[Artisan]

Did you experience a high after giving birth? How long did it last? What was your birth like? (Hospital/birth center/home, medicated/unmedicated?) I'm just wondering how many women actually experience these.

 

[Yummymummy74]

I did with my last birth! and I am still high on it 18 mos later! :LOL It was a home birth with no attendants Dh caught

 

[homemademomma]

i had an unmedicated, uninterfered with, 8 hour home birth. my baby was born OP, which meant i had excruciating pelvis and thigh pain all the way up until he was fully out.
i did not have a high after birth. i was exhausted! i did have a hormonal melt down when my milk came in. i remember waking up and my breasts feeling like rocks, i was so tired, i was resentful of ds and dh, everything sucked. i bounced back a day or two later, and have had no problems since.

i never felt that falling in love sensation like i have seen and heard about so many times. i have seen so many women breakdown in tears at the first sight of their child, and that did not happen to me. i loved him from day one, but it took months before it was that all consuming love that i think that many women feel at birth.

i love my son, and my pg/birth experience is the high point of my life, despite not getting the rush. i am dying to do it again!

 

[LoveChild421]

I experienced a high like no other after giving birth (home birth)! For the first few hours it was like being so happy and having a perma-grin on my face and not caring who came over because I loved everyone and I had just done something I was so proud of.

For a week after the birth I was floating on cloud 9- every poem/ book I read brought me to tears- I would just stare at ds or hug dh and feel like my heart would explode- such visceral sensations. It was a period of emotional intensity and openness- little things made me cry sometimes too- but overall a high like no other...

 

[Tummy]

I most definantly had a "birth high" with my fourth child.
It was the absolut most beautiful birth ever!!!

She was my first hb and I was ecstatic!!! I have never in my entire life felt so full of love, energy, excitement, understanding, joy and fullfilment.
All three of my other children were there for her birth along with 8 others, family and friends.. as well as my MW and assistant.
I have to say it was the most empowering birth of all five of my children.
When I think back on her birth it brings me such joy three years later!
For me this was a "birth high"

Dont let DCF "Rape" your children away from you!... read and become informed.. pass on the wisdom!

 

[EmmalinesMom]

I absoultely did after my second daughter was born. It was an unmedicated, hospital Bradley birth. It lasted for a couple of hours. The hormone rush and feeling of accomplishment were incredible.

My first daughter was a medicated hospital birth, and while I loved it at the time, I can now compare my two births, and the second was much better for me, for the baby, all the way around.

I didn't have that Love at first sight deal with my first daughter, and I really felt like something was wrong with me. People hesitate to talk about it, but really, I bet it's pretty common.

With my second daughter, I did indeed have that gooey mushy mother love from moment one.

 

[Artisan]

I didn't experience it with my first -- I had a perfectly nice hospital birth with an epidural, no complications, healthy baby. I loved him but I wasn't *in love* with him at first.

Second baby -- unmed birth in a birth center was totally different. Yes, the birth was painful, but I thought that my baby was the most gorgeous thing I'd ever laid eyes on from the second she was born. I had a birth high that lasted for a good 2-3 weeks. It is pretty indescribable -- I can't even explain what it is to someone else. It was a very all-consuming high, which fueled my already rampant love of birth.

Part of me wonders what the difference was for me. Was the high purely hormonal? If so, why were my hormones so different after the second birth? Was it the lack of interference with the birth process/no meds/no interventions? Was it just second time mom relaxation? Was it a fluke? Whatever it was, it was sooo great! I wish everyone could experience it after giving birth -- we would have such a different birth culture if we did.

 

[EmmalinesMom]

One more thing....I had bad PPD with my first daughter, and none with my second. I don't know if it was because I already had an idea of what to expect, etc or if it had to do with the second's very empowering, non-medicated birth. (Ok, I think it was the latter, but...

)

 

[philomom]

I had "highs" both times. We did the bradley, unmedicated,hands- off thing in the hospital with the midwife.

I was so happy, I was walking the halls, looking for a chocolate bar and bragging to passers by who could not believe I just gave birth. It lasted a couple of hours, then I took a nap.

 

[AngelBee]

All three I had highs.....didn't sleep for about a week with each of them.

All hospital births.

