But you just went ahead and did it???

Live and learn for all of us :)

I was very lucky to learn from my friends who have been through childbirth, so I made sure I ate all my meals leading up to delivery .. it's key I think to have the energy to push. Many of my friends were not allowed to eat and were really hungry for a long period of time.

I was EXTREMELY stressed out the first 2 weeks when my milk supply was just coming in, my nipples hurt so much and the baby kept crying as she was hungry. I really dreaded breastfeeding. I broke the tubing of the breast pump and while waiting for the replacement to be mailed to me from the States (supposed to take a couple of days, but ended up arriving 5 weeks later!), my supply diminished. We had to resort to formula. I went through a lot of deliberation and guilt, but finally the switch to formula (sorry baby!) freed me and I became a much much happier mother, and my bub was contented, peaceful, chilled and started putting on weight. I will try breastfeeding again for the next baby, but I promise myself I won't be stressed about it. Some things are just not meant to be and it's OK. Amen.
 
Hats off to you that you are even considering a second pregnancy..... There is no jumping from pan into the fire here- you have already been through hell. It can only get better with the hindsight that you have now!
 
I was just watching this video

YouTube - Natural Birthing Complications, Episode #289

Starting at 3 minutes, 55 seconds

Okay, so the way she speaks of her experience is a little more "mystical" and shows her raw vegan background (not to be stereotypical but that's probably the least stereotypical way to describe it) but the experience she had is exactly what happened to me.

I didn't go to a "parallel universe" when I finally passed out, though. (And, I didn't bleed for an hour either--if I had bled for an hour at the rate I was bleeding I would have certainly died). I also didn't meet anyone who had made a "soul contract" with me but, I'd say overall our experiences were similar. :haha: But I do remember coming to with smelling salts underneath my nose and about three "angelic" nurse faces hovering over me. They put me on some oxygen and I think I have never talked more or faster in my life (and that's really saying something for me). I was just babbling and babbling.

My body didn't expel the placenta and my uterus couldn't contract hard enough and fast enough to stop the bleeding. So, after all the pain of childbirth (the many, many hours of it) and pushing my son out and tearing quite badly, I can really relate to what this woman says about envisioning holding your baby and not being really ready for the trauma that can follow the birth. The main difference between her and I being that I was in a hospital setting and not giving birth at home so it was a little less harrowing.

So, actually, when I thought the pain of childbirth was over, I was wrong. The nurse midwife at the hospital then had to keep reaching her hand inside of me and literally ripping the placenta out of me. It was a very "raw" experience, pun intended. I was like begging her, "Please stop, it hurts so bad" but at the same time she was saving my life so I'm glad she did what needed to be done. At the same time I had about 2-3 nurses "pounce" on me and start shoving their fists into my uterus to force it to contract. Then they started jabbing shots in my legs. They saved my life and I'm grateful.

But, it's interesting she talks about the use of herbs in labor and childbirth--specifically a herb called ground ivy. I definitely will be speaking with a HK Herbalist about this because I'm quite interested.
 
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and i thought mine was bad....i only had an epi that didn't take and blood pressure that was through the roof... so much so that they kept me on a drip administering drugs and also kept me in a delivery room for the first 12 hours as they needed to monitor me to make sure i didn't have a heart attack or a stroke...

i'll take mine over yours anyday... thank you for putting mine into perspective.

if you can live through that, you can do ANYTHING!
 
Obiwan said:
Live and learn for all of us :)

I was very lucky to learn from my friends who have been through childbirth, so I made sure I ate all my meals leading up to delivery .. it's key I think to have the energy to push. Many of my friends were not allowed to eat and were really hungry for a long period of time.

I was EXTREMELY stressed out the first 2 weeks when my milk supply was just coming in, my nipples hurt so much and the baby kept crying as she was hungry. I really dreaded breastfeeding. I broke the tubing of the breast pump and while waiting for the replacement to be mailed to me from the States (supposed to take a couple of days, but ended up arriving 5 weeks later!), my supply diminished. We had to resort to formula. I went through a lot of deliberation and guilt, but finally the switch to formula (sorry baby!) freed me and I became a much much happier mother, and my bub was contented, peaceful, chilled and started putting on weight. I will try breastfeeding again for the next baby, but I promise myself I won't be stressed about it. Some things are just not meant to be and it's OK. Amen.
Click to expand...

