Pregnant and new parent Doper redux #2

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I used parts of Hypnobirthing and was able to go med-free. I found that so long as I kept in mind that “this will all be over soon,” I was OK. Also, I never seriously considered having any pain meds. My birth plan specified that I didn’t want to be asked questions about the 1-10 pain scale, and I actually asked that no one use the word “pain” if at all possible. (The OB did during the last 15 minutes when Spencer was crowning and being born - she told me that I had to push through the pain to get past it.) During transition, I had very typical thoughts running through my head - “I’m crazy. This hurts SO bad - what was I thinking going med-free? I’ll never be able to do this.” But the big thing for me was that I never said it out loud. In fact, I didn’t say anything that wasn’t pertinent to the conversation. Not even when pushing. Being focused on keeping quiet really helped me a lot. (Because when you cry out or scream, you have to tense your body, and tension is what hurts.)

Do you have a birth plan? I highly recommend one. (I’d be glad to email it to you if you’d like. I’ve also got a long version of my birth story you might be intertested in.) You’re using midwives, so I don’t know how different your labor will be, but it was a great help to have the birth plan. The nurses and doctors read it and respected it as much as possible. For instance, we couldn’t wait until the cord stopped pulsing to have it cut. Spencer wasn’t responding, so they needed to get him to the isolette and get him under a warmer and be able to give him oxygen. Other than that, things went great. I used the template on this website: http://birthplan.com/ My only trouble was that I had to go with the “no cookies” version, so I copied and pasted into MS Word to make tweaks and then printed it up.

I’ve heard that Nubain can really make you loopy. My SIL got all freaked out because she couldn’t see. (Her eyes were closed.) My best friend said it didn’t really do much to relieve her pain, it just made her feel kind of stoned so she didn’t care so much.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!! Another baby coming soon!

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Ooh, that’s a great site. We have a birth plan that’s just like that from our birthing class, but you check the boxes off, so I like the idea of streamlining it - thanks for providing that!

That’s my plan - to keep as quiet as possible (heh, I could be a Scientologist;)). I know my body tenses up when I’m in pain (as evidenced by my internal yesterday…I have a feeling that it would have been a lot easier if I’d forced myself to relax), so I’m going to concentrate on staying relaxed and calm.

This just made me :smiley: . Too funny. I definitely want to avoid the Nubain if at all possible (and other meds) - those I’m just going to play by ear, I think.

Thanks for the advice:). I hope to be back with a baby in a few days, but he’ll come when he’s ready!

E.

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I had a lot of cramping around weeks 33-35. When I went in just before 35 weeks for an unscheduled check-up, I was told the cramping was totally normal (and that more Kegels would help) but that my risk of toxemia was increasing, so I was admitted to the hospital and labour was induced two days later! :eek:

We had a birth plan, a doula, breathing exercises, wanted to go med-free … the whole works. For the health and safety of our baby (and myself), all of our wishes were tossed out the window (well of course we got to keep the doula).

I won’t go into the details but in the end (no pun intended), even though it was the opposite of everything we had planned, the final result was our beautiful baby girl, which of course is all that matters.

Best wishes Elza_B - and breathe through the pain - it seriously helps, you are right - I clenched up too whenever stuff hurt until my doula’s voice finally got through to me - holding your breath definitely makes it worse. :slight_smile: