what all happens at the time of birth??

lovepj · May 2015

Im a first time mom & am scared as can be of the whole giving birth process.. I try to think positive & say "alot of woman give birth and live thru it to tell their stories" but i want to be more educated as to what exactly happens from your own personal experience from beginning to end (from going to the hospital to leaving it)

bpwife&mama · May 2015

I went into labor at around 3 am when my water broke slowly. I had little to no contractions. My doctor wanted me to come in even though I was only dialated to 1. They started pitocin and gave me an IV. My contractions started to pick up but were manageable. I sat in the tub and labored for a bit but I was hot and uncomfortable so I got out. At that point I was dialated to 4 and asked for a epi. Got my epi and slept for a few hours (I had a cathader as well). During these hours I felt no pain whatsoever. Made it to 10 and started pushing. I did push for 2 hours and ended up with an episiotomy to help push DS out. Never felt pain during pushing. Doctor stitched me up. They wanted me to get up and walk and use the bathroom. Had lots of blood come out of me which is normal (you will have this for a few weeks). I refused pain meds because I felt good. I left the hospital 2 days later in little pain. I had a good labor experience.

carriebelle77 · May 2015

Everyone is different, let's just get that out there. My birth stories for #1 and #2 were very different! Hopefully you'll go into labor on your own and everything will work out like the movies.
My water broke at 11:30 with DD, I put on a Depend brief and went to lunch b/c I was starving! I went in the hospital around 4pm, contractions were weak and irregular, the gave me a suppository to soften/ripen my cervix, then started me on potosin Around 9pm. Contractions were pretty strong and regular and I dilated to 5 cm. I was tired by then, about 2am and agreed to an epidural. That SUCKED and did NOT WORK. My progression stopped for 3 hours. Finally at 5:30 am, the nurse had me turn on my side. I went from a 5 to a 10 in an hour, then pushed for 7 contractions and she was here!!
My son was electively induced (STUPID...I will NEVER do that again) everything was progressing beautifully with pitosin, almost time to push, and they figured out that sometime between the last check and this check he had flipped into a breech position. The Dr tried a version (manually trying to turn the baby that hurts like a Bee-yatch!) unsuccessfully, and then we were in the land of c-sections. Got another epidural that sucked, anesthesiologist had to give me an additional morphine block, then DS was out!
I'm hoping for a VBAC, so I have to go into labor on my own! Those are my stories. Labor is scary, but it's over relatively quickly. The harder thing is taking care of a newborn and learning how to BF!

SouthernYankee87 · May 2015

I woke up at 7am on a Monday morning to get ready for work and was having what felt like menstrual cramps. Took a shower and called my doctor an hour later. She had me come in for monitoring to see if I was in active labor. I was, in fact, in labor and currently at 3cm dilated. At 11 she sent me to the hospital to check into L&D. From there, I walked the halls with contractions until I couldn't walk anymore. By 3pm I was at 6cm and at 6pm I was still at 6cm so my doctor suggested breaking my water and getting pitocin. I agree and also asked for the epidural (I didn't feel anything when the epi was placed). By 9pm, my LO was coming and she came out so fast the doctor barely had time to get into the room. I had a fourth degree tear, plus a cervical tear. I'm pretty petite and my DD was nearly 8.5 pounds - that combined with flying out, I tore, badly. I was being sewn up for an hour and a half while I held my DD for skin to skin. Then they checked all of her vitals and moved us to a PP room. From there, it was caring for DD with nurses constantly coming in to check on us (vitals on me and baby, massage my stomach, check my bleeding, lactation consultant visits, etc.) I showered at some point, was given all of my PP supplies to care for my tear, filled out paperwork for DD. We were sent home roughly 48 hours, Wednesday afternoon.

Everyone has a different birth. I had a friend that had an induction at 41 weeks (4 months after my DD was born), she didn't need a single stitch and was walking better at 2 days PP than I was at 4 months PP. Don't let others' stories scare you. You will never know how your body will handle L&D until it happens (I never thought I would tear). Just try to keep an open mind and be ready for things to change in an instant.

