Things No One Told Me About Labor

There are bound to be things that no one told you about labor. Things that happen while you are having your baby. Or there may be things that words just cannot describe – like the amount of pain you will be in. I am about to have my second child and got around to thinking about this, so here is the list I came up with.

Your birth plan will not go as planned. Labor is crazy, things happen, you cannot plan out every detail. Probably not even half of the details. It is still good to have an outline of your wishes, especially when it comes to drugs, circumcision, etc. But planning little details, like “no more than X amount of people, no student nurses, keep lights dim, etc” are probably out of your control, unless doing a home birth or birth center.

You will be in pain and it will be messy. It is indescribable pain. But you will get through it! In fact, I don’t remember how painful it was, so I decided to do it again! I do remember being in labor with my first and saying “he may be an only child!!!” And the mess – the whole keep your eyes above the bellybutton rule for your hubby and sister (or whoever you have in there for support) goes out the door. It is birth, it is beautiful. You won’t mind when it is actually happening and they won’t be able to NOT look.

Be nice to your nurses. Ok, I did read up on this and got the idea from someone else. But no one told me per-say. They will be your rock and can make or break your stay. They will bringing you your drinks, keep you comfortable and be there for you when you most need someone. We brought muffins and chocolate for our nurses and I was extremely well taken care of. They need to know they are appreciated too!

Apologize ahead of time to your partner and support people. You will be in pain. You will be angry, tired, cranky and want them to STFU! You will say nasty things you don’t mean. Prepare them. And try to bite your tongue.

You will fall in love immediately and all of the above things will not matter. You won’t care how things went, how much pain and mess you dealt with, or how mean you were to your support people (they won’t either.) You will all be smitten with the new life that YOU just brought into this world.

That is my top list of things no one told me about labor. What do you wish someone would have told you?