will try to have a natural birth next time round again!

I was scared 'bout the pain, but I was more scared 'bout the complications which can arise from synthetic pain reliefs!

I tried to get my birthing partner as much familiar as possible with my birthing plan, that he can communicate on behalf of me and tried to see every contraction as something positive bringing me closer to my goal, which is holding my little one in my arms soon!

(e.g., when contraction was very strong I honestly thought, no more heartburn anymore :rofl: )

and the more you get prepared what happens during labour (e.g. by reading) the less anxious you will be!

@ Tilly

I think you have the same book than me ;)


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## Tam

Well I must be the only one that thinks ignorance is bliss!!!!!!!

Sorry but........

I had a dreadful labour both times.......both times I had such pressure on my bowel that I had no control over pushing and ended up so swollen down below for months! :cry:

All I can say is, if it works and epidural is the best thing ever (didn;'t work with first labour, did with second)! I have done labour twice and will do it again, but honestly I think it is the worst thing ever, I couldn't say enough bad things about it :cry:

I wanna experience what some of you lot did :cry:

But the thing is Steph......you do cope and manage, don't ask me how, but I am actually here saying all this :lol:


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## Tilly

What book was yours Mickey??

(that will annoy me otherwise lol)


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## mickey

it's title is "Expecting" and the authors are Anna McGrail & Daphne Metland. is it the same?


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## Tilly

mickey said:


> it's title is "Expecting" and the authors are Anna McGrail & Daphne Metland. is it the same?

:o It's this one actually: https://www.johnlewis.com/jl_assets/product/230232212.jpg

But im sure they're all quite similar in those sections. :)

I would highly recommend this book ^^^


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