The Pregnancy Chat Thread!

Shelli wrote:

I'd prefer a slow labour with as little pain meds and intervention as possible, where as my best friend who is due in November thinks i'm mad, she's hoping for a speedy one with as much pain meds as possible!

I don't want to scare anyone, but I had avery slow natural labour and it was really exhausting. The contractions were manageable but the lack of sleep nearly drove me to dementia - seriously. I ended up having the epidural because I was so exhausted. I had a vaginal birth assisted by ventouse & episiotmy but this was more due to babs being "back to back" (face up) than anything else. If I was going again I'd be praying for a speedy labour tbh.

Shelli wrote:

Second labours are supposed to be easier than first ones anyway so maybe this helped too?

I've heard lots of positive and nagative stories about being induced, but research and statistics show that your more likely to need intervention (episiotomy, forceps, vacum...) with an induced labour, and are at a higher risk of needing an emergency section. But obviously they wouldn't induce if they didn't feel the need, much better than putting the baby at risk. I'll go with whatever the doc says is best, but we all have the perfect birth planned out in our heads don't we? And if we have the choice we're going to stick to a plan as close to that as possible. It all just depends on preferance I guess.

Hi Shelli,

Just to give you my own, very positive, experience of induced labour.

I was brought in to be induced when I was 11 days overdue. I was admitted to the ante-natal ward at 8pm, had first dose of Prostin gel at 10pm. I then got a full 8 hours sleep until I got the second dose of gel at 6am. I was wearing the monitor straps, which showed minor contractions happening, but honestly, I didn't even feel them. I went back to sleep until about 9.30, when my boyfriend arrived. By 11am, I was having tiny, tiny pains - no worse than a period pain. This went on from 11am to 1.15, by which stage I was 2cm dilated. They broke my waters at 1.30 and put the oxytocin drip up straight away. I was really only in any noticeable pain from 1.30 onwards. I started using gas and air around 2.30 - contractions were getting more intense (they were cranking up the oxytocin every 15 minutes). The midwifes encouraged me to get up and walk around - gravity is your friend when you're in labour, as it will bring the baby's head down onto the cervix and helps it open quicker. So, I was walking the corridors, me dragging the drip around and my boyfriend dragging the gas and air. I went into the bathroom at about 3pm and stayed there until 3.50, when my gas and air ran out. I went back to the labour ward to get more gas and air, but as I was trying to get up onto the bed, I felt a sudden, violent urge to push. I was fighting it as I was sure it was too quick. I told the midwife I needed to push - she was skeptical but helped me onto the bed to examine me. Low and behold, I was 10cm and my daughters head was visible. I was brought into the Delivery Suite at about 4.05 - at this stage the contractions, whilst still happening, were barely noticeable because all I wanted to do is push. The midwives got me pushing then - at first I was doing it all wrong, but I got into a position where I was sitting up and hanging my bum off the end of the bed.. It made a huge difference as again, gravity was helping me. I think I pushed maybe 4-6 times in total and she was born at 4.32, 12 days overdue, weighing 8lb 2oz - a big enough size.

In total, I was in "labour" for 3 hours and 2 minutes. No episiotomy, no forceps, no vacuum. I laboured on my own for most of it, which I preferred. I think the only thing they did as intervention was to put a scalp monitor on her head at the very end as she was having some decelerations during the pushing (they later said that the quick onset of labour and delivery can make a baby very tired and have decel's, so it was more precautionary than anything else). After she was born she was whisked away from me very quickly, but there was nothing wrong - there had been meconium present in the amniotic fluid and they just whisked her off to suction her lungs, nose and mouth asap to stop MAS from happening.

Induction for me was great. Obviously, I'd have liked to go into labour on my own, but I had had four membrane sweeps that hadn't worked... If I had gone on for much longer, DD would have been bigger (they're piling on a half a pound a week when they are term or overdue) and possibly harder to deliver. Postmature babies can have as many problems as premature babies too - a lot of people don't realise that. If I was offered induction again if I went 10+ days over, personally I'd take it. Yes, its true that sometimes women need forceps, ventouse or episiotomies, but you could easily need any of those if you went into labour on your own.

Good luck... I can't imagine you'll be waiting too much longer

Thinking of you Shelli!

Thought I'd start a new pregnancy thread like we used to have, as the other one has slipped down the board and became quite long. So how is everyone doing?

Today was my twin study appointment. I asked the midwife doing the scan to have a very good look at their faces for cleft palate/ hare lip issues and she could not see any abnormalities; she said while a small hare lip might not be seen at this stage, this means they definitely do not have a cleft palate or major facial issues, which I am glad about (I asked because my half brother had a major cleft palate- even missing part of his nose- and my half sister had a hare lip).

Both twins are growing fine, and are in fact even further ahead than last time! This is unusual as usually around 20 weeks, twin growth starts slowing down. There was excellent growth in their leg measurements, so that Robyn's previously short leg are now longer than average for the time of gestation, and Wilbur's are exactly average (this is a singleton average, too!). They have also started to put on a layer of fat on their tummies, which usually starts to happen around 22 weeks. So we are having extraordinary babies, who today (20+3) meassure 21+4and 21+6,and 12 ounces each )