FT having baby in hospital

dkneeskern

FDS was born at a Birth Center with a mid-wife, all natural. I had night labor for 5 days, contractions at the night time only and nothing during the day. I had a "lazy cervix" where only one side dilated and my mid-wife had to manually dilate me during contractions, for 12 hours. I did it. I am proud of myself. BUT... I cannot do that again, I get a little panic attack just thinking about it. SO, this baby will be born at the hospital. It is still my "plan" to deliver all natural but I want to be at the hospital just incase it starts looking the same.

My question is: what do I expect?! What did you wish you knew? In some ways I feel like this is my first baby. I am not a hospital or a doctor person for that matter. Until last year when I had a kidney stone removed in outpatient surgery I had never been admitted to the hospital. Me and my siblings and my husband and his siblings where all born at home. >>HELP<<

jesicabrennan

This 100% depends on the hospital you are delivering at. I planned a homebirth with my first but ended up being induced at the hospital for preeclampsia at 38 weeks and thus didn't even get to experience a contraction outside the hospital. But my hospital went out of their way to make the whole experience as "homelike" as possible. I could move around as much as I wanted, I spent hours and hours in the bath/shower, I ate and drank whatever I wanted. But of course not all hospitals are like that! Take a tour or the l&d of the hospital and ask as many questions as possible! Can I have a portable fetal monitor so I can be in the bath? Can I eat? Etc etc. overall my experience was not bad but I'm really hoping to stay out of the hospital this time! Good luck!

sschwege

This is really only something your provider can answer as hospitals are all so different.  Keep in mind that as long as you are mentally capable of making decisions for yourself you must give consent to all medical interventions.  They can not turn you away because you are refusing Pit or don't want an IV that type of thing.  However that being said, you don't want to be fighting every step of the way while you are in labor.  If possible find a provider who will be supportive, labor at home as long as possible and figure out what is important and pick your battles. 

I'm extremely luck that I am seeing MWs and my hospital is known for being supportive of low-intervention births.  So I really was never forced to go in declining things, but even still I labored at home.  With my first I labored for 10 hours at home and arrived at 6cm dilated.  With my second labored at home for only an hour or so, but arrived complete.  No matter how supportive your providers are you are better off spending early labor at home.  As I said, know routine practice at your hospital, figure out what is important to you and pick your battles.  There are certain things I would have fought for, intermittent monitoring for example that was/is important to me and if my hospital wanted me on continuous (even though baby looked good) I would have refused.  But if it was something smaller like they did saline locks routinely or Pit for the third phase of labor I would have agreed because it wouldn't have been a big deal to me.  Other things like eating/drinking restrictions I would have just smiled and nodded and just ate whenever the nurses weren't in the room.  Just figure out what is important and what isn't and go from there.  I had two med-free hospital births and am planning for one with this baby, it's really not that big of a deal

emmacake08

I am reading natural hospital birth: the best of both worlds. It's a great book that spells out what all things are offered at the hospital and for what reason. Another thing that I like about this book is that it talks about how to use positive and respectful language with the staff about your birth wishes. I think from what you're describing the above advice of a hospital tour with specific questions along with a book would help. Some hospitals are great and you can dim the lights and try to keep your mind off the setting and get down to business so to speak. It's pretty encouraging to hear that @BreezyMeema didn't notice a difference between the two locations!

WDDCH

Great advice above! Each birth is different btw. You may not experience those same things this time.

I had a natural hospital birth. I had a midwife.

Before the birth my midwife gave me HER "birth plan" and told me to look it over and tell me what things I agreed with and didn't agree with. I thought that was cool. It was basically her way of illustrating what liberties she could give me in the hospital (like no IV unless necessary) and I could choose what I was comfortable with. I gave her my birth plan and they were nearly identical. There were a lot of freedoms I was given. I basically had a homebirth in the hospital.

My water broke at home. I had to be monitored for 20-30 minutes when I first came in (maternity triage) to confirm broken waters and check contractions and then after that I was free to move. I didn't even have a Heplock or IV. I had intermittent fetal monitoring (no bands around my belly monitoring contractions or baby's heart beyond initial triage assessment).

I wanted to labor in the tub but the nurse turned the water on TOO HOT. Don't go above 100F. My midwife wasn't there for this so not sure if it was just that the nurse didn't know or what. I didn't know until my next pregnancy.

Anyway I just labored in bed after that, on my side. I dozed between contractions. But then out of nowhere I started bearing down. My midwife was sitting there the entire time watching me. But I showed no signs of baby coming (no CFM or computer to tell her anything). I was literally asleep when my eyes flew open and I started pushing. She rushed to grab her things (cover her clothes and get gloves) and baby was born with me still in a side-lying position. So awesome!!!

A tour is great. Know what protocols the hospital and staff have in place. You can, of course, refuse anything if you wish. But knowing what to expect would best be accomplished by going on a tour, taking their birth classes and speaking with your OB or midwife.

CaliforniaDream87

@WDDCH reading your birth story truly makes me want to try med free again (absolute fail the first go around). So beautiful!