As someone who doesn't *want* kids, but also likes to know Too Much... thank you SO MUCH for including us on this journey. Also, logically, I knew you & baby R came through okay, but I was So Invested watching the clips while you're in labor 😂
I absolutely never want kids especially due to having UC and other personal reasons, but this is really interesting. Hannah’s experience with IBD and pregnancy has helped with my curiosities.
Still can’t get over how long your labour was 🤯 & just SO GLAD that you were informed and respected at all stages, that this was a positive experience! 😭👏🏻❤️ The dream! Roll on postpartum content woop! This long weekend can’t come fast enough … I want to HOLD ROWAN SO BAD AGH
Can we 100% rule out that it was not ALSO the magic of Schitt's Creek that helped get the labor festivities going? Moira Rose is adding it to her list of well-deserved accolades. Also. Abundant and heartfelt congratulations to you, Dan, and Rowan! A very important question: Did your hospital have a baby button? I'm a hospital chaplain, and at my hospital, whenever someone who's given birth moves from the Labor/Delivery to the Post-Partum unit, they get to press a doorbell-like button that plays a lullaby over the entire hospital-wide intercom system. It is the ONLY cute thing that ever comes over the intercom, and whenever I tell family member of patients who are there for scary/tragic things to listen for the lullabies, their whole faces light up.
@@hannahwitton The next time I hear it, I'll say my customary, "Welcome, bb!" in y'all's honor! If you hum, "Go to sleep, little baby" for about 15 seconds and then abruptly stop, you'll achieve the same effect 😂
I'm crying because it's been so nice to have someone to do pregnancy with this whole ride and as I sit here with my sleepy 3 month old and look back on my own 4 day labour and unplanned csection, I feel particularly seen ❤
I just teared up when I saw the inserted picture of Dan lying on the bathroom floor 😭! This is just so cute and really says a lot about your relationship and about the type of partner, Dan is 💚💚💚
I've no phobia, and feel for those who do! Just a thought, had no idea that nausea could accompany contractions before it was happening to me; I was personally relieved to hear that it's not just me- it made labour a lot harder as it limited my movements and presumably thus led to various other interventions, so I wish I'd been a bit prepared beforehand that this could be a possibility (they eventually put gravol/dramamime into my (unplanned!) epidural which really helped, so there are solutions!)
@@claspring I can imagine that must have been so uncomfortable! There is so much about birth that we don’t talk about enough. Honestly, the high possibility of being nauseous while pregnant/giving birth and not being able to take care of a sick child means I l can’t picture myself ever being pregnant or having kids
Welcome back! We missed you! Also, the length of time you've been doing the Hormone Diaries and all these experinces you've had, means this well documented series really is an incredibly rare and special study into the phyaical and mental, changes and challanges of human life and I want to thank you so much for it.
I've been watching the hormone diaries since I was 14-15. I felt odd because I never had my period but you helped me feel accepted and helped me learn more about my body. now I'm 22, I know that I have a genetic mutation in my uterus and probably won't have children, I don't want children, yet following your journey helps me so much. learning about what it's like, how things work, it's so helpful especially in a society that doesn't teach us about our bodies!!! thank you and congratulations!!!
I actually watched the extended editions and appendixes in the labor and delivery room. I was there for a while because my water broke before I started active labor So we brought the PlayStation to watch movies in the room. It was still playing while I was pushing and I was distinctly remember one of the nurses turning and watching the screen briefly and saying "wow, they really put a lot of work into these movies" It was great. My oldest came into this world listening to songs from Howard shore and people talking about how he wrote them and the mood that they set 😅
I can't tell you how grateful I am to have heard you put into words how I feel about hospitals, around 26:00 lol. I have Crohn's Disease and now have a permanent ileostomy. I have been in the hospital multiple times and I also feel a weirdly positive connection to being checked in. While I've had some negative outcomes from the hospital (surgical errors and having to be there by myself after major surgery, during COVID) I still overall feel like "ok, now we're going to get things fixed up." As I get closer to starting my family and figuring out what that means to me, I've found that the idea of being in a hospital/epidural/C-section doesn't frighten me. The idea of being in the hospital during my delivery makes me feel safe and looked after. It's interesting to hear that come someone in a similar medical situation to me!
For questions: I do wonder how recovery from the C-section was different from the other surgaries you have had? What has surprised you the most post partum going on in your body? And what surprised you the most about taking care of a new born baby? What is the best thing you bought of sort of «baby gadgets» that you would recomend, and what has been useless? Also was there any tips and trick reading you had done on what to expect when you have a new born, that actually came in handy?
I’m sure I’ll go into detail about all these Qs in future videos but in summary - C-section recovery a walk in the park compared to previous surgeries - THE NIGHT SWEATS OMG - how little they do - will think about this and probs make a whole video - didn’t read anything beforehand 😅😅
@@hannahwitton Really? Walk in the park compared to other surgeries? Good to know! 😅 I am 4 weeks post op a medically necessary hysterectomy and (while mine was laparoscopic, unlike an abdominal hysterectomy which is similar to a C-section cut), I am wondering how the hell C-section parents survive a newborn. Walk in park in comparison to "other surgeries" 😉 Yes, mine is "other surgery". 😒
@@treefrog1018 I think Hannah was only speaking from & to her own experience. We all go through things differently. I think hysterectomy and bowel surgery are more on a par - caesarean is perhaps more like having a stent fitted!? Or pyloric stenosis surgery for babies? Both my brothers had that! Lots of crying and puking and much better afterwards!
@@treefrog1018 I had a friend who had a csection and was in a wheelchair for 7 days, I was walking around 6 hours later and felt absolutely fine. We're all so different but I do wonder if the trauma of an experience impacts the healing process
As an ODP (the person who assists the anaesthetist during epidurals as well as c sections) it’s so interesting to hear about everything leading up to emergency c sections and the patients experience! Wishing you a good recovery and 4th trimester my love ❤️
I'm so excited for this. Watching while nursing my 8 week old! My first baby. My labour lasted 3 hours from start to finish. Within 30 mins of contractions starting I was in established labour, needing to go to hospital, too painful to talk to, 3 1 min long within a 10 min period. Within an hour of everything starting, I was 9cm dialated. Pushing lasted 2 hours ffs. There was no time for them to run the birthing pool or give pain relief which sucked! But baby Juniper was born healthy and happy and rapidly! At 39+5 with no sweeps or interventions, mucus plug hadn't been lost beforehand! 💖
I warched your last video before birth with my baby in my belly and now I watch this with my 10-week old son 🥰Time really flies 😊 good to see you back, we missed your videos 😊
Congrats Hannah! What a wonderful name too ❤️. I am someone who does want a baby, but has quite a big fear of birth (for lots of complicated reasons), so seeing such a relaxed account of such a long labour has really helped me remember that things can be ok even when the unexpected happens.
I’m in a similar position to you …want a baby but also rather scared …although overcome a lot of that in the past year or so x I used to be a midwife…so although know pregnancy and birth is so normal …have also seen the other end of it and everything in between…sometimes ignorance is bliss…I know too much x
Oh man when Dan held Hannah's hand when she was having contractions I definitely teared up. I don't even want kids, but it really got me! Thank you so much for sharing so much of your journey with everyone! I am constantly recommending your videos to friends for some honest and relatable sexual health and education. Congrats to you and Dan!
As someone who is currently 20 weeks pregnant this video was lovely to watch- things dont always go exactly to be plan but doesn’t have to detract from an overall positive experience
Anyone else emotional and tearing up at the introduction music? So excited for this video, and so happy to see you back, Hannah 💛 You watching LOTR and playing Solitaire at 2am is just so gloriously you 😂
What a great, positive video! Even though the journey must have been incredibly hard, it's so good to see you happy about it. The way you came to the decision for the C-section seems so logical and calm. Great that you got all the doctors there to make sure not only baby but also you are all right! Take your time now, you will find your own working mom rhythm 😘 Lots of love!
You poor girl! That is such a long time to be in labor. I don’t know how you did it. The day I had my son, I had a very tight back and I felt as if I had to go to the bathroom in the worst way. I remember my regular OB/GYN visit and since my doctor was incredibly good looking,I always made sure that I looked really attractive, “as if he was going to look at my face. “He was examining me and looked up and said, “you’re 7 1/2 centimeters!” “Did you know you were in labor?” It was so crazy fast. 45 minutes later my son was born all, 7 pounds 14 ounces and 24 and 1/2 inches of baby. You’re amazing! I just wanna say that.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience of a Caesarean section! I feel like so much pressure is put on pregnant women about having a vaginal “natural” delivery that any time you don’t get to experience that it has such a negative impact on peoples experience and mental health. I work in a NICU and had my little boy a year ago via forceps and just from my experience and my job I hear so many women talk about how they felt like a failure because they couldn’t have a vagina “natural” delivery but actually had such a positive experience with their C-section or instrumental deliveries. I think the wording needs to change, in my opinion every child birth is natural, whether it’s unassisted, medicated or instrumental. Basically just thank you!!! For being so positive about your not so pleasant experience.
