have you had a terrible birth experience
april & co
another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience that
followed the bad experience?
April
--
www.freewebs.com/lastchancerabbitrescue
Ericka Kammerer
> Have any of you had a terrible birth experience where you went on to have
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience that
> followed the bad experience?
I haven't personally, but of the folks I know, many had
better experiences the next time around. I think things tended
to improve both because first births tend to be the most difficult
and also because they learned some lessons from the first birth
and did things differently the next time. I'm sure that to some
extent, it depends on what went wrong the first time. Some
things you might not be able to do much about, but often you
can change care providers, birth locations, or other things
to get a better experience.
Best wishes,
Ericka
Welches
"april & co" <bensona...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:sPmdnbSFS_Fc3Crb...@bt.com...
> Have any of you had a terrible birth experience where you went on to have
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience
> that followed the bad experience?
>
> April
>
Good to see you again.
#1's birth was not a good experience. It was a hard labour and ended with an
episiotomy. It took me nearly 2 years before I could contemplate a second.
#2 and #3 were much easier and it's mostly the thought of pregnancy rather
than labour that puts me off another.
Debbie
betsy
wrote:
> Have any of you had a terrible birth experience where you went on to have
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience that
> followed the bad experience?
I had a terrible first birth experience. With different preparation
and care, I think it could have been fine. If you don't want to read
the details, just jump to the last 2 paragraphs. I was new to the
area and wanted a midwife, but couldn't find one. Near the end of the
pregnancy, my doctor (the one in town most known for natural births)
told me that he didn't believe in doulas. At some point during labor,
the nurse ordered me onto the bed and told me that I wouldn't be
allowed off until my baby was born. Despite it being an unmedicated
birth, they ordered me to start pushing. I never had any pushing
urge. The doctor did extreme perineal massage during the pushing,
grabbing my perineal area and pulling, leaning back and bracing his
feet on the floor to get all his weight into it. It was the most
painful thing I have experienced. With each push, I could feel my
baby's head banging excruciatingly against my pelvis. I didn't rush
in the pushing, since I didn't think I should be pushing yet. All of
a sudden, the doctor said "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cut you",
picking up the scissors as he did so. I screamed "NO!" and kicked at
him, forcing him to jump back. He then said that my baby's heartbeat
had been going down during pushes and it needed to be born right
then. I thought I could get the baby out in one push, but I wasn't
absolutely sure, so I had to let him do it. I shrieked in pain as he
cut, then pushed my baby out. I was extremely angry with the doctor,
but had to let him stay to sew me up. The cut had led to a rather
bad tear too. It seemed to take forever. I must have lost quite a
bit of blood. About an hour after the birth, they tried to get me up
to move to another room, but every time I tried to get my head up to
sit, I became too dizzy to do it. They finally managed to get me into
a wheelchair and wheeled me in, with my head between my knees. The
never did any blood tests after the birth to see if I was anemic. In
retrospect, they probably should have had me on iron. The continued
hospital experience was bad too. At one point, I asked a nurse to
change my baby's diaper, since I was so unwell, but she refused saying
"We hate to send babies home with mothers who are afraid of them." It
was clearly a threat, which was quite frightening, since they do have
the power to report you as an unfit mother and not let you take your
baby home.
Once I was home, I continued to be in extreme pain. The pain reminded
me of the birth and I cried through the nighttime nursings for months
as I relived the birth experience each time. When my baby was 2 1/2
weeks old we had a death in the family and had to fly half way across
the US for 2 weeks. During this time, I thought I was healing wrong,
and finally got brave enough to look at my perineal area with a
mirror. It was very frightening. I had a sticking out part that was
bleeding from the surface of the skin. (I didn't find out that this
was granulation tissue until after my 2nd birth. It was caused by a
reaction to the plastic in the "Always" brand pads I was using.) At
the time, I thought it was from being stitched wrong and was very
upset. Since I had no doctor there, and we were in the middle of
family grief, I didn't tell anyone at the time.
I struggled through 11 months of pain hoping that I would get better
with time. I finally went to a nice doctor in a nearby town who I
found through a La Leche League leader. She sent me to physical
therapy for the pain and psycho therapy for the Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder. One EMDR session ended all my birth nightmares. I
continued physical therapy until my baby was almost 2. The pain from
the cut and tear improved quite a bit. They kept trying to straighten
out my pelvis, and sometimes helped and sometimes made it worse.