First two OB/epidural
Third midwife/natural

(Thanks to MDC mamas!)

 

[EmmalinesMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philomom I had "highs" both times. We did the bradley, unmedicated,hands- off thing in the hospital with the midwife. I was so happy, I was walking the halls, looking for a chocolate bar and bragging to passers by who could not believe I just gave birth. It lasted a couple of hours, then I took a nap.

LOL...this reminded me... the night I gave birth I was awake late (the high, I guess) and several nurses came to see me and my daughter, as no one believed that I'd birthed her totally naturally. (She was just 9.6...not tiny by any means, but not huge either.) I guess that was my 15 minutes of fame. :LOL

 

[OnTheFence]

Quote:

Originally Posted by reader Did you experience a high after giving birth? How long did it last? What was your birth like? (Hospital/birth center/home, medicated/unmedicated?) I'm just wondering how many women actually experience these.

I had one after my last birth (planned cesarean, epidural, no narcotics, no nausea meds, no anti-anxiety meds). It lasted a good two weeks. I felt very high right after birth. Within fifteen minutes of being in recovery I was chatting on the phone and people could not even believe I had just had a cesarean. I hardly slept that night and talked my poor sisters head off. I came home less than 48 hrs later and by day five was throwing stuff together for a family meal.

 

[orangebird]

My first birth- the hospital, epidural, vacuum birth, I didn't feel high but I fell so hard in love with DS from the second I saw him.

My second birth- homebirth which was 100% meddle free (except the MW sneaking in to listen to FHT a few times) I felt super high afterward and it lasted until I got mastitis a few days later. That brought me down real fast. I didn't fall in love with that baby right at first though, it took me a little while to warm up to him. I think I just thought of my first baby as so perfect or something and that the second one wasn't possibly as wonderful or cute or anything. I did eventually, within a week, get that crash and burn love for him.

 

[pinky]

I totally did with dd#2. I was in labor from Sunday morning until she was born 3 a.m. Wednesday...probably about 20 hours of really intense labor...but I had great labor support and was able to manage well. I had so wanted a VBAC but it wasn't meant to be...pushed for 3 hours before having a c-sec....didn't have any meds, though, until I got anesthesia for the surgery...my heart stopped when I heard her cry and I swear a hush came over the O.R....while everyone around me was collapsing with fatigue, I held and nursed her in recovery for hours...I still get chills thinking about it.

 

[applejuice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marsupialmuma I did with my last birth! and I am still high on it 18 mos later! :LOL It was a home birth with no attendants Dh caught

Yeah! Good for you and give a big

to your DH as he deserves it also!!

 

[USAmma]

I had it for about 12-18 hours after both were born-- hospital epidural births. I hadn't slept in forever and yet I was so happy and blissful I could not sleep. I just had to keep staring at them and sighing happily to myself.

:

 

[aishy]

Yup after each of my homebirths (#2 & 3). I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop staring at my baby, amazed at how perfect he was each time.

With #1 I couldn't sleep but I was shakey, confused (new motherhood at 19?!) and worried (he wouldn't latch on) and it just felt totally different the next two times. He was born in a birthing center (same midwife).

aisling

 

[Chiromom]

First Birth: Home birth, couldn't sleep the first night....just generally very excited and in love and all that

Second Birth: unassisted, very fast, ecstatic birth...I wasn't so much over the moon with the baby as totally high as a kite and energized. She was born at 5 am and I was making monkey bread (from scratch) by 6:30 and we ate them at 10:30 am. I now always make monkey bread on her birthday

Third Birth: unassisted, slower than #2...my first real experience with "love at first sight syndrome'" I was somewhat "high" but not like with the last...but gosh did I ever *adore* that baby (still do..she feels like my *favorite* at this age, but maybe i forget) but perhaps this is also cuz I know she's my last.

But the fastest labor seemed to induce the biggest high (short term...pure hormones..whooo hoo!).

 

[Guest*]

I was high for MONTHS and still have "flashbacks" at least once a week! My initial high lasted for about 3 months and gradually lessened. I didn't feel normal again until about 9 months post-partum.

I had a completely natural, accidentally unassisted homebirth. I was technically in labor 15 hours, but only the last 2 were hard.

And I can't wait to do it again!!