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sschwege
member
L & D: Easier/Harder Than Expected (Poll)
sschwege
member
So moms who have been there, did you think labor was easier, harder or was it about what you expected? What about pushing?
I am one of those people who really builds things up in my mind, so usually I am pleasantly surprised that things aren't as bad as what I was anticipating. For me L&D was no different. To my surprise it was easier than I expected. Don't get me wrong it wasn't a walk in the park, but I was expecting that I would be wanting to die and it certainly never came to that. The only part that may have been worse than I expected was the 'ring of fire'. What about you girls?
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Re: L & D: Easier/Harder Than Expected (Poll)
Labor was easier than I expected. For me, it was a very gradual progression with the contractions, so I had time to "ease" into it. The last 1-1.5 hrs, when you are in transition, I felt was really difficult, but as a whole, the whole process was not t
I remember eavesdropping on a student who was learning from my Bradley instructor as she talked about her labor-- it only took 5 hours, she said, so easy, she said. I said to DH, she better shush because I will n
My first was way harder than expected. I'd taken a hypnobirthing class that told us the birth was just a frame of mind -- that if you expected easy, you'd get easy (I'm oversimplifying that, but that was a jist). If you were prepared and re
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Much harder. Even with a 12 week NB class I felt unprepared to handle the intense back labor, pushing was so painful and I had heard it would feel "good" to push- yet it was still excruciating pain even with the pressure. And recovery was no picni
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I expected L&D to be something like doing a marathon, and in a way it was. My labor was 29 hours from my first "I think those are real contractions" to baby. The first 23 hours were something of a long slog, I was able to manage pretty well and did
Parts were easier than I thought they would be but other parts were harder.
I hear lot of people say it wasn't that bad but in my opinion it really was that bad. I will still do it again very soon because the baby is worth it. The contracti
Physically speaking, both of my labors were easier than I expected. They were short, exhausting, and exhilarating. Pushing came easily and quickly to me - pushed for 15 minutes the first time, 7 the second.
Emotionally, however, I felt blindsi
I would say labor was a little easier than I expected it to be. I was anticipating the pain the be excurciating but in reality while it was very painful, it was just barely bearable. With my first I was very surprised how
For me, getting to 10 cm was much harder and longer than I expected (~35.5 hours, 13 hrs of which was hard labor). Though I didn't appreciate that there were breaks between contractions for most of it and that I felt 100% fine during those breaks, so t
DS, May 2011
Similar to what Celyn said above, I think my first birth was actually the hardest / most difficult for me because of the expectations I went into it with.
I had read the Bradley books,
SAHM to two sweet girls, both born at home; Baby #3 in 2013!
Easier than expected, but because I had terrible expectations, not because it was easy.
I had an occiput posterior delivery and third degree tear, so it was no
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Both times I thought it was harder. The first time I had 40 hours of back labor and pushed for 3.5 hours...I knew it might be long, but I did not expect it would be that long, nor did I expect the labor to be in my back. Also, I ended up wi
The first time around, without knowing at all what to expect, I found it to be a bit easier than expected.
The second time around, I had not prepared at all and was scared that I had total amnesia about the pain...I think I built it up in my mi
I guess it was easier than I expected. I had a quick labor/delivery though. I was only in labor for 6hrs and pushed for less than 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong, it totally hurt like hell but I definitely built it up worse in my mind. The ring of fire
With DS1, it was WAY easier than I expected. I wouldn't describe it as painful and it was just an all around pleasant 6 hours. After he was born, I said I could do it again the next day.
With DS2, it was much harder than I expe
I'll preface this by saying I was in labor for over 45 hours, first induced with Cytotec, then Pitocin, back labor (posterior baby) and pushed for 2 hours. It was much easier than I expected. Everyone talks about how bad Pitocin is, but I thought it wa
I think in general, labor was about what I expected. The intense parts were *intense*, don't get me wrong, but I was able to just push through. I think my ability to cope with labor for as long as I did (pushed 4+ hours with DS1, after having intense c
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
Mine was harder. I have endometriosis, and my labor pain was exactly like getting my period. I thought it would be easier because I'd get the breaks in between contractions instead of just nonstop, but it actually distracted me getting breaks in betwee
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