Has childbirth changed that much in the last 20 years?

My daughter gave birth to my first grandson Saturday night! But the poor woman went through more than she had to!

She came over Friday morning and spent a lovely day with me. She had had an ultrasound on Wednesday that showed some concerns so I really had not slept since Wednesday. I was cooking one of her favorite dinners for her Friday afternoon and she started showing signs that her water was breaking. I told her that I loved her very much, but she had to go home. She lives an hour away it was snowing and I did not want her delivering in this hospital. Since I had not slept in days, her father took her home and I went for a nap.

In the meantime she went to the hospital to verify that her water had broken. It had, (a small leak) and she was dilated 1cm. In my day that meant go home until you started having contractions or started showing signs of infection. They kept her.

Saturday morning the nurse had her start pushing at 10:30. I have no idea why. He wasn't in the birth canal nor did she have the urge. She pushed for three hours making very little progress. They increased her pit which only created a need for pain management. It was horrible! By the time the baby was in the birth canal she was exhausted. My grandson was finally born at 7:25 pm.

I've had four children. My labors combined did were not as bad as this single birth; and I labored for 36 hours with this child. The women I speak to that are my age are all shocked. We all heard "don't push yet". The women that I speak to that are my daughter's age say that her experience is the norm now? Why are they making child birth more difficult than it has to be?

No idea, my sister in law with her first 2yrs ago went to hospital at 1pm she was 2cm dilated. Then in 2hrs she went to 7cm dilated. But stopped. Baby wasn't born until 2am. She was 7cm dilated for 11hrs. I thought that was weird. They even gave her meds to induce or whatever at about 10pm.

They made us wait until my wife was 4cm both times, but she still had to be induced and her labor was something like 20 hours each time.

I dont know nuthin bout birthin babies! But congratulations!!!

Congratulations...
I don't get it either....why would you push if you have no urge to? Your body knows what it's doing, really...

Hope for happiness and health for everyone.

Thanks for all of the good wishes. Women have been giving birth since the beginning of time. I don't see why we feel the need to change things up now. It was a very difficult delivery. My grandson has some health issues that they made very clear were not as a result of that difficult delivery.

I have to say that my daughter has given me many times to be bursting with pride over the years. I did not think I could be any prouder of her. As it turns out I was mistaken. She is an amazing mother. I knew she would be, but I did could not have imagined how amazing she would be. In these 6 short days she's proved herself a thousand times over. For the first time in 25 years when I look at her I do not see my beautiful toddler, I see an incredible young woman. My grandson is very blessed to have her as a mother.

Maybe they want the birthing process to get done as quickly as possible to get her out of the hospital faster. As if it were about money.

I have heard that some of the docs use more pitocin to speed deliveries in the daytime so they don't have to come in to deliver the baby in the middle of the night. I could believe that some docs might do so but doubt that is common. I mean, I hope it isn't common.

I labored at home in 1989 for about ten hours before going to the hospital and was 10 cm dilated on admission so I was pretty much ready to deliver when I got there. I was lucky, I think, in comparison.

I hope she gets some well deserved rest. Congrats on the baby.

I do know that many, many women these days have epidurals done these days where they feel nothing or very little of the actual birth, need additional assistance during the birthing process because it kills the muscles required to give birth, and have to been wheeled out of the delivery room on gurneys. When I gave birth to my youngest, I got up and used the restroom a few minutes later, and all of the nurses were staring at me, saying I was the first they'd seen walk right after birth in a very long time.

In my day you labored in one room, delivered in another, and ended up in a third. With my first one I never saw the first because when I went to the hospital I was ready to deliver myself and I walked to my room. They wanted me to use a wheel chair, but I like to move when I'm in pain.

Now that I'm in a calmer state of mind, the baby is progressing well Thank God and my daughter is almost fully recovered. The contributing factor may have been that her water started leaking the afternoon before and they wanted to rush the labor to avoid possible infection (which did happen. In my mind it was because they had her start to push too soon and for too long which in turn dropped her immune system, coupled with the fact she had not slept or eaten in days by the time she delivered) and/or to reduce stress on the baby which did come 5 weeks early.

Good thing that my time of having children is done. That Pit sure did make things more difficult for all involved. Now that things are looking brighter (baby may be able to move from the NICU tomorrow ), I can logically see both sides of the issue. I don't know why children wish to be born at 2 am. I can see wanting them to come a little sooner when the medical professionals involved are more alert. But GOOD NIGHT that Pitocin sure does make things a lot more painful. With the exception of the C-section I had all of my children drug free and I would have been screaming for pain management too. My daughter has had the misfortune to experience a lot of pain in her life. I have never seen her act such a way before. She had 100+ stitches removed from her face and head without so much as a Tylenol.

I had pitocin a couple of times....I think it makes contractions more intense. I think 'sharper' would be a good description.