For expectant mums...

[grubbysoles]

Hi All,

Just wanted to mention a little something to those of us who have Ish bumps baking. My mum showed me a magazine article saying that banana smoothies can help to keep labour moving along nicely (I think it was in a supplement with the Mail on Sunday). Apparently the potassium is very good, for some reason or another.

So if we all find ourselves in a hospital somewhere being offered strange cocktails of drugs because labour is slowing down, we can all now turn them down and demand a banana smoothie instead My popping day will be pretty soon so I might as well give it a whirl. Will let you know if it works. Having said that, once the pain kicks in I'll probably accept every drug in the cabinet. Like I did with my first born!

[AnnaD]

If only I had known that 2 months ago! My labour was 47 hours long :S

[Shirley]

Thankfully I'll not be needing that advice for myself, but I'll remember to pass it along to friends and family in the future

Ouch Anna! 47 hours - poor you.

[thesunflowergal]

I will have to try and remember that one, thank you Emma.

Poor you Anna, thats not good.

Nikki

[grubbysoles]

I feel your pain, Anna. My first was 4 days!! The hospital kept telling me to have a bath and take paracetamol which, needless to say, wasn't much help. And it STILL ended in a caesarian after all that effort. That's why I shall be tanking up on banana smoothie and absolutely anything else anyone can think of when this one decides to put in its appearance!

[thesunflowergal]

I was thinking about this last night. My local hospital are very much into their drugs, and doing things their way. (I know that not all are) I even got laughed at for drinking raspberry leaf tea.

[AnnaD]

Poor you Grubbysoles! Two days was bad enough, I can't imagine much longer than that! Mine wasn't all that bad, it was just like bad period cramps for the first 30 odd hours.

[grubbysoles]

Anna, the fatigue was worse than the pain as I couldn't sleep through the contractions. I literally was awake for 4 days and nights, and they wouldn't let me go in for any speed it up drugs (pre-banana smoothie knowledge, of course) as my waters didn't break for the first 3 days. By the time they finally let me go in I was just too exhausted to cope with any more pain and got stuck straight in to the epidural, which of course slowed everything down... I'll be putting my foot down a lot more firmly this time Heck, I might even just stay at home! I'll give birth in the greenhouse, or make a little nest in the straw with the chickens.

Sunflower, I can't believe they laughed at you for that! Raspberry leaf tea is a classic. I didn't do me much good but I believe generations of native American women have sworn by it. It's so sad that the general attitude is so anti- anything natural that's been kicking around for centuries

[Fizzy Izzy]

I'll remember to pack some bananas for hospital then!

I have my hospital's information evening tonight, so I should find out what their policy on drugs and other things are. Apparently they like things quite natural here in Switzerland though, which is good. Hopefully I'll be able to understand at least some of what they are saying!

[barefootlinzi]

thanks for the banana tip...but i am one of those women who have a short and intense labour (sorry girls, i be you hate me for that!) and am having my 2nd homebirth, my main concern is to slow it down a tad so that the midwife can get here on time!

linzi 34 weeks

[citizentwiglet]

My second son was very nearly called Braxton Hicks, as that's what the midwife told me I was having two hours before he was born!

Go for the banana smoothie! I had every drug going for Ellis, three years ago and it really played havoc with my breastfeeding which never got a chance to establish before I got thrush, mastitis and MRSA (yep, you heard right, MRSA - A fact the NHS tried hard to hush up, but were stupid enough to leave my medical notes in a room with a very nosy person, i.e. me) which left me with abcesses around my poor nips!) and my guilt at giving up breastfeeding after 6 weeks of hell played a huge part in my PND, which was severe and really badly affected my relationship with Ellis for a good year or so. We've made up for it now, though!

With Finlay, I KNEW I didn't want pethidine / diamorphine, and...OK...I DID start begging for an epidural at one point but there just wasn't time and, to be fair, I don't think I'd have taken it - it was just something to whinge about instead of throttling the husband. It was daftly painful, there was one point (where I made the fatal error of rolling onto my back instead of being on my knees with my arms over the headboard) just before he was born where I honestly thought I was going to die. But, in hindsight, I know which labour I would go through again - Fin's. It hurt like mad, but I was there - a real part of it - rather than feeling horribly floaty and out of control, and at the mercy of intervention-happy NHS staff.

[MrsD'ville mkII]

It so depends on your MW. Our first (with Max) was straight from the Ish boards - hands off, positive attitude, breathe, use whatever aids you've brought that you feel will help you, hugs before drugs etc. Sadly, as MWs do, she went off shift and then we were in the hands of the usual drug-happy squad til the registrar announced it was time to go for a c-sec. In the end I made do with TENS (I have a high pain threshold - shame I'm not built to deliver babies naturally) til they administered the spinal block for the section, and there's no doubt the few weeks following the c-sec were worse than the hours leading up to it. This time though we were better informed about BF so Max got off to a cracking start, whereas with Polly it was very difficult for the first 2 weeks or so.

Anyway, happy I won't be going through any of that again, breeding days DEFINITELY now over!

[Clara]

What really helped me this time was ignoring it and going for a walk!

When my contractions started this time, I called my OH to come (I was living in the city temporarily) and to his horror I suggested going to market to buy supplies. By the time we got home a few hours later I called the midwife to come and I was 6cm already....

Much better than my first, because she was breech my waters broke and I panicked so I got the midwives round immediately, 36 hours later off to hospital we went. I really wanted to avoid having that much attention on me this time, I think the waiting and the expectation to perform, really causes anxiety and that in turn slows things down.

Good luck, could be any day now, wishing you an early bird!

[citizentwiglet]

Yep, walking and 'taking your mind off it' really worked with me, too....as did the 'This only hurts as much as I think it will' approach, so I virtually hypnotised myself into thinking the pain wasn't as bad as all that, and thought about lovely things - y'know, fluffy kitten ears, puppy dogs, that kind of thing. Visualising the pain as something black, then 'forcing' another colour (whatever you consider a calming colour) to take its place and flood it out worked too - Fin's birth was very turquoise, LOL!

Congrats, BTW Clara - I haven't been around for ages so didn't know your little one had arrived safe and sound xx

[Clara]

Congrats, BTW Clara - I haven't been around for ages so didn't know your little one had arrived safe and sound xx

Thank you, Nancy May arrived just after midnight March 8th - triumphant HBAC, really powerful experience!