As someone who went into labour on a Sunday and had my baby on a Friday morning, I can truly appreciate this vlog and its ups and downs of labour. My story differs as Wednesday I had my first induction as I was only dilated 1cm, my second induction the following day, became severely dehydrated and was wheeled into the delivery suite with a bowl in front of my face as I kept vomiting (side note, I was never told I was in active labour - I was on the midwive ward above the labour ward for all of this - there is no gas and air on this level ... I asked), got my third bag of fluids, an epidural, and that I was still 1cm dilated. Oxytocin, having my water broken (they had to get a second attending to check as there was no fluids left as baby was 11 days overdue and had ate it all!) and a 3 hour nap later, I was woken up and told that I was 10cm dilated and that I was going have my baby now. 18 mins later I had my baby with the aid of forceps and an episiotomy. I was told by my hubby afterwards that if I haven't fully dilated after the oxytocin, then I would have had an unplanned c-section. Needless to say I broke the family record for longest labour as previously my mom held the title with 4 days.
I had two babies and the first I had to be induced, because I was two and a half weeks overdue. Being induced is not something I would ever want to do again. Once they decided to give me an epidural I fell asleep and my mom thought that was funny, that I could sleep during labor. I had been through a lot of pain for hours before though and was exhausted. They were prepping me for a c-section when I ended up giving birth vaginally. My second baby, I went in and was only 2 centimeters and they broke my waters and I went from a 2 to a 10 in an hour, very quick and very painful. The delivery was equally fast and the doctor almost dropped him. I couldn’t imagine going through either pregnancy with my stoma as well. Thank you for your birth stories, I loved watching it.
This was the best baby birthing story I've heard online. So lovely and positive, despite the many challenges you faced. Sending you love and can't wait to see all the new videos (guest or not) that you have planned. xx
Wow.. watching this I realized how lucky I was to have only spent 6h and 42min in labour with my first and 37 minutes with my second baby. (Yup - on the record it says „delivery all in all took 5 minutes“ but I started contractions at 9:45pm and baby was born 10:22pm) I honestly think the universe just took laboring time off of me and slapped it onto somebody else’s clock. Amazing how gracefully you handled the situation and how positive you stayed!!! Thank you so much for sharing & be proud of yourself! 4 days in Labour is something not a lot of people are able to endure!!! ❤️
You're reminding me of my mum when she had my brother (her first). She was in labour for 3 days, she ended up with a large tear and stitches around her vagina after she'd been put to sleep and my brother was born that way. She ended up with an infection which kept her in hospital for a long, long time. However, she came to Australia from Italy in 1958 (brother born 1964) and has never really been able to handle English. So, she couldn't understand anything, wasn't told what was happening, it was just a different time - no interpreters etc. Back then, it was the time when babies where all put in a nursery together. Turns out, because of the language problem, her infection etc, it was over a week and she still hadn't even seen my brother. Someone found her crying one day, made the effort to find out why, and she was finally able to see her first baby. It's crazy how much things have changed. I was amazed when she told me all of this. She'd never talked about it and still doesn't bring it up - she's 88, I'm the youngest and I help look after her😊 I doubt you'll see this, but it's just crazy thinking about women who were giving birth 100 years ago or more. You can see why giving birth was so dangerous and why so many women and children didn't survive it. I've never had kids, you're so courageous!☺️
Congrats Hannah! A bit gutted about the normalisation of sweeps here so for anyone reading who is pregnant, my unsolicited advice is to read up on sweeps and whether they are a help or hindrance.
I love the show “Call the Midwife” and that is like my BASIC guide to birthing. Update: love that you guys are watching the extended editions, the only ones to watch.
Your labor story is a lot like mine. I had mild preeclampsia, my son was born at 37weeks and 2 days. I was in labor for almost 2 days. My C-section was not planned, but an emergency C-section. Being a mom/parent is exhausting, but also rewarding. Congratulations Hannah and Dan!! Welcome to the world baby Rowan!!
Mucus is always in your cervix for various reasons; lubrication, cleaning, infection control etc. but the thickness depends on your cycle or stage of pregnancy. It’s like a bottle cork keeping the uterus and contents happy and protected.
This is fantastic - as an HCP who has delivered babies this really highlights the HUGE importance of a woman's control in her birth. Congratulations - amazing.
Congratulations Hannah! It's great to have you back! I was wondering if you had any plans to have Dan either join a video (or one of the TCR podcasts you occasionally did) to discuss his perspective on it all? Maybe it's just me but I seem to watch almost exclusively content from the birthing parent, so it would be great to have that perspective from a non-birthing parent.
Not discussed it with him yet. Maybe a podcast episode but more likely is that we’ll do a special episode of the HanDan podcast which is a Patreon exclusive!!
Hannah, you are incredible. Thank you for the dedication you take to making such detailed, informative and raw videos. You are a powerhouse of a women and what a lucky child to have you as their mum! You are doing such good in the world, bloody adore you 💕 Huge congratulations hope little one is continuing to thrive in your beautiful little family!
I feel like this video has educated me more about childbirth than any class in school. Thank you so much for sharing your story and congratulations and all the best wishes to you, Dan and Baby Rowan.
your self-control is amazing. if my husband was playing games while I was in any stage of labour I would be climbing up the walls!! congratulations to you both, Rowan is beautiful
Your description is very much like what happened with my wife's second labor. She was suffering with neutropenia, a condition where the white blood cell levels are depressed for unknown reasons. Due to this, her obstetrician decided to opt for a planned and scheduled C-section with prophylactic antibiotics. (Of course, nothing went exactly as planned, because she had two other births that afternoon which ran long, requiring us to wait half an hour or so.) Even so, the birth went as expected so much as possible. Our son is now 21, and a healthy and hearty member of our family. My wife's first pregnancy was also a section, although that one was unexpected. She ran 24 hours without dilating past 4 cm, and finally the obstetrician ran out of patience and decided a section was the best idea. That birth resulted in our daughter, 35, who is an Amazon that inherited all the ambition in the family, which she has exercised to great success.
My baby was born the same day as yours. I started having contractions on Thursday morning and didn't give birth until early Saturday morning. We went to the hospital 4 times to get checked and my baby was sitting so low that they couldn't even find my cervix!! It took 2 days to get to 2cm and then with a few hours I was at 7cm and five minutes later I was at 9cm. I was able to labour at home all the way up until we got to the hospital and started pushing. Definitely didn't expect such a long labour and then to go from no dilation to almost fully dilated in just a few hours. I also had the full body shakes from the pain. Even my teeth were chattering. Crazy how resilient our bodies are.
Welcome back! This past 3 months... what a journey. My son was born on 23rd April. I cannot wait for the new videos and your experience as a momma. It's exciting to see you working. As a Hungarian I will be home with my boy for 3 years. Here this is very common. But I miss working (a little bit). :)
I literally checked your channel a couple of days ago because I was wondering how long it had been since your maternity leave had started, so I’m really excited to see you return to share your birth story! I’ve definitely missed your content while you were gone, but I’d glad you were able to take time to be with your family! Hearing others’ birth stories is such a mix of emotions for me, because I want a baby, but I’m also not in a position to have one, due to a variety of reasons (not limited to the fact that there’s a lot of upfront costs for a same sex couple). I guess in a way, I get to live vicariously through stories like yours and Jessica Kellgren-Fozard’s to experience second-hand parenthood.
Welcome back! I was not expecting a big old labor/birth vlog the very week you returned but it was amazing. Thank you for sharing. The hormone diaries is such a good series.
Ahhh, congratulations Hannah!!! This was so interesting and soooo similar to my own birthing experiences which is wild! Looking forward to hearing more about your new life as a Mum! 💘
Welcome back! I loved this video. Your labour sounds very similar to mine. The differences were that I was told 24 hours when my hind waters broke but they kept pushing it back. I was told to come in on day 3 and spent 8 hours sat in the waiting room as there was no bed for me. They found me one that night and took me down at 9am the next morning before breaking my fore waters and helping my contactions kick in regularly at 12pm. After that it was pretty fast. I also ended up with an emergency C-section but could feel it so they had to put me under general and there were apparently some scary moments for both of us that we thankfully came through. That baby is 18 now but this brought back all the memories as I've never heard of anyone else having a comparable labour to mine before.
