@norahkate I have no problem with pacifiers. I don't *plan* on using one in the hospital, but I'm going to if I want to. I'm really hoping that even though they're pro-breastfeeding they still stock those amazing green pacifiers they send you home with. Because those are the best and I was hoping to steal some lol
Ladybug - April 2013 Dandelion - October 2018 Angel "Aurora" - July 2020 Angel "Sawyer" - May 2021 Angel "Maxine" - January 2022 Angel "Violet" - March 2022 Baby Dove due March 2023
I just looked and the hospital where my two kids were born is one, which I kind of figured, but our new hospital isn’t on the list. I’ll see how I like this hospital in comparison! My SIL delivered there and when E had to go under the billilights, I brought her there and it seemed like a nice place. We take our tour next Saturday!
We got our BFI (Baby Friendly Initiative) designation a little back. Most of us are pretty reasonable about it. We encourage breastfeeding, but try not to shame of discourage moms who choose to formula feed. If someone tells me they prefer formula, I might ask if they have a reason why, but that’s about as far as it goes.
I’m kinda surprised my hospital isn’t one of them. They put DS on my boob super quickly after he was born, never once talked about a pacifier or formula (which was fine) and checked on us frequently to see how his latch was going.
Have you seen patients successfully use nitrous oxide during labor vs an epidural? One of the hospitals here has it as an option and the other is getting it soon. My doctor made a comment alluding that it may not be very helpful for pain.
@CB0425 we offer nitrous. It’s honestly more of a distraction than a true form of pain relief. It tends to work alright during early stages of labour, but is less effective through the later stages. Some women do use it to good effect, though.
The book Im reading talks about how laughter is a good way to distract from the pain and help relax you. I told DH to have a bunch of funny videos and memes ready to go.
They recently started offering nitrous at our hospital and the nurse from my birthing class said they love that they offer it because it's such a short term option. She said it wears off in 5-10 minutes
We went to our hospital tour and prenatal classes on the weekend and they were really selling the gas. I was very pro epidural but I think I’m going to try to put off as long as I can so I can still move around during labour. The leader of the class said that while it doesn’t work as well for pain, many women get distracted by the ritual of the gas, like they wait for the contraction and reach for the mask and she seemed to imply that having those routines and rituals is the key to getting through labour (mostly) unmediated.
@mytrueloves even during our "getting certified" stage (finished shortly after DS was born), they didn't carry pacifiers any longer. So I would ask at your tour. They are called soothies (if you didn't know) and you can buy them from Walmart (just about any place really) We bought some just in case, but DS refused them other than a chew toy while teething.
My little sister (almost 11 years younger) got one at the hospital, back when only hospitals had them. She had colic and it's the only thing that helped even a little. It got lost. My mom and dad searched every store in the surrounding towns, thinking surely somewhere sold them. It was just a pacifier for crap's sake. Finally after realizing it was a hospital only thing, my mom went to the hospital in tears asking to buy one from the maternity ward. (Even the gift shop didn't have them) They gave her some free and the number for the manufacturer. My mom called them, exhausted, explaining. She got to order some, but they sent a ton of sample/extra ones too (different colors, one that had natural vanilla in it and smelled great etc). We must of had 50+ of those suckers around! She was glad to see them finally sold in stores.
The book Im reading talks about how laughter is a good way to distract from the pain and help relax you. I told DH to have a bunch of funny videos and memes ready to go.
I have distinct memories of my sister and dh showing me crap like awkard family photos, etc. while i was in labor with our second and laughing way too hard...honestly remember that better than any pain, so apparently there is something to it.
1. Saw on another board that if you have an anterior placenta and a breech baby it can not be delivered vaginally.
2. Saw this while reading online - In one research study, it was found that anterior placenta position may cause certain health complications like gestational diabetes, placental abruption, intrauterine growth retardation and pregnancy induced hypertension. Edit for auto correct
I'm very curious to hear the answers to those ^ My OB said I have an anterior placenta but since it wasn't near the cervix, said there wasn't any risk.
Ladybug - April 2013 Dandelion - October 2018 Angel "Aurora" - July 2020 Angel "Sawyer" - May 2021 Angel "Maxine" - January 2022 Angel "Violet" - March 2022 Baby Dove due March 2023
Yeah I have anterior (last time I didn’t) and when I asked my doc what it meant, she was like, it’s just where it is, there’s nothing different you need to worry about.
@SweetSweetTooth that’s interesting. I’ve never heard any of those as being complications related to an anterior placenta. We do a fair number of vaginal breech deliveries, and I’ve never even seen the OBs check out placental location beyond making sure they aren’t a previa.
With a vaginal breech you need baby to be a complete or Frank breech (tailor sitting or feet by their ears), rather than footling breech (feet coming first). And they won’t attempt a preterm vaginal breech because the head will be overly large compared to the body. But those are the main counterindications.
