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Natural labour v drug fuelled labour
My approach to the management of my second labour was quite different than my first. I had my first baby with only gas and air. On paper this labour was ‘good’ described by the midwife who was there as one of the ‘best’ she had seen. I was in a room in a birthing suite at the local hospital with access to a pool and lots of cushions. My body started pushing on its own, I didn’t tear, labour was about 12 hours. The (little mentioned) placenta didn’t come out afterwards so it had to be removed which was unfortunate but fairly common.
When
After my first I was was always pretty daunted by the prospect of going through labour again, so when I became pregnant with my second I was quite keen on having a caesarian. This to some medical professionals and some other mothers seemed quite confusing after my first labour. A doctor actually said, you did so well the first time, it would be EVEN EASIER the second. So really with such a ‘good’ labour
Also, instead of being really hardy since enduring my first labour I had instead developed a zero tolerance approach to pain or discomfort. My due date was, in my head, comparable to knowing that you would be getting your legs broken on a specific date and then having a choice whether to have pain relief or not.
First time round I had no idea, now I knew, I choose pain relief. I was
When I found out I had gestational diabetes, it seemed I could have an actual medical reason I could use to justify having a caesarian to the confused masses. It turned out the approach of the hospital was that it was not recommended to go to
The day before my sweep I realised I hadn’t done a birth plan, I jotted 2 lines in biro on a piece of paper and put it in my file. My first birth plan was typed in a word document and a page long.
After a long, hard second pregnancy with various ailments to contend with including crazily itchy feet that I contemplated cutting off, urinary track infection, thrush, aches and pains eased only a couple of times by paracetamol, exacerbated
I was surprised how freely the drugs flowed on requested in the labour ward – it was simply a question of requesting, no on ever said – “come on now you can do it without.” which was the mantra for my first.
When I arrived and was told I was at 3 cm, I requested an epidural immediately but didn’t think I could have one at 3cm, but the answer was yes! As I had to wait for the anaesthetist. I got a
A midwife even said, when I asked for a top up on my epidural, that she did not want to see me in pain. I did not feel a thing and even went to sleep. I was still mobile so could pop to the loo when I needed to and get into different positions (who knew there was such a thing as a mobile epidural!) and when I was fully dilated I was told to start pushing, this took more concentration and a slight effort compared to my first. 20 minutes later the baby arrived. If
Looking back now I find it strange that you have to choose either to have a natural birth before you really know what you are committing to or how you cope with pain as usually they only have gas and air available in birthing suites which are separate from hospital wards.
I was trying to remember what I learnt at NCT the other day and i really couldn’t remember much. Out of the 8 women in our NCT group – none of us had
Should NCT scare people with the possible reality or let everyone continue to believe that they can have a pool birth with their favourite music playing. Should they talk about pain relief and how it is fine to use it, that ever one has different pain thresholds.
I’d had access to a pool, had music on, had flicking battery powdered candles – seemingly held by some as the holly grail of child birth, or maybe that is just
Personally I’m glad that NCT didn’t emphasise the pain or that the birthing pool dream was slim and that the chance of intervention and tearing high, I’m glad i