We took Bradly classes before even trying to get pregnant with the
second. I found a midwife and told her about my first birth. Later
she told me that she thought I had imagined the extreme perineal
massage until she worked as a doula at a birth with the same doctor
and saw him do it to another woman. I planned a home birth. Just in
case, I also went to my new doctor. She wrote in my chart that I
would not be required to get in the bed and that I did not have to
have to have the doppler sessions. Due to a mess up with insurance
that just happened to hit when my baby was born, my midwife called to
risk me out of a home birth the night before my baby was born. I went
into labor and called her. She came to take me to the hospital. My
labor was very fast and I was already starting to push a bit by the
time she arrived. On the way out to the car, I was down on my hands
and knees twice, and almost gave birth on the front parking strip, but
somehow managed to get in the car. When we arrived at the emergency
entrance, I tried to run in, but found myself once again on my hands
and knees pushing in the parking lot. Someone came rushing out with a
wheelchair and ran me to the delivery room. My midwife turned doula
ran ahead yelling "She wants everything all natural." The nurses
rushed to push the bed out of the way and I gave birth on my hands and
knees. The nurses put down a waterproof pad for me to roll onto as
soon as I had given birth and handed me my baby. With the hands and
knees delivery, my pelvis was fine. In fact it went back into
alignment and the pain I had had since my first birth was gone.
Although I did tear, it was painless and I could hardly believe I had
stitches. In the hospital, the nurses were wonderful and did
everything I asked. Just after the birth, I was feeling much better
than I had when my first baby was 6 months old. Although I did
develop granulation tissue again, I went right into my doctor who
prescribed a cream for it and it never got too bad. At that time my
doctor asked me if this was what I had happened after my first birth.
She then told me that granulation tissue after a birth is rare. She
hadn't believed my description of it the previous time and thought I
had imagined it due to the PTSD.
With my third birth, my labor was a longer and easier, about 3 hours.
This seemed perfect. I had her on my hands and knees at home in the
bathroom. It was much easier on me and the kids than rushing off to
the hospital. While I needed stitches again and was quite sore for
week after the birth, everything was fine and I was happy about it.
I know that many other women have had terrible birth experiences that
were objectively much worse than mine, but this was bad enough for me.
--Betsy
april & co
Joanna was actually my 3rd birth and she was the hardest and worse delievery
ever. My first son was born by section and actually that was a breeze
compared to Joanna even with the flu bug I caught after havig the section
which made it more painful every time I coughed etc. Number two was also
really easy, I had every pain reliefe going and didnt even know he was being
born as I was so out of it. Joanna was just an absolute nightmare but not
all of it. I had a kind of difficult pregnancy with a massive bleed at 9 wks
which resulted in me staying in hospital and thinking I'd lost the baby
although thank god I hadnt. I then suffered a bit with sciatia which was
really painful on some days but even that I can bear again. I can be a bit
more open here as most of you are aware of the Joanna drama. Anyway she was
a quick labour 5 hrs from start to finish, the first past was soooo easy
didnt even have any warning through that day or anything that she was
coming, came home about 5pm from a child protection meeting and without any
warning my waters broke so I called the hospital explained that my waters
had broke but no labour pains but they insisted that I went in anyway so I
did, I got to the hospital and by that point I was having twinges but
nothing I couldnt handle at that point, they strapped me to the monitor I
think to check babys HB which was fine and then they checked to see if I had
dialated and to everybodys surprise I was 10cm dilated and I remember saying
really well i'm not having any painfull pains really. Then there is a bit of
a bluh but I can remember that all of a sudden the pain became unbearable
and I was at that pushing stage. The midwife at one point put me on all
fours but I didnt really know what I was supposed to be doing and then she
put me back on my back and told me to push into my bum and I thought I was
doing it but obviously I wasnt because the midwifes became really frustrated
with me, then I remember them calling the doctor person and saying babes HB
was dropping so they were going to use the ventrois which they did but first
of all they couldnt get it to work properly and then when they did they were
using it even when I wasnt having a contration so it felt like they were
pulling her out. At one point it was so agonising that I just wanted to get
off that bed and run but they all held me down while nasty doctor woman
pulled my precious baby out. Joanna was then born and it was all over but
then I couldnt hold her because I was shaking so much then they took her to
SCBU as she wasnt allowed to stay with me ect. I know the aftercare bit
won't happen again as Joanna is with me now so I won't be treated like a
cirminal like last time and baby will be put with me but I just can't get
that horror labour from my head and so desperatly want another one.
april
Nikki
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience
> that followed the bad experience?
