Was your labor experence everything you thought that it would be?

My labor experiences were both almost everything that I imagined that they would be. The one difference, I thought that I would have a medication free delivery. This didn't happen for either of my children. With my daughter, my water broke at home three weeks before she was due. We went to the hospital where they discovered that I was not contracting. They put me on a pitocin drip to get the contractions going, and because of the pitocin, my contractions were much stronger than they would have been otherwise. I asked for an epidural, but wasn't able to get that because there was a line for the anesthesologist. They gave me a half dose of stadol to lessen the pain while I waited for the anesthesologist, well, after I was given the half dose of stadol, my daughter was born within fifteen minutes. I gave three pushes and there she was. With my son, I was induced on my due date. Thus, I knew that I was going to have pitocin. I also knew that when the pain got to be too much I was going to ask for stadol. After a few hours of pitocin, I wasn't feeling too much pain (my water hadn't been broken yet). Once my doctor came in and broke my water and helped move me into the delivery room, things went very quick. I asked for the stadol and once again it was not very long before he was born. The doctor had left the hospital to go do office visits and didn't even have time to make it back to his office before they were calling him and saying I was complete. The nurses actually thought they were going to have to deliver him without the doctor present.

Looking back my labour wasnt all that bad, at the time i thought it was hell but i had a relatively easy time compared to others. My waters broke by themselves and i had 10 hours of established labour with 1 hour of pushing, no cuts or tears so no stiches were needed. I dont think id change any of it to be honest, i hear so many people have a rough time so im grateful mine wasnt

I have to say, my first labor and delivery was a horrible experience. I had been told and read that, during labor, I'd be able to stand and walk around and such to work through the contractions. Instead, I was put in bed, told I had to stay on my back and was hooked up to several monitors. Doctors and nurses, not even the same ones each time, kept coming in and asking, "Do you have a headache?" over and over. I got increasingly scared because no one was telling me anything and whenever I asked to get up, I was told emphatically, "NO! You have to stay in bed!" I finally hit my breaking point when some doctor asked again about the headache and I actually raised my voice and said, "YOU are GIVING me a headache! WHY does everyone keep asking me that???" He finally told me that my blood pressure was skyrocketing and there was a very real danger that I would have a stroke. You think they might have informed me? Anyway, it was a bad scene. I asked for an epidural and was told that all of the staff was in a meeting -- at about 1 AM, nonetheless. They finally gave me one (I think it was just to stop me from asking LOL) but it was way too late because I was taken to the delivery room immediately after getting it. I still felt everything so they needn't have bothered LOL Fortunately, my daughter was incredibly healthy but my then-husband told me "That's it for us... I can't see you go through this again ever... no more kids" and he literally walked around like a zombie for days - to the point that it scared the rest of the family, wondering what was wrong with him. He was just really traumatized, I guess. We did have another daughter though... about three years later... in a different hospital and it was amazing! Birthing rooms, no delivery room, your own assigned nurse, a whirlpool tub and lots of different techniques offered to make labor manageable. Guess what I did through most of mine? Yep, I stood LOL That was all I wanted to do the first time but I got to do it the second time around. In fact, they finally told me I really had to get in bed because the baby was coming *grin* It was a beautiful experience and more than made up for the first time. I'm glad we had one more ;)

My first daughter was "sunny side up" which means she was facing up the whole time and not down. She was stuck and the head nurse kept telling me I was being ridiculous. I was begging for a c-section, episiotomy, or anything they would give me. Finally, after pushing for 5 hrs and an episiotomy, I finally delivered her...the wrong way! Needless to say that nurse heard it from me. She wouldnt even go get the doctor for me! My second one I had horrific contractions and almost delivered her before I could get in the bed.

My labor wasn't that bad. I think the week of waiting to be induced was the hard part due to all the freaking contractions that were not dialating me. The drip made my pain more intense so my labor didn't go the way I wanted it to go but it wasn't bad. I got nobaine a couple of hours into it. Which made me so drowsy that I can't even remember some people who claimed they were there. LOL! Things went real slow the first half but once I got the epidural I went alot faster. One minute they came in and said your 7cm. Next thing I know I felt the urge to push. Told my mom and I was fully dialated. I felt the contractions but no pain. I knew when to push. I would fall asleep then wake up just in time to push. I pushed for forty five minutes. He finally crowned. Then I pushed once and he plopped out. NO head first thing. LOL!