Anyone else have a fabulous hospital birth story? - Page 3

[thefragile7393]

I'm glad to see this thread....it's nice that there are ways to have a good positive hospital birth There's a lot of reasons why some women need or prefer a hospital and it's nice to see that it is possible to be able to have a great experience. I still would rather stay farrr away from the ones here but I know if I had to go (absolutely HAD to) that I would fight hard to make it as great as possible.

[Celery]

I had a great hospital birth, mainly because I got to choose a great hospital.

Excellent midwife, excellent nurse. I really felt like they were on my side and I didn't have to worry about them pushing something on me.

It's definitely possible if you choose your midwife and your hospital carefully.

[Megs_BK]

Originally Posted by freebirth2

Yeah I don't see how very many women can have a great hospital birth. I don't see how any women wants to go to a hospital and have a bunch of people touching and staring at their privates even being in a position that they make you be in is humiliating call me ultra modest but I don't see how any women can deal with that just the thought of it grosses me out. I would totally be closing my vagina if people other than my husband were touching me down there. We did not create our children with a person around so why should we birth our children with a person between our privates? It dosen't make sense to me. 95% of births can successfully take place at home.

Please tell me how you think this post was helpful or related to the OP's actual question. If you don't have something productive to add to a thread, why post? Take the high road and leave it be.

[cam&kat's_mom]

Hopefully in about 6 weeks I'll have one to share with you
I've had 2 hospital births and they were pretty good, other than being induced, and having that damn IV~ Other than that they were more than accomodating for whatever i asked. Or i just did what i wanted and they dind't complain! LOL
But I'm hoping that this time i will not swell up and go on my own and have a wonderful experience

[KittyKat]

Yes. I had an amazing wonderful birth in the hospital. It was not quite as nice as my home waterbirth, but it was close enough, and it worked well for me and for my DH. Actually, after Liam's death any birth that ended up with us taking home a live baby would have been OK. The fact that her birth went really well was just gravy! And yes, my birth was attended by a CNM, and it was a waterbirth (just barely!)

Jubilee Hope's birth story:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=441874

[lilyka]

Originally Posted by freebirth2

Yeah I don't see how very many women can have a great hospital birth. I don't see how any women wants to go to a hospital and have a bunch of people touching and staring at their privates even being in a position that they make you be in is humiliating call me ultra modest but I don't see how any women can deal with that just the thought of it grosses me out. I would totally be closing my vagina if people other than my husband were touching me down there. We did not create our children with a person around so why should we birth our children with a person between our privates? It dosen't make sense to me. 95% of births can successfully take place at home.

I think this attitude is why so many women end up having terrible hospital births. how defeatest. I never expected to be treated poorly in anyway and was confident that my every desire would be respected without a lot of fuss. And i was right. i was treated like a queen. I was confident in the hospital environment because i had educated myself, chosen an axcellent advocate in my midwife (maybe we should start a thread on how to have a good hospital birth) and expected great things. and I got them. When you assume you are helples in the hospital and that everyone is ignorant of how birth should be and out to get you that is what you are going to get. I wanted a hospital birth because I hated everything about my homebirth and had no other options for a homebirth midwife (and was not into a UC for many of the reasons I hated my homebirth to begin with).

I liked being out of my house away from kids and responsibility (in theory, I ended up giving birth in the office with about a zillion people around. good thing we didn't stop for bagels on the way in like I wanted . . . . at least the people standing around new how to be helpful and were mostly people I knew), i liked having a clean quiet place with compassionate people taking waiting on me hand and foot, giving me options (including medical ones) and not judging my choices. The plan was to have no one in the room but my husband, my midwife and her assistant. Even in the chaos in which I gave birth (i didn't really labor) I felt protected, sheltered, I gave birth in the same position i would have at home . . on the floor on my hands and knees . . . when my baby was having trouble it was comforting to have a trained professional working on things gently, respectfully and without panic and someone else attending to my husband and me (who were in full panic mode).

but then we went into it with a good attitude. we chose people who would defend and support us. we expected that our desires would be respected and communicated that to the staff. there was never an adversarial relationship. I realy think confidence and pleasentness go a long way towards the universe giving you what you want. but I will admit. nothing helps nearly as much as having a hospital midwife who is there primartily to advocate for women rights on the OB floor. She could do homebirths but feels passionately that women laboring in hospitals need an advocate and hospitals need to change and she was in a position to do that (she had leverage - two huge hospitals in town were fighting over her and she had demands - she completely rewrote ob policy and went with the hospital who met the most of her demands). and it is not just her paitents that benifit, she trains all the nurses and teaches them things like how to ask permission before touching a woman or her child (so simple, means so much), and exactly how to you work with a woman who is laboring/birthing on her hands and knees (my friend does childbirth classes for the hospital and caught a glmipse of this. she totally thought they were in there playing twister until she took a closer look. ). So i won't pretend like I wasn't at an advantage but i think with the right attitude also went a long way towards the nursing staff treating me like a queen. and I was treated like a queen. and my little princess . . once they realized her general bluish tint was not lack of oxygen and recovered from the fright, they treated her like she was the only baby they had ever laid eyes on. nurses came form all over the floor (and then some) just to welcome her. it was heavenly.

[ZeldasMom]

I get the feeling some folks are feeling judged for having hospital births. This bums me out. Gayle Peterson's Childbirth: The Ordinary Miracle talks about empowerment and support of women with various brith experiences. Here's a taste:

In the media and other segments of society, motherhood and childbirth too easily become relegated to just one more "performance" for women to validate themselves in a world in which they are invisible in so many ways. Women are encouraged to describe their birth as a product: a "home birth" or a "hospital" birth, a "natural birth" or a "medicated" birth. The emphasis is not on the woman as birth-giver: "I gave birth at home", or "I gave birth in the hospital", or "I gave birth with medication", or" I gave birth without medication" or "I gave birth by cesarean". The woman's experience of herself has gone from process to product.

Okay, ZeldasMom here again. I gave birth the first time in a hospital, the second time at home. Both were positive experiences. If I had another baby it would be at home for reasons I won't go into now.

Here are some things that helped giving birth in a hospital be a positive experience for me:

-I labored at home a long time--I was 9cm when I was arrived at the hospital
-I had a midwife and a doula
-I did a lot of prep for the birth
-I brought cookies for the nurses

[Shonahsmom]

I had a wonderful hospital labor and birth experience that was a result of a HB transfer. My MW's were obligated to recommed transfer/decline to attend me at home because of thick mec in my fluid and I am ultimately glad I was there because my babe was born very sick. But the actual labor and birth were awesome. The clinc that my HB MW's worked out of also had hospital priveldges, so my HB MW attended my hospital birth. I ate, drank, was in and out of a wonderful deep tub and the shower. I squatted, walked, used a birthing ball that they hospital provided. I had music, low lights, no one in the room except dd's father and the MW, who both kinda sat off to the side and let me do my thing because I was seriously in another world and didn't want to be talked to, touched, etc.. I delivered on my hands and knees, which was the only time I was in the bed my entire labor. My amazing MW made the neo-natal resuscitation team wait outside until babe was out. I declined pitocin and there was no fuss or pressure over it. I felt very respected and supported. Having a sick babe in a NICU is a whooooole other story though.

[Oana]

I had a pretty good VBAC hospital experience. The whole story is here:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...=1#post5910440

Oana

[earthmama369]

Originally Posted by lilyka

I think this attitude is why so many women end up having terrible hospital births. how defeatest. I never expected to be treated poorly in anyway and was confident that my every desire would be respected without a lot of fuss. And i was right. i was treated like a queen. I was confident in the hospital environment because i had educated myself, chosen an axcellent advocate in my midwife (maybe we should start a thread on how to have a good hospital birth) and expected great things. and I got them. When you assume you are helples in the hospital and that everyone is ignorant of how birth should be and out to get you that is what you are going to get.

Hear, hear.

I had two lovely births in a hospital. (And I didn't even have a midwife!) Nakking right now, details are in past posts by me -- Nov. '04 and June '06. My birth plan was respected both times. I checked in when I wanted to, labored as I wanted to. The second was better in that I knew better what I wanted, but that's on me, not anyone else.

[Herausgeber]

Originally Posted by ldsapmom

I am wondering how many women you know? Maybe you don't know many who have hospital births?

I know plenty of mothers, nearly all of them who birthed in hospitals. I only know one woman IRL in my general age group who had a home birth. My sister's two births ended in C-sections, after a cascade of interventions. Ditto for my SIL. Outcomes among my friends who birthed in hospitals haven't been great either, even for educated women with written birth plans, etc. The hospital staff just ran roughshod over their wishes. Since I've been pregnant, the women I work with who've had children in the past few years have all been confiding their extremely disappointing and/or traumatic birth experiences to me.

But I recognize that some hospitals are better places to birth than others. I imagine it's partly regional.

I did have a nice conversation with my great-grandmother this weekend about her birth experiences. She had both of her children at home, the very home we were sitting in, in fact.

[majazama]

Originally Posted by ZeldasMom

Here are some things that helped giving birth in a hospital be a positive experience for me:

-I labored at home a long time--I was 9cm when I was arrived at the hospital
-I had a midwife and a doula
-I did a lot of prep for the birth
-I brought cookies for the nurses

(emphasis mine)

You have some good things to say, zeldasmom~

[mamanurse]

My hospital birth was a bittersweet experience for me, but probably falls in the "good" category. Due to finding out about my pg in the second trimester and having a diagnosis of lupus, I felt I should have a hospital birth.

I went into spontaneous labor at 37w3d and labored at home with freedom of movement, drink/eating, and toileting without monitoring. I was in active labor for about 5 hours and felt the urge to push. We went to the hospital and I was complete with the head at a +2 station. An IFM was placed in me even though I was trying to refuse. I was told to push, but didn't unless I felt the urge. Somewhere in the process, I felt betadine and asked the OB not to give me an episiotomy. She answered "You've already torn anyway!" and I got an episiotomy. I pushed with three contractions and my daughter was born. We were only at the hospital for 37 minutes prior to birth and that is what probably made it mostly non-interventional.

So, I guess I could be mad abou the IFM and episiotomy, but in retrospect everything turned out fine and healing from the episiotomy was a piece of cheese.

Breastfeeding was a nightmare, though, so I think it was just the actual birth that made it a semi-fabulous hospital birth. For our next, we will undoubtedly try to have a homebirth with a midwife.

[Jennifer3141]

My first hospital birth was not the best birth but the breastfeeding help was amazing.

My second hospital birth was fabulous and I was beggng for number 3 while pushing.

[BookGoddess]

Originally Posted by freebirth2

Yeah I don't see how very many women can have a great hospital birth. I don't see how any women wants to go to a hospital and have a bunch of people touching and staring at their privates even being in a position that they make you be in is humiliating call me ultra modest but I don't see how any women can deal with that just the thought of it grosses me out. I would totally be closing my vagina if people other than my husband were touching me down there. We did not create our children with a person around so why should we birth our children with a person between our privates? It dosen't make sense to me. 95% of births can successfully take place at home.

We need to realize not everyone see things the same way. Just because Mama A is bothered by some of the practices of a hospital birth and wants a home birth doesn't mean that Mama B, C, and D do. People should give birth in whatever place they feel most comfortable be it unassisted, at home with a midwife, or at a hospital. I won't judge a mama for her choices.

I had a good hospital birth. I didn't find it humiliating to have a doctor examine my vagina. Why would it be more humiliating than having a midwife do it? I go to an OB every year so it wasn't like it was the first time someone looked at my private bits.