My first birth experience wasn't 'terrible' but it was much harder then I
was expecting and I was disappointed. I had an episiotomy and it took a
really long time for that to heal to the point I wasn't miserable. I pushed
for 3hrs 45min. I do not think I had very good nursing care during
labor/delivery but people were nice so I wasn't traumatized. Baby was never
in trouble so that was good.
The second labor and delivery was much better. It was easier and I wasn't
so frightened because I knew what to expect. I also had much better
nurses.
The third labor was easy enough. Very fast so a little scary for a few
minutes but really it was fine. Again, the babies were never in any trouble
or any scary moments like that - which makes a big difference.
I can totally understand wanting another experience to sort of wipe away a
bad memory. I felt like that too with my second pg.
--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06
Yiddishkeit
wrote:
> Have any of you had a terrible birth experience where you went on to have
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience that
> followed the bad experience?
>
I had a horrible birth experience with #1, but went on to have 4 more
and the labours were fine. With #1, he was overdue, and I had gotten
induced. It was a teaching hospital and the resident was not good. #1
was posterior, and was stuck for over 2 hours, after 15 hours of hard
contractions. We were rushed into the operating room for an emergency
c-section, but was given 2 chances first with the forceps, and they
got him out on the second try. I had major trauma to the perenium, and
tore badly and had a lot of stitches.. Not sure what degree I had, but
it was months before I could sit down normally, without the boppy
pillow. After that, my labours were fine. I switched hospitals :)
> April
>
> --www.freewebs.com/lastchancerabbitrescue
Michelle J. Haines
> Have any of you had a terrible birth experience where you went on to have
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience that
> followed the bad experience?
I can reasonably say none of mine have been that wonderful, and frankly
I have no intention of having a sixth child.
I can get into details another time.
Michelle
Flutist
april & co
pray like mad that my next birth experience is better than the last. Hey if
I plan it right then I could go into labour back home in England and give
birth at the good old L&D hospital and then I would know that I would be
getting good care and support. I've been looking into a doula and might go
with that idea one things happen. BTW Joanna is doing fab, shes 18 months
old now and is doing normal 18 month old things. We off the at risk register
and have been transfered over to another social services department where
they don't have as much involvement.
april
"Michelle J. Haines" <mha...@nanc.com> wrote in message
news:1cc07$46b7f814$4127760a$17...@hpnx.com...
Welches
> Hi to all three of you.
>
> Joanna was actually my 3rd birth and she was the hardest and worse
> delievery ever.
(((hugs)))
What was the spacing between #2 and Joanna? I've a vague memory of someone
saying that if you have a spacing of more than about 5 years often the
delivery is more like a first delivery. (I've no references for this, but
I'm sure someone told me that at some point and they might be wrong too)
I don't expect it helped having all the stress that came up just before she
was born either-it all came up just before she was born didn't it? I know in
labour if I am just concentrating on getting through the contractions then I
cope much better than if I'm not totally focused. I'm sure if I'd been in
your situation then I wouldn't have been able to focus well.
Particularly with #2 I absolutely dreaded the labour through the pregnancy
and it didn't match up to my expectations. In fact the only labour I didn't
go into dreading and thinking it would be awful was my first, which was :-)
I know what you mean about the midwives getting frustrated and saying you're
not pushing properly. I've had that, and it's really disheartening when you
think you've just done a good push. Actually when they said I was pushing
well, I really couldn't tell what I was doing differently.
In this area you can ask for a midwife to go over your labour notes and give
you suggestions on how to make it better "next" time. Ask your GP if you can
do this. I didn't do it, but I know people who did who found it gave them
more confidence to get pregnant again.
I can't say that the next labour for you will be easy/easier, but I suspect
it will be in a lot of ways because you won't have the worry of baby being
taken from you. It may be emotional for you, thinking about Joanna and what
happened then, but it shouldn't happen again. (and if it does we'll get a
misc.kids delegation to march over to Wales to duff them up...)
Debbie
april & co
You saying that about the midwifes saying that push was good blah blah I can
absolutly agree with you because i'm sure on one of my pushes they said that
and thinking back i can't see the difference. I believe that they were not
as good with me because they knew she was being taken into care so they
probably put me down as a bad mother which was wasting their time and like
i've said that won't be happening this time as I can't see them saying well
you can have that child but not that one because that would be mental. I'll
also be telling social workers myself that i'm pregnant when the time comes
so there's no chance of a late referal like last time which happened 4 weeks
i think b4 I was due and they used that and said they didnt have time to do
proper assessments. They'll proberbly try and put some support in some where
and I welcome that with open arms honestly I do. Joanna now goes to nursery
once a week but my new social worker wants her to go more as he thinks it'll
do her well and do me good to have some time to myself and he's trying to
sort out funding for that so i'm not arguing if they want to pay for it.