It’s crazy how labor is so different for everyone!! I just had my first in March and I was so lucky I was in the hospital waiting to be induced the next morning… because my water broke naturally and that night I went from a 1 to baby born in less than 2 hours! Next baby they said to come as soon as I get any contractions! So hearing about yours as your at home stresses me out. I am so impressed with your birth story and what you were able to go through for your little!
I really enjoyed the way you spoke about this! I had a scary birth experience and have been nervous about having more kids, but the way you spoke with such excitement even about the slow, painful or disappointing bits (eg only being X cms dialated) was really positive and refreshing. It made me kinda excited and for the first time in 10 months think back to the labour with nostalgia and excitement
I'm glad your c-section felt so calm and "planned" ☺️ my best friend had an emergency c-section and it was 10mins between her knowing she needed one and having the baby. And then they gave her too much medicine (idk the name for it, I'm not a native speaker, sorry) so she couldn't move her arms for like an hour and couldn't hold her son right away. She was kinda traumatised for a while 🥲
Welcome back Hannah! It’s funny, even though I have no desire to have kids of my own and go through pregnancy and childbirth, I find it so interesting to watch other people’s journeys with this! Women/people who can give birth are truly amazing and it is fascinating what our bodies are capable of. I hope you are recovering well ❤️
i really love this. hoping everybody who births feels looked after and satisfied with their experience. a few things that popped out to me: doing a trial of labor before a c-section helps preserve the cascade of hormones that kickstart processes like nursing, bonding, and newborn breathing. it’s never a wasted effort. sometimes if the waters break, you have forewaters and hindwaters that follow thebirth of baby. the fetal body can obstruct the rest of the water getting out. in the US, the policy for how long they’ll let you labor after membranes rupture varies hospital by hospital. 24 hours is on the long side of policy, even though it’s pretty middle of the range according to evidence. i have seen an aggregate study that looked at other studies’ data which found that the most reliable predictor of infection post-rupture is how many vaginal exams were given. also, i know some folks who have had issues with dilation due to scar tissue from previous surgeries. once contractions synchronize into a labor pattern, each one is meant to pull muscle tissue away from the cervix and toward the top of the uterus. if there are any adhesions or if the tissue in your bowels is less flexible, it’s possible that the cervix physically can’t dilate without pulling something vital out of place. connective tissue, ligaments, and tendons relaxing is as important as uterine contractions. anyone working in the birth field can throw a theory at you, this one is mine. i wanna thank you for chronicling this journey too! learning about stomas and pregnancy is very valuable to my education and I really vibe with the way you deliver information.
Glad you added some more info about the waters breaking. With my first child I had a small trickle of waters and then about 24hrs later birthed him. None of the staff at the birth centre were concerned. Some more gushed out during labour but most of it came out as he did as he had a bubble of fluid attached to his head so when he came out it just popped and splashed all over the place. With my second child I had trickling 5.5 days prior to birth. Staff at the hospital wanted to examine me and also mentioned inducing but I declined as I knew by this point that, as you said, vaginal examinations increase the chance of infection and I didn’t want any examinations during my pregnancy/birth. I also was having a home birth with my midwife (UK). I suspected that as with my previous baby, the hind waters were trickling through. 5.5 days on, my waters broke during labour in one big gush and 12 mins later with a few pushes baby was born. It isn’t always this big risk of infection and need for antibiotics and you can carry on as you are.
There’s always a doctor in the hospital it just wouldn’t have been a consultant but there’s always on call consultants. And because of the higher risk for me it would be best to have the most senior doctor possible do my c-section!
Mazal tov!! Glad to hear you all are doing well. 4 days of labor! Holy guacamole batman. I mean at least LOTR was there for you. Take your time getting back into the swing of things. And go snuggle your baby for all of us 😉 💖
That overwhelming relief when your water broke is what I felt after the plancenta was out. I think it was a combo of me marking that as the very end of labor but also my body really felt like something was really off in the inbetween of baby being born and the placenta leaving.
I had a very planned unplanned c-section too due to lack of progression of labor with my first baby. I only wished I hadn't had to do the whole trying to labor thing at all. I can also relate to being shocked when they held my baby up! It's so weird.
Totally agree about the relief of waters breaking. It feels like so much pressure and then it just pops like a balloon and it’s nice…until it’s not lol. Then the contractions without the buffer of water are BRUTAL
Treasure these moments. They pass way more quickly than you’d believe. My oldest is 17 and my youngest is going on 13 now. I remember holding both of them for the first time as if it were yesterday.
Had my wee boy a week before you and my take-home is that labour is guaranteed to not be what you expect 🤣 first pregnancy- my waters broke and then one long contraction for 2 hours and it was over, exactly the opposite of what they said would happen!
I have been patiently waiting for this update. I'm so glad the three of you are doing well! As someone who is child free by choice, I was weirdly invested in your journey and am so glad everything went well! Congrats to you and Dan!!
One question I like to ask new parents is: Did you dream about your baby before they were born? And do you dream about them now that they're here?? You look lovely, and the name Rowan is such a beautiful name. Wishing your family all the best!! We are a one-and-done couple, and my son just turned 12, so is a sassy pre-teen already. Omg, you did amazing with your labor. I was in labor for under 5 hours, went all natural (thanks to being 3cm dilated walking around living life for 3 weeks before my son was born). And the moms and dads that go through these long labors, damn, props to them all!
It’s so nice hearing about your experience, I feel like if it was someone with a different mindset they might have spun this as a horror story (especially not seeing Rowan straight away). Pregnant myself I’m a little bit tired of seeing some much “DONT DO EPIDURALS I HAD ONE AND IT WAS AWFUL” like I appreciate that’s their experience but don’t spread it like it happens to everyone, it’s like everyone hates doctors and nurses so it’s nice to have someone speaking about their positive experiences. I’m not trying to say people shouldn’t talk about their bad experiences, they should especially in cases of neglect, but in a lot of cases it does just seem like a lack of understanding or communication. Doctors and nurses in general just want to keep people and their babies safe.
I've missed you so much!!!!!! I'm so happy everything went so well for you and I'm excited for all the new content!!!!! much love to you, Dan, and Rowan 💖
I can empathise with the long labour. When I had my son 5 years ago, we were in labour for several days. He popped my forewaters at 3am on Friday 21st, was having irregular contractions from that point. They decided to start inducing me on the Monday 24th, but my little guy didn't make his appearance till the Wednesday 26th at 7am. Hoping this little man doesn't do the same. ( due in 5 weeks) I will cry if he does. Epidural was amazing!
I am very impressed by how composed you were while you were still waiting to meet your baby! - I would have been in tears! - You are really tough - and I mean the best way possible. - I wish you and your little family all the best from Germany.