The nurses were very nice. They dimmed the lights, kept out the noise, they allowed DH to be with me the whole time. I didn't feel pressured. No one made snide comments to me. I felt respected and I acted in a way that conveyed to the hospital staff that I expected complete respect.

My hospital didn't and doesn't hand out formula bags. After I had DD, a Medela Symphony pump was brought to my room by one of the nurses to help me pump (DD was in the NICU for 3 days). I had Lactation Consultants come to my room to show me how to work the breast pump. I was even given a pump to take home for a few weeks!! A week after I came home a LC followed up to make sure I knew how to nurse DD. In short, I don't regret my hospital birth.

[nichole]

yeah i didn't care who saw my privates either although it was only my dr plus two nurses who were very helpful. dh was getting woozy so i didn't mind them being there i would have arrived there naked if dh would have let me..i didn't care.

good points: got there at 7cm. no amniotomy, no episiotomy, no augmentation, no drugs, no vaccuum extractor. ate right in front of the nurse's face. spent about half of the time sitting on the toilet or in the shower by myself. only one VE which was my choice. baby stayed with me or dh the whole time. no one trying to sneak a circ or vaccine or formula or anything like that! oh yeah baby slept in my bed the whole time. my nurse encouraged it actually.

bad points: the baby's heartrate had decels which led to a rushed pushing phaze but i don't know what could have been done about that. the cord was around his neck. two nurses did piss me off i will say, but i just ignored them and they went away. i did have pitocin for pp bleeding, but i didn't care about that at the time. probably would have been easier to not have to drive to the hospital and back, but that is what i needed at the time to be comfortable so be it.

by the way, i had a family practioner, and she went OUT OF HER WAY to pull strings for me. she put me in an upright position. i did have an evil nurse in triage but that was for a very short time and as my dr got there she hooked me up with someone AWESOME. she barely even bothered me except to remind me to breathe and some encouraging words. my dr made sure the baby didn't go to the warmers and that newborn procedures were delayed. i was exhausted (no sleep) and could barely keep my eyes open, and the nurse encouraged me to bf anyway. she practically held the baby to the breast for me b/c i just couldn't do it. so even though i had a dr, it was because of her that i had a good experience. to me, it was a good experience, but different moms are looking for different things in their birth i'm sure. i didn't get her by accident. i asked around and talked to her about her philosophy on birth during my pregnancy.

[elanorh]

Well - I don't know if it was "fabulous," but it was pretty good - I thought it was fabulous 'til a few weeks ago (it was nearly three years ago) - and I'm still very happy with it (I just know more this time).

My Mom, Aunt, and sister all had NCB's (Mom 7/7, Aunt 5/5, Sister 2/3 - she had nubane to slow her contractions 'til her dh could get there, and that was her most difficult labor in the end) .... Also my cousin had an unplanned homebirth, obviously NCB. So I relied on them for my information/advice in re: what to expect with NCB and NCB in a hospital. In retrospect, I should have done some reading and research but I thought I'd done enough, with my talks and with a (very good, very pro-NCB) hospital birthing/bf course.

How things went -- we called the hospital at about midnight, told them that contractions were only about 30 seconds but were less than 4 minutes apart, should we come in? They told us we'd probably be sent home, but come in to be checked out.



So, nurse helps us settle into the room, tells us that often FTPs arrive too soon, we'll probably be sent home, etc., and when she's finally ready to check me her jaw drops - I'm 5 1/2 cm. So -- they go into rush mode getting things ready, although not TOO concerned, I still have plenty of time. I think they're taking their cues off dh and myself, who are calm, relaxed, I'm not in much pain really (Mom was right, it was like bad menstrual cramps) .... About an hour later she comes back to check how I'm progressing before calling our OB to let him know we're there, because, "He'll probably want to know how far along you are."