I'm trying to counsil myself to get over the labour fear and i'm sure i'm
just going to go for it.
april
"Welches" <debbie....@SPAMntlworldPLEASE.com> wrote in message
news:%B1ui.2989$ka7....@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net...
Ericka Kammerer
> I'm trying to counsil myself to get over the labour fear and i'm sure i'm
> just going to go for it.
At some point that's what you do. I would suggest, however,
that you do *some* thinking about what *you* could do differently.
How would you choose caregivers differently? What questions would
you ask? What things would you be looking for in a birth location?
While you can't necessarily fix everything, you can learn some
lessons from the past and use that information to help you make
choices in the future that will help create a better experience
next time.
I think you are probably right that there were things
working against you last time that won't be an issue next time,
but there's no guarantee that that will be enough to get you
the experience you want. Grab the bull by the horns and be
proactive about getting what you want. You deserve that.
Best wishes,
Ericka
Jamie Clark
You may want to talk to your social worker now, before you get pregnant, and
ask them if you need to be assessed again, etc. Let them know you are
thinking about having another, but want to make sure that everything goes as
smoothly as possible this time, etc. They may well say that you are done
with everything and as far as they are concerned are like any other normal
woman/citizen, in terms of not having to notify social services of a
pregnancy and things like that. Or, they will tell you that you will always
be on their "watch list" and should inform them of each pregnancy, that
you'll have to be assessed every time, etc. But if you approach them first
and ask the questions, it can better help you know what is expected and to
do the correct things, but it also let's them know that you are responsible
and looking ahead to the future and trying to be a good citizen, rather than
just plugging along, clueless. My experience shows that when you go out of
your way to show yourself to be responsible, doors open much more easily
than when people assume that you are not, and you don't do anything to let
them know that you are wrong. So just asking the question of what happens
in a future pregnancy may actually change the outcome...
--
Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04
"april & co" <bensona...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:mZGdnS-vw-70KyXb...@bt.com...
Welches
"Ericka Kammerer" <e...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:IfGdnTVwwN1FJCXb...@comcast.com...
> april & co wrote:
>
>> I'm trying to counsil myself to get over the labour fear and i'm sure i'm
>> just going to go for it.
>
> At some point that's what you do. I would suggest, however,
> that you do *some* thinking about what *you* could do differently.
> How would you choose caregivers differently? What questions would
> you ask? What things would you be looking for in a birth location?
> While you can't necessarily fix everything, you can learn some
> lessons from the past and use that information to help you make
> choices in the future that will help create a better experience
> next time.
without going private (which is costly). You can choose a different hospital
but realistically very few people I know haven't used the nearest (although
it is good here which will make a difference) You don't really choose your
caregivers either usually you're assigned a GP practice and you'll get the
care connected with that or the local hospital. Depends on the area as to
how much choice you can have, here they're fairly relaxed, but my sister's
area is much more prescriptive.
Debbie
Ericka Kammerer
> "Ericka Kammerer" <e...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:IfGdnTVwwN1FJCXb...@comcast.com...
>> april & co wrote:
>>
>>> I'm trying to counsil myself to get over the labour fear and i'm sure i'm
>>> just going to go for it.
>> At some point that's what you do. I would suggest, however,
>> that you do *some* thinking about what *you* could do differently.
>> How would you choose caregivers differently? What questions would
>> you ask? What things would you be looking for in a birth location?
>> While you can't necessarily fix everything, you can learn some
>> lessons from the past and use that information to help you make
>> choices in the future that will help create a better experience
>> next time.
> Just to say, April's in the UK and you don't get as many choices as in USA
> without going private (which is costly). You can choose a different hospital
> but realistically very few people I know haven't used the nearest (although
> it is good here which will make a difference) You don't really choose your
> caregivers either usually you're assigned a GP practice and you'll get the
> care connected with that or the local hospital. Depends on the area as to
> how much choice you can have, here they're fairly relaxed, but my sister's
> area is much more prescriptive.
Even when your choices are limited, you can still make
choices about what you request, how you interact with folks, etc.
Even that can make a big difference sometimes.