Currently 39 weeks with my second bubba and watching this again also having a veeerryyyyy long labor with no signs of sweet baby coming any time soon! 😂 I’m so happy everything has been going well for your family! ❤
I’m so pleased that you had a positive experience Hannah, and that also you are sharing that experience for others to witness. It makes me happy that you had such a positive experience, especially after the trauma of your surgeries and hospital stays in the past, which I know you have briefly shared about. I hope it was in some way healing for you! Xxx
LOVE Roman's name! I had some similarities in my labor to this. It took FOREVER for the dilation to happen. My water broke before contractions started, and in my state you have to be admitted once the water breaks because of the infection risk/it can really speed labor up a lot. I also experienced that weird "pleasant " feeling when it poured out. But. I'm a first time mom. My contractions didn't start until an hour after my water broke. And even after they started, it was super slow. So they kept trying to give me pitocin to make my cervix get it's move on, but my baby didn't like the pitocin and his heart rate went down every time they tried it, so then they'd have to stop giving it to me. I think we were something like 18 hours in before I even got to 6 centimeters. It felt insane. And in my state, they really really don't want you to labor longer than 24 hours after water breaking because infection risks get a lot higher for each extra hour. So we're 18 hours into this 24 hour preferred timeline, and I still wasn't considered to be in active labor. So we kept trying the pitocin at shorter intervals and my baby kept being like no, you get that stuff away from me! But once we got to 7 all of a sudden my body got a lot faster. So we got to 7 I think around 20 hours in, and went to 10 centimeters in the next 2 or 3 hours after that. BUT, then, I'm in full on active labor, fully dilated, body trying it's absolute hardest to push this kid out...and for 2.5 hours of this, he moved literally a single centimeter closer to being out. And we're somewhere around 26 hours by then post water breakage, I'm sobbing hysterically because the back labor is unbelievable, I physically can't breathe at all during these contractions, I'm choking on my own oxygen and tears in between each one, the 1 nurse they sent me to monitor me during this stage keeps ordering me not to scream so loud, and my Dr shows up to see what's happening and he got 2 steps into the room before I yelled we needed to change the plan because I f*cking done and this wasn't working. So I also got an unexpected c section! And a massive infection in my incision from the c section. So I also ended up in the hospital for 4 days! Just most of it was after he was born. 😅 I've gotten more educated since he was born and we think his head was probably sitting a little crooked so the contractions sent most of the pressure to my back, from his head angle, instead of down into my cervix. He was a totally average size baby, not huge. I'm average size, so it wasn't a too big/too small thing. He just wasn't sitting at the right angle to utilize the pushing pressure. I'm so glad we did surgery instead. I was so done. And it could have hours or days before he would have shifted enough to come out the other way. And I was the patient before my Dr's shift was over, and he did an amazing job. And even though i had a spinal and definitely couldn't feel a thing below about my boobs.. i absolutely felt them pull him out. Im really short, he was really long, and i was struggling to breathe months before labor. The SECOND they pulled him out i felt so physically empty and just reflexively took an ENORMOUS deep breath and said oh my god i can breathe. Those were my first words after my child was born. 😂 partner still thinks that hilarious. The scar was almost invisible just a few months later, and I never had to stress about a stranger cutting me open. To me it was an ideal birth ending. The dr even cut a slight angle up on one side to avoid cutting into the side of my tattoo. I didn't ask him to but I really appreciated that he did. It was only about a 1/2 inch higher on that side, and he could have easily just kept going straight. At my check up after I thanked him and he said yeah, early on in his practice he'd had a lot of women ask him if he could avoid their tattoos because they were significant or expensive, and he'd just decided early on to make that a habit. And he said usually he won't know a tattoos there before surgery because he isn't looking at patients lower stomachs during prenatal appointments, usually the nurses do those appointments. So the surgeries sometimes have an added "oh, that's there" surprise he has to decide on in that moment. Which I thought was kind of amusing to picture. But it wasn't something I'd thought of in the moment because I got that tattoo really far to the side of my hip, and I didn't know how long a c section cut is, I just assumed when I got the tattoo I'd placed it far enough over and didn't think about it again until after the surgery.
I had a similar experience experience. I had the show followed by my waters broke and then went on the whole day no contractions till the next day around mid day. Hospital called me in for induction dunno why. And then I was in active labour for 12 hours, 10cm dilated and fully pushing. Till doctor comes running in the next morning saying she didn’t want to risk infection so we have to do a emergency c-section. Due to the peak of Covid I had a traumatic experience along with the doctor and Midwive failing me. After they did apologise for the wrong doings but yeh it is what it is. I’ve just overcome that experience and being positive for the next pregnancy. Lesson learnt stay home till I’m in active labour loool.
Thank you for this series. It have been so nice following along in your pregnancy and feeling like I had a companion in mine. My daughter was born the 4th of July after 58 hours of labor with 52 of those being at home to reach the for us 3cm that you have to be here in Denmark to be admitted to the labor ward. So nice knowing that I am not the only one with a very long and painful birth. And that it is okay that the birth did not go to plan and that that is okay too. I am so happy that baby Rowan is here and healthy 😁
It's very interesting to see this from the perspective of a mum - I am a paediatric trainee so we are the ones waiting by the side in case baby needs a bit of help when they're born. Do you think anything could have made your experience better with your baby in NICU? We always try to keep the parents as informed as possible and, if mum can't make it to the neonatal unit for medical reasons, try to have dad/other carer be there as much as possible. I always think of how difficult and downright strange it must be for mums who have just delivered to not be able to hold their wee one. I am glad you're both well and congratulations! Enjoy your baby 🥰
Wow, my name is also Hannah, I also have a son named Rowan and we ALSO spent our first night apart because he was in the NICU for breathing problems! Wild. Though I was lucky enough to hold him before he went. Congratulations on your birth
Congratulations Hannah, Dan and Rowan. And welcome back. Thank you for sharing this with us. I went through the TTC journey at a similar time to you (started and ended a bit before), and then had a different but similar birth to you, so it feels nice to have someone tell a positive c-section birth story. So thank you for making me feel seen!
Yay! So glad you're back Hannah! I've been looking forward to your return since you posted that Rowan was born while also being very aware of the fact that you deserved all the time in the world to rest and recover and just do life! Sending the whole family lots of hugs and thanks so much for allowing us to be a part of this whole journey.
Welcoooooome back ! Also labor for 4 days ? I was like whaaaaaat that's impossible. And then I realized we didn't had the same definition of labor (and now I'm more informed)
Very glad you clarified your overall thoughts at the beginning before hopping into the details! Glad you feel positive about it and biggest congratulations xxxx
so happy to see you posted!!! i’ve been hoping that mama dad and baby are doing well. just refreshed on your page last night hoping for an update! thank you 🥺❤️
I just love your energy! You're always soooo positive, even when it comes to what sounds like a reaaaaally uncomfortable 4 days. Loved the video, thanks!
Very jazzed to hear you had a positive experience! Sounds like you absolutely made the right choice when it came to the last presentation of options for Rowan's birth. You definitely gave it your damndest with 4 whole days of labour. I think what you said in beginning of this video about contributors to the positivity of your experience with labour and birth is really key: feeling well heard, informed, and well supported. No disrespect of your autonomy. If it makes you feel any better, my baby also had to go to NICU shortly after an uncomplicated vaginal labour and birth. It is hard having baby taken and on oxygen so you cant have your golden hour :/ But we still did bond wonderfully, made up with skin 2 skin later on, and all worked out well in the end.
This brought back memories! I'm glad everyone is healthy and doing well. The same rule applies in the US about 24 hours after the waters have broken being a greater risk for infection.
I went into labor on July 4th last month and gave birth the next day to a beautiful little girl! So excited to hear your delivery story. Missed you during your leave but I hoped you enjoyed it thoroughly!:)
I was nervous to watch this because I thought it would bring up a lot of my own birth trauma (which is still so fresh) BUT I actually found this video weirdly healing. I think it’s something about your great attitude. Or maybe it’s because I haven’t talked to anyone else in the same situation yet and I sort of have now through your video…! I love your stuff! So thank you for this :) xx
WELCOME BACK TO TH-cam HANNAH! It's been amazing to see your updates on IG in the time since you've uploaded and what an incredible story to return with. I cannot believe all that you and Dan went through and I cannot be happier that you two had each other through your labour journey. Looking forward to all the content to come, both with and without your hosting
As someone who doesn't *want* kids, but also likes to know Too Much... thank you SO MUCH for including us on this journey. Also, logically, I knew you & baby R came through okay, but I was So Invested watching the clips while you're in labor 😂
same
Haha this is exactly how I feel!
Why don't you want Kids?
@@goldenliz3321 Not everyone wants children and not everyone can have children.
I don’t want children and probably never will want children.
I absolutely never want kids especially due to having UC and other personal reasons, but this is really interesting. Hannah’s experience with IBD and pregnancy has helped with my curiosities.
Still can’t get over how long your labour was 🤯 & just SO GLAD that you were informed and respected at all stages, that this was a positive experience! 😭👏🏻❤️ The dream! Roll on postpartum content woop! This long weekend can’t come fast enough … I want to HOLD ROWAN SO BAD AGH
Eeeee!!! Can’t wait!!
And here she goes making it all about her again🤦🏻♀️ the drama queen that you are.
Labor, delivery, solitaire, Lord of the Rings, puzzles, unexpected surgery; this vlog has it all.
Even the non-greem puke 😅
And a bacon sandwich.
Can we 100% rule out that it was not ALSO the magic of Schitt's Creek that helped get the labor festivities going? Moira Rose is adding it to her list of well-deserved accolades.
Also. Abundant and heartfelt congratulations to you, Dan, and Rowan! A very important question: Did your hospital have a baby button? I'm a hospital chaplain, and at my hospital, whenever someone who's given birth moves from the Labor/Delivery to the Post-Partum unit, they get to press a doorbell-like button that plays a lullaby over the entire hospital-wide intercom system. It is the ONLY cute thing that ever comes over the intercom, and whenever I tell family member of patients who are there for scary/tragic things to listen for the lullabies, their whole faces light up.
Woowww no our hospital did not have that age I’ve never heard it in other hospitals I’ve been in!
The bebe wanted to get out and watch too, obvi
@@hannahwitton The next time I hear it, I'll say my customary, "Welcome, bb!" in y'all's honor!
