I'm totally petrified about giving birth. Crying right now; thinking about it!

[Sherileigh]

I think the fact that most women go on to have more than one child speaks volumes. It's just a day, or two, and then it's done. For me it was an amazing experience and I was so amazed at what my body could do. I'm almost looking forward to it! You'll be fine, just try not to worry about it too much.

 

[aliss]

Also thinking it's just the thought of my tiny body being in a huge task. The midwife said at the beginning of my pregnancy when I went to my first appointment I have a very very tiny frame being just under 5 foot and weighting at the start 7 and half stone. She just gave the 'feel sorry for you look' so that's in my head too I'm onlu 29 weeks now and when I'm walking or moving around my bump feels reallllllly heavy and it's going to burst with the pressure and I've got weeks to go and the huge growth spurt to go though yet, also the my diabetes wont help at the end with the extra sugar inside me etc :\

Its rare for size to be a big deal.

I have a small frame but gave birth to 8lb14 and 9lb1 babys both with large heads. I get alot of shocked faces when i tell people the birth sizes especially from MW's but i didnt have any tears atc with either

I think it's the fear of my missy being a huge 10cm plus shoulders coming out is just a thing my body can do

If shoulder dystocia is your fear then it's best to avoid induction and an epidural - both are contributing factors. My son had shoulder dystocia quite severely, and it was a prolonged labour due to induction and improper epidural that greatly contributed (the epidural can both slow labour and prevent you from doing proper maneuvers to deal with it if it happens. The induction can cause prolonged labour [particularly pitocin] and keep you stationary due to monitoring preventing better labour). Remember that 1/2 of shoulder dystocia babies are under 9lbs too!

Natural labour (ie no induction, no epidural), mother moving around on her own, etc. makes shoulder dystocia much easier to deal with - severe cases of SD are generally linked with overmedicalized births that prevent a woman from naturally fighting it. Again, Ina May's book discusses it.

And at the end of the day, remember that SD is very rare - 1/100 births - and out of those 1/100, most are not even true dystocia - and then only a tiny percentage of those 1/100 actually result in injury. Most injuries are a broken collarbone - which really sucks (I know, mine had it) but it's not fatal and it's not permanent. It just means they cry a lot and stay naked most of the time. That's all. You would not know that my little Yoda to the left had any problems at birth now.

 

[IHrtSteve]

All I can suggest is don't listen to other peoples horror stories, every labor is different. Just try to visualize the day exactly how you would like it to happen. That way you only have positive images of the birth. Whenever u get a bad thought, push it right out and think of your beautiful little peanut. BTW, my labor with DS1 was as smooth as they get. Stay positive and don't let the negative thoughts take over.... good luck