justapatient87

Frozen pads are fantastic. My hospital made them with Postpartum Herbs from Earth Mama Angel Baby. So, so great.

After my unmedicated birth with a 2nd degree lady partsl tear, I was given 800mg ibuprofen every 4 hours while in the hospital and continued every 4-6 hrs for about a week at home, and then down to once or twice a day for another week. It worked well with the addition of frozen pads (the hospital used Earth Mama Angel Baby Postpartum Herbs on theirs, while the pads I made beforehand at home had witch hazel, aloe gel, and lavender oil. The Postpartum Herbs were much better). I personally didn't feel like I needed anything else.

Oh, I asked for the mirror...and then after a few pushes, I wanted it to go away.

I'm just a lurker (started lurking when I was pregnant with my son last year to prepare for a hospital birth) and just want to say that the mirror totally freaked me out. I watched tons of childbirth videos...my mom is a nurse and my dad and brother are paramedics...blood and ick doesn't gross me out or anything...I just thought I was going to watch myself...explode...and it scared me. I was unable to form the words to ask my nurse to move the mirror, so I just closed my eyes. I chose to birth without medication, and one thing that DID help was my CNM telling me that the "silent" pushes were more effective, and then I would let out my scream/grunt/"oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh" at the end of the contraction. Anyone putting their finger somewhere to "show" me where to push hurt like heck and just ticked me off.