This is where she really does a jaw-drop, I'm now at 8 cm. So, she rushes out to call the doctor and starts really rushing to get things set up for a delivery in the room. I'm in back labor, so doing pelvic tilts to try to get Ina to turn .... She asks me if I'd like to go to the bathroom now, to get that taken care of. I do, and discover that it is MUCH more comfortable to have a contraction on the toilet than I was on hands and knees ... so we spent some time on the birthing ball between pelvic tilts -- then they said the EFM was not accurate enough in that position, and asked me to do more pelvic tilts on the bed .... hands and knees .... I did that 'til I was 10 cm, which was when Ina *finally* turned. Whew!

I had to have an IV because I needed abx for a heart condition that I have - other than that I felt I had a really natural labor and the nurse and doc didn't do *anything* patronizing or try to push drugs or anything.

Nurse told me that the other nurses asked her if I "knew" I was in labor, I was so quiet and calm. I asked her at one point if I should be shifting my breathing since I'd moved on to the next stage in labor, and she said, "Hey, what you're doing is working well for you - change it when you feel like you need to change it, you're doing a great job!"

We checked in at 12:30 am and Ina was born at 4:30 am. No pain meds, no known interventions, all good and very proud.

What will happen differently this time:
1. They whisked Ina away almost immediately after birth (laid her on me, dried her, then did their tests/bath/etc. with dh present in the nursery). Since I hadn't researched this AT ALL, I didn't know that this was not the way that it should have been done - that babe should have been given to me, allowed to latch, no unnecessary interventions until a full feed completed, etc. [My nurse sister, whose youngest is 6, was aghast when she figured out that Ina wasn't "in trouble" when they whisked her away - her babes all got to latch etc. immediately before they messed with anything else].

So, this time, babe stays with me -- until s/he has latched on both sides. I'll keep babe warm, etc. Already discussed with OB and with the hospital about this.

2. Delayed cord clamping - I didn't know anything about this with Ina, but we will be doing it this time. OB has no concerns.

3. "Active Management of the Third Stage of Labor" - Here's where I've learned the most, actually, and am least happy with my first birth. I didn't know that it's pretty standard to give moms pitocin via IV or shot immediately after babe is delivered - only discovered it by noticing pitocin on my bill from Ina's birth when I was revamping our filing system a few weeks ago. : It's supposed to help deliver the placenta more quickly, with less risk to mom, etc. But it's controversial (WHO recommends against it) -- anyway, have discussed this with the OB and we will not use pitocin this time unless he's seeing signs that I'm beginning PPH, will allow baby at breast etc. to do the oxytocin naturally.

I need to make sure we've got a detailed birth plan this time, and that dh knows what/when to really watch what's going on to make sure that I'm kept warm after delivering babe, and the cord clamping/pitocin stage -- but I'm feeling very confident that this next hospital birthed NCB will go even better than the last one.

I really do think that the key is whether you've got a good doctor/midwife. We really like our OB. He coached my aunt and uncle through my cousin's unplanned homebirth over the phone - he's relaxed, not patronizing at all, and really listens to us. I think (obviously) he'll skew toward the more medical approach unless a mother directs him differently but he isn't opposed to natural birth etc. - his office has brought a CNM in as the first CNM in the community, expressly to serve that need (if we didn't like him so much we'd probably switch to her, but whoever's on call that weekend is the one we'll see anyway).

So, my personal experience is that you need:
1. An open-minded and non-patronizing OB/MW (and good nurses are a big plus!)

2. An informed mom who makes her expectations clear ahead of time (this is where I fell down bigtime with Ina, although it still was a really positive birth). They met my expectations - I just didn't know as much as I should have about birth/labor itself. I spent my pregnancy researching bf and child development/infancy issues.

**
The only thing I'd add is that the hospital was very pro-bf with us, checked latches etc. several times ... I didn't need a lot of help, because I DID research that. I could see a mom who hadn't researched that, needing more assistance than I received. And the "'bf' ff success baggies" were still given out ... There's not LLL here so I don't see enough support in the community for bf moms to bring the hospital in line for Baby Friendly status. At least at this point.