Was the study you found from a Turkish Journal? I think I found the same one and the elevation in numbers is pretty slight. From 133 women with an anterior placenta there were 18 total who had either PIH, GDM or abruption. So even if there is a statistical increase, the overall numbers are still quite low.
If my husband tried to show me funny videos during the peak of my labor I would have thrown that phone across the room with such force it would have shattered to pieces. But that's just me.
Also - why does it seam like thinner woman have almost pointy bumps? (sorry this is one of those questions you don't want to ask yet are super curious about!)
@SweetSweetTooth I think it’s just easier to see when thin women have diastasis recti (when the abdominal muscles separate down the centre). It tends to make for a triangle-shaped belly. If you have a little extra padding over top, that bulge through the muscles is more camouflaged, so it looks overall more round.
@SweetSweetTooth I told my Dr I was a vaginally delivered (Frank) breech baby and he was like "yeahhhh we don't do that anymore". Probably depends on the Dr/hospital whether or not they'd try vaginal, but I don't think it's common now.
@jemmerjams there was a study done in 2000 called the “Term Breech Trial” (TBT) that’s showed really poor outcomes for vaginal breech deliveries. As a result, vaginal breech deliveries stopped being taught in med schools, and really weren’t done for about a decade. Then doctors that had been successfully delivering vaginal breech babies for decades started taking a closer look at the TBT and discovered that it was a really poorly conducted study, and the results have now largely been disproven. The problem is that there is now a decade long knowledge/skills gap. Newer OBs didn’t have the opportunity to learn about safer breech deliveries, and what a normal vaginal breech progresses like and how to deal with it, since it’s totally different technique than a normal presentation. So they are more comfortable just doing a straight c-section (which comes with its own risks).
just to add to the frank breech delivery convo, my son was frank breech, and they told me there was only one doc on staff that was trained in breech delivery, but I was fully dilated, so there wasn’t even time to call him. It’s worth asking if your hospital has anyone on staff that is trained!
@jennybean80 so I'm not sure if this is OB/midwife/hospital dependent but I figured I'd ask: when I had DD with my OB, they told me that if my water broke at home I had to get to the hospital within two hours. Is that standard practice? I was hoping to labor at home for longer this time regardless of if my water broke or not. Last time, my water broke and I got to the hospital within two hours and was only 2 1/2 cm dilated and they wouldn't let me get out of bed so I was basically lying in bed for 15 hours. I know the hospital I'm delivering at this time doesn't make you stay in bed and I'm delivering with a midwife so hopefully it will be different than my previous experience, but I wasn't sure about that two hour rule.
TTC History
Me: 35 DH: 34 Married 07/2012 DD born 07/2014 DD2 born 10/2018 DS born 10/2022
IF history: TTC #2 since January 2016 June-Aug 2017: 3 IUIs w/Clomid = BFN Sept 2017: Dx w/Endometriosis Oct 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN Nov 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN Dec 2017: pre-IVF testing Jan-Feb 2018: IVF--17 eggs retrieved, 13 fertilized, 9 frozen and 1 transferred on 2/10 = BFP on 2/19!!! EDD 10/29/2018 FET Oct 2021: BFP on 10/31! MC at 5 weeks FET Feb 2022: BFP on 2/15! EDD 10/29/22
My water broke at home and they told me NOT to come in. To give it 6 hours and I should go into labor by then and if not, to call back. I didn’t go into labor and they had me come in a few hours later but “no rush”, to get induced. As long as I had the baby within 30 hours of my water breaking they were comfortable.
My water broke at 6 am, I was induced at 6 pm, and had baby around 2 pm the next day, for reference.
@shortstack930 that will depend on a couple of things. Mostly if you are GBS negative, you can wait a while as long as baby is still active and you have decent movement. If you are GBS positive this time around you should go in pretty quickly so they can start antibiotics to prevent the GBS from transferring to baby.
The other caveat is if you are going to stay home for hours, you need to make sure there isn’t a cord coming out (basically it shouldn’t feel like there is anything in your vagina).
You can also go to the hospital to get checked, and then decline admission. They can’t force you to stay (although they can strongly recommend it). We often confirm the waters are broken, check baby’s heart rate tracing, and then let moms go home for up to 24 hours after the waters broke.
@jennybean80 I was GBS negative with DS1 and GBS positive with DS2. Does this mean that I will be GBS positive this pregnancy or can I go back to GBS negative?
@britvahok GBS is a transient bacteria, so there is about a 1 in 3 chance of any woman having it during any particular pregnancy. So you could have it again, or not.
@rabtaido1214 true post partum hemorrhage is pretty rare. And we can often identify situations that make it more likely (really long labour, assisted vaginally deliver - forceps/vacuum, multiples etc) and have meds in the room ahead of time.
