sounds terrible lou. Must say though Lous' experience isnt the norm Apprently my tear was quite bad but I didnt have a clue and as said it cause me no problems at all afterwards with anything from going to the toilet to sex...anything.
The most suprising thing for me was how much I bled in the few hours after, I bled a lot (soaked many many sheet things) in the hour afterwards and continued to bleed too heavily for a pad for about 8 hours....I hadnt been prepared for this and it did scare me slightly, the amount of bleeding you can expect was something i hadnt seen/heard/read much about.
There are things you can do to help prevent tears so go ahead and do them, please dont get yourselves worried though. Bad tears arent that common, most tears dont even require stitches and heal incredibly quickly. Oh and also a big baby doesnt always mean tearing, my son was 8lb 13 and as mentioned I tore internally, a friend of mine had a baby weighing 10lb 2oz and she didnt tear at all.

the way i see it there are so many young teens having babies that if they can do it then someone double their age can certainly do it. Being through it before when i hear of someone young who's pregnant ( i work in a gp surgery) i think to myself god they dont know what there in for but 9 months later a wee baby appears and they got through it fine, midwifes say 9/10 they are the ones who don't complain as much in the labour suit lol x at the time of my last labour i was in that much pain i wasn't worried about anything, and i think they gave me everything under the sun that i was totally away with it as well. If i go through it all the way this time i don't think i was as many injections as i got of morphine or whatever, i would like to remember the experience and not just bits and pieces! xx

Hi,
This is my third baby and all I can say is the pain does not feel anything like it looks. My advice would be to start off with some gas and air, and if that is not enough have a shot of diamorpine it is fabulous.

Remember you could always opt for an epidural if the diamorphine/pethadine and Gas and air is not enough. I have had one and believe me it was wonderful. I felt no pain at all.

You will be fine I am sure. It annoys me when everyone starts to scare you with their labour stories as it frightens first timers and is not nessasary (((((hugs))))))

dolittleliza

My tear was caused by medical negligence, she used forceps without cutting me first then proceeded to rip baby out.

so yeh mine is 'one of a kind'.

and an experience that will be with me for life..

BUT....

thats just me, and i was VERY unlucky to have a locum 'overseas' registrar on who then reportedly left the hospital a week after and couldnt be located.


Childbirth pain 'i.e contractions are painful just make sure you practice your breathing exercises ladies as they WILL help no end.

I personally think great going into labour for first time dont know what expect. May sound odd, but dont know whats going to happen, what is going to feel like.
With this 1, i know what expect, i know how the pain is, i know i could be in for a long labour again doesnt scare me but i feel different from way i felt first time round lol.
Anyways just got think positive. Dont stress over it. Really aint that bad. personally i think if you ever have kidney infection, worse than labour contractions lol.
I think watching birting videos dos help

I am not that worried about the labour strangely enough. I am more concerned about going into premature labour than the actual experience. My little sister did it at 17 and she coped just fine and she ended up having to have forceps and ventouse cos the baby wasnt coping with contractions, and shes just had her 2nd! They reckon you take after your mum for labour and my mums longest labour was 6 hours and biggest baby was 6 and a half pounds. I have just been using PMA and thinking well its going to happen regardless of what I do and at the end of it I will have my beautiful much longed for little boy and wont care how much pain I have just been in.

Oh and mummytoamber...Ive had 2 kidney infections and coped with them just fine woop woop!

its normal hun... i was so scared coming up to my duedate... but its soo worth it, as soon as i got my first contraction i was actually excited that it was happening!

with my 1st i wasnt scared at all, didnt even give it a second thought but with my 2nd i was absolutely bricking it, not the actual labour but i was so scared i wouldnt know that i was in labour. with my 1st everything was so textbook, my waters broke, went to hopsital and gave birth a few hours later so with my 2nd i was scared that it wouldnt happen that way and i wouldnt know. with this one i am so so scared of giving birth.

My current logic is that lots of ladies choose do it again and again, if it was that bad they would only do it once!

I'm looking forward to it. I have a high pain threshold so I'm hoping that helps.

I might not be here today if it wasn't for my OH. 4 years ago when I had appendicitis I wasn't even for going to the hospital. I had the pains everyone talks about, but it wasn't really that bad.

I wanted to go to bed and get some sleep, it wasn't until I started violently throwing up that my OH made me go to A&E. I remember the nasty looks and grief I gave him the whole way to the hospital (bloody making me go here for nothing, prabably just the flu!). Cut to an hour later and I was on the operating table having my already perforated appendix removed.

I was lucky they got me in time, the fluid had started to leak to other parts of my body and they had to suck it all out (sorry if TMI). And I know if I had been home alone I would never have gone to the hospital, the pain just wasn't that bad.

The thought of tearing scares the bejesus outta me though. My sister had bad tearing and she told me of crying her eyes out every time she went to the toilet (and my sister is a tough chick!).

We will get through it though. Billions of women have.