If you hum, "Go to sleep, little baby" for about 15 seconds and then abruptly stop, you'll achieve the same effect 😂
@@alisalaska1786 Roland and Rowan sound very similar and I will leave it at that.
@@eringrasse7512 😆😆😆😆😆😆
I'm crying because it's been so nice to have someone to do pregnancy with this whole ride and as I sit here with my sleepy 3 month old and look back on my own 4 day labour and unplanned csection, I feel particularly seen ❤
omg snap!
I just teared up when I saw the inserted picture of Dan lying on the bathroom floor 😭! This is just so cute and really says a lot about your relationship and about the type of partner, Dan is 💚💚💚
For my fellow emetophobes - there is lots of mention of being sick, so if you’re not in a place to hear about that, maybe skip this one for now :)
I've no phobia, and feel for those who do! Just a thought, had no idea that nausea could accompany contractions before it was happening to me; I was personally relieved to hear that it's not just me- it made labour a lot harder as it limited my movements and presumably thus led to various other interventions, so I wish I'd been a bit prepared beforehand that this could be a possibility (they eventually put gravol/dramamime into my (unplanned!) epidural which really helped, so there are solutions!)
@@claspring I can imagine that must have been so uncomfortable! There is so much about birth that we don’t talk about enough. Honestly, the high possibility of being nauseous while pregnant/giving birth and not being able to take care of a sick child means I l can’t picture myself ever being pregnant or having kids
Welcome back! We missed you! Also, the length of time you've been doing the Hormone Diaries and all these experinces you've had, means this well documented series really is an incredibly rare and special study into the phyaical and mental, changes and challanges of human life and I want to thank you so much for it.
I've been watching the hormone diaries since I was 14-15. I felt odd because I never had my period but you helped me feel accepted and helped me learn more about my body. now I'm 22, I know that I have a genetic mutation in my uterus and probably won't have children, I don't want children, yet following your journey helps me so much. learning about what it's like, how things work, it's so helpful especially in a society that doesn't teach us about our bodies!!! thank you and congratulations!!!
I actually watched the extended editions and appendixes in the labor and delivery room. I was there for a while because my water broke before I started active labor So we brought the PlayStation to watch movies in the room.
It was still playing while I was pushing and I was distinctly remember one of the nurses turning and watching the screen briefly and saying "wow, they really put a lot of work into these movies"
It was great. My oldest came into this world listening to songs from Howard shore and people talking about how he wrote them and the mood that they set 😅
LOVE THAT. The soundtracks are pretty epic and beautiful.
The excitement I feel at your return shows me how much I'm right to be a Patron! Missed your videos so much, welcome back and congrats!!!!
I can't tell you how grateful I am to have heard you put into words how I feel about hospitals, around 26:00 lol. I have Crohn's Disease and now have a permanent ileostomy. I have been in the hospital multiple times and I also feel a weirdly positive connection to being checked in. While I've had some negative outcomes from the hospital (surgical errors and having to be there by myself after major surgery, during COVID) I still overall feel like "ok, now we're going to get things fixed up."
As I get closer to starting my family and figuring out what that means to me, I've found that the idea of being in a hospital/epidural/C-section doesn't frighten me. The idea of being in the hospital during my delivery makes me feel safe and looked after. It's interesting to hear that come someone in a similar medical situation to me!
For questions: I do wonder how recovery from the C-section was different from the other surgaries you have had?
What has surprised you the most post partum going on in your body?
And what surprised you the most about taking care of a new born baby?
What is the best thing you bought of sort of «baby gadgets» that you would recomend, and what has been useless?
Also was there any tips and trick reading you had done on what to expect when you have a new born, that actually came in handy?
I’m sure I’ll go into detail about all these Qs in future videos but in summary
- C-section recovery a walk in the park compared to previous surgeries
- THE NIGHT SWEATS OMG
- how little they do
- will think about this and probs make a whole video
- didn’t read anything beforehand 😅😅
@@hannahwitton Really? Walk in the park compared to other surgeries? Good to know! 😅 I am 4 weeks post op a medically necessary hysterectomy and (while mine was laparoscopic, unlike an abdominal hysterectomy which is similar to a C-section cut), I am wondering how the hell C-section parents survive a newborn.
Walk in park in comparison to "other surgeries" 😉 Yes, mine is "other surgery". 😒
@Hannah Witton One of your previous surgeries was the removal of an entire organ, so I’m not surprised that a C-section was easier than that.
@@treefrog1018 I think Hannah was only speaking from & to her own experience. We all go through things differently. I think hysterectomy and bowel surgery are more on a par - caesarean is perhaps more like having a stent fitted!? Or pyloric stenosis surgery for babies? Both my brothers had that! Lots of crying and puking and much better afterwards!
@@treefrog1018 I had a friend who had a csection and was in a wheelchair for 7 days, I was walking around 6 hours later and felt absolutely fine. We're all so different but I do wonder if the trauma of an experience impacts the healing process
Congratulations! I love that you sound more northern when sleep deprived and pumped full of painkillers post-birth 😂
My true form
Me too!
As an ODP (the person who assists the anaesthetist during epidurals as well as c sections) it’s so interesting to hear about everything leading up to emergency c sections and the patients experience!
Wishing you a good recovery and 4th trimester my love ❤️
I'm so excited for this. Watching while nursing my 8 week old! My first baby.
My labour lasted 3 hours from start to finish. Within 30 mins of contractions starting I was in established labour, needing to go to hospital, too painful to talk to, 3 1 min long within a 10 min period. Within an hour of everything starting, I was 9cm dialated. Pushing lasted 2 hours ffs. There was no time for them to run the birthing pool or give pain relief which sucked! But baby Juniper was born healthy and happy and rapidly! At 39+5 with no sweeps or interventions, mucus plug hadn't been lost beforehand! 💖
I warched your last video before birth with my baby in my belly and now I watch this with my 10-week old son 🥰Time really flies 😊 good to see you back, we missed your videos 😊
Congrats Hannah! What a wonderful name too ❤️.
I am someone who does want a baby, but has quite a big fear of birth (for lots of complicated reasons), so seeing such a relaxed account of such a long labour has really helped me remember that things can be ok even when the unexpected happens.
I’m in a similar position to you …want a baby but also rather scared …although overcome a lot of that in the past year or so x
I used to be a midwife…so although know pregnancy and birth is so normal …have also seen the other end of it and everything in between…sometimes ignorance is bliss…I know too much x
Oh man when Dan held Hannah's hand when she was having contractions I definitely teared up. I don't even want kids, but it really got me! Thank you so much for sharing so much of your journey with everyone! I am constantly recommending your videos to friends for some honest and relatable sexual health and education. Congrats to you and Dan!
4 days!? I would have been screaming for a C-section. Welcome back Hannah!
As someone who is currently 20 weeks pregnant this video was lovely to watch- things dont always go exactly to be plan but doesn’t have to detract from an overall positive experience
Anyone else emotional and tearing up at the introduction music? So excited for this video, and so happy to see you back, Hannah 💛
You watching LOTR and playing Solitaire at 2am is just so gloriously you 😂
What a great, positive video! Even though the journey must have been incredibly hard, it's so good to see you happy about it. The way you came to the decision for the C-section seems so logical and calm. Great that you got all the doctors there to make sure not only baby but also you are all right!
Take your time now, you will find your own working mom rhythm 😘
Lots of love!
You poor girl! That is such a long time to be in labor. I don’t know how you did it. The day I had my son, I had a very tight back and I felt as if I had to go to the bathroom in the worst way. I remember my regular OB/GYN visit and since my doctor was incredibly good looking,I always made sure that I looked really attractive, “as if he was going to look at my face. “He was examining me and looked up and said, “you’re 7 1/2 centimeters!” “Did you know you were in labor?” It was so crazy fast. 45 minutes later my son was born all, 7 pounds 14 ounces and 24 and 1/2 inches of baby. You’re amazing! I just wanna say that.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience of a Caesarean section! I feel like so much pressure is put on pregnant women about having a vaginal “natural” delivery that any time you don’t get to experience that it has such a negative impact on peoples experience and mental health. I work in a NICU and had my little boy a year ago via forceps and just from my experience and my job I hear so many women talk about how they felt like a failure because they couldn’t have a vagina “natural” delivery but actually had such a positive experience with their C-section or instrumental deliveries. I think the wording needs to change, in my opinion every child birth is natural, whether it’s unassisted, medicated or instrumental.
Basically just thank you!!! For being so positive about your not so pleasant experience.