Our anaestheologists usually quote a 1% failure rate. They can re do the epidural in those cases and typically correct the problem.
@rabtaido1214 I’m glad you asked this question! I read the July birth stories earlier today and they are a little frightening. On the positive... they all got through it with healthy babies and moms in the end.
@rabtaido1214 with my daughter the epidural didn’t fully take and I told the anesthesiologist immediately but he said it could take a while to fully kick in. We gave it an hour. I kept letting my nurse know that it wasn’t working and he came back to do it again.
@rabtaido1214 I had a true hemorrhage after giving birth to my DD. It is rare, but extremely scary when it does happen (not like I knew any better, I was practically passed out from massive blood loss) If you’re delivering at a hospital I would trust that if the situation occurred they would know what to do. Another huge reason I’m for hospital births, as I would not have survived the short drive from my home to the hospital.
Re: Ask Me Anything
Dandelion - October 2018
Angel "Aurora" - July 2020
Angel "Sawyer" - May 2021
Angel "Maxine" - January 2022
Angel "Violet" - March 2022
Baby Dove due March 2023
Hope I'm not too late to ask my question....
Have you seen patients successfully use nitrous oxide during labor vs an epidural? One of the hospitals here has it as an option and the other is getting it soon. My doctor made a comment alluding that it may not be very helpful for pain.
My little sister (almost 11 years younger) got one at the hospital, back when only hospitals had them. She had colic and it's the only thing that helped even a little. It got lost. My mom and dad searched every store in the surrounding towns, thinking surely somewhere sold them. It was just a pacifier for crap's sake. Finally after realizing it was a hospital only thing, my mom went to the hospital in tears asking to buy one from the maternity ward. (Even the gift shop didn't have them) They gave her some free and the number for the manufacturer. My mom called them, exhausted, explaining. She got to order some, but they sent a ton of sample/extra ones too (different colors, one that had natural vanilla in it and smelled great etc). We must of had 50+ of those suckers around! She was glad to see them finally sold in stores.
1. Saw on another board that if you have an anterior placenta and a breech baby it can not be delivered vaginally.
2. Saw this while reading online - In one research study, it was found that anterior placenta position may cause certain health complications like gestational diabetes, placental abruption, intrauterine growth retardation and pregnancy induced hypertension.
Edit for auto correct
Dandelion - October 2018
Angel "Aurora" - July 2020
Angel "Sawyer" - May 2021
Angel "Maxine" - January 2022
Angel "Violet" - March 2022
Baby Dove due March 2023
With a vaginal breech you need baby to be a complete or Frank breech (tailor sitting or feet by their ears), rather than footling breech (feet coming first). And they won’t attempt a preterm vaginal breech because the head will be overly large compared to the body. But those are the main counterindications.
Edit to add website. This is where I read about it and yes, they reference the Turkish journal! https://www.momjunction.com/articles/anterior-placenta_00359144/#gref
The problem is that there is now a decade long knowledge/skills gap. Newer OBs didn’t have the opportunity to learn about safer breech deliveries, and what a normal vaginal breech progresses like and how to deal with it, since it’s totally different technique than a normal presentation. So they are more comfortable just doing a straight c-section (which comes with its own risks).
Married 07/2012
DD born 07/2014
DD2 born 10/2018
DS born 10/2022
IF history:
TTC #2 since January 2016
June-Aug 2017: 3 IUIs w/Clomid = BFN
Sept 2017: Dx w/Endometriosis
Oct 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN
Nov 2017: IUI w/Letrozole = BFN
Dec 2017: pre-IVF testing
Jan-Feb 2018: IVF--17 eggs retrieved, 13 fertilized, 9 frozen and 1 transferred on 2/10 = BFP on 2/19!!! EDD 10/29/2018
FET Oct 2021: BFP on 10/31! MC at 5 weeks
FET Feb 2022: BFP on 2/15! EDD 10/29/22
My water broke at 6 am, I was induced at 6 pm, and had baby around 2 pm the next day, for reference.
The other caveat is if you are going to stay home for hours, you need to make sure there isn’t a cord coming out (basically it shouldn’t feel like there is anything in your vagina).
You can also go to the hospital to get checked, and then decline admission. They can’t force you to stay (although they can strongly recommend it). We often confirm the waters are broken, check baby’s heart rate tracing, and then let moms go home for up to 24 hours after the waters broke.
Also, as I’m reading July birth stories I’ve seen some ladies say they had a failed epidural and could feel all the pain. How common is this?
Our anaestheologists usually quote a 1% failure rate. They can re do the epidural in those cases and typically correct the problem.
If you’re delivering at a hospital I would trust that if the situation occurred they would know what to do. Another huge reason I’m for hospital births, as I would not have survived the short drive from my home to the hospital.