[StrawberryFields]

I had a good hospital birth! But, I was a hospital transport so I labored at home for the first 42 hours I struggled with my homebirth loss for awhile and my decision to transport but not because I had a bad experience in the hospital. My midwives had called the hospital ahead of time as well as my doctor, who met us there. They did start me on IV fluids and antibiotics but I was so far gone at that point that I don't even remember them putting it in. The anesthesiologist who administered my epidural : did a great job, I could still move my legs and I knew when to push on my own, yet I didn't have any more pain. The doctor encouraged me to try all sorts of pushing positions but when it was apparent that I was too tired and exhausted she turned out the lights, the nurses got me some juice, and they let me rest and get my strength back. I pushed when I wanted to and they didn't cheerlead me on with a 10-count. When ds was born he went directly on my chest to nurse and they didn't take him away for 2 hours. At the 2 hour mark he went off with dh to be washed and have his hearing checked and newborn screen while I took a shower, which felt great after my marathon labor and delivery. No one mentioned circ. They put a sign on his bassinet that said "No bottles-no pacifier" but it didn't matter because after his screening he never left the room again. They gave me a steady supply of awesome ice-pack diapers and Lansinoh and said it was fine for my mom to come at 3 am when we called to tell her the baby was here. He co-slept with dh that night and we checked out the next afternoon.

Now, even though my hospital experience was I am not sure that it would have been so great had I gone straight away when I first went into labor. I will never know, of course, but I will plan for a homebirth again next time...

[Serrendipity]

I had two great births at St. Joseph's hospital here in Tacoma.

The first time I gave birth I was very educated about NCB, and it still ended up more medical than I wanted it to be (but less than it could have been). It was still an amazing experience. 26 hrs long despite having pit augmentation, and I eventually got an epi out of sheer exhaustion. But at least the less-than-ideal parts gave me a better understanding of what I wanted to do differently.

The second time, I labored at home for the first 18 or so hours, and was in the hospital for the other 20. Yeah, second labors are so much shorter, dontcha know. :Anyway, it was mostly just myself, my DH, and our free doula-trainee who was on her third birth and was just awesome. I'm hiring her next time. My only complaint was my midwife wasn't really "my" midwife, she was the partner I was less familiar with since "my" midwife retired due to injury when I was 28 weeks pg. I vocalized through all my contrx, and labored in the giant birth tub, and still would not describe any of it as "painful" just incredibly, indescribable, intense at times.

My only trouble came when I started to transition and I thought yes! here we go! only to have it last more than three hours because the baby was still up high and didn't feel like coming down to press on my cervix at all! Towards the 36th hour of labor, I asked for the tiniest epi possible, one that would let me feel everything but my uterus, basically. Half hour later, I could still feel the right half of it, but it was better. I started to push just to make myself feel better, eventually. To "labor down", which somehow I hadn't been reminded to do earlier. : If my midwife had been "my" midwife, or if my doula was more experienced, I think someone would have mentioned that technique at the start of the transition that took forever when it became apparent that things were not moving right along.

Other than that, my midwife had to leave right before I started to unconsciously labor down, and twenty minutes after she was gone, I was ready to push, only I got a CNM who screamed "PUSHPUSHPUSHPUSHPUSHPUSHPUSH!!!!" at me the whole time I was getting the head out, and then "STOP!" while she did - something with the head- when it was expressly written, right on the top of my birth plan, that I did NOT want anyone to yell "push" at me! If I wasn't too busy giving birth, I would have yelled right back, "SHUT UP already!"

Over all, it was such a wonderful experience, I asked DH if we could have another before I'd even birthed the placenta! And despite Attila the CNM, I do plan on going back there for any future births.

Serendipity

[MikoMum]

I had a pretty good hospital birth with my daughter. I never had an IV or an epidural and labored mostly in the shower. I had wonderful young nurses who had just had their own babies. I roomed in with my baby (and DH stayed with us). I did have an issue being a number on my doctor's chart. He was so busy. Having said that I had wanted a home birth even then and am planning one with this baby.