Childbirth experiences

Membranes were stripped ahead of time to induce for each kid. For #4 the doctor stripped them twice, which I did not even know would be necessary.

For births 1, 2, and 3, my water was broken by the doctor. For #4, it spontaneously broke at home.

DH was present at each one. We never allowed any additional visitors.

Births 1, 3, and 4 were quick active labors. #2 was back labor and that kid did was dug in, so the final stages of labor were not fun. They gave me some medication on the cervix to speed the ripening process but apparently I was pretty sensitive to it. They wouldn’t put the epidural in until I was at 10cm, saying “at the rate you’re going, it may slow you down.” So I got it at 10, they said “we estimate you’ll deliver in the next 4 hours.” He was born 45 minutes later. Then the epidural kicked in.

I actually got to full 100% of the ring of fire on the 3rd and 4th births. It was such a high. The feeling is indescribable - it’s not exactly a burn like I thought - and with all that “I am woman! Hear me roar!“ and “Let’s get this kid out now,” the emotional/physical feelings were at such an overwhelming point right then that it did resemble a very powerful orgasm, sensation-wise.

Had 3 kids all vaginal births with epidurals. Oldest daughter was in labor total of 33 hours had to break my water. 2nd daughter was 8 hours of labor had to break water. 3rd my son had to be induced 14 hours of labor had to break water he was almost a C-section because I stopped dilating but luckily he came out naturally

Sorry, English is not my native language so I‘m trying to keep it as short as possible.

I had a beautiful homebirth in November 2020. Due to the pandemic I wanted to birth at home.

Very light contractions started at 4am, I called my doula at around 7am, I think she arrived about half an hour later. Till then I walked around the house and was given an enema by my husband because I felt constipated.

At around 8am I got into the birthing pool, did breathing excercises but I felt like it wasn‘t really going forward with being 6cm dilated. My husband knew about the oxytocin being helpful to get the process going and asked me if I wanted some nipple stimulation which I wanted. He sat behind me, touching my breasts but eventually stopped bc I couldn‘t bear it anymore because of the pain. In between contractions I tried some self clitoral stimulation which kinda helped with the pain. But I couldn‘t even think of an orgasm. Looking back I think I should have masturbated when I woke up at 4, haha.

I was in a squatting position with my doula holding me from behind when my babygirl arrived at 1:13pm right into her fathers hands. It was about 20 mins later when the placenta was „born“. I had no vaginal tearing.

My first childbirth was not what I had planned. My husband at the time and I were visiting his friend when my water broke. I’d have little contractions earlier but they were so manageable that I didn’t pay attention. When my water broke, everything went faster than we expected. His friend was a paramedic and his wife was a midwife. She always had at least 2 birthing kits in the house or car. She was at another birth and so he had to take over. He got his bed ready and scrubbed his hands and put on gloves. My husband helped me take my wet bottoms off and get on the bed.

I was checked and was to our surprise 8 cm dilated. Within a couple of hours I was ready to push. My husband got behind me and I started pushing. I only pushed for 10-15 minutes when I started crowning. 10 pushes later our son was born.

With our first, he was measuring really big so they decided to get my partner induced rather than leave him any longer to get stuck.

Induction brought on a few contractions and it was getting painful so she had an epidural. No sign of becoming any more dilated so in the end she was wheeled in for a C section. The whole cm dilated discussion is hardly very scientific when it all depends on how chubby the midwife's fingers are!

The whole process from being induced to our son being born took about 4 days. One of the midwives came off shift, went home then came into the room for her next shift was like "oh, you're still here!? Lets do something about this"

In the end, he was born at 9lb 6oz, 4 days overdue with a mop of white-blond hair and was seeming the talk of the midwife station for the next couple of days.

Second time around with our daughter was pretty uneventful by comparison with a scheduled c section after the debacle of the first.

Younger brother and I were both emergency c-sections. 5 years apart.