Best wishes,
Ericka
Anne Rogers
> Even when your choices are limited, you can still make
> choices about what you request, how you interact with folks, etc.
> Even that can make a big difference sometimes.
It's definitely true, that you can get likely what you want/need, it's
just a very different way, I'll just compare US to UK for now, but it
seems in the US, the important thing is choosing your care provider,
this can then lead to a situation where women have thought about this,
then slacken off and if something takes them by surprise during birth,
then the are not so prepared to act for themselves, whereas in the UK
you don't really have the choice, you can refuse to have particular
individuals care for you, but beyond that you take pot luck and in any
locality there is likely to be quite similar care, rather than many
choices, though this can very quite a lot across the country - so there
are consultant led units with very low c-section rates, and others with
very high, a lot of how things are will depend on area - so that is one
where some get a choice, technically everyone has the choice which
hospital to book with (planned homebirths are still linked to a given
hospital), but for most the distances make it not practical, but in
London there is plenty of choice, varying from hospitals with
ludicrously high c-section rates to the Albany group of midwives who
some year have had homebirth rates over 50%.
Another big difference is something like vbac planning, even if you are
pressured for repeat c-section, if you don't give the consent, you will
still get care for the birth, no firing of patients for not complying!
C-section for breech is still very high, but again, the women has
absolute refusal and if you don't consent, they have to provide skilled
care for you, whereas in the US it seems almost impossible to do this,
independent midwives are generally the ones attending in the UK, whereas
the US equivalent, even though the law doesn't usually forbid it, the
boundaries are difficult to work around.
I find it amazing how great the differences are and there are so many
situations where the information and suggestions you produce for a women
in the US are radically different to the US, take the breech example, in
the UK the best advice if you want to have a vaginal birth is find an IM
who is happy attending breech births, in the US, it's shop around for
someone with a good success rate for ECV.
Cheers
Anne
Ericka Kammerer
>
>> Even when your choices are limited, you can still make
>> choices about what you request, how you interact with folks, etc.
>> Even that can make a big difference sometimes.
>
> It's definitely true, that you can get likely what you want/need, it's
> just a very different way,
Absolutely, the mechanics, challenges, boundaries, etc.
are different. The key, though, is to be knowledgeable and
proactive, and I think you can do that in any system (though
perhaps to differing degrees). I think it's all well and
good to "hope for the best," but it's much more effective if
you actually *do* something different, if you want to achieve
a different result. You certainly don't get to control everything
about childbirth, so you can't guarantee a particular result
no matter where you are or what you do, but even something
as simple as knowing what you want and asking for it can make
a *huge* difference over "going with the flow" and hoping it
all works out better this time.
Best wishes,
Ericka
sharalyns
wrote:
> Have any of you had a terrible birth experience where you went on to have
> another one? If so what was the experience and what was the experience that
> followed the bad experience?
>
> April
While I had a terrible birth experience with Alexander, I haven't had
another yet. Yes, he will be 6 years old next month, and no sibling
yet. We're getting much closer to that decision, but I have to admit,
I'm still a bit petrified. I know which midwife I'll be using, which
hospital will be our back-up, where to rent the inflatable pool for
here at home, etc., so I have made great decisions so that next time
will be different.
My problem is that I'm petrified that *something* will happen to make
me end up in the hospital again and have a baby in the NICU again.
It's not the NICU itself that scares me, it's the whole leaving my
baby at the hospital and being sent home again. We moved last year,
and I knew that the hospital that would have been our back up had a
fabulous new NICU where each baby is in its own room that includes a
bed for Mom and Dad and such, so that I wouldn't *have* to leave. The
local hospital here that I've chosen (the only one with a NICU) limits
your time with the baby during the day even. I could at least choose
to visit at any time at the last one (and often stayed for 12 hours
straight in between shift changes). This one is much more limited.
*That* scares me.
Alexander has been begging for a sibling for 3 years now. He's gone
quiet the last few months, and I have a feeling that, like my parents,
he's starting to give up on the whole sibling thing. I don't know.
Part of it is convincing my husband that we can do this again also.
Ack! I've taken over your thread and made a tangent out of it. I guess
what I'm trying to say is that after a traumatic experience, it's
perfectly normal to be scared to purposefully head into another
situation where you could feel out of control again. You just have to
do your best to make sure that a different outcome is more likely than
not and try not to let your fear rule you.
((hugs))
Sharalyn
mom to Alexander James
Anne Rogers
> Absolutely, the mechanics, challenges, boundaries, etc.