As someone who went into labour on a Sunday and had my baby on a Friday morning, I can truly appreciate this vlog and its ups and downs of labour. My story differs as Wednesday I had my first induction as I was only dilated 1cm, my second induction the following day, became severely dehydrated and was wheeled into the delivery suite with a bowl in front of my face as I kept vomiting (side note, I was never told I was in active labour - I was on the midwive ward above the labour ward for all of this - there is no gas and air on this level ... I asked), got my third bag of fluids, an epidural, and that I was still 1cm dilated. Oxytocin, having my water broken (they had to get a second attending to check as there was no fluids left as baby was 11 days overdue and had ate it all!) and a 3 hour nap later, I was woken up and told that I was 10cm dilated and that I was going have my baby now. 18 mins later I had my baby with the aid of forceps and an episiotomy. I was told by my hubby afterwards that if I haven't fully dilated after the oxytocin, then I would have had an unplanned c-section. Needless to say I broke the family record for longest labour as previously my mom held the title with 4 days.
I had two babies and the first I had to be induced, because I was two and a half weeks overdue. Being induced is not something I would ever want to do again. Once they decided to give me an epidural I fell asleep and my mom thought that was funny, that I could sleep during labor. I had been through a lot of pain for hours before though and was exhausted. They were prepping me for a c-section when I ended up giving birth vaginally. My second baby, I went in and was only 2 centimeters and they broke my waters and I went from a 2 to a 10 in an hour, very quick and very painful. The delivery was equally fast and the doctor almost dropped him.
I couldn’t imagine going through either
pregnancy with my stoma as well.
Thank you for your birth stories, I loved watching it.
This was the best baby birthing story I've heard online. So lovely and positive, despite the many challenges you faced. Sending you love and can't wait to see all the new videos (guest or not) that you have planned. xx
Wow.. watching this I realized how lucky I was to have only spent 6h and 42min in labour with my first and 37 minutes with my second baby. (Yup - on the record it says „delivery all in all took 5 minutes“ but I started contractions at 9:45pm and baby was born 10:22pm) I honestly think the universe just took laboring time off of me and slapped it onto somebody else’s clock. Amazing how gracefully you handled the situation and how positive you stayed!!! Thank you so much for sharing & be proud of yourself! 4 days in Labour is something not a lot of people are able to endure!!! ❤️
You're reminding me of my mum when she had my brother (her first). She was in labour for 3 days, she ended up with a large tear and stitches around her vagina after she'd been put to sleep and my brother was born that way. She ended up with an infection which kept her in hospital for a long, long time. However, she came to Australia from Italy in 1958 (brother born 1964) and has never really been able to handle English. So, she couldn't understand anything, wasn't told what was happening, it was just a different time - no interpreters etc.
Back then, it was the time when babies where all put in a nursery together. Turns out, because of the language problem, her infection etc, it was over a week and she still hadn't even seen my brother. Someone found her crying one day, made the effort to find out why, and she was finally able to see her first baby. It's crazy how much things have changed. I was amazed when she told me all of this. She'd never talked about it and still doesn't bring it up - she's 88, I'm the youngest and I help look after her😊
I doubt you'll see this, but it's just crazy thinking about women who were giving birth 100 years ago or more. You can see why giving birth was so dangerous and why so many women and children didn't survive it. I've never had kids, you're so courageous!☺️
Congrats Hannah!
A bit gutted about the normalisation of sweeps here so for anyone reading who is pregnant, my unsolicited advice is to read up on sweeps and whether they are a help or hindrance.
I love the show “Call the Midwife” and that is like my BASIC guide to birthing.
Update: love that you guys are watching the extended editions, the only ones to watch.
i straight up sobbed at this i wont lie, i'm so so happy for you both! sending all three of you so much love x
Your labor story is a lot like mine. I had mild preeclampsia, my son was born at 37weeks and 2 days. I was in labor for almost 2 days. My C-section was not planned, but an emergency C-section. Being a mom/parent is exhausting, but also rewarding. Congratulations Hannah and Dan!! Welcome to the world baby Rowan!!
Mucus is always in your cervix for various reasons; lubrication, cleaning, infection control etc. but the thickness depends on your cycle or stage of pregnancy. It’s like a bottle cork keeping the uterus and contents happy and protected.
This is fantastic - as an HCP who has delivered babies this really highlights the HUGE importance of a woman's control in her birth.
Congratulations - amazing.
Congratulations Hannah! It's great to have you back! I was wondering if you had any plans to have Dan either join a video (or one of the TCR podcasts you occasionally did) to discuss his perspective on it all? Maybe it's just me but I seem to watch almost exclusively content from the birthing parent, so it would be great to have that perspective from a non-birthing parent.
Not discussed it with him yet. Maybe a podcast episode but more likely is that we’ll do a special episode of the HanDan podcast which is a Patreon exclusive!!
@@hannahwitton Sounds excellent! That was the podcast I meant, I just forgot the name 🤦♂️
Hannah, you are incredible. Thank you for the dedication you take to making such detailed, informative and raw videos. You are a powerhouse of a women and what a lucky child to have you as their mum! You are doing such good in the world, bloody adore you 💕 Huge congratulations hope little one is continuing to thrive in your beautiful little family!
My labour was also 4 days long…well done!! I found mine a positive experience too and felt in control just absolutely shattered by the end! X
I feel like this video has educated me more about childbirth than any class in school. Thank you so much for sharing your story and congratulations and all the best wishes to you, Dan and Baby Rowan.
your self-control is amazing. if my husband was playing games while I was in any stage of labour I would be climbing up the walls!! congratulations to you both, Rowan is beautiful
Your description is very much like what happened with my wife's second labor. She was suffering with neutropenia, a condition where the white blood cell levels are depressed for unknown reasons. Due to this, her obstetrician decided to opt for a planned and scheduled C-section with prophylactic antibiotics. (Of course, nothing went exactly as planned, because she had two other births that afternoon which ran long, requiring us to wait half an hour or so.) Even so, the birth went as expected so much as possible. Our son is now 21, and a healthy and hearty member of our family.
My wife's first pregnancy was also a section, although that one was unexpected. She ran 24 hours without dilating past 4 cm, and finally the obstetrician ran out of patience and decided a section was the best idea. That birth resulted in our daughter, 35, who is an Amazon that inherited all the ambition in the family, which she has exercised to great success.
My baby was born the same day as yours. I started having contractions on Thursday morning and didn't give birth until early Saturday morning. We went to the hospital 4 times to get checked and my baby was sitting so low that they couldn't even find my cervix!! It took 2 days to get to 2cm and then with a few hours I was at 7cm and five minutes later I was at 9cm. I was able to labour at home all the way up until we got to the hospital and started pushing. Definitely didn't expect such a long labour and then to go from no dilation to almost fully dilated in just a few hours. I also had the full body shakes from the pain. Even my teeth were chattering. Crazy how resilient our bodies are.
Welcome back! This past 3 months... what a journey. My son was born on 23rd April. I cannot wait for the new videos and your experience as a momma. It's exciting to see you working. As a Hungarian I will be home with my boy for 3 years. Here this is very common. But I miss working (a little bit). :)
I literally checked your channel a couple of days ago because I was wondering how long it had been since your maternity leave had started, so I’m really excited to see you return to share your birth story! I’ve definitely missed your content while you were gone, but I’d glad you were able to take time to be with your family!
Hearing others’ birth stories is such a mix of emotions for me, because I want a baby, but I’m also not in a position to have one, due to a variety of reasons (not limited to the fact that there’s a lot of upfront costs for a same sex couple). I guess in a way, I get to live vicariously through stories like yours and Jessica Kellgren-Fozard’s to experience second-hand parenthood.
Welcome back! I was not expecting a big old labor/birth vlog the very week you returned but it was amazing. Thank you for sharing. The hormone diaries is such a good series.
Ahhh, congratulations Hannah!!! This was so interesting and soooo similar to my own birthing experiences which is wild! Looking forward to hearing more about your new life as a Mum! 💘
Would love a video on the baby equittment/stuff you loved and what you didn't use. 😊
If I do it’ll be a more Hannah video! I loved watching those videos whilst pregnant!!
Welcome back! I loved this video. Your labour sounds very similar to mine. The differences were that I was told 24 hours when my hind waters broke but they kept pushing it back. I was told to come in on day 3 and spent 8 hours sat in the waiting room as there was no bed for me. They found me one that night and took me down at 9am the next morning before breaking my fore waters and helping my contactions kick in regularly at 12pm. After that it was pretty fast. I also ended up with an emergency C-section but could feel it so they had to put me under general and there were apparently some scary moments for both of us that we thankfully came through. That baby is 18 now but this brought back all the memories as I've never heard of anyone else having a comparable labour to mine before.
