I know from experience both times I labored and gave birth in the hospital, I had a strong since of panic and urgency throughout the pushing phase of labor....
With Kiale I labored most of the time, including transition, in a car. A small bit of time in the vacation cabin my grandparents own and about 30min in my own home. Of my 5 hour labor with Kiale 2 hours of it was in the Oldsmobile Cutlass that we owned at the time. I do not recommend that. Being strapped into a car during labor is just not a good place to be, much like being strapped into a bed in the hospital. I don't recommend it, it increases your pain levels. We arrived to the hospital at 7:30 he was here by 8:55. It was an hour and a half of panic and more pain then I care to discuss, but looking back on it I realize that if I had taken charge of my labor I could have lessened the pain. They did the usual when I arrived, checked me for dilation (I was 7), IV, monitors, paperwork (which we finished post delivery) All of this because I was fighting the process, I would hold my breath and not breathe during contractions to try and keep the pain from coming. I do not recommend it.
With Kiale I was fighting the process, which resulted in extreme pain and discomfort and with Colin I let my body do what it needed to do as a birthing vessel and I succumbed and embraced the process. By doing so my pain was cut in half since I was not trying to hold my body back from doing what it needed to do. During my labor with Kiale I tried to get myself into every possible position to try and relieve the horrendous pain I was feeling, there is no sugar coating that labor, it just plain hurt. I had extreme back labor with him, it did not matter what laboring position I got in with him, nothing relieved the back pressure and pain I felt with him. So much of that pain was caused by me, fighting the process and attempting to hold my body back from what it naturally knew how to do. As soon as I layed down in that bed my pain levels skyrocketed with both of their labors. It was just like sitting in the car, and it was horrible. If I had been able to walk, sway, anything other than be in the position that I was in things would have been so much easier and I would have been far less frightened, but being 18 and 19 years old and pregnant I didn't know what to research, and I didn't know what to do other than just listen to the nurses and doctors and follow every instruction that they said to do, because "they new what was best." Yes, I read all the books but those books aren't necessarily what is best I have come to find out...
2 comments:
Embracing it does make a world of difference. That is what I tried to do and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
You are awesome to have labored in a car for two hours. WHAT A FEAT!!!
For me some of the empowerment of labor (with my homebirth) was KNOWING it was going to hurt, EXPERIENCING the hurt and WORKING THROUGH the pain to get to the end (birthing a baby). Labor is supposed to be work, that's why it's called LABOR! So many women try to escape by numbing the pain or denying it. I was in the same situation with my first child as far as NOT listening to myself or my body. I was completely unprepared the Pain. I didn't do a lot of research or talk to a lot of mothers who had "done it" naturally. I just thought we'd figure it out. I guess we did in a sense (after the fact.)
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