> are different. The key, though, is to be knowledgeable and
> proactive, and I think you can do that in any system (though
> perhaps to differing degrees). I think it's all well and
> good to "hope for the best," but it's much more effective if
> you actually *do* something different, if you want to achieve
> a different result. You certainly don't get to control everything
> about childbirth, so you can't guarantee a particular result
> no matter where you are or what you do, but even something
> as simple as knowing what you want and asking for it can make
> a *huge* difference over "going with the flow" and hoping it
> all works out better this time.
I think a particular challenge in the UK is that you have to be quite
vocal, even bolshy to work through some things, when in another place
you could just choose a different model of care, or a different
practitioner in the same model of care.
What does work in women's favour though is that although there is no
absolute right to anything, midwives have a duty of care, so it's
impossible to deny anyone, say, a home vbac, though it may take a lot of
fighting to get there, whereas in the US, you care provider can fire you
and some care providers are forbidden to attend vbacs (just been told
a worrying account of a women who was planning a vbac and her ob group
has gone along with it until 38 weeks, when they said no and fired her,
all they are required to do is give her an alternate ob to try, but they
won't accept her and midwives are not allowed to attend vbacs in her area).
Cheers
Anne
april & co
Don't worry about overtaking my thread and I completly understand your
fears. One of my fears this time is that they'll ask me to stay in hospital
for a while to be observed and I really don't want to because I don't want
to be away from my baby girl Joanna for any length of time. I've decided to
just go with it now especially after speaking to one of the social workers
who did an assessment with Joanna who said no way would they take baby off
us when it was born as there was no need as I'm doing a great job blah blah
so thats one of my fears gone, he also said that baby would not even go on
the at risk register or a care order so thats another great thing. I'm going
to be more prepared this time I think and I also think I'll be going with
the doula option as she sounded great. Good thing is all my labours seem to
be getting shorter with each baby so if I'm in mega pain for any reason then
it'll last 5hrs max hopefully and I think I can cope with that with the idea
that i'll get a precious baby at the end of it which I won't need to share
with any other woman on this planet. I'll be able to bring it home and do
normal mummy things which will be superduperfabtasticwonderful. Sorry ladies
there will be no conga march with this baby LOL.
April the prooven super mummy.
Xxx
"sharalyns" <shar...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1186582287.9...@d30g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
betsy
wrote:
> fears. One of my fears this time is that they'll ask me to stay in hospital
> for a while to be observed and I really don't want to because I don't want
> to be away from my baby girl Joanna for any length of time.
When my second was born, they wouldn't let me take my baby home right
away as I wanted to. This was because I was Strep B + and my very
quick labor left no time for the antibiotic IV. My 2 1/2 year old
stayed in the hospital with me. I asked the nurse to make up
mattresses on the floor for us so I wouldn't have to worry about her
falling out of bed. Surprisingly, the nurse actually did it. I
didn't get much rest in the hospital and would have found it much
easier at home, but it was better than being separated from either of
my children. I don't know if this would be possible in the UK, but it
worked for me.
--Betsy
april & co
I'll definitely speak to them about that as an option. I don't think they'll
keep me in but just in case.
april
Jamie Clark
> Hi Sharalyn
>
> Don't worry about overtaking my thread and I completly understand your
> fears. One of my fears this time is that they'll ask me to stay in
> hospital for a while to be observed and I really don't want to because I
> don't want to be away from my baby girl Joanna for any length of time.
> I've decided to just go with it now especially after speaking to one of
> the social workers who did an assessment with Joanna who said no way would
> they take baby off us when it was born as there was no need as I'm doing a
> great job blah blah so thats one of my fears gone, he also said that baby
> would not even go on the at risk register or a care order so thats another
> great thing. I'm going to be more prepared this time I think and I also
> think I'll be going with the doula option as she sounded great. Good thing
> is all my labours seem to be getting shorter with each baby so if I'm in
> mega pain for any reason then it'll last 5hrs max hopefully and I think I
> can cope with that with the idea that i'll get a precious baby at the end
> of it which I won't need to share with any other woman on this planet.
> I'll be able to bring it home and do normal mummy things which will be
> superduperfabtasticwonderful. Sorry ladies there will be no conga march
> with this baby LOL.
Actually, there will probably be an extra long conga line with this next
one, especially if it's a completely normal birth and you leave the hospital
with your baby, like any other normal mother! That would certainly be worth
some stroller conga!