hi sj

i read ur birth story and it was nice to know u had a drug free delivery and the nurse helped u thro it. can u describe more how u managed the pain? was it bearable? what all did u do for comfort measures? how was the actual pushing? i am from mar 07 board. thanks. love to ur little one. sj replied. Thank you for taking time and reading my birth story.

I don't even remember how the pain was now. The pain was bearable until i was 7 cms dilated but after that the contractions were really painful. I wanted to go for an epidural but the nurse insisted that I am almost there and even if I take it, it doesn’t help me. All I did was deep breathing and thinking of the grand event. I was lucky that I dilated very fast. My doctor encouraged me a lot too. I went to the hospital at 9.15 pm and the baby was born at 10.44 so I didn’t have much time to think about the pain and get the epidural.

Pushing the baby was a little hard and my muscles were sore for couple of days but it all happened. The doctor and the nurse will give u instructions on how to push. they usually count the numbers and i think it helps.

My suggestions are try to spend as much time as you can at home so you can do your normal activity and forget the pain to some extent. Because when you go to the hospital you will be in bed and the pain seems to be more. I stayed home until I was 5cms dilated. Turn the positions often so you can find the comfortable position to lie. I turned on the left when I was 9 cms and I had an urge to push as the baby came really low and in 10 min the baby was out. But the placenta took a lot of time. It took 15-20 minutes to take the placenta out. So I had to do the breathing until then.

Practice breathing exercises and have faith and confidence that it is possible. The graph will show when the contractions peak and when they start to wear off.. so if you can see it..just do the breathing and it will go away. Don’t be hard on yourself either.. Make up your mind to get an epidural or even go for a c-section otherwise you will be disappointed if it didn’t happen the way you imagined. All we want is a healthy baby..

For my first baby I was induced so it took me 11 hours and I dilated slowly so I had to take the epidural and I slept for a while and when the baby came I was all active and I think at that time it helped me a lot. If you want to get the epidural wait until you are 5 cms dilated.

Good luck.. Hope this helps. Let me know your experience.

Sarita