If you had to do it all over again...

[Karly]

.... what would you do different during labor/delivery?

[TtownAnne]

Would have done some video. Not the money shots of course, but some film during the easier part of labor, and when they handed Caroline to me at the end. We probably would have done it except Caroline was born three weeks early so my water breaking was a complete shock and we were lucky to remember to throw some clothes in a bag, let alone take the video camera.

[sheila]

I think I would have tried to avoid being induced with Maggie. I feel reasonably sure that they had me fail the NST I took the day before Maggie's birthday. I was 9 days overdue, very uncomfortable and I think they took pity on my.

I've always wondered if forcing her out before she was good and ready played any part in her being colicky and clingy. There's obviously no way to know, but I do wonder if not letting her take her own time changed her somehow. :dunno:

[Dawnie]

I would like to have a doula present to help me through labor and more pictures during and just after.

Dawn

[Cami]

I can't really think of anything. I would have liked my epidural with Aubrey to have worked but I guess it resulted in a different experience with each kid's birth.

[Alyssa]

I never would have had an epidural w/ Aidan. Since I couldn't feel a thing, it took me waaaaay too long to push and he was born 35 minutes into my MILs birthday, missing my birthday. (If he had to share, I wanted him to share mine.)

[Girlo]

The only thing I can think of is I wish I had been better prepared. :lol: Alex coming at 35 weeks.....going into labor at work....and not being done with our remodel at the time just made for me being really out of it.
I always wished I had a bag of goodies - CD's, lip balm, extra pillow, jammies, etc. - to comfort me, and I had....nothing. :lol: I had to go home in my work clothes and wear the gowns from the hospital while I was there. I had no music of my own and didn't even have my camera because it was shoved in a closet because of the remodel.

It all worked out in the end, but I will make sure that I'm all packed very early if there's a next time. :aok:

[Alysia]

I would have a mirror so I could see the baby coming out and have the baby laid on my chest immediately instead of waiting for them to clean the baby off.

[Girlo]

:lol: Alysia, they put a mirror up for me so I could see Alex coming out. I looked during a push and all I saw was a big lump o' poo.....and NO baby head. :dead: :lol: I kept my eyes shut tight after that because I was so horrified that I was pooing on the bed. :lol:

I also wish I could have had Alex laid on me right away. That went away with his prematurity as well though. He was whisked away to the bed with about 5 ped residents waiting for him....I didn't have a choice. I got him pretty soon though. :love:

[Jillian]

I really can't think of anything. I wish Janelle's labor had been like Kincaid and Travis'...but it's not like I could change anything. She just was not ready to be born yet and my water broke then I started running a fever and feeling sick, so they had to induce.

[Melissa]

I definitely would change the amount that I was stuck on the bed. I should have walked around more, I think that would have helped progress my labor and I could have used other means of pain alleviation. But since I was induced, they wanted to monitor me constantly.

[Jayne]

I wouldn't change a thing with Tylor's. It was wonderful. It really progressed nice and easy and fantastic.

With Alyssa's induction I was in awful pain and then had the worst nurse most of the time. I had one nurse come in for an hour while my nurse went on her lunch break and I think I would have demanded her to stay had I realized she was so amazing. SHe got me through an hour and then things went just awful and I needed her because mine didn't help me one bit.

[Darcy]

With Riley, nope. She was sunny-side up, so that caused some laboring problems. I wish I didn't devlop a fever from pushing, which caused them to give me antibiotics, which meant Riley had to stay in the hospital an extra day. Poor girl had to have a splint put on her arm to keep the IV in. :blue:

For J, I really struggled with being induced. I didn't want to, but the fact that I worked an hour away from the hospital, we had Riley to worry about getting her to grandparents, I was already 4cms, and I had GBS added so many variables I finally decided to do it. It would've been cool if he was born on his due date of 4/5/06. :) But I also didn't want to be in the hospital on my 30th b-day (4/2) :scan:

[Bev]

Nothing! They were both perfect. :)

Maybe more video as Anne said. We have some with Mason, but the camera wasn't working properly which we didn't know. Graham was too fast for anything. I had both babies on me (in a blanket) right away.

[magoo]

With both, it's less of if I had it to do over again, and more about if I had the cash, but I wish I could have had a professional photographer there to photograph the labour and delivery.

With Anna, I would go back and have a midwife. Then I wouldn't have been stuck with the mean nurse, and I wouldn't have had the epidural, which I didn't need since I was fully dilated and pushing when they were putting it in.

With J, I wouldn't have changed anything (other than if I could have affoarded a photographer).

[Trish]

I wish I hadn't been induced w/Aden, but there was really nothing I could do about that. Evan and Owen's labors were great and I wouldn't change a thing :)

[Shel]

No epidural with Riley. It didn't take since they went in through scar tissue, and all the meds pooled into my back. I had horrible back pain, tailbone issues and a huge bruise on my back for months after she was born, and I still felt every contraction and pushing her out, only it was doubled by my back pain :(

With Owen, I would have let them check me sooner than I did. I was going for a drug-free, less check labor, and because of that, they didn't realize he was transverse until I had been in labor 18 hours. I was exhausted and he was under stress, and I could have had it over with long before I did.

[Barb]

I wouldn't be so quick to say, yeah - induce me. Since I was induced both times, I'll never know what it's like to go into labor naturally.

