I thought I did (felt like I was) but per my husband, I grunted and moaned.
I did put a nurse in a headlock though. I needed something to squeeze and unfortunatly her bent-down head left her neck available. “We” delivered shortly after.
No screaming here at all, but if I hadn’t had an epidural I don’t know what I would have done.
I didn’t scream, but I did wimper. And tell everyone to stop talking to me, because I was having contractions. I also told the anesthesiologist that she shouldn’t put the epidural needle in me while I was “having a contrac…ahhhhh… I love you”
C section. 3 hours from my water breaking at home to a 10 lb baby being waved by my face before being whisked off to be resuscitated.
To me, it was like bad monthly cramps. Pain, but not anything I couldn’t handle. You’re going to be fine! ((Glory))
Ooo I love labor war stories. With my first, I did scream, but it was mainly because I was unprepared. I went to childbirth classes, but they were useless. Seriously. They gave us this strap-on preggo belly that you put on to see what it was like to be 9 months pregnant. As if that was the most important part. :rolleyes: Also, my mother had four very uncomplicated and pain-free (according to her) deliveries, so I thought painful childbirth was lot of hooey.
:eek:
So there I was lying flat on my back and goddam that shit HURT. So I screamed. Then they came in and gave me an epidural. They gave me TOO MUCH epidural and I couldn’t feel most of my body. I couldn’t even push. It was a disaster. I ended up having to have a forceps delivery and my lady parts were torn up. It was horrible.
I wish I could say I learned from this experience that I didn’t need an epidural, but no. I got one with my next baby, and this one got borked as well. The doctor pierced into the spinal fluid, and I got a spinal headache which is, to date, the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced. I remember every labor pain I (subsequently) experienced with future babies, but nothing tops the spinal headache, and then the “blood patch” they later injected into my spinal column to end it. It felt like someone drove a spike into my spine.
Good times.
So with baby #3 I said I’m doing this all naturally, and I did. I walked the halls through most of my labor. I refused to lay down until the last minute. Armed with MUCH more information about the birthing process, I learned to work with it instead of against it. I won’t lie, it still hurt like a motherfucker, but it was manageable. BUT. When the water broke, there was meconium in the fluid, so they insisted on suctioning out my son … right after I delivered his head. So there we were, my dear boy half in and half out and I went through a walloping contraction.
My (then-) husband remarked, “I now know what a primal scream sounds like.”
The delivery of my fourth child was much the same as the third, totally unmedicated and completely within my control. Hurt like a bastard, again, and also I was 41 and spent most of the time thinking “I’m too old for this shit” which was true, I was exhausted. But one or two primal screams later, and my second son was born. All 10 pounds of him. :eek:
Glorious good-labor vibes to you, Glory!!
Yeah, don’t worry Glory. The worrying always makes it seem worse than it really will be. And when it’s over, you’ll have a story you just LOVE to tell OVER and OVER and OVER for the rest of your life!
I didn’t make a sound. All my energy was totally turned inward, focused on breathing and getting through each contraction; I didn’t have any to spare for making noise.
I had an emergency C-section and never got to the pushing part, though. And I know people who say they screamed their heads off, so obviously this is one of those YMMV things.
Glory, seriously, don’t worry. I know that’s easy for me to say (well, except I’m pregnant too, so not really), but you could be one of those lucky people who have really easy labours - and even if you’re not, it’s a few hours, and then you’re done. You can handle anything for a few hours.
Thanks all 
I know, one way or another, the baby is coming out so I am trying not to worry too much. I would hate to scream though, I hate making a scene! I’ll come back to this thread early next week and report back.
I had no drugs with either birth. I didn’t want to with my son and it went very well so I didn’t see why I should with my daughter.
I didn’t scream at all with my son, we were in a birthing suite and my dad was in the attached room and I didn’t want to scare him. There was a lot of moaning though until I worked out the breathing and focusing. He was born fairly quickly, first pain at 11pm, hospital by 4, kid by 7:30.
Labour stalled with my daughter so they gave me pitocin and let me tell you I drowned out the thunder while screaming. By the time she was born I had this raspy barely there voice.
Fortunately it conveyed exactly the right amount of terror when the doctor (not mine she was away when my daughter decided to show up) said to the nurse “Oh don’t bother freezing her, she won’t feel a thing now just stitch her up” This was the only time during either birthing experience that I felt that loss of inhibition that everyone talks about. My reply was instant and threatening “Whip it out buddy, you first” I got my freezing before my stitches.
Once. My spinal was slow to work with my c-section, and I felt the doctor put his hand on my belly to start the cut, and I was like, " I CAN FEEL THAT, MOTHER$%^#."
Then they turned up the drip and we were good.