For me, I think there was a very limited window of opportunity for me to consume food. It's not that I was really skipping any meals (which can clearly be seen by how fat I was), it's just that none of my friends (or anyone I know for that matter) went through 43 hours of labor and I could have never anticipated that it would have been that long. I had eaten the night before but woke up in labor in the middle of night--really hard painful contractions that only got more intense as time wore on.

In hindsight, I should have gotten up at 1 am and immediately eaten something as soon as I went into labor. I was in labor for 10 hours (painful contractions, consistent and 5 minutes apart--my husband kept record of every contraction on a sheet of paper I still have) before I even went to the hospital. I was in the hospital overnight and still my son wasn't born.

By the time I entered day two of labor, I was beyond being able to eat--in far too much pain and my digestion had pretty much shut down altogether. I figured, based on my friends' experiences of 12-15 hours in labor, that I would be done with labor, surely before I was 24 hours into it. So, it just comes down to misjudgment of time. But, honestly, no pregnancy book ever warns you that your labor could last for 43 hours! So, in hindsight, I would get up, immediately as I feel the first contraction and start getting some food in me to prepare for the journey ahead.

Breastfeeding was hard on so many levels. It was hard enough to deal with going from B cup to a DD cup but then upon the first engorgement I experienced, I started having terrible pain. My son latched fine but yeah...it just got really bad really fast. Had infections and son hating to breastfeed etc. etc. It was rough. But, I actually really believe in the huge benefits of bf so it was really hard for me to let go and move from bf to formula. But, I did give it a good run--5 months is a long time to suffer. So, next time, 8 weeks. Eight weeks is my limit.

But you're right, we always do learn as we live--and every day is a new day.
 
carang said:
and i thought mine was bad....i only had an epi that didn't take and blood pressure that was through the roof... so much so that they kept me on a drip administering drugs and also kept me in a delivery room for the first 12 hours as they needed to monitor me to make sure i didn't have a heart attack or a stroke...

i'll take mine over yours anyday... thank you for putting mine into perspective.

if you can live through that, you can do ANYTHING!
Click to expand...

Yeah, no epidural here (kinda doesn't flow with the "natural labor" scheme :haha:). But, you said you had a c-section with no pain relief? That's gotta be nasty.

I got to go to the recovery room probably 1-2 hours after the birth but I wasn't able to stand up without passing out until the end of the day after labor and thus didn't get cleaned or showered for about 16 hours which was really "nice."

Also, although I had no intravenous fluids while I was in labor (also doesn't go too well with the "natural labor" plans), afterward they had to put fluid in me with an IV because of the blood loss and I blew up like a balloon (which I'm told is normal with IV fluid).

I actually had electric pressure cuffs on my legs to try to squeeze some of the fluid back up into my body because my legs were so bloated. After returning home the swelling was just as bad but no pressure cuffs to help so yeah, I was in constant pain in my legs.

It was snowing outside so my husband went out with a bucket and filled it and I stuck my feet in the cold snow to try to help. I remember sitting on the toilette and crying because there was no more toilette paper and I couldn't stand up without assistance to reach for some. I felt totally helpless.

Eight weeks after the birth we returned to Hong Kong and my legs were still swollen--I remember still barely being able to walk as my legs hurt so bad and my hips were out of joint as well. It just seemed like it took forever for me to heal after the birth.

Yes, I just was never prepared to go through that sort of agony for so long--it really took me to the edge of sanity.

I'm really sorry that you've had blood pressure problems. Is that an inherited thing in your family? Did they ever figure out why it was such a problem for you? Personally, I have extremely low blood pressure which I think I inherited from my grandfather or something. My blood pressure is normally about 100/60. No matter how fit or in shape I am, it's still very low. So, I can pass out easily if I stand up too fast and sometimes I get a bit weak.
 
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