Note To Pregnant Women

[Sapphire Silk]

It's still gross.
Also... isn't meconium... uh, baby poo? *looks* yep.
Ick. Give bub a bath! And if she rotated on the way out ... then... does that mean she's ... *puts on sunglasses* a little screwy?

Baby's naturally rotate a couple of times during a vaginal birth. It lets the shoulder get past the pubic bone.

Don't worry about the baby poo. It's sterile

TMI Time:
Once bub's head was out each time, the pain ceased which was awesome because the midwives here like the mum to pause for a moment so they can check for the cord and untangle it if necessary.
For me, it felt like taking a giant dump. Not magical or anything. My midwife for Jazzy jokingly told me off because I was so insistant that I HAD to go to the bathroom, got there and went "Oh, wow... bub's crowning!"

When I was a student and saw my first delivery, I was walking her in the hall when she said she had to have a bowel movement.

I remembered what my instructor had told me about that, and insisted she get checked by the nurse first.

She was fully dilated and ready to push. She delivered less than a minute later (and a big good of blood and amniotic fluid in my face as I was working a hand crank to lower the head of the bed for the doctor).

[BuffySummers]

I had epidurals and vaginal deliveries for both my boys, and it still hurt like nothing imaginable - but you forgive the pain because, look - baby!

I also had my gall bladder removed 5 weeks after delivering my oldest - full abdominal surgery, since my organs were still all squished from pregnancy, and the dr couldn't see to operate laproscopically - and I gotta tell you, even with stitches, recovering from a vaginal delivery is WAAAAAAYYYYYY easier than recovering from abdominal surgery. Within an hour of delivering both kids, I was puttering happily around my room in the maternity ward, pumping and/or nursing, and basically feeling OK. Within an hour of waking up after my surgery, I was pressing the morphine pump like I was doing the Konami Code.

It's beyond wonderful that the C-Section exists for when it's necessary - my close girlfriend's baby is alive because she had an emx c-sect, and thank heavens for that. But if you have the choice. . .think really, really hard about what's worse - a few hours of pain vs. 3-4+ weeks of recovery. . .

And, yes. Delivery feels like taking a giant dump, and having a bag of wriggly jellyfish come out instead of poo.

[hotelslave]

My sister is 33 weeks prego and is completely miserable due to the heat. Doesn't help bro in law is cheap and will turn off the a/c when he thinks its cool enough. She thinks its crazy people who go natural birth.

[Midnight12]

hopefully this isn't too off topic but is now jealous of all those who delivered vaginally. Due to the recovery process. Some soreness is normal I was told, but...I didn't even get to the epidural before I had to have emergency c-sec...recovery was brutal.

And if i want a second child will more than likely have to have a c-sec again because of the way it was done. Some say i can delivery vaginally but as it should be know, ASK MY DR. sigh...

[ArcticChicken]

And if i want a second child will more than likely have to have a c-sec again because of the way it was done. Some say i can delivery vaginally but as it should be know, ASK MY DR. sigh...

It is more complicated, and there are more risks, so some doctors flat out won't do it. Before you let your doctor tell you 'no', you should see if he ever allows it. If a doctor who's willing to do VBAC tells you 'no', otoh, then it's a really bad idea.

[AnaKhouri]

My surgeon told me I would have to have a section again (the hospital doesn't allow vaginal deliveries after c-section) but a nurse told me she had 5 kids, the first was a section and the rest were vaginal. So it's perfectly possible, you just have to find a hospital that allows you to try.

[Midnight12]

figured that since the first sec was done on emergency instead of planned the healing process is different and there is more scar tissue for me. of which hurts some days but is nothing bad.
My thought is a planned sec versues emergency has a big hand in the delivery of future kids which may limit me to only two more but again also based on how my body heals and what the dr AND hospital say.
Was told that if you have a c-sec you can only have three kids because by the third the muscle has been cut enough times any more is dangerous. would like to move this to pm to avoid thread jacking.

[trailerparkmedic]

Midnight, find a doctor that is VBAC friendly (seriously, call OBs asking just that question until you find one that says yes) and ask them these questions. There are at least 3 different places/ways to cut for a C-section and each of those carries different risks, so you need individualized answers.

[Sapphire Silk]

Midnight, find a doctor that is VBAC friendly (seriously, call OBs asking just that question until you find one that says yes) and ask them these questions. There are at least 3 different places/ways to cut for a C-section and each of those carries different risks, so you need individualized answers.

Agree.

VBACs are perfectly safe for most women as long as the OB has your history of how your previous C section was done. He'll need to know so he can evaluate the exact risks, esp in considering how your current baby is size wise, and how sitting in the uterus.

VBACs do carry some risk, but you can mitigate it, and as long as you carefully monitor the patient, the vast majority of women do just fine.

[Seshat]

I'd just like to emphasise Panacea's phrase here: "as long as you carefully monitor the patient".

