Ah the joys of pregnancy and motherhood! As a new mom you are oozing with excitement for your little one to arrive. You anxiously countdown the weeks, following your “new mom” apps for week-by-week changes; how you should be feeling and baby development. When you get into your third trimester you start to feel a little more uneasy. Am I really ready for this? What if I don’t know when I’ll go into labor? Is that a contraction? Should I go to the hospital? What if they send me home? The number of questions that enter your mind on a routine basis is astounding. Personally, I thought the anticipation of labor was thrilling but nerve-wracking. Getting towards the end of the 40 weeks and into the unknown was exciting. At any point you could be going into labor. I believed with my pregnancies that I knew my body well enough to know if something was “off”, and that’s when I went to triage.
With my first child I had horrible back labor and knew it was hurting too much to be just normal back pain. So my husband and I drove to triage at 11pm at night and the next morning I met my son! With my second child I was teaching when I went into labor. I had recently gotten my membranes swept, so I knew it was time when it felt a little different “down there”. My third was a different story and I ended up with prodromal labor-a topic for another post. With all three of my children, though, the excitement was there. For my first child, however, the questions were looming over me as I walked into triage.
So let’s get real and talk about what *actually* happens in the labor and delivery room. I’m not a L & D nurse, and I am sure if you know one they can tell you some stories! I can only recount my own experience being in the labor room, but still have a pretty good idea of what happens. Let’s tackle that looming question in your mind-What if I poop on the table giving birth? That’s so embarrassing! First of all, nothing that happens in the L & D room is a surprise to those nurses and doctors. Second of all, yes, you will poop on the table. It is completely normal! C’mon you are pushing out a 6-8 pound baby with all of your might. Some of the other “stuff” is bound to come out with it. It happens to everyone so please do not fear that part of labor. It’ll happen, the nurses will get a clean sheet, and everyone will move on.
Next question I know many women have is-Does it hurt? I’m here to tell you that yes, it hurts. BUT….depending on your choice, there are options to lessen the pain. The epidural is a gift from God in my opinion. With my third I actually yelled for the anesthesiologist so loudly that my husband had just made it to the hospital in time to hear me down the hall screaming for the epidural from my room. So if you choose to lessen the pain, there are ways. Depending on what you prefer-not what’s on your birth plan because that can and most likely will go out the window-but what you prefer at the time.
What happens when you feel like you have taken-up residence in the Labor & Delivery room? WIll they induce you? Well, most likely, if you are close to fully dilated they won’t induce you and will just let things happen naturally. So there’s a good chance you could be in that L & D room for a while. You will get tired but remember it’s a marathon, not a race. There are things like an exercise ball to get things going, walking around the room might be suitable. When I was in labor with my second child, she was incredibly stubborn and would give me strong contractions and I thought it was happening, then she would stop and crawl back up not yet ready to meet the world. So the doctors ended up inducing me with pitocin and even broke my water. Literally the second the doctor broke my water, she slid out. It was like an immediate eviction notice for her!
What’s it like when the baby comes out? Well, depending on the length of your labor, you will either be pushing for many hours or pushing for a few. When you finally begin to near the end of labor and you hear the doctor say he/she is on his/her way, it is the most unbelievably amazing experience of your life. Nothing can compare to that first moment when your sweet baby arrives and he/she is brought to your chest and you see the miracle that you have created. Every single baby born is a miracle. Savor the moment-it will be one that you will never, ever forget.
The Labor & Delivery room is a place of pain, yes, but it is where you will spend the most important moment of your life-meeting your sweet baby and bringing them into this world. It’s a room you are sure not to forget.