Thj417 · May 2015

Well... I'll start with, my body tried to labor for 3 days just prior to my due date. I say this because contractions were timed and strong. They sent me home and told me to come back when it got stronger. Then it all just stopped. Nearly two weeks later, I was doing everything I could to distract myself from being pregnant. I was feeling miserable, worse than just past my due date pregnant, then I had a bloody show. They finally decided to let me come to the hospital. I pretty much rode with my eyes closed and focused on my breathing as contractions started up again. They told me to dress down and hooked me up to monitors and got me some water to drink. I still had zero dilation, "maybe a one" and they were being generous. I was 41w4d at this point. With each contraction they would "lose" baby on the monitor. They started an IV. It took a while but they figured out his heart was decelerating on each contraction. They decided to watch me and baby over night. The same thing continued to happen, my body made no progress, "still a one or less" haha! They came in the next morning and said since he was not tolerating contractions they would not induce and they would schedule me for a csection at noon. I was so ready to have him out I did not object. About an hour later they came in and said they want him out now. And 30 minutes later he was delivered 948am 41w5d. Emergency csection? Seems that way but they never said that!

I had a spinal block. Hubs was not allowed in operating room until I was on the table. I don't remember when they placed the catheter. I came back to recovery room and got to start nursing and skin to skin. I had those constriction bands (?) on my legs to keep blood flow. They changed my pad twice. Took of the constricting things. Around 11pm they moved us to a nursery room - baby rooms with. The next day and a half was spent learning to nurse. Oh! I had to urinate before they would remove the IV - of course I had the urge and went then found out I had to pee in a bucket so they could measure my output. So I had to wait some more. I was on stool softeners so the #2 was relatively easy from what I remember. It was quite difficult getting in and out of the hospital bed.

I'm not sure I had the best LCs but we figured it out. Best advice - stop to nurse the baby - don't feel like you have to leave the hospital just because they've checked you out. When we got home he was SO hungry we couldn't get a good latch. That was the only time he had formula because it "came" more quickly than nursing.

All of my fears and anxiety went away. It was like my body kicked into animal mode and I just trusted things would work out.

ann_jeremiah · May 2015

SouthernYankee87 said:
I woke up at 7am on a Monday morning to get ready for work and was having what felt like menstrual cramps. Took a shower and called my doctor an hour later. She had me come in for monitoring to see if I was in active labor. I was, in fact, in labor and currently at 3cm dilated. At 11 she sent me to the hospital to check into L&D. From there, I walked the halls with contractions until I couldn't walk anymore. By 3pm I was at 6cm and at 6pm I was still at 6cm so my doctor suggested breaking my water and getting pitocin. I agree and also asked for the epidural (I didn't feel anything when the epi was placed). By 9pm, my LO was coming and she came out so fast the doctor barely had time to get into the room. I had a fourth degree tear, plus a cervical tear. I'm pretty petite and my DD was nearly 8.5 pounds - that combined with flying out, I tore, badly. I was being sewn up for an hour and a half while I held my DD for skin to skin. Then they checked all of her vitals and moved us to a PP room. From there, it was caring for DD with nurses constantly coming in to check on us (vitals on me and baby, massage my stomach, check my bleeding, lactation consultant visits, etc.) I showered at some point, was given all of my PP supplies to care for my tear, filled out paperwork for DD. We were sent home roughly 48 hours, Wednesday afternoon.

Everyone has a different birth. I had a friend that had an induction at 41 weeks (4 months after my DD was born), she didn't need a single stitch and was walking better at 2 days PP than I was at 4 months PP. Don't let others' stories scare you. You will never know how your body will handle L&D until it happens (I never thought I would tear). Just try to keep an open mind and be ready for things to change in an instant.

This reminded me of the "tummy mashing" that occurs that no one had ever mentioned before I experienced it. After baby is born, the nurse massages/kneads your uterus to help it begin to Shrink and I believe help more blood and such to come out... You will experience the massage several times during your stay... It doesn't feel very good! :-( I didn't have it with the csection though!

cosplaymom · May 2015

Contractions started at 11pm, we got to the hospital after midnight. Went in the ER entrance since it was after hours. A nurse escorted us up to the maternity floor. I had to strip and get into a hospital gown, then they hooked me up to a machine to monitor my contractions. Then they checked to see how far I was dialated. They confirmed I was in labor but had not progressed far enough yet to be admitted, so I was given the choice to either go home, or walk around the hospital and come back for another exam in two hours.

