Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi all,


This post is on behalf of Anna Caffrey, a lovely American lady I met this week. She is a student researcher (and qualified Doula) in the Dept of Anthropology, University College London and is keen to talk to people who have had positive birth experiences as part of her MSc dissertation and future publications.


All involvement is anonymous and Anna will come to you for a very informal chat, I really enjoyed it.


Anna would like to dispel some of the myths around childbirth and to focus on what a positive experience it can be. She said many studies focus on the pain and negative sides of it and she wants to do something different, which may also help women in the future.


If you'd like to be involved please email


[email protected]

Hi Molly,


Is she just looking for people from ED or nationwide? I am a lurker on here after moving to Gloucestershire from ED. I had a very positive birth and love sharing the story as I really feel that you hear 3 horror stories for every positive one, and I don't think it's representative of reality (at least I hope it's not!)

You're so right Maki, & sometimes it's down to how each woman feels about her experience. I was with some women recently discussing birth experiences. One woman described her 'horrendous' birth to me, another woman then described her 'surprisingly alright' birth experience - they were almost identical in terms of length of labour, strength of contraction, speed of dilation (very slow!), what point they'd gone to hospital, what had happened once there and how baby was born. What was different was their view of it all. The first woman looked at the second & said 'but you had an awful time too', second Mum looked quite surprised and said 'did I?' - she just didn't see it that way.

I think it's also to do with how much control and knowledge you feel you have.


With the twins I really wanted to be mobile, not continuously monitored, allow twin II to come in their own time... I had good support for my wishes and everything went very smoothly for twin I, I even spent some time in the pool, he was born 3h after my waters were broken.. unfortunately twin II didn't play ball and after waiting for almost 2h, I agreed to be examined and she was feet over her head... (the sort of situation where sometimes twin II ends up born by caesarean)


I knew we'd given her a good chance to turn and descend and she hadn't, so I felt Ok emotionally about the intervention that then followec (she was turned manually which was excrutiating, drip to strengthen contractions and stop her wandering off again, into theatre to have her waters broken, theatre in case cord got trapped and in case we needed an instrumental delivery) and all that just on gas and air... yet despite that sort of thing not at all being in my "plan" I have never had a moment's worry about it as I am convinced it was necessary, I just wanted to be finished, and she may have got into difficulty if we had waited longer.


But if all that had been "foisted" on me immediately after twin I was born, unexpectedly, (and the hospital procedure IS to deliver twin II asap after twin I) we would have missed out on skin to skin and twin I's first feed etc etc... so for us, having a dr who was sympathetic with our wishes (our plan wasn't hugely detailed but it did specify skin to skin with twin I and waiting for twin II to come by herself) made all the difference.


I have known many women who had inductions that to me seemed doomed from the start (not favourable) for dubious reasons (eg automatically booked by the hospital for 41 weeks) that have been a nightmare, and ended up in an emergency CS. I would find it hard to reconcile myself if I looked back on birth and that had happened to me.

The Nappy Lady Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi,

>

> I'm sure she would love to hear from people

> nationwide, and F I think your experience would be

> of interest too if you were up for speaking to

> her.

>

> Thanks again all.


I have emailed her

>

> Molly (amanda)

I had a wonderful elective section and am happy to discuss with Anna.




QUOTE


You're so right Maki, & sometimes it's down to how each woman feels about her experience. I was with some women recently discussing birth experiences. One woman described her 'horrendous' birth to me, another woman then described her 'surprisingly alright' birth experience - they were almost identical in terms of length of labour, strength of contraction, speed of dilation (very slow!), what point they'd gone to hospital, what had happened once there and how baby was born. What was different was their view of it all. The first woman looked at the second & said 'but you had an awful time too', second Mum looked quite surprised and said 'did I?' - she just didn't see it that way


END QUOTE




this is fascinating and true across all life experiences I think.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • We’ve got a gap on the roof of our shed that needs patching  don’t want to buy a huge roll so hoping someone has some leftover  happy to collect/reimburse 
    • I never said I thought it was targeted or deliberate. There also has never been a “stand off” or confrontation, we’ve spoken to them in a friendly manner about it. Our experience is they don’t seem to care. That’s the frustrating thing for us, if someone politely raises a concern at least take a second to reflect. Treat others how you would want to be treated.  I don’t want them to lose their job, far from it. But considering it could cost me a days work to fix any damage, I’m within my right to try prevent it.   
    • The SE22 Evri delivery family are lovely, and always say hello wherever we spot them in the area. We gave them a box of chocolates during Covid as they were working their socks off at Christmas
    • What was he doing on the stage at Glastonbury? Or on the stage at the other concert in Finsbury Park? Grinning like a Cheshire cat whilst pissed and stoned 20 somethings on the promise of free internet sung-- Oh Jeremy Corbyn---  What were his policies for Northern mining towns with no jobs or infrastructure? Free Internet and university places for youngsters. What were his other manifesto pledges? Why all the ambiguity over Brexit?  I didn't like Thatcher, Blair or May or Tony but I respected them as politicians because they stood by what they believed in. I respect all politicians across the board that stick to their principles. Corbyn didn't and its why he got  annihilated at the polls. A socialist, anti imperialist and anti capitalist that said he voted for an imperialist and pro capitalist cabal. He refused to say how he'd vote over and over again until the last knockings. He did so to appease the Islington elite and middle class students he was courting. The same people that were screaming that Brexit was racist. At the same time the EU were holding black and Asian immigrants in refugee camps overseas but not a word on that! Corbyn created and courted a student union protest movement that screamed at and shouted down anyone not on the left . They claimed Starmer and the centre right of labour were tories. He didn't get elected  because he, his movement and policies were unelectable, twice. He turned out not to have the convictions of his politics and died on his own sword.    Reform won't win an election. All the idiots that voted for them to keep out Labour actually enabled Labour. They'll be back voting tory next time.    Farage wouldn't be able to make his millions if he was in power. He's a very devious shyster but I very much doubt he'd actually want the responsibility that governance requires.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...