If you want to opt for a home birth or a birthing centre birth, please do so with absolutely all the precautions your obstetrician asks for.

My sister in law went to a maternity hospital that had a birthing centre that was home-like, midwife-designed to be all friendly and so forth. Water births, crouching births, no-pain-meds births were all catered for. But there was an operating room for C-sections in the same hallway as the birthing centre, and the midwives and obstetricians worked closely with each other.

If such a place is available, that would be the ideal for a VBAC attempt.

Er. IMO, IANADoctor, etc etc.

[Mishi]

Seconds Panacea, TPM and Seshat.

My local hospital caters for all kinds of births and has posters everywhere in the Antenatal Clinic which basically say "Ask us about VBAC!" The set-up is pretty much as Seshat described. I hope you find something you like and that works for you when you decide to add to the family. Wish you were over here in Aussie-land, we're all kinds of awesome!

My mother had an emergency c-section with me, a standard one with my brother (new incision only a few mm away from the first scar), and then had a mini-tummy tuck with our younger sister because the doctors were worried about the placement of the incisions and all of the scar tissue.

[judecat]

My mom had an emergency C section with my oldest brother in 1934, and then gave birth vaginally to 4 more children -- in 1936, 1942, 1951 and 1953. Yeah sis and I were unexpected.

[fireheart]

My sister and I were both C-sections, although my sister was planned (or she wasn't able to do VBAC for some reason). I was breech and my sister was huge.

[boringscreenname]

I've been lucky enough to avoid c-sections with both my kids. But I've had two very different labor and delivery experiences with each of them.

With my son I went into the hospital because I thought I was in labor. His heartrate started dropping when they hooked me up to the monitors, and they were worried about him becoming distressed, so they decided to admit me and induce labor.

I was really annoyed with the nurse, because she asked if I planned on getting pain medicine. I told her I hadn't decided yet, wanted to see how labor went, and how I handled the pain. So she turned around and told the doctor that I was refusing all pain medication, then the doctor comes over and starts lecturing me about how he wants me to get an epidural right now, because in case they have to do a c-section they might not have time and might put me under general anesthesia. So I went ahead and got it.

They gave me the meds to induce labor, and they didn't do anything, but my son's heartrate kept dropping. The resident went to ask the attending for permission to do a c-section, he said no try a foley induction. For those of you who don't know what that is, they basically stick a foley balloon end first in your cervix, manually inflate and force your cervix to dilate then hopefully your body takes over from there. Which mine did, but not after I needed to have medicine to raise my blood pressure (it was dipping too low), fluids, and oxygen. And when my son came out he was tangled up in the cord and they had to use forceps to get him out. It was not a fun experience, and it took me a couple weeks to heal from all the stitches, catheter, etc...

My daughter was a completely different experience. I woke up having contractions but they were about 7-10 minutes apart. We had to go grocery shopping, we had nothing in the house and had just gotten our car out of the mechanic's shop. I assumed we had time to do that, then pack my bag and head to the hospital. I was wrong, after getting groceries I was in a ton of pain, and told my DH to just take me to the hospital. I told him I couldn't walk to the Labor and Delivery floor, so he called the hospital to see if they could arrange for someone to take me. They said sure no problem, we got there, and there was no one there. My DH couldn't take me because our son was in the car and there was no way he could carry our son, plus push me. So he went into the ER, and they sent someone out fast. I stepped out of the car, and my water broke. They got me upstairs, discovered there was a bunch of meconium. And I was fully dilated ready to deliver the baby. They asked me if I wanted the epidural I said no, I didn't think there was time, and by the time they gave it to me and it started to work I'd probably already have the baby delivered.

So they just took me to the delivery room, and my daughter was born about 30-40 minutes after I arrived at the hospital. I didn't even have time to sign the consent forms, and they barely had time to start an IV and get me a hospital bracelet, which they just taped to my hospital gown. Luckily she was born very quickly and easily and I only need a couple stitches. The staff was pretty impressed because I was fairly quiet and calm throughout the whole thing. The doctor actually commented that it was too quiet in the delivery room and usually things were louder. I felt just fine after delivering her though and was up walking around a couple minutes after she was born.

[SuperRTL]

I love easy baby stories :-) especially my moms. Mom went into labor right on time, which happened to be at her birthday party, during which a blizzard had started. They hopped into my dads car (which didn't have great heating) and headed to the hospital. The cold had stopped the labor so they sent her home to heat up. A few hours later the contractions started again. Up to the hospital they went again, my dad dropped my mom off at the ER and went to park the car. Mom told Dad to just leave it running, she would be down in a few minutes. Dad parked the car, got up to the delivery room in time to see my mom showing the nurses an easier way to wash a newborn. I was born at 3:12 am, my mom checked out at 7am and they went to Village Inn for breakfast because she was starving.

I always tell first time moms that story instead of mine.