What made labor/delivery easier?

The Bump Editors · March 2011

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What did you do that made your labor and delivery easier? It could have been anything from doing prenatal yoga to playing music in the delivery room. Be sure to tell us why you think it worked.

Thanks!

NoCode10 · March 2011

One word: epidural.

nikipau144 · March 2011

My epidural Big Smile

MSC03 · March 2011

Deep belly breathing, The Beatles, and my DH.

OctoberBabyH · March 2011

My iPod and my husband.

LadyDelilah · March 2011

Having a good support team. My Mom and Husband were the best two people I could have had with me they anticipated my needs and were great go to people my whole labor period. They made the experience that much more beautiful and I had a really difficult delivery.

rg8482 · March 2011

Nothing! My MIL (who was not invited by me to be in the delivery room) just stayed there the whole time and started taking pictures and video. Since I was in so much pain, I had my eyes closed the whole time and didn't realize she did any of this until after the fact. To say the least, I was not thrilled.

ETA: Actually, the one thing that did help was having my mom by my side. Without her help, I think I would've given in to getting an epi.

ChibiMommy · March 2011

It sounds hokey but singing is what helped me. DH and I maintained eye contact and sang Dave Gilmore's On An Island to one another during transition contractions. During labor, I stayed in the shower with the hot water running full blast on my back.

t.bird · March 2011

the anesthesiologist who kindly administered my epidural. how i loved him.

Bredins wife · March 2011

There is no way I could have gotten through it with out my husband.

SnoopyLuv · March 2011

scheduled c-section Wink

aforst · March 2011

a scheduled c-section. Stick out tongue

ETA: Snoopy: great minds...

Mt2G1012 · March 2011

Husband hands down. Everything else I thought would have helped annoyed the shiit out of me. He was the sole reason I could do it.

SDarling324 · March 2011

My obvious choice for the number one thing that made my delivery easier would be getting the epidural. BUT, after 2 1/2 hours of pushing I finally asked for a mirror to watch my progress during each push and that was exactly the thing I needed to give me the motivation to get her out. It still took me a total of 3 hours but the last 1/2 hour was so much better having the mirror.

[Deleted User] · March 2011

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Marinewife81 · March 2011

kheel1205:
One word: epidural.

Word. Big Smile

Jen3016 · March 2011

For me, my DH and my doula. My doula was great because she focused on making sure I was comfortable so that DH could focus on me and helping me through the contractions. I think if we wouldn't have had the doula, DH would have been much more frazzled and unsure. We just had a great team of nurses at our hospital as well, so that was also very helpful.

xxcaityx · March 2011

Doing prenatal yoga throughout my pregnancy, using my practiced deep belly breathing and visualizations, listening to peaceful Christmas music, and having my husband by my side the entire time.

KLMFBP3 · March 2011

Being well rested and having a quite room. My first 2 deliveries I had many people in the delivery room, my mom, hubby, 2-3 friends and it was chaotic with all the nurses and student nurses and midwife students. With my 3rd delivery it was just me and hubby (I was going to have more - but no one was able to get there in time) and it was just nice and relaxed. I requested to have only 1 nurse and no students. It was very calm and I was able to relax, and not have to worry about talking to my "guests" and focus on just delivering my baby. I literally pushed for 3 minutes and felt no pain (* the epidural helped with the pain part though)

JBtheDog20 · March 2011

kheel1205:
One word: epidural.

This

specialknetics · March 2011

I wouldn't have been able to do it without my fiance right next to me the whole time. (And also him running to fill my water bottle 73847624 million times!) After 5 1/2 hours of awful contractions, the epidural was amazing! And just thinking of finally being able to hold my baby girl when this was all over.

Kohler2009 · March 2011

The suspense and excitement of not knowing if our LO was a boy or girl. It made getting to the finish line alot easier and helped keep my mind off what was actually going on!! And...my epidural :-)

TheDreamingTree · March 2011

kheel1205:
One word: epidural.

haha that was my immediate answer too...

there is no amount of yoga or music that could have helped my pain...

ReneeDear · March 2011

my doula - my DH was kind of freaked out She took control of the situation and helped both of us. She kept him updated on how I was doing and gave him tasks to do. She helped me with the breathing and suggestions on how to make myself more comfortable and lots of encouragement and cheering.

detokiet · March 2011

Epidural. My water broke at 10:30pm. Contraction started on the way to the hospital, we checked in about 11:30. It was another 8 hours of extremely painful back labor before I got the epidural. It was heaven. Ended up with a c-section a few hours later due to continuous decels in baby's heartrate during each contraction. And I loved my c-section as well.

AshtonMain · March 2011

Childbirth classes! DH and I got really good info from them and were able to apply it to our birth. It helped us because we were not surprised or caught off guard by anything that happened.

Also, I told each nurse my birth plan which made me feel better and helped me to relax because I knew they were aware of what I wanted and why.

I could not have done as well as I did without my husband. He was supportive and by my side the entire time. He was such an active participant!

wife1014 · March 2011

A natural childbirth class, hypnobabies affirmations, my awesome husband, and determination! My midwife and nurse were pretty supportive as well!

LittleGreenCottage · March 2011

It sounds strange, but we planned to incorporate meaningful things into labor/delivery, and it made me more comfortable to have things to look forward to throughout the experience (in addition to meeting LO, obviously!) For example:

1. We made a playlist of songs that have special meaning to us throughout our relationship (we've been together for 10 years). Songs that we listened to in the car on dates, songs at our wedding, etc. It was 4+ hours long, and we made it through the list several times

2. We made sure that the song I walked down the aisle to at our wedding was playing when LO was born. Now I love that song for two reasons!

3. My best friend (who is a photographer) was there when our son was born and took pics. The photos are beautiful - on a high quality camera AND she took photos at angles that help my post-delivery self look a little better! DH could be fully present and not worry about capturing moments, and we didn't have to take our chances with a random nurse taking pics. And I love the shots she got of the expressions on his face.

4. We didn't find out the gender ahead of time, but had decided on both a girl and boy name. We decided to have a little "naming ceremony" in private after the baby was born - we wanted the first time we spoke our child's name to be special. We bought expensive champagne, DH (who is a musician) wrote a song for the baby and we played a recording of it, we read a verse that we now say to our son every night, and "named" him. This happened about an hour after he was born and is one of my favorite memories!

5. DH was the one who wanted to wait until the birth to find out the gender, but now I'm SO glad we did. It was great motivation when labor was tough, and when we heard "It's a boy!" I cried for 15 minutes. Pure joy.

I loved all of the personal things we incorporated - it made our hospital birth seem much more intimate. Planning things we COULD control made all of the "uncontrollable" things less scary (would I need a c-section? if I got an epi would it work? would my water break on its own? etc.)

HairStylinWifey · March 2011

Yoga ball, yoga ball, yoga ball. I labored all the way up to transition on it. I had all back labor and it helped immensely.

A strong support group, my mom and DH. Mom helped me with my breathing, Dh would rub my lower back and apply pressure as the contractions came.

tct1219 · March 2011

a doula is the only necessity for me, especially being in a hospital setting. she was the only person whose words i could really focus on and listen to.

blondek8 · March 2011

My epidural and the thought that soon I wouldn't have to lug all the twin pregnancy weight around.

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