Personallly I think its from all the out of control hormones. I’m sure there are puddles.
It wasn’t like a period in my case, since there was no pain accompanying it. It lasted about a month. The baby didn’t scream much at first at all, that didn’t happen until later when he had a bit of colic around 3 months.
Breastfeeding does hurt at first, but once the milk supply is well-established and your supply matches your infant’s needs, it’s pretty cool. It’s also convenient not to have to warm up bottles in the middle of the night.
I doubt there is ANYTHING consistent in labor.
Giving birth to my first child was pretty predictable–as these things go, anyway. I started having contractions. They got worse. I thought the water had broken, but the doctor had to break it in the delivery room. I got an epidural, which DID slow down the contractions. By the time I was fully dilated (about four hours later), they had to tell me when to push, but since I couldn’t feel the contractions, the timing was all off. Then the epidural wore off and they couldn’t do another one. I managed to push baby far enough down that the doctor could use forceps to get her the rest of the way. All tolled–about 15 hours from the first recognizable labor pain to birth.
Second time around–I started having contractions about two weeks before the due date. They were definitely labor contractions, and they got regular enough that they were coming about every three minutes–even the nurses would have sworn I was about to give birth. I spent the night in the hospital, but by the next morning, all contractions had stopped. The baby was still a bit small, and seemed to be holding up well, so the doctor sent us home, with a promise that we would be back in a couple of days. I had labor pains on and off for about four weeks after that–usually only a handful a day, and nothing regular or concerted that screamed DELIVERY time. (Yes, they were labor pains, not BH Contractions.) Finally, two weeks AFTER the due date, the day before the doctor planned to force the baby out, the labor pains started actually doing something constructive. No epidural this time. The doctor had to break the water during the delivery, but once the baby started coming out, there was no stopping him!
CYN to GQ!!
I know that countless women have had babies since the beginning of time, but the entire procedure scares me. Not only is a living thing growing in your uterus, but you’re going to have to endure The Most Painful Thing A Woman Can Ever Feel [sup]TM[/sup] to deliver the baby. And then you have to heal, breastfeed a baby and get almost no sleep for about a year? I’m terrifed of the whole thing! And this is a very large reason why I know I can’t have a baby for at least 5 years because I just can’t imagine how I’ll be able to scrounge up enough courage to do it. I really want to have children but all the videos I see and all of the stories I hear give me the willies.
Were you Dope Mothers as scared as I am now? (Just letting you know that I will not have a child until I’m emotionally, physically and financially ready for it.) And how did you get over it if you felt like I am now?
Cyn, OB/GYN RN, working in the 4th largest birthing hospital in CA. I did L&D before taking my present position of postpartum couplet care nurse,.
So the water breaks, and the woman goes to the hospital.
Sometimes the amnionic sac must be ruptured artificially, spelled AROM (artificial rupture of membranes) The OB goes into the vaginal with a 14 inch sterile wand with a curved and blunt hook on one end. OB snags an edge of the bag of “water” and out it flows. Color and calrity are noted. Then the baby has room to move further into the birth canal. Some OBs like a finger cot, a latex finger-covering tip to place over sterile gloves that has a small thorn-like protrusion to scrape a hole in the bag of waters.
** She lays down until the contractions get closer and then she gets the epidural?**
Sometimes the contractions never get closer. Sometimes they never get strong enough to push the baby out. Some OBs will then order a Pitocin (Oxytocin) drip via a pump. If the cervix stops dialating and the contractions are not effective, then a C-section may be in order. Some OBs will allow an epidural when the mom is dialted to 3cm, some wait until 6cm, almost none will allow an epidural to start on a continuous drip or even a one-time injection when a mom is more then 6cm dialated. Understand that the OB does not administer an epidural. It is an anesthesiologist who may have very different ideas about pain control than the OB and especially the mom. Placing an epidural is a sterile procedure even as it is administered at bedside during labor. Some Anesthesiologists can place them quickly, others choose a deeper placement in the epidral/interthecal space with less medication.
** But doesn’t that numb everything so she can’t push?**
Not if the doctor knows his/her stuff, and they do these all day long, every day they work.
** How long does it take to push out a baby?**
With or without pain medication? Is the baby in proper position? Is the pushing effective? 5 minutes, 3 hours, laboring with cervical change and water broken. If baby’s heart tones are good, some docs/midwives let mom take her time. Some docs will section after 4 hours of pushing in this scenario with no crowning.
** After the baby is born, women pass the “afterbirth”, correct? Is there a normal time when that is passed? Does it hurt?**
This is the placenta, it peels itself off the wall of the uterus and can be expelled with a good contraction. It is soft and squishy, so it doesn’t usually hurt like a big -headed baby. It is usually passed within 15 minutes, some faster, some retained and the OB has to go in and get it. Or fragments of it.
Then after the baby is born, how long does it take for the vagina to heal?
6 weeks, no douching, tampons or sex, tears hurt but heal pretty fast if repaired.
**My friend who had a baby told me that women basically wear adult diapers to catch the rest of the blood. How long does that last?
**
2 days on adult diapers is about average, the maxi pads for 2-4 weeks. The flow should go from red to brown to white.
Then what happens after the baby is born? S/he is weighed, has its mouth and nose aspirated, then given to the mom for like 10 minutes and then taken away?
Cord clamped, cord cut, baby dried, put on mom’s chest, kisses, baby to warmer, heart rate and lung sounds assessed, temp taken axillary,bands on ankles that match mom and dad’s, ointment to eyes, shot of K to thigh, footprinted, weighed, measured, wrapped and presented to mom.
Is there a standard procedure or does it depend?
Both. Most births follow a pattern, but sometimes things go weird. There is a set of orders RNs follow in case all things go to hell while the OB is on the way. If A then B, but if C then D, then A then B.
If it’s at all reassuring to you, childbirth is not necessarily the most painful thing you can imagine. For example, I would much rather go through pregnancy, labor, and delivery than have to suffer with an ear infection for even a day. A severe ear infection is MOST definitely more painful than labor.
One of the advantages to labor is that you know it will be over at some point. It is also not normal to be in pain the entire time that you are in labor. It comes and goes, so you have long periods during which you really don’t feel any pain or discomfort at all. The actual delivery (assuming a normal vaginal delivery) is the most painful part, and if it lasts more than 15 minutes, you have more important problems to deal with.
There is the discomfort of healing afterwards, but if you take it easy, and concentrate on taking care of the baby, it goes fast, and it shouldn’t be painful–just uncomfortable. In that respect, I think I would rather go through the post-delivery stuff than have a broken ankle in a cast.