Moms (and dads), what were your birth/labor experiences like?

My son was 3 weeks early. I had some slight discomfort so I went to see my Dr. I was in labor and I didn’t even know it. I went to the hospital, they broke my water, gave me an epideral and my son was born about 6 hours later.
I actually had him in a labor room, rather than a delivery room, because a bunch of other women decided to pop the same day and there wasn’t a delivery room available.
It wasn’t a bad experience, other than my epideral took forever to wear off and I couldn’t walk for hours.

When my blond haired blue eyed daughter was born, the first thing I said was, “Funny, she doesn’t look Jewish.”

3 kids. My first born was my daughter. We were not as informed as we should have been, and it resulted in a rather typical hospital birth with many interventions that could have gone much worse than it did. It was far from ideal, but I’ll leave it at that.

The next 2 were at home, and it was an amazing experience. My wife loved the home births. She was active right up until the actual pushing, and it went relatively quickly. Our middle child shot out like a cannonball. We called our family about an hour later and they came over to visit and have meet them.

The midwife was amazing, and I neither of us would have changed a thing about those births. Actually, I would have preferred for the midwife to have been there a few minutes earlier for the first home birth. She was only there for about 30 minutes before he came. For a second there, I was preparing myself for the unassisted home birth (or dad-assisted). The one thing we would have changed were the series of events that had led to the first one.

My wife has shown me on three separate occasions that, when push comes to shove, she is exponentially stronger and much more focused than I could ever hope to be.

The first boy was caesarian and terrifying. He was facing head first but face down. When her contractions began to get strong his heartbeat would drop and set off a bunch of alarms. Did I mention she had been in labor for nearly sixteen thousand hours by this point and had only dilated to a seven? The doctor said we need to get him out of there and then proceeded to do it. I didn’t see any of the gore because I was behind the sheet with my wife but a nurse took pictures for us and there has never existed a set of photographs that a mother could wave in her child’s ungrateful face like the shots that nurse got. Best part is that in twenty-one years we’ve never had to use them.

The second boy is the middle child of three. You know how that goes, routine with no problems. Let’s just quickly pass him on and move to the baby of the family’s birth. Did I mention that the wife’s epidural actually slipped out during labor with the first boy?

The baby girl came along when the boys were ten and twelve. She was the one that we tried for two years to have and failed. She came around four years after that. The doctor had a bad cold and, after examining my wife, suddenly said, “Let’s get that little girl out of there.” She seemed very serious and more than a bit spooked. I remember being scared all the way up to the point where the little girl appeared and started wailing healthily. The doctor look relieved but nobody ever told us there were any problems.

i don’t remember anything about being born

I have 5 kids. 4 of them were born at home, including a set of twins, and one kid was born unassisted, The other child was born in a birth center which was a comedy of errors in many ways. The homebirths went very well. Had I had the twins at a hospital, I was told I would not even be able to go into labor, let alone have a vaginal delivery, so I chose a very experienced midwife and her assistant instead. The last 3 months before the twins were born, I took massive amounts of lecithin (which promotes the growth of spongy lung tissue and helps prevent hyaline membrane disease).

When I went into labor, they were in a 69 position. I was ready to push, but I prayed and said, “God, I’m the only person who has the ability to give this student midwife the chance to see twins born at home. I’d like to wait until she gets here.” So contractions stopped, and I pushed the first baby came out head first. Then I again asked the contractions to stop so we could get the first one cleaned up before we moved forward. While we waited, the second baby did a summersault. She also came out head first. They did very well, but I had to express my milk and put it in tiny bottles with premie nipples because they didn’t like to work hard at sucking. They were 5lb2 oz and 5lb14oz.

I’ve had three. My deliveries were the easiest part of the pregnancies! All were high-risk pregnancies and deliveries, so all births were in the hospital and all were induced early. All vaginal births, with no epidurals.

