Mentally Prepared

[CSweets]

So It's getting close only 40 days left and I'm getting VERY anxious.

I'm physically prepared for the labor I've got my bag packed, I've done my Kegel excericises and I'm ready!

But mentally, maybe not so much. I feel like I'm completely lost at what will happen during labor. I keep thinking the worst and I'm seriously freaking myself out. So anyone wanna give me advice on what to expect from the very beginning to the very end??

 

[Sophiiie]

I think the best thing I can say is don't expect anything in particular, because every labour is so different and things can change so quickly. everything I expected went completely out of the window, but don't worry or feel anxious about it I expected to be screaming in pain the entire time that I was in labour, and yeah for me there were some really painful times but if I managed to get through it just on gas & air then anyone can get through giving birth! i'd suggest just getting as much information as possible about the different types of pain relief, and then see how you feel when it comes to it. but don't get yourself worked up or worried, it really is true when everyone says that you forget the pain as soon as you see your LO.. it's the most worthwhile thing you can go through x

 

[xx~Lor~xx]

Okayy,

If you go into natural labour:

So first you'll start to feel contractions, they're likely to be 10 mins apart at the very beginning, maybe less or maybe more. They'll be bareable at first. For mine, I got woken by contractions at 8am. They kept happening so I started timing them and wrote them down. When they got to about 7 mins apart I woke OH. It might not take you long for them to reduce in time, or they might take ages, just see how it goes. If you ring your midwife/doctor around this time and let them know what's going on, they'll probably advise you sit in a shallow bath and/or take some paracetomal. I also got told to eat something as I would need the energy for later.

Once your contractions get to around 4 mins apart you'll be asked to go in. You might be told to go in earlier, this is just what happened for me. If you're in huge amounts of pain and feel you can't deal with it then go straight in. Once you're at the hospital/midwife centre or wherever you are giving birth, you're likely to have a little wait and then go into a labour room. The midwife/doctor will check how dilated you are. I used a birthing pool and as I was already 4cm by the time I got in, I got straight into the pool. If you're not using one, you might be told to walk around for a bit, or be offered pain relief etc. They'll also do other checks other than how dilated you are at this point too, check baby's heartrate, and probably yours too.

Once you've got past the labour you're on to the pushing. Your midwife/doctor will lead you and help let you know when to push. Listen to them they know what they're doing and it will likely minimise any tearing. 'Hold your pushes' rather than totally relax, as otherwise baby will slip back in again. Once the head is at the opening, you'll feel the 'ring of fire' you basically just feel stingy 'down there', but push past it this is the worst bit of actually pushing. Once the head is out, it's just the body to push out on the next contraction. Then you'll get to hold little one etc and it's just delivering the placenta. You'll be offered an injection to encourage it to come out, if not you are given about an hour 1/2 (I THINK it was) to get the placenta out naturally - it should just come away on it's own, with some yanking on the umbilical cord from midwife, but sometimes it doesn't. If it doesnt you have the injection, and if it still won't budge you might have to have surgery to remove it. But usually it'll come away

Hope this helps!!!

xoxox

 

[CSweets]

Thanks that does help if the contractions are an hour apart could I be going into labor??

 

[amygwen]

The best advice I can give you is don't go in there expecting the worst. For me, I thought laboring would be really difficult and it wasn't. I thought the hardest part would be the contractions and they definitely weren't, even though I got an epidural. I ended up getting a c-section since LO was not moving down so I can't give you much advice. But mentally there's really no way of preparing yourself. You won't know what to expect since this is your first baby and you'll either expect the worst and it will be a good laboring or you'll expect the worst and it will be a terrible laboring! Just surround yourself with positive energy and breathe normally, you will do just fine! Also, you can't really mentally prepare yourself for your LO, I thought I had prepared as much as I could and I was ready to meet him, but for the 15 minutes I was in the operating room getting prepped to be cut, I thought I was going to die of hyperventilation I was so nervous of meeting him and being a mom. It all hit me in that 15 minutes!! Good luck

 

[xx~Lor~xx]

Thanks that does help if the contractions are an hour apart could I be going into labor??

An hour is a bit far, I THINK, you're really wanting to look around 10-15 mins apart. You MIGHT be in slow labour? But my contractions started around 10 mins. They sound more like Braxton Hicks to me.

xoxox