I was in excruciating back labor pains by this point. It is worse than normal contractions. So we stayed and walked up and down the hall for about 90 minutes but I could hardly stand. We went back, got examined, and they admitted me. I got hooked up to a monitor and pushed a machine around walking the halls for a while. Got some drugs to take the edge off the pain, tried the jacuzzi tub but that didn't help. Tried getting the baby to shift position but the pain was too much. Ordered an epidural.

First epidural did nothing so they tried again at a different spot and blocked out all sensation. I fell asleep in the bed after that. Woke up and it was time to push. After that it was all a blur. Baby came out, held and nursed her, got stitched up, got moved to a post-partum room. Ordered dinner and it took an hour or so to arrive. Spent two nights there. Nurses check every so often and assist with stuff.

lethanne · May 2015

Have you considered taking a Birthing class at the hospital you will be delivering at? I did for my first pregnancy and thought it was very much worth it!

lvrunningirlie · May 2015

As everyone has said, birthing stories are all different... but I'll share mine in case it will help.

I went in for my weekly appointment and they did the usual hr thing. Difference was this time there was no "His hr is at bla bla bla, looking good"... the nurse was just quiet and left the room. She came back with the whole monitoring system that you strap around the belly to not only get the baby's HR but also measure contractions. They told me to click the button everytime I felt a contraction and left me hooked up for about 15 minutes. The nurse and my doctor came back in, looked at the print out... I remember clearly the nurse said "See that's what we were worried about" (start mental freak out). His HR was low (between 105 - 120). Doctor asked me if I was feeling contractions since I hadn't clicked the button, I said no. According to the machine I was having them every 2 - 3 minutes. So they did a check and I was 90% thinned out and 5cm dilate. I was showing all the symptoms of active labor but was feeling none of it. Because he appeared to be in stress and I should be in active labor, they sent me to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital they kept me in triage for about an hour to monitor his HR and keep checking on my progress. After an hour his HR wasn't better so they decided to admit me (even though I still wasn't feeling any contractions). Once settled in my room they broke my water and then stuff got real. At that point I felt every single contraction. Mistake we made was not timing the contractions and since I was a first time mom, I don't think the nurses were monitoring me too closely at this point. I tried to hold out on the Epi, but broke down and asked for one. The reason I say that I wished we had been monitoring my contractions because I was too far along to really get the epi. The guy came in to administer it, so I had to sit up and curl around a pillow with a few nurses holding me to make sure I wouldn't move. Unfortunately in the middle of him giving me the epi I had the urge to start pushing, to the point where I was literally curled around the pillow pushing. I was in enough pain that all I could do was look at the nurse and say "push". It was almost funny because she was like "Oh the poor girl is pushing already", so the epi guy said he would just give me a shot of it because chances are the baby would be out before it kicked in. When he finished, they laid me down and checked where I was. She like slammed my legs back closed and told them to get my doctor fast because he was crowning. The doctor didnt have time to get in her scrubs, she basically came up, two pushes late and he was out. Whole process from being admitted to having him was under 2 hours. I don't even remember the placenta or stitching after he came out.

They did all the baby clean up and measurements, but his body temp was low so they put him on my chest skin to skin to try and warm him. Eventually they took him to the nursery to put him under a heat lamp. Rest of the stay was just recovery (get ready for lots of bleeding, bring maxi pads) and getting used to baby. We were discharged after two nights.

kcollins78 · May 2015

There is a birth story board, too for more information.