First baby: I was on bed rest for the last part of the pregnancy. Then they thought I had pre-eclampsia, so an early induction was performed with my OB/GYN. My doc came in, sat on the end of my bed in his three-piece suit, and broke my water. They put some softening gel on my cervix, and he left. I didn’t see him again until just before the delivery. I had my then-husband and my best girl friend in the room with me. I highly recommend having an extra helper! Despite the pain, it was a fun (and funny) time, too. Seven hours from gentle induction (no pitocin) to birth, with my health visibly improving as the baby made her way down the birth canal. Two rounds of pushing, and out she came! 7lbs, 12oz, healthy and beautiful. We all cried. The only ‘bad’ thing that happened was that I was given an episiotomy against my wishes and I ripped like crazy. Had to have 17 stitches afterward, and that sucked.

For the second and third babies, I used a midwife and I much preferred those experiences. It turned out that I hadn’t had pre-eclampsia the first time around…it was actually kidney disease, so early induction was going to be a must for these babies.

Second baby: Much the same as the first, but she was induced a little earlier, there was no episiotomy, and very few stitches. The entire labor lasted only 5 hours! 7lbs, 8oz healthy and beautiful baby girl, with a head full of pitch black hair that stood up on end. They put a yarn bow in it. :)

Third baby: This was the scary one. The one where I finally understood that pregnancy + kidney disease can result in death. I also developed gestational diabetes that time, so this pregnancy was monitored like crazy and emergency birth plans were made at a different hospital (one with neonatal intensive care), just in case. She was induced earliest of all, and was not ready to come out. This labor was 12 hours, start to finish, and required pitocin. Third and smallest baby took the longest to deliver! On the bright side, I only needed one stitch afterward. She was only 5lbs, 14oz. When she was born, she was purple and needed oxygen to get her lungs going. She was in a warming bed for many hours, so I couldn’t hold her or feed her. Thank goodness, she turned out just fine.

Sadly, I was told I should never have another child, that it would likely kill me. :(

I unfortunately had an awful experience with the birth of my son. I had a sonogram around 40 weeks and discovered my fluid was very low. The dr decided to induce labor to get the baby out ASAP. The induction started to work and the pain got progressively worse. I had an epidural for the pain but it only made me violently ill and very itchy. It made my skin crawl. I screamed and cried and tried to explain to the nurses that what I was experiencing couldn’t possibly be the average labor pains and contractions. They insisted I was fine. They thought I was being overly dramatic I think.

Almost 24 hours after the labor pains started and my water had already broke, the baby still wasn’t coming down low enough and I wasn’t dilating. That issue finally prompted the doc to come in and check on me. I was blacking in and out at this point but I vaguely remember the dr coming in and doing a sonogram. With the sonogram he discovered I had a bone in the way and with every contraction the baby’s head was bearing down on it. He would never get through the canal with that bone in the way. It explained the sharp intense pain I kept feeling in my bum with every contraction! I knew I wasn’t nuts.

They rushed me in for an emergency c-section. While prepping me for the surgery they weren’t able to find the baby’s heartbeat and when they did it was very slow and weak. They gave me the epidural but didn’t give it time to work. They sliced into my belly and I felt everything! I started screaming and wiggling. They came and strapped my arms down and told me I had to be put to sleep. I begged them not to. I was so scared and concerned for my son. The last thing I heard was them muttering about the heartbeat and I was put under.

When I woke up I only remember asking if he was ok and if he had all 10 fingers and toes. Then I passed back out. I was in and out for awhile. When I was finally semi-functioning they brought my little boy in for me to hold. He was happy and healthy! It was a very scary experience but I was just thankful it all worked out. I do still worry about my next pregnancy, if I’m ever able to become pregnant, that the birth will be another nightmare. I just try to stay positive!

@Blondesjon “He was facing head first but face down.”

Isn’t that the optimal position for birth?

The Doctor said he was facing the wrong way but not breech. I could swear he said face down. All I know is that when the boy’s heartbeat started dropping radically with every contraction things went from taking forever to happening way too fast.

My water broke at 11p.m. and my labor was induced the next morning when it did not begin naturally. It was hell. lol
15 hours, vomiting from the pain between contractions, threatened with a C-section when I was exhausted and giving up. A nurse said ” I am going to make you so damn mad you will blow this baby across the room!”

She did, and I did!
My daughter was a week early, weighed 8.4 and had a head like a freaking cantelope, it never molded, it was a canon ball delivery.
Of course, we are both very bright, big heads take longer to birth. lol