[Bretta]

Nothing with any of them except for videoing more (but who knew they would go so fast?!?!?!?!) And more pictures of me and them. ( :blush: a bit selfish, but who cares)

[schwanda]

I would have been pushier about getting my epidural sooner. The pitocin was awful and I really suffered for a long time. I also would have gone to c section sooner.

Amanda

[Alyson]

Brookelyn's labor and delivery really was almost perfect. The only thing I can think that I'd change is more pictures of her and I.

[Bonnie]

I would have tried for a VBAC with Courtney. She ended up being much smaller than Caroline and had a much smaller head, so I might have been able to succeed.

[ykmama]

Brookelyn's labor and delivery really was almost perfect. The only thing I can think that I'd change is more pictures of her and I.

Same here for Aubrey, but I would have had someone other then my mom take them cause she was all shaky and her camera sucked so the pics are blurry and grainy. I think Aubreys birthing process was great, other then the pain I may have not joked so much with the nurse about the epidural , cause she didn't take me seriously about getting one. In the end I'm glad I didnt get one and that that amnesia thing really does kick in!

[AmyP]

I would have done a million things differently.

First off, I would have chosen a different hospital. The place where we had Sarah treated us (especially DH) horribly. They treated DH like he didn't exist or like he was a horrible person, they treated me like I was an idiot. They were talking to me like Sarah would never learn to latch properly to nurse when she was two days old. And they looked at me like I was insane when I refused to fill out WIC papers (nothing against anybody on WIC, but I knew we didn't qualify and didn't need it so I didn't want to be bothered with filling them out). The hospital was in a nasty part of town, and they have a lot of teenage drug-addicted moms (not all teenage moms are drug-addicted, just a lot of the ones who deliver there), so I think some of that is just that they are not used to people coming in with their husbands, having their own insurance, etc.

Also, I think I was forced into a c-section too early. The minute they saw she was sunny-side up they said c-section. No real attempt was made to turn her or otherwise help her come out vaginally. I still to this day regret saying okay to a c-section. I wish I would have insisted on being given more time.

And as comfy as it made me, I wouldn't have had an epidural. I think it prevented Sarah from getting into the correct position, and I was too numb to really feel myself when I was trying to push her out. So I think that part hurt me too.

I would have had a doula as well, and I think that would have prevented a lot of the crap I went through. Just having another advocate for me would have been wonderful. But I didn't know my rights, didn't know what I was agreeing to when I agreed to it, etc. A doula would have helped prevent that.

This time I'm hiring a doula, going to the hospital with the lowest c-section rate in the state, and I'm seeing a group of midwives. When I told them what happened with Sarah's birth, they were shocked. They promised me they would work harder and do better to help me get a VBAC. :) And the hospital is in a much better part of town, so I think we'll be treated better too. I'm not 100% ruling out an epidural, but I plan to avoid it at all costs. I'm going to look into childbirth classes in another method like Bradley or something so that I can manage the pain without drugs.

Sorry, long-winded. But the subject has been on my mind a lot since I'm halfway through this pregnancy!

[Jillian]

But I also didn't want to be in the hospital on my 30th b-day (4/2) :scan:


That made me think. I would of picked a different induction date for Travis, but I picked the latest date my ob would go for, I didn't want him born earlier than that if he didn't come 100% naturally and the 12th was the latest my ob was willing to let me go...

So I went into the hospital on our 6th anniversary(august 12) and left the hospital on my 28th birthday(august 14th)....he decided he would not share his birthday however and was born on the 13th. :lol:

[TaraF]

I don't know if there is anything I'd do differently. My pregnancies were horrible but labour was a surprisingly pleasant experience with both!

Both labours were fast, and nearly pain-free (thanks to the epidural :lol: )... though I was 6cm dialated with Eric when I was admitted, and not in need of an epidural at that point... I got one anyway because I feared what was to come if I didn't :lol: but I do wonder if I could have done it without the epidural... I don't regret having it though - just wonder sometimes :).

[Lyndee]

I had awesome deliveries with both kids so I wouldn't change a thing. I thought we took a lot of photos but I sometimes wish I took better ones of their faces and their newborn "features" (like Lauryn's hairy back :lol: )

[Marcella]

With Amelia, nothing really. I was induced, but had a great experience.. things really went just as I had hoped!

With Alexander, perhaps I wouldn't have been so stubborn about NOT being induced. Despite my great experience with my induction w/ Amelia, I really, really wanted to experience going into labor on my own. So much so that for the last few weeks of my pregnancy, when the doctor kept expressing some concern that the baby was getting so big, I continued to request that we wait it out. He finally insisted that he was going to induce at 41 weeks, and I went into labor on my own the day before. Alexander ended up being over 10 pounds, plus sunny side up, and I had to have a c-section. To this day I wonder if I had not been so stubborn, and had allowed him to induce me a week or two before, would I have been able to deliver vaginally? We'll never know.

With Claudia, I wouldn't do anything differently. I knew that I HAD to try for a VBAC, and even though I ended up with a repeat section, I would do the exact same thing all over again.

[MamaGoofy]

For one I would have waited until Thursday to go into the hospital like the doctor originally said. Then while waiting for Thursday I would have tried to get labor to start on it's own. Maybe then I wouldn't have had to be induced.:dunno:

Second, I would have skipped the staydol. That was the worst experience I have ever had. It so wasn't worth it. Other than that I wouldn't change a thing.