Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Mind of a Soon-to-be-Mom

● When will I give birth to this baby? How will I know if it's the real thing?
● Will I still feel the contractions and the urge to push after I get an epidural? Will I feel pain as the needle is being injected in my back? For how long does the epidural effect last?
● What's better? Intrathecal, epidural or the plain old pudendal block?
● Will the baby's head fit in the birth canal? Or would I have to get sectioned to get this baby out?
● Will an episiotomy hurt? For how long will the pain last?
● How does the intensity of the labor contractions (especially the 8-10 cm dilation part) feel like? Is it really hair-pulling/hand-biting/cursing inducing?
● Does morphine really get rid of the c-section post op pain like my mom says? If so, for how long?
● Does the crowning of the baby's head really feel like there's a ring of fire down there?
● How painful is the first latch-on of the baby? Would it really feel like she has teeth? How painful are the uterine contractions while breastfeeding?
● If I undergo a normal spontaneous delivery, what happens after they take the placenta out and stitch me up? How will they prep me for the recovery room?
● Will I feel drowsy from the spinal anesthesia while being sectioned?

These are only some of the hundreds of questions whirring in my head right now. I'm only four weeks away from my due date and there are so many things bothering me. I don't know if this is what you call fear of the unknown but all I know is at this point I'm afraid of a lot of things. They say an increased level of anxiety can worsen the pain of labor, but how can I help it when I just can't get decent answers to these many questions?

Every answer I get just seems so vague. And most of the time they say, "It's all gonna end up fine." But what if it won't? Sure, there could only be a small window for anything bad to happen because these days obstetric technology is high end and secondly my OB is a family friend of ours (not to mention our ninang sa kasal as well) so the trust is there.

But still. I'm driving myself crazy with this bottomless pit of questions. I'm hoping some of these will get answered tomorrow. I'll be paying my OB a visit again.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Foxy Mama,

    Congratulations on your pregnancy and I hope you have a safe delivery. I'm bloghopping and your site is interesting so i linked you up, hope that's ok and I hope you can link me up as well.

    for your questions:

    you will know if its the real thing once your water breaks, or if there's blood on your undies or the toilet, as if you have ur period.

    yes you will still feel the contractions after you had the epidural but the pain will be so much manageable.

    as for the needle, you would hardly feel it, in fact because of the pain, you might ask the doctor to hurry up in giving you the shot.

    you will feel the episiotomy but it wont hurt at that time, the pain comes long after, when you're about to urinate.

    after you see your baby and she gets to be transferred to the nursery and you got stitched up, you will be wheeled to the recovery room. normally they let you stay there for an hour or 2 before they bring you up to your room.

    for the cs thoughts you have, i wont be able to help since i delivered via nsd. hope i was able to help.

    thanks and please link me up. God bless. :)

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  2. Erlyn, thanks for giving me some spot on answers. I've been googling for all sorts of information for the entire duration of my pregnancy and somehow I just can't get the exact decent answers. So thanks for sharing your experiences with me, I truly appreciate it! :)

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  3. Hi dear,

    im sure by this time you can no longer wait for the actual day. just be patient and try to enjoy sleeping because once the baby comes out sleep becomes a luxury. :)

    try to read as much as you can about breastfeeding as well, that's one thing i regret. i thought latching is a very spontaneous and natural thing, i was dead wrong. I was only able to breastfeed for almost 2mos and i have to extract milk since my son has difficulty latching.

    anyway, a prayer for your safe delivery has been said in my side of the planet. :) take care and thanks for linking me up.

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  4. Yeah I try to sleep for more hours now, and about the breastfeeding thing thanks for the advice. It might be good to refresh my knowledge about it. I'm a nurse but somehow I forget about the formal education I had. I always keep myself informed and aware though. Since I found out I was pregnant I've kept reading all kinds of stuff about pregnancy and childbirth to keep myself from being too anxious and end up in panic attack. LOL
    i can't thank you enough for the prayer and lots of advice! :)

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