It’s crazy how labor is so different for everyone!! I just had my first in March and I was so lucky I was in the hospital waiting to be induced the next morning… because my water broke naturally and that night I went from a 1 to baby born in less than 2 hours! Next baby they said to come as soon as I get any contractions! So hearing about yours as your at home stresses me out. I am so impressed with your birth story and what you were able to go through for your little!
I really enjoyed the way you spoke about this! I had a scary birth experience and have been nervous about having more kids, but the way you spoke with such excitement even about the slow, painful or disappointing bits (eg only being X cms dialated) was really positive and refreshing. It made me kinda excited and for the first time in 10 months think back to the labour with nostalgia and excitement
I'm glad your c-section felt so calm and "planned" ☺️ my best friend had an emergency c-section and it was 10mins between her knowing she needed one and having the baby. And then they gave her too much medicine (idk the name for it, I'm not a native speaker, sorry) so she couldn't move her arms for like an hour and couldn't hold her son right away. She was kinda traumatised for a while 🥲
Welcome back Hannah! It’s funny, even though I have no desire to have kids of my own and go through pregnancy and childbirth, I find it so interesting to watch other people’s journeys with this! Women/people who can give birth are truly amazing and it is fascinating what our bodies are capable of. I hope you are recovering well ❤️
i really love this. hoping everybody who births feels looked after and satisfied with their experience. a few things that popped out to me: doing a trial of labor before a c-section helps preserve the cascade of hormones that kickstart processes like nursing, bonding, and newborn breathing. it’s never a wasted effort.
sometimes if the waters break, you have forewaters and hindwaters that follow thebirth of baby. the fetal body can obstruct the rest of the water getting out. in the US, the policy for how long they’ll let you labor after membranes rupture varies hospital by hospital. 24 hours is on the long side of policy, even though it’s pretty middle of the range according to evidence. i have seen an aggregate study that looked at other studies’ data which found that the most reliable predictor of infection post-rupture is how many vaginal exams were given.
also, i know some folks who have had issues with dilation due to scar tissue from previous surgeries. once contractions synchronize into a labor pattern, each one is meant to pull muscle tissue away from the cervix and toward the top of the uterus. if there are any adhesions or if the tissue in your bowels is less flexible, it’s possible that the cervix physically can’t dilate without pulling something vital out of place. connective tissue, ligaments, and tendons relaxing is as important as uterine contractions. anyone working in the birth field can throw a theory at you, this one is mine.
i wanna thank you for chronicling this journey too! learning about stomas and pregnancy is very valuable to my education and I really vibe with the way you deliver information.
Glad you added some more info about the waters breaking. With my first child I had a small trickle of waters and then about 24hrs later birthed him. None of the staff at the birth centre were concerned. Some more gushed out during labour but most of it came out as he did as he had a bubble of fluid attached to his head so when he came out it just popped and splashed all over the place.
With my second child I had trickling 5.5 days prior to birth. Staff at the hospital wanted to examine me and also mentioned inducing but I declined as I knew by this point that, as you said, vaginal examinations increase the chance of infection and I didn’t want any examinations during my pregnancy/birth. I also was having a home birth with my midwife (UK). I suspected that as with my previous baby, the hind waters were trickling through. 5.5 days on, my waters broke during labour in one big gush and 12 mins later with a few pushes baby was born. It isn’t always this big risk of infection and need for antibiotics and you can carry on as you are.
I am so happy for you and Dan congratulations 🎉 at the same time, hearing about "no doctor" after certain times is unbelievable to me.
There’s always a doctor in the hospital it just wouldn’t have been a consultant but there’s always on call consultants. And because of the higher risk for me it would be best to have the most senior doctor possible do my c-section!
Mazal tov!! Glad to hear you all are doing well. 4 days of labor! Holy guacamole batman. I mean at least LOTR was there for you.
Take your time getting back into the swing of things. And go snuggle your baby for all of us 😉
💖
That overwhelming relief when your water broke is what I felt after the plancenta was out. I think it was a combo of me marking that as the very end of labor but also my body really felt like something was really off in the inbetween of baby being born and the placenta leaving.
I had a very planned unplanned c-section too due to lack of progression of labor with my first baby. I only wished I hadn't had to do the whole trying to labor thing at all. I can also relate to being shocked when they held my baby up! It's so weird.
Totally agree about the relief of waters breaking. It feels like so much pressure and then it just pops like a balloon and it’s nice…until it’s not lol. Then the contractions without the buffer of water are BRUTAL
I have such a fear of labour and birth, honestly this made me feel so much better! thank you
Treasure these moments. They pass way more quickly than you’d believe. My oldest is 17 and my youngest is going on 13 now. I remember holding both of them for the first time as if it were yesterday.
Had my wee boy a week before you and my take-home is that labour is guaranteed to not be what you expect 🤣 first pregnancy- my waters broke and then one long contraction for 2 hours and it was over, exactly the opposite of what they said would happen!
I have been patiently waiting for this update. I'm so glad the three of you are doing well! As someone who is child free by choice, I was weirdly invested in your journey and am so glad everything went well! Congrats to you and Dan!!
One question I like to ask new parents is: Did you dream about your baby before they were born? And do you dream about them now that they're here??
You look lovely, and the name Rowan is such a beautiful name. Wishing your family all the best!!
We are a one-and-done couple, and my son just turned 12, so is a sassy pre-teen already. Omg, you did amazing with your labor. I was in labor for under 5 hours, went all natural (thanks to being 3cm dilated walking around living life for 3 weeks before my son was born). And the moms and dads that go through these long labors, damn, props to them all!
It’s so nice hearing about your experience, I feel like if it was someone with a different mindset they might have spun this as a horror story (especially not seeing Rowan straight away). Pregnant myself I’m a little bit tired of seeing some much “DONT DO EPIDURALS I HAD ONE AND IT WAS AWFUL” like I appreciate that’s their experience but don’t spread it like it happens to everyone, it’s like everyone hates doctors and nurses so it’s nice to have someone speaking about their positive experiences. I’m not trying to say people shouldn’t talk about their bad experiences, they should especially in cases of neglect, but in a lot of cases it does just seem like a lack of understanding or communication. Doctors and nurses in general just want to keep people and their babies safe.
I've missed you so much!!!!!! I'm so happy everything went so well for you and I'm excited for all the new content!!!!! much love to you, Dan, and Rowan 💖
I can empathise with the long labour. When I had my son 5 years ago, we were in labour for several days.
He popped my forewaters at 3am on Friday 21st, was having irregular contractions from that point. They decided to start inducing me on the Monday 24th, but my little guy didn't make his appearance till the Wednesday 26th at 7am.
Hoping this little man doesn't do the same. ( due in 5 weeks) I will cry if he does.
Epidural was amazing!
I am very impressed by how composed you were while you were still waiting to meet your baby! - I would have been in tears! - You are really tough - and I mean the best way possible. - I wish you and your little family all the best from Germany.
Aaaaaa you're back!!!! (I knew it was coming but it's here!!)
Yeay! 🥳🥳 Welcome back! I have really been looking forward to this video! Hope you all are well 😄
My oldest was a 5 day induction. So I feel for you. Mine didn't end a cesarean though. I can't imagine. You are a warrior
Currently 39 weeks with my second bubba and watching this again also having a veeerryyyyy long labor with no signs of sweet baby coming any time soon! 😂 I’m so happy everything has been going well for your family! ❤
I’m so pleased that you had a positive experience Hannah, and that also you are sharing that experience for others to witness. It makes me happy that you had such a positive experience, especially after the trauma of your surgeries and hospital stays in the past, which I know you have briefly shared about. I hope it was in some way healing for you! Xxx
LOVE Roman's name!
I had some similarities in my labor to this. It took FOREVER for the dilation to happen. My water broke before contractions started, and in my state you have to be admitted once the water breaks because of the infection risk/it can really speed labor up a lot. I also experienced that weird "pleasant " feeling when it poured out.
But. I'm a first time mom. My contractions didn't start until an hour after my water broke. And even after they started, it was super slow. So they kept trying to give me pitocin to make my cervix get it's move on, but my baby didn't like the pitocin and his heart rate went down every time they tried it, so then they'd have to stop giving it to me. I think we were something like 18 hours in before I even got to 6 centimeters. It felt insane.
And in my state, they really really don't want you to labor longer than 24 hours after water breaking because infection risks get a lot higher for each extra hour. So we're 18 hours into this 24 hour preferred timeline, and I still wasn't considered to be in active labor. So we kept trying the pitocin at shorter intervals and my baby kept being like no, you get that stuff away from me!