This is exactly what every medical professional involved recommended, and still, I was all “no, no, I don’t want the epidural even though I’m getting pitocin.”
In hindsight, I have no idea what I was thinking.
Nope. First birth was 33 1/2 hours of active labor (28 of which were unmedicated - was determined to have my son naturally until I reached my breaking point) and most of it was silent gritting of the teeth and grunting.
My second birth was 5 hours and also mostly grunting. I enjoyed it much more than the first one, both because it was medicated and because it was so lovely and short.
It’ll be great. And I know you won’t believe me now, but trust me, you won’t care about making a scene when the time comes. Your entire focus turns towards getting the baby out. I was barely even aware of who was around me or where I was. During my third baby’s delivery, I started changing into a hospital gown in the middle of a hallway because that’s where the nurse handed it to me. (She gently said, “Here, honey, come into this exam room…” I didn’t even feel embarrassed. I was just like, “Oh, a room. Cool, okay.”)
I don’t think I screamed with my first - lots of very loud, low groaning, so my throat was sore the next day, but not screaming.
With the second, there was another lady at the birth center, and I remember hearing her clean through the walls, screaming bloody murder, and thinking, “I’m glad I’m not her!” Then of course a few hours later, I was doing the same thing. I specifically remember screaming, “Somebody help me!” and “GetheroutgetheroutgetheroutGETHEROUT!!!” In my defense, I’d been up all night in labor (first child was polite enough to start labor at 7am), and she weighed 1lb, 5oz more than her older sister.
So much for the idea that the second labor is easier!
And yeah, you don’t care. I couldn’t imagine screaming about “You did this to me” at my husband or whatever like in movies, because there was only that moment. And in that moment, I needed to get that fucking baby out of me. That is all. No longer cared about embarrassing screaming, pooping in front of people, perineal tearing, or anything. Just “there’s an 8 pound baby in my vagina, and it needs to not be there anymore!”
We are all different, but what I take from all of these stories is that women do not seem to be learning the relaxation techniques I was taught back when I was birthin’ babies. The issue is that if you tense up your muscles everything becomes TIGHTER and labor becomes MORE painful and more difficult. The Lamaze training first teaches you how to consciously relax your entire body. Then you go to relaxing everything except one arm or leg. By the end you can be entirely relaxed even if someone is pinching your arm or leg and/or squeezing it tightly. You learn how to avoid bearing down too early (that’s what the breathing techniques are for). You also learn how to concentrate on one thing at the same time you are consciously relaxing your muscles. This minimizes your perception of pain. I have used these techniques for other temporarily painful or unpleasant situations like having dental work.
I will grant that this would not work in all cases and I would in no way disparage someone else who had a different experience, an especially difficult presentation, a really long labor, etc. But it sounds like a lot of people go right to medication without having any other tools to bring to bear on the situation, and as several have also said, epidurals can slow down the process and make it take longer.
No, MLS, the relaxation techniques are still a big part of the childbirthing classes.
I’m not quite sure how you gather from this group of stories that people aren’t using relaxation techniques. I took Bradley classes. They taught relaxation. It was extremely helpful in all three of my labors (the C-section, the medicated VBAC, and the unmedicated VBAC). But I didn’t mention it in my previous posts because it wasn’t relevant to the story.
She might mean me, since I had a terrible childbirth class. I never even heard of Bradley classes until it was too late. I need to move to a more hippie area, is my problem.
I don’t know if they’re still doing this (I suspect they are), but my crappy Childbirth Prep class in 1993 was held over a weekend “for working parents’ convenience”. Not even a *long *weekend. There was absolutely no way to cover everything my mother’s Lamaze class covered over 2 months in the same thorough manner, at a pace where women with Pregnancy Brain could absorb it. It was pretty much useless. The majority of the class time was spent on what all that stuff at the hospital was, how to recover from your inevitable epidural and episiotomy and how to bathe and swaddle a newborn. Then we watched a video of a hospital birth, after the instructor informed us that “This was filmed in California. You won’t be making this much noise, because we don’t do that it Illinois.” :rolleyes:
My mom, in contrast, learned not only Lamaze pain control techniques, including breathing, but how to isolate the exact muscles in her pelvic floor to push a baby out without pooping on the table. (They started with fingers, and actually worked up to pushing out tampons and ben wa balls. I believe they only did the talking part in class and practiced at home, but I never asked.)
I recommend Bradley to anyone who asks, though.
I’ve never seen anyone else say that their epidural didn’t work, so it’s good to know I’m not alone. I had one about 36 hours into a 48 hour labour but could still feel everything, move my legs completely, and was even allowed to get up and stand on my own two legs briefly - the epidural leads meant I had to get back into bed and deliver almost lying down.
No screaming, though. Didn’t have the energy for it.