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Pregnant at 16!
Hi I'm 16 few months away from turning 17. I found out I was pregnant in August. I hid my pregnancy all the way up to my 6-7 month from my parents. They're extremely strict and HATE my boyfriend with a passion. Once they found out, they were angry but slowly got over it and have been extremely supportive. There's just one issue.. I'm due in April and I'm beyond scared for labor! My belly is pretty low and I hear that's a good thing because it means the baby won't have to push itself too much. I also have high blood pressure and currently have an infection in my urine.. my sister had the exact same thing and because of her infection had to get a c-section. I'm honestly scared for normal birth or c section. Either way I will have to go through extreme pain and I'm so scared for that! Is there any advice any moms can give me?
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I never had a c section but you wont feel it during the operation, its only the pain of healing after. Even without a c section, there is the fact that many women have their perineum rip a little bit as baby comes out. This is the last ring of skin the babys body needs to get past. I had 3 kids and ripped for two so what that means is its really sore to sit on anything, no matter how soft. Fortunately this is a creation called the donut, a cushion that supports you when sitting but the hole in the middle means nothing is pressing against that part of your body so tender yet from delivery. So if you have a normal birth, you'll want to get one.
During the birth, yes there is pain, pain due to your bones moving and widening the opening so the baby can pass thru. If you are okayed for normal delivery...then you need to know something about the pain management. There is a shot given, called the spinal block, which I never had but my girlfriends had and they told me it was a waste because the Doctors don't give it to you until you reach 10 centimeters and are ready to push....heck that was the easy part. It was all the hours of laboring before the pushing that you need to be prepared for. There are childbirth classes you can take to learn about natural childbirth and nows the time to take it with whomever will be at your side as your coach, likely Mom I suppose.
You want to learn to focus when each new wave of pain comes, find a spot to focus on and breath through the pain, concentrating on the breathing technique you will learn in class. Its good to practice it ahead of time so you dont end up going too far overboard and hyperventilating.
You may want to learn this, even if having the spinal block which is useless as its not given earlier when its really needed for pain management. If you stop your breathing trick to try to cry, or scream or talk, the pain is worse...trust me, I tried to say something to a nurse while in middle of a labor pain and that was a mistake, it hurt even worse.
The pushing part can be exhausting and it took me until my 3rd child to figure out how to push properly. No body tells you this stuff and I heard from a Mom who was honest with me. Its not like what you see in the movies. Babies don't do the pushing, the mom does. I thought I was supposed to be pushing with my stomach muscles. No wonder it took so long to push the 1st two times. Once I heard that pushing a baby out is the same as the pushing during a bowel movement that is hard to get out, then it was smooth sailing. I asked the nurse if I was at 1o cm and when she said I was, I asked if it would be okay if I started pushing now instead of waiting for the next labor pain and she said yes. So I pretended like I was straining to poop and didnt care if something like that came out which it didn't, but it was those muscles that had baby out in 3 pushes rather than going on for a half hour or more.
If you do not plan to nurse the baby, then if you feel the need for some pain meds after, you can probably get them if you have a c section.
Does your doc know you have a urinary tract infection, UTI, cus the baby will be a concern cus what you take is passed on to baby but you can't go for a couple months with no treatment, as you could get so bad you get fever and are delirious. It happened to one of my daughters, going that far. There has to be an antibiotic that won't be harsh on the baby. I would also say to drink more fluids than usual, lots of water but include cranberry juice in what you drink as its also known to contribute to the healing of UTIs although if really bad, it may not go totally away, just heal faster with meds.
High blood pressure due to just pregnancy is usually not treated in the mom as it will go away once you give birth but they will want to have you give birth in the hospital where all emergency equipment is in easy reach to make sure you and baby are okay. My oldest daughter ended up with high blood pressure. She did not require a c section because of that. C sections are too over used these days. The only caution was that she could not have the home birth she wanted and it was a must that she give birth at the hospital.
If you get to your due date or past it and haven't had the baby yet, to be sure it doesn't come at a time when you can't for some reason make it to hospital, I can see the Dr. recommending picking a day to have the baby, picking the bag to break it, using a special catheter to apply pressure to your cervix to start labor or putting you on an intravenous of petocin, something that will start labor for you. I've had the petocin and bag broken by Dr. and daughter had the special catheter and that worked too well, labor came on a bit too fast. I'd recommend the petocin if need be as they can slowly increase the amount given to you so its not so intense an ordeal for you.
If at all your Dr. feels theres a good chance you can avoid the c section even with high blood pressure, then you may want to find and hire a doula. This is much like a midwife. My daughter hired one. The moment you're starting labor, you can call her and she'll be by your side the whole time for the whole experience coaching you and helping you with all the tricks she knows to ease the laboring process. She was a life saver for my daughter. I have used a midwife and they tend to not show up to help you go thru the labor process when you most need the help, but show up when you are closer to delivery. So you would do well to get a doula, explain your situation that you might require a c section at last minute but in case you don't, you want her there with you as well as your mom. Even tho I gave birth several times, I didn't do this for a living, I wasn't able to help my daughter the way the doula could. I'd look for one on the internet and ask for recommendations from past customers too.
As for the high blood pressure, if you worry about it and focus only on that, then most likely you will make things worse for yourself. Worry causes stress to the body and that would stress the heart and blood pressure. Try meditation right away, doing it daily...take a class on it or learn of other relaxation techniques. theres a lot of stuff on the internet. Even listening to certain kinds of instrumental music can be very calming. Do these things now to help your high BP from not going any higher.
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