But once we got to 7 all of a sudden my body got a lot faster. So we got to 7 I think around 20 hours in, and went to 10 centimeters in the next 2 or 3 hours after that.
BUT, then, I'm in full on active labor, fully dilated, body trying it's absolute hardest to push this kid out...and for 2.5 hours of this, he moved literally a single centimeter closer to being out. And we're somewhere around 26 hours by then post water breakage, I'm sobbing hysterically because the back labor is unbelievable, I physically can't breathe at all during these contractions, I'm choking on my own oxygen and tears in between each one, the 1 nurse they sent me to monitor me during this stage keeps ordering me not to scream so loud, and my Dr shows up to see what's happening and he got 2 steps into the room before I yelled we needed to change the plan because I f*cking done and this wasn't working.
So I also got an unexpected c section! And a massive infection in my incision from the c section. So I also ended up in the hospital for 4 days! Just most of it was after he was born. 😅
I've gotten more educated since he was born and we think his head was probably sitting a little crooked so the contractions sent most of the pressure to my back, from his head angle, instead of down into my cervix. He was a totally average size baby, not huge. I'm average size, so it wasn't a too big/too small thing. He just wasn't sitting at the right angle to utilize the pushing pressure.
I'm so glad we did surgery instead. I was so done. And it could have hours or days before he would have shifted enough to come out the other way. And I was the patient before my Dr's shift was over, and he did an amazing job. And even though i had a spinal and definitely couldn't feel a thing below about my boobs.. i absolutely felt them pull him out. Im really short, he was really long, and i was struggling to breathe months before labor. The SECOND they pulled him out i felt so physically empty and just reflexively took an ENORMOUS deep breath and said oh my god i can breathe. Those were my first words after my child was born. 😂 partner still thinks that hilarious. The scar was almost invisible just a few months later, and I never had to stress about a stranger cutting me open. To me it was an ideal birth ending.
The dr even cut a slight angle up on one side to avoid cutting into the side of my tattoo. I didn't ask him to but I really appreciated that he did. It was only about a 1/2 inch higher on that side, and he could have easily just kept going straight. At my check up after I thanked him and he said yeah, early on in his practice he'd had a lot of women ask him if he could avoid their tattoos because they were significant or expensive, and he'd just decided early on to make that a habit. And he said usually he won't know a tattoos there before surgery because he isn't looking at patients lower stomachs during prenatal appointments, usually the nurses do those appointments. So the surgeries sometimes have an added "oh, that's there" surprise he has to decide on in that moment. Which I thought was kind of amusing to picture. But it wasn't something I'd thought of in the moment because I got that tattoo really far to the side of my hip, and I didn't know how long a c section cut is, I just assumed when I got the tattoo I'd placed it far enough over and didn't think about it again until after the surgery.
I had a similar experience experience. I had the show followed by my waters broke and then went on the whole day no contractions till the next day around mid day. Hospital called me in for induction dunno why. And then I was in active labour for 12 hours, 10cm dilated and fully pushing. Till doctor comes running in the next morning saying she didn’t want to risk infection so we have to do a emergency c-section. Due to the peak of Covid I had a traumatic experience along with the doctor and Midwive failing me. After they did apologise for the wrong doings but yeh it is what it is.
I’ve just overcome that experience and being positive for the next pregnancy. Lesson learnt stay home till I’m in active labour loool.
Thank you for this series. It have been so nice following along in your pregnancy and feeling like I had a companion in mine. My daughter was born the 4th of July after 58 hours of labor with 52 of those being at home to reach the for us 3cm that you have to be here in Denmark to be admitted to the labor ward. So nice knowing that I am not the only one with a very long and painful birth. And that it is okay that the birth did not go to plan and that that is okay too. I am so happy that baby Rowan is here and healthy 😁
It's very interesting to see this from the perspective of a mum - I am a paediatric trainee so we are the ones waiting by the side in case baby needs a bit of help when they're born. Do you think anything could have made your experience better with your baby in NICU? We always try to keep the parents as informed as possible and, if mum can't make it to the neonatal unit for medical reasons, try to have dad/other carer be there as much as possible. I always think of how difficult and downright strange it must be for mums who have just delivered to not be able to hold their wee one. I am glad you're both well and congratulations! Enjoy your baby 🥰
Wow, what a birth! Welcome back, Hannah. Watching this video was very exciting.
Question: Given this labour experience, would/will you do it again?
Yes and plan to have a cesarean from the beginning!
Just saw how much your hair has grown, It's great to have you back. But definitely ease into things, no pressure, love y'all. Welcome Rowan.
Had my first baby on Sunday - so looking forward to hearing how your birth story went when mine is so fresh in my mind!
Wow, my name is also Hannah, I also have a son named Rowan and we ALSO spent our first night apart because he was in the NICU for breathing problems! Wild. Though I was lucky enough to hold him before he went. Congratulations on your birth
Congratulations Hannah, Dan and Rowan. And welcome back. Thank you for sharing this with us.
I went through the TTC journey at a similar time to you (started and ended a bit before), and then had a different but similar birth to you, so it feels nice to have someone tell a positive c-section birth story. So thank you for making me feel seen!
Yay! So glad you're back Hannah! I've been looking forward to your return since you posted that Rowan was born while also being very aware of the fact that you deserved all the time in the world to rest and recover and just do life! Sending the whole family lots of hugs and thanks so much for allowing us to be a part of this whole journey.
As someone who remembers the very first ever hormone diary, it’s so cool to see you talk about birth. Congrats!!!
Welcoooooome back ! Also labor for 4 days ? I was like whaaaaaat that's impossible. And then I realized we didn't had the same definition of labor (and now I'm more informed)
Very glad you clarified your overall thoughts at the beginning before hopping into the details! Glad you feel positive about it and biggest congratulations xxxx
so great to have you back Hannah 💜 baby Rowan is beautiful! so unbelievably happy for you and Dan, thank you for sharing some of your journey with us
Welcome back, Hannah! You've been missed but I'm so glad you at least got the well deserved three months. And welcome baby Rowan! 💛💛💛
*screams in happiness that hannah is back and watches all the ads so she get that 💸💸💸*
Hahahaha
So happy you're back! Take your time, ease into it, take care of yourself, but so happy to see your face again!
so happy to see you posted!!! i’ve been hoping that mama dad and baby are doing well. just refreshed on your page last night hoping for an update! thank you 🥺❤️
No pressure to post at any frequency and CONGRATULATIONS!!! 🎉 Great to know that all of you are happy and well :)
Just watching this video makes me feel tired! Feeling very grateful for my 13 hour labour now 😓
Well done Hannah, Dan and Rowan! You are champions
So happy you’re back Hannah!! 🥺 I was so invested in your labour journey, brilliant video. Congrats to you, Dan and baby Rowan. 🥺🥺💖💖
I just love your energy! You're always soooo positive, even when it comes to what sounds like a reaaaaally uncomfortable 4 days. Loved the video, thanks!
Very jazzed to hear you had a positive experience! Sounds like you absolutely made the right choice when it came to the last presentation of options for Rowan's birth. You definitely gave it your damndest with 4 whole days of labour.
I think what you said in beginning of this video about contributors to the positivity of your experience with labour and birth is really key: feeling well heard, informed, and well supported. No disrespect of your autonomy.
If it makes you feel any better, my baby also had to go to NICU shortly after an uncomplicated vaginal labour and birth. It is hard having baby taken and on oxygen so you cant have your golden hour :/ But we still did bond wonderfully, made up with skin 2 skin later on, and all worked out well in the end.
This brought back memories! I'm glad everyone is healthy and doing well. The same rule applies in the US about 24 hours after the waters have broken being a greater risk for infection.
I went into labor on July 4th last month and gave birth the next day to a beautiful little girl! So excited to hear your delivery story. Missed you during your leave but I hoped you enjoyed it thoroughly!:)
I was nervous to watch this because I thought it would bring up a lot of my own birth trauma (which is still so fresh) BUT I actually found this video weirdly healing. I think it’s something about your great attitude. Or maybe it’s because I haven’t talked to anyone else in the same situation yet and I sort of have now through your video…! I love your stuff! So thank you for this :) xx
WELCOME BACK TO TH-cam HANNAH! It's been amazing to see your updates on IG in the time since you've uploaded and what an incredible story to return with. I cannot believe all that you and Dan went through and I cannot be happier that you two had each other through your labour journey. Looking forward to all the content to come, both with and without your hosting
Welcome back, Hannah! Missed you a lot. Cannot wait for the vlogs yay! Sending lots of love to Dan, you and baby R!