Simulated Labor

Men should go through this more often...

Simulated Labor

My labor was about 24 hours long.  I went in to the hospital because I thought something was wrong because I was in constant pain on my right side and my leg was starting to hurt.  I didn't know I was in labor.  They hooked me up to the machine and told me I was contracting every 2 minutes.  I got an epi after about 8-10 hours (I think, I dont remember times for sure), when they were going to start pitocin, because I had only dialated 2cms.  The epi felt great for about half an hour, then I had to pee so bad and they wouldn't let me get up, so they tried to cath me.  The catheter failed...several times.  The first tube was too big, so they straight cath'd me for some relief.  That only lasted for a short amount of time and then it just kept getting worse and worse.  It was unbelievably painful to have contractions and not be able to pee at the same time.  They kept pumping me full of meds, eventhough I told them I just needed relief.  Finally they straight cath'ed me again because they said my bladder was expanding and pushing the baby back up and delaying labor.  After several hours of that I started to dialate a little more (slowly).  I ended up going from 7cms to 10cms fairly fast (they upped the pitocin and kept trying to get a catheter to stay in, but it felt like someone had literally stuck a torch inside me).  I pushed for 2.5 hours before the midwife used the vac to get her out.  I was severely close to having to get an emergency c-section.

I know my labor was not as bad as some women's but it was definitely not a pleasant experience and watching this video made me feel a little better.  I'd love to see more guys have to go through this...not to be mean, but just so they can understand what women go through.