Labour on

Advantages: You get a baby
Disadvantages: it hurts

...on each contraction, those that had a 'bad' experience seemed to just yell and shout at people to help but not help themselves. So, with this in mine my due date approached... and went, and another day passed by, and another. Then 5 days after my due date I had a thing called a show, which in the nicest way of describing it was like a lump of jelly falling out of me... I know not nice! Then the next day (so, 6 days after my due date) I woke up at 4am with contractions. THE BIRTH So, i'm awake and feeling mild period pains in my stomach which disappear then return, I know im in labour and it's not those false labour