Perfect Sonnet · May 2015

ann_jeremiah said:

I woke up at 7am on a Monday morning to get ready for work and was having what felt like menstrual cramps. Took a shower and called my doctor an hour later. She had me come in for monitoring to see if I was in active labor. I was, in fact, in labor and currently at 3cm dilated. At 11 she sent me to the hospital to check into L&D. From there, I walked the halls with contractions until I couldn't walk anymore. By 3pm I was at 6cm and at 6pm I was still at 6cm so my doctor suggested breaking my water and getting pitocin. I agree and also asked for the epidural (I didn't feel anything when the epi was placed). By 9pm, my LO was coming and she came out so fast the doctor barely had time to get into the room. I had a fourth degree tear, plus a cervical tear. I'm pretty petite and my DD was nearly 8.5 pounds - that combined with flying out, I tore, badly. I was being sewn up for an hour and a half while I held my DD for skin to skin. Then they checked all of her vitals and moved us to a PP room. From there, it was caring for DD with nurses constantly coming in to check on us (vitals on me and baby, massage my stomach, check my bleeding, lactation consultant visits, etc.) I showered at some point, was given all of my PP supplies to care for my tear, filled out paperwork for DD. We were sent home roughly 48 hours, Wednesday afternoon.

Everyone has a different birth. I had a friend that had an induction at 41 weeks (4 months after my DD was born), she didn't need a single stitch and was walking better at 2 days PP than I was at 4 months PP. Don't let others' stories scare you. You will never know how your body will handle L&D until it happens (I never thought I would tear). Just try to keep an open mind and be ready for things to change in an instant.
This reminded me of the "tummy mashing" that occurs that no one had ever mentioned before I experienced it. After baby is born, the nurse massages/kneads your uterus to help it begin to Shrink and I believe help more blood and such to come out... You will experience the massage several times during your stay... It doesn't feel very good! :-( I didn't have it with the csection though!

Ugh, I hated that. I just wanted my uterus left alone at that point.

PurpleBookmark · May 2015

With my first I was one week overdue and was induced. I came in the night before for some medicine to soften my cervix (I was not dilated or effaced at all). By the morning I was 2 cm. They began pitocin and broke my water. I was in pain at that point and requested an epidural. I believe I was only 4 cm. After the epidural I fell asleep for a few hours and woke up at 10 cm. DS 's head was turned so I had a hard time delivering, they ended up using the vacuum. I had third degree rectal tearing and an episiotomy. My hospital time was rough as I was in pain and had a very hard time moving around, I think due to muscle soreness. Recovery was harder than I anticipated BUT I felt a lot better within 2 weeks and completely recovered by 4 weeks.

My second I was induced a week early for medical reasons, I was sent in the night before but they found I was already 2 cm so they sent me home to rest. In the morning we came back in, pitocin began and my water was broken by the doctor. I was in pain very quickly, received an epidural and felt pressure a half hour later. I was 10 cm, they grabbed my doctor and 3 pushes later DD arrived. My total labor was less than 3 hours and my recovery was great, I wasn't even tired. I hope I have a similar experience with this one!

johannaspisak · May 2015

With my first I was in preterm labor at roughly 8mos (ended up on bed rest for two weeks ). I went to maternity ward because medication for contractions wasn't working well. The dr checked me out, announced I was already at 4cm and efaced. They then broke my water for me. I voluntarily and readily accepted the epidural. The minute that kicked in, I jumped from 4cm to 10cm in about 10min. My son was born about 30min later.

My second pregnancy I ended up with a c-section. DS was breech, so knowing in advance definitely made it less traumatic.

I'll say the c-section had a decidedly longer recovery time (still managed it with no meds after the first night).

This time around (provided everything looks good) I'll attempt a v-bac. If, for what ever reason, I have to do a c-section again I'll know exactly what I'm in for.

And I have to say, I'm a huge fan of epidurals.

liviluke2010 · May 2015

The birthing classes are amazing! Our hospital offered them and we went with my first son. I wanted to hear what could and would happen and what my options were for everything. It was extremely informative. I wanted to try the least pain medication that I could handle, ended up delivering my son with no meds! Your body knows what to do and I didn't find the pain unbearable (but yes, it super sucks). I also didn't feel the contractions until an hour before I needed to push. I had back labor, so was in pain, but never felt a true "contraction" on my belly. Everyone's story is different. I just figured that you can't avoid the pain, so get through it as peacefully as you can. Everyone has things that worked best for them, but you won't know until you are actually there!

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what all happens at the time of birth??

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