Those of you with kids: Did your birth differ from NT's ?

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I thought when I had kids, I would have something in common with NT's. However, it seemed to make an even bigger gap because my birth experience was totally different from my peers. They had the routine hospital births and all the procedures. I was afraid to birth in a hospital because I heard horror stories from my mom about how awful it was. I also knew others personally who did not get along well in the hospital. I had a natural birth in a birth center. My experience of how the contractions felt was also different from others. I used the Bradley method and practiced for several months and others did not practice and tensed up. I never had ultrasound, not even the doppler. I was 33 weeks along with my first one before the doctor ever heard the heartbeat. I also never had the electronic fetal monitor during labor and I ate and drank all I wanted. I had a fear of getting too weak from lack of food and not being able to give birth. (I know someone personally who had this experience.)

When I went into labor. I didn't even know about it. I just thought I was constipated and I had prenatal care that day anyway luckily so I asked about it and I was told I was having BH contractions and the baby was going down lower and putting pressure so it will feel like I have to go poo. Then that night they were happening seven minutes apart and they felt like menstrual and constipation cramps. Then the pain got worse and worse and I couldn't ignore it anymore so I called and they said to come in. I packed and my aunt and uncle took my husband and I to the hospital. I was indeed in labor. I did cry at first and then stopped when I knew what was going on. By the time I got to the hospital, they were couple minutes apart and lasted a few minutes and then stopped. I even had an epidural so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain since it was getting worse and worse still. The pain went away and I felt normal again. The medicine worked great because they hit the right spot they said.

Everything happened fast in 29 hours. The contractions, baby dropping, getting dilated, losing the mucus plug, water breaking, everything and they all said I did good and most women don't do that well during labor and I let my body do all the work than forcing it. I even had the baby in seven hours after I got there and it took me 45 minutes of pushing to get him out. I didn't even feel anything down there either when he came out. If all labors were that easy, I'd do it again. I don't even know if I'd be lucky again next time. My mom had difficult deliveries with my brother and I and her youngest was the easiest labor of all and delivery. She said me and my brother were rare cases that it happened and it was a fluke thing for me.

I only had one ultra sound during my pregnancy and had dopplers every prenatal care. I was 39 weeks even with my son when I had him but I was 38 weeks and 6 days when it all started. I even had the fetal monitor and IV but I was very dehydrated but I still did fine. No complications or health problems. My experience in the hospital was great too.

Mine was very different than other peoples because they all seem to have horror stories and mine was perfect. Well not quite because I tore a little but it was still perfect.

with my first i was a labour 12 hours total. my doctor passed out during delivery and i was wondering why i was the only one not panicing. she was born after only 3 pushes and no pain killers although i would have liked to have some. i was told that i was not ready to deliver and stop complaining and paging the nurses. i kept telling them it was time to push and they insisted that since it was my first baby i would be there for at least several more hours. i made my mom check me cause i felt the head coming out and everyone started to freak out. she had the cord around her neck and she was very blue. they took her away without showing me or anything. she was gone for several hours getting 'worked on'. i was never told what happened other than the cord being wrapped around her throat or what they were working on. they also accused me of being a drug addict because my daughter never cried once, she had no suckling reflex and she seemed to not want to be touched. i beleive these symptoms to be from her AS as she did not cry for weeks after birth, and she still doesn't like being touched or eating most things.

for my second i went to the hospital when my water broke but i wasn't having contractions yet so it was a long boring day. when they finally started after hours of walking i had him fairly quickly. i was able to get an epidural that time but it did not take away all the pain, just most of it. it went smoothly enough. he was also not breathing but i did get to hold him for half a second before they took him to the Nicu, they said he inhaled the fluids. it took about 16 hours total.

my youngest came out of nowhere. i went to bed and woke up feeling the need to pee. went to the washroom and started trembling and got dizzy, this was around 2:30. he was almost born at home because i couldn't get a hold of my sitter and refused to go to the hospital alone. by the time i found someone to come watch the kids and got to the hospital it was nearly 4 and he was born at 5:20. no painkillers or anything. i did much better controlling the pain that time and relaxing while i breathed through it. i kept shaking though and i couldn't stop but the nurse that is normal when labour goes so quickly because it can lead you to go into shock. this little one came out screaming and got to stay in the room with me instead of going to Nicu.

I'm not sure it's related to autism or anything, but i had quite quick labour for my son, 3 hours total. Water broke at home, and i went directly in the shower, it was my first and somehow, i imagined i could get clean before going to the hospital. Except i felt like nothing would take me out of this shower, it felt so nice, i wish i could have given birth right there...but off to the hospital we went "forcefully dragged to the ambulance by 3 firemen ), and 3 hours later he was there.
For my daughter, my husband and mother were in the house with me, and i never told them i had contraction, as i was hoping i could deny it long enough to "accidentally" have her at home. I was a bit panicky at the thought of having to deal with 10 hostile strangers while in pain and trying to focus. She was born after only one push (as someone decided it was appropriate to cut my private parts with a pair of scissors despite my screaming that i would find them and kill them if they did) but i won't go into too many details about dutch hospitals.
No pain relief for either one, except a shot of morphine for my son in the last half hour of it, and that was no relief at all.
If i had to to it all over again, i'd be more assertive and have them at home.Period. This is not a time to have to fight people off of your body.

None of my children were born in a hospital. The natural birth that I wanted is not allowed in hospitals around here. I only had an episiotomy with my first one because she went into fetal distress. I never had stitches with the other ones. Studies show that episiotomies can actually cause tears, (I did have a second degree tear with my first). In the prenatal class I took the instructor said that ultrasound is not proven safe. Since then, there have been studies linking excessive ultrasound and autism. With autism in my family, I'm so glad that I avoided all ultrasound. The hospitals here all insist upon ultrasound in labor and most doctors do it on every visit, so I had to hunt to find a doctor who was willing to avoid ultrasound. (The doppler and electronic fetal monitor use ultrasound.) I had my babies at a birth center.

The doppler or doptone is ultrasound. It is just not quite as strong as the sonogram. Have you ever read on the internet about the studies linking prenatal ultrasound with the rise in autism rates?

Im sure everyones experience is different.My main issues that I had was that I felt kinda shocked afterwards, like I zoned out a bit and I had a terrible time with breastfeeding.It was just uncomfortable for me.I still did it, but I didnt enjoy the experience like some other women do.I kinda felt out of my body a bit and was wondering if it was really necessary and if I was a bad mom for feeling that way.I didnt enjoy being pregnant either.I felt like an alien.The whole thing was just kinda awkward to me, but I do love my kids

I had traumatic surgical births, not uncommon these days from what I hear.

What was uncommon was that I never experienced the bonding oxytocin after birth or during nursing, I always felt very agitated.

Mine was all as normal as births are. took a long time but was all failry usual otherwise. I ate and drank all the wat rhough also as I was scared of losing energy but I was sick the shiole time too so that was a bit pointless really.

I didn't look at my baby and feel and immediate love, just a massive responsibility to care for him.

I have 4 kids.

The first childbirth was a total trainwreck! I went into labor and we went to the hospital when the contractions were the right time length apart but because I have a high pain tolerance and wasn't screaming or crying, the nurse said to me, "The sonogram says you're in labor but I don't believe it because you're not acting like it." I told her I would bite her hand and scream if it would convince her. She didn't like that. The doctor felt that my labor wasn't progressing fast enough so he gave me petocin. That made it really hurt like hell. I still wasn't complaining but it really hurt like hell. Around hour 25, I asked for a c-section because I knew this wasn't going right. It was my first time in childbirth but I know my body. The nurse argued with me saying, and I quote, "You don't want a c-section. Think of your baby! We can give you an epidural instead." (Did your head just explode? Mine would have if I knew then what I know now! But I was 19 at the time and didn't know just how stupid people could be.) So I got the epidural and that promptly stopped all dilation of my cervix and I was stuck at 7cm. Then my son's heartrate started to drop dangerously so, at 30 hours of labor, they wheeled me in for an... can you guess?... emergency c-section! What I'd politely asked for five hours before everything went to hell and they endangered my baby's life. The really fun part was when my epidural started wearing off during the c-section! That was when I decided it'd be a good time to scream, "I CAN F**KING FEEL IT!" Then they gave me something that made my mouth dry and made me nauseous. Being nauseous is horrible when your belly is full of sutures and you know you're not supposed to strain your abdomen. That whole childbirth exhausted me.

BUT... for my second child, I changed OB/GYNs to the same man who delivered me and it was wonderful. He knew the situation with my abusive ex-husband and all the kidnapping threats he was making about the kids, so he made sure hospital security banned my ex and his family from the hospital grounds while we planned a c-section that was at 38 weeks. I gave birth in the morning to a healthy boy and felt exhilarated and happy. I didn't sleep the whole time I was in the hospital and it didn't matter. That was one time in my life that I can say I was high on life. It was awesome. I'd just had major surgery and I never felt better.

Ditto for my third child, but I slept after I had her.

I had a different doctor for my fourth child because I was now 1300 miles away from the awesome one. It went okay. But by this time, I knew how to get this done the best way possible. I shaved the back of my left hand so the IV could be planted there because I knew that worked. I knew what the pack for the hospital. I knew what to do with a baby. I knew everything already and had no problem communicating what I wanted to the nurses. Most of them actually loved that because I was LESS maintenance than other patients. Only one nurse got on my nerves and that was because she wanted me to fill out a stupid diaper change / breastfeeding chart and treated me like this was my first rodeo... and not in a good "let's teach you what you need to know" way but in a "you're obviously ignorant and stupid" way. I let her know this was my fourth child, I was breastfeeding on demand and changing diapers as necessary and wasn't going to document it. Something about how I said it got her off my back. The weirdo moment of that childbirth was on my final day in the hospital. The doctor came in the room while I was in the bathroom changing to go home (he had to clear me). He refused to wait for me to finish putting my pants on and just burst right in on me in the bathroom! I threw my clothes at him and screamed. I heard my husband say, "I told you you didn't want to do that."

I never considered childbirth stories to be something to actually bond with other women about. I mean, it's a topic of discussion but I've found that it really just puts me farther away from people. A lot of moms are pro-natural birth or pro-home birth and anti-c-section. So they go on about how wonderful it was to give birth to their breach baby on the kitchen floor for ten hours and that doctors are slaughtering women with c-sections in hospitals.... and I'm at a loss for what to say because I had positive c-section experiences, save for the first one which was an emergency after a disaster of a labor experience.

ETA: I felt an instant love for my children when I saw them. When they showed me my children in the OR, it irritated me because I couldn't hold them. I looked forward to holding them when we settled into our maternity ward room. My first child was intimidating because I didn't even know how to change a diaper so I was scared to be left alone with him. But for all the rest, I couldn't wait to be left alone with my baby so I could sing and cuddle and talk with them without feeling embarrassed because there are people watching.

I don't get the whole earth-goddess childbirth thing, either. Like how some women really WANT to go through labor with no pain killers or even a doctor nearby in case of emergency.
My idea of a perfect labor is any labor which ends with the baby being born healthy. Period. The "glory" is in beholding your newborn baby, not in the method of pushing it out your vag, ladies.

I know a woman who refused an emergency c-section and kept asking for more time to labor because of advice from her YOGA INSTRUCTOR. Now her child has cerebral palsy.
She blames the hospital...surprise, surprise.

(Sorry if this post is a little angry. This is one of those topics that pushes my buttons.)

Both my kids were born in hospitals. First birth was awful (as a result of NOT ENOUGH medical intervention).
Second birth was absolutely perfect, right down to the two-push delivery.

Ever since my thyroid acted up as a result of a prescription drug reaction, I have not been able to go very long without food. If you have never had a thyroid crisis, you don't know how it feels. I never had the glucose tolerance test during pregnancy because I would have to fast. I went to a birth center because you are allowed and even encouraged to eat while in labor. I would have been stressing out if I was not allowed to eat for an indefinite period of time.

I disagree with hospitals not wanting women to eat, as well. It is done to lessen the risk that you will throw up and aspirate(sp?) food. This is fine if you are otherwise healthy and the labor is fairly short. No one should have to endure 24 hours or more without food, though, and then push out a human being.

Still, I can't imagine how a hospital could stop you from eating if you wanted to eat. What are they going to do, rip the cheeseburger out of your hands? You bring your own food with you, and if they don't like it, tough poopy.

My last labor was 33 hours. I have heard of a hospital making someone go three days without eating. I also did think that the nurse would take the food away from you against your will. I did not want to worry about the food issue. I know someone who got a c-sec because she was not allowed to eat and got too weak from lack of food. I think the dangers of not eating are greater than the danger of eating. I had a cookie and some milk 20 minutes before my son was born.

I find this subject endlessly fascinating. While pregnant with my older son, I developed a strong dislike towards any chemicals and/or medical interventions used during childbirth. I read every book I could find and studied Ina May videos on YouTube. My husband and I took a Bradley Method class and we used it successfully for our son's birth. However, I was still incredibly traumatized by my experience at the end of the birth. The doctor on call showed up when I was almost done pushing and I had never met him. I prefer female doctors so this was a horrible realization for me at the time. I still feel violated by what he did to make my uterus contract. Something it was perfectly capable of doing on it's own...

We planned a home birth for my second son, but I went into labor at 36 weeks and my midwife had me go to the hospital. This change in my plans had me so stressed, my labor didn't go as smoothly. Both of my labors were under 3 hours, but the second was much more painful for me. But I worked through it, despite vomiting all through transition and my youngest son was born healthy and alert.

I brought food and drinks to both of my labors but I was never hungry enough to eat. Everything was so fast and intense, plus the whole getting sick bit really took care of my appetite.