Things I Wish I'd Known...
If you read my previous blog about labor and delivery, you'll notice that we had a very UN-natural birth experience. That is unfortunately what is likely to happen when induced. Everything is very artificial. Not so horrible, because the nurses are very attentive and everyone only wants to make you as comfortable as possible. All the wires and tubes attached to me did make it kind of difficult to every GET comfortable, but I was at least able to nap on and off.
Anyway, here are some things I discovered while in the hospital:
1. Fashion is the last of your (or anyone else's) concerns: After I had Tyler, my doctor sewed up my episiotomy and I was given some disposable netting underwear to wear. I was also given a huge feminine pad that had a cold pack in it to place in my gorgeous underwear. Then, they gave me a nursing hospital gown (those gowns, by the way, do not stay closed!) to wear. So I had to constantly hold the two nursing openings closed...and you can imagine what I looked like from the back!
2. You lose all sense of personal space: Almost from the moment I checked into the hospital, my cervix became everyone's business. I count at least 7 different doctors or nurses who checked my dilation every couple of hours or so. Also, once my water broke, the nurses had to constantly change the disposeable pad I was laying on in bed. They would put 3 or 4 pads underneath me on th bed and remove the top one as it was soiled. I was also bleeding a little bit. After I had the baby, the nurses would come in and check my episiotomy sutures and see if I had hemorrhoids.
3. Your breasts are not your own anymore: Every nurse and a few lactation consultants saw my breasts, and most of them touched them to try and help me learn how to nurse Tyler.
Anyway, here are some things I discovered while in the hospital:
1. Fashion is the last of your (or anyone else's) concerns: After I had Tyler, my doctor sewed up my episiotomy and I was given some disposable netting underwear to wear. I was also given a huge feminine pad that had a cold pack in it to place in my gorgeous underwear. Then, they gave me a nursing hospital gown (those gowns, by the way, do not stay closed!) to wear. So I had to constantly hold the two nursing openings closed...and you can imagine what I looked like from the back!
2. You lose all sense of personal space: Almost from the moment I checked into the hospital, my cervix became everyone's business. I count at least 7 different doctors or nurses who checked my dilation every couple of hours or so. Also, once my water broke, the nurses had to constantly change the disposeable pad I was laying on in bed. They would put 3 or 4 pads underneath me on th bed and remove the top one as it was soiled. I was also bleeding a little bit. After I had the baby, the nurses would come in and check my episiotomy sutures and see if I had hemorrhoids.
3. Your breasts are not your own anymore: Every nurse and a few lactation consultants saw my breasts, and most of them touched them to try and help me learn how to nurse Tyler.
posted by Cathy @ 10:03 AM
3 comments
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3 Comments:
Yes, even in a home birth you get to wear those lovely victoria secret underwear - but thank god for that ice pack!!!
Oh yeah, I had the same disposable netted underwear, huge pads, and ice packs! I was bleeding so much that I had the nurses give me two extra bags of disposable underwear to take home. Sounds strange, but loved them - as hidious as they were. You see, my hips spread so much that I couldn't find comfortable underwear during the last trimester. These disposable things were comfy and actually stayed in place! I'm sure Hubby would be happy to report that I only wore them for two days at home.
I'm with you on the hospital gowns. They are awful!!! By the end of my hospital stay, I realized that my body was no longer my own and I had no modesty, although I still sent Hubby, mom, and visitors out if they were checking me.
Shockingly, I'm even comfortable breastfeeding in front of Hubby's family. I didn't think I'd even be able to do it in front of my mom. Funny how things change.
I have to say that I had a great experience with the induction and would totally sign up for that again!
I wonder if my labor would have been as short if I had not been induced. Who knows.
Being 22 weeks along in my first pregnancy, delivery is something that I am very nervous about and is almost constantly in the back of my mind...
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