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Big Baby

My third pregnancy was going smoothly until 35 weeks when I experienced pre-term labor and was put on bedrest. My first son was born at 35 weeks so I was hoping I might have the baby a little bit early. Lo and behold, I went to my due date and then two weeks overdue!

So I was induced using prostaglandin gel on April 10, 2006. I expected that since this was my third baby, my labor would be quick and I could handle it well. Things did not go as I expected. When I reached 3 cm the pain of my contractions changed very suddenly and they became twice as bad as they had been up to that point. It felt like I was in transition. I simply could not handle the pain. We tried a number of things to reduce the pain. Being in the birth pool didn't help at all, using gas did very little.

Even though I was now progressing really quickly, I needed some relief to make it until the end. I finally got a spinal at 9 cm. It completely took the pain away and relaxed me. Then they broke my water but the baby's head was still at -2. Being relaxed and fully dilated allowed the baby's head to descend to +2 without my doing anything. And once the spinal began to wear off, I began pushing.

I pushed for over an hour and when he was finally born, we found out the reason why. He was 9 lbs 15 oz and his head circumference was 39.5 cm, which my midwife told me is the size of a 6 week old baby's head. So although I wanted to have a completely natural childbirth, I am glad I got the spinal because I really needed it. If his head hadn't come down, perhaps I would have ended up pushing even longer, or had a C-section.

I'm proud of what I accomplished; having a nearly 10 lb baby without tearing -- and he was worth it! We named him Benjamin.

Erin

Horrible

I had to be induced at 41 weeks. It took me about 10 minutes to go from 2cm to 10. We barely had time for an epidural. It took 15 minutes for the guy to do and my left leg kept twitching and jerking. I could feel pinching and burning and the guy was shaking! It hurt so bad.

Not only that but I was also having contractions in the middle of it all! The epidural worked but the drug they had given me before that was making my whole face itch and I couldn't even talk right. 15 minutes later my baby's heart rate was going down with every contraction so they decided to do an emergancy c-section. I didn't know what was going on and no one would answer my questions.

They put me out so the epidural was useless any ways. My recovery was just as bad. The spot where I had the epidural hurt worse than where they had to cut! After I got out of the hospital I said I would never want another baby because of that experience.

It's been about a month and I still feel the same way but for different reasons. There are so many more things that could go wrong since I've already had a c-section. But I think if I ever did get pregnant agian I would want to just be put out, I never want to feel that kind of pain...Never..

Ducky

Painful Cesarean

Wow! I thought that I was the only one that had a painful cesarean. On April 22, 2003 I went in to have my baby. I pushed for 2 hours with no result so they asked me if I wanted a c-section. I said yes as the pain was so extreme. As they were preping me for the surgery, The doctor kept asking me if I could feel him prick my legs with an instument. I kept telling him yes. He asked me about 5 times and I continued to say yes. Then they proceeded to cut into me. I screamed so hard that I could feel it. I then went into shock so the put me under. My husband says I stopped breathing so they had to bring me out of it. I was still in tremendous pain. I continued to have breathing problems. Its funny because the doctor never apologized for what happened.

Misti

incuction and cesear

My pregnancy lasted for 42 weeks: first pregnancy at 36 years.

I was induced on the 24/01/06 at 12:30pm and the pains started at 20:00pm. by 22hrs i was 6cm dilated and i couldn't dilate further than that. I was in labor for the whole night and the following day at about 12:30 it was decided that i should have an epidural cesear.

My bundle of joy was born at 14:30 the 25/01/06. To cut the long story short, if only i knew that i would suffer from 2 different kinds of pains(induction & cesear), i would have opted for a cesarean right from the beginning.

phindile

Pain during C-section too

I was just reading Dena's post about feeling pain during the C-section like I had with my twins this past December. I, however, didn't have any sort of "test" of feeling beforehand.. I was just thrown into the surgery basically, and all the while I was screaming I could feel it, they kept telling me I was just feeling pressure. I know the difference! I could tell when they were separating the bladder, and it hurt so bad. They ended up knocking me out almost immediately after the babies came out, and like Dena, I didn't get to bond with either baby. I don't even remember seeing the last one at all. OH well.. too late now, but the pain thing does happen, and I remember thinking Oh my Gosh, how can I deal with this... I sort of told myself to just hang in there it will be over soon.

Lori