adiggs's Pregnancy

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Half way there
By adiggs » Posted Mar. 29, 2017 9:40am - 468 views - 9 comments

This pregnancy is going by really fast. I am starting to have some major anxiety about giving birth. With my son I wasn't worried at all. But then I had two failed epidurals and I was in labor for a long time with back to back contractions for hours with no space between. I am kind of traumatized by that birth. Do I have another options as far as pain relief? I plan on talking to my doctor about this on Friday but I don't think she will be much help as she was my doctor with my son as well.

Also, the thought of having to leave my son anywhere while I am in the hospital is making me extremely nervous and I can feel my anxiety getting worse lately just trying to think about it. I don't trust anyone to watch him. Especially over night and for more than one day? Forget it. I don't know what we will do. I haven't checked but I am fairly certain they won't allow him to stay at the hospital with me.

Comments for this Journal Entry

	Comment from Mammoth » Posted Apr. 3, 2017 5:55pm We're doing hypnobirthing and I am not worried about the birth. Great breathing and relaxation techniques. Of course, might fine I'm not realistic about how it will be, but hoping what I have will see me through. Def look up hypnobirthing. You can also find some videos of women labouring and using their techniques - they tend to look quite calm and peaceful, so reckon it does work!!
	Comment from rcorinne » Posted Apr. 2, 2017 10:56am Congrats in the halfway point! Anxiety has been my constant companion since the birth of my first. As encouragement, let me say, you will persevere. We've all been there or will be there. So many unknowns. Everyone asked what my plans were, when I expected to give birth, what I was doing with my son when I went to the hospital, etc. It's okay to not know. Sometimes you have to make a game time decision. If you have time, baths are great, IV meds helped a bit with my induction... With my second, I woke up in labor, took a shower, had my son watch a cartoon, called my parents to meet us at the hospital, almost waited too long to go. My son was horrible, running around triage. Fortunately my father took him to tour the hospital just before I started pushing, but I had no time for pain relief and almost jumped out of the hospital bed in anxiety. My midwife, mom, and husband calmed me down, but dang that's a tough place to be. My heart goes out to all of the women worried about birth.
	Comment from Angela18 » Posted Mar. 30, 2017 10:32am Yeah, they had baths at the hospital where I delivered my son but here for my daughter, I used mine at home. My BF said the hot shower worked well for her also by relaxing her and moving things along quicker (was her 2nd as well) hopefully you won't need pitocin again and can naturally progress. I feel for your anxieties as I was there a couple of months ago
	Comment from adiggs » Posted Mar. 30, 2017 8:40am Hi Biggles. I think we were both on here last time with our first babies. lol. My son is 20 months old & turns 2 on August 8th. Anyhow, with him they increased my pitocin too quickly as well. It was awful. I will try to avoid being induced again. I wasn't given the option of any pain medication. After my epidurals failed they pretty much said "oh well, you're on your own." I don't know if we do gas here, but I wasn't given the option. I have thought about having her in a bath. But I don't know if they will let me. I'll have to look up hypnobirthing, I have heard of it but I am not sure what it is.
	Comment from BabyBiggles » Posted Mar. 30, 2017 8:21am If I'd been dilating I might have tried to keep going because I think epidural makes it more likely that you need an assisted birth? I know heaps of people use it and are absolutely fine but personal choice, I'd rather not. We're going for a VBAC this time and I've been looking into hypnobirthing, I thought it sounded a bit of a hippy thing but there's some pretty good clinical and theoretical evidence supporting relaxation to keep you calm and keep your stress hormones low so that the labour can progress faster. I know it's not much of a pain relief option but the best I've got! If you come up with anything else I'd love to hear for me too! Fingers crossed for us both, what are the chances of it being the same again really?? :)
	Comment from BabyBiggles » Posted Mar. 30, 2017 8:19am I'm in a similar situation, my first was pretty tough going and I've no idea what to do this time! Last time they put the induction meds up too fast and I ended up having pretty much constant contractions but they were too close together to be effective. I tried gas and air initially, it made me feel sick so I would keep stopping before it really kicked in. They offered me morphine or remafentanyl which is similar but shorter lasting so can be used with each contraction; I opted for the second thinking it would affect the baby less but it completely spaced me out. I would never take that again, I was so confused and it made me panic, coming in and out of consciousness plus I was still in heaps of pain so no point in that for me. Eventually we had an epidural which did work but the only reason I asked for it was because my mum was there and she told me it was looking likely I'd end up an emergency csection so I might as well. I had been at 3cm for hours and hours by that point.
	Comment from adiggs » Posted Mar. 30, 2017 8:03am Thank you! It's good to know someone understands! I hope the second time is easier.
	Comment from Angela18 » Posted Mar. 29, 2017 11:04pm And btw, I had to do it by myself because we had no one we could trust to watch the kids, and when you're going through it, it sucks, but not as bad as I anticipated. I mostly wanted to get it over with and hold my baby. And yeah the hospital stays are always the part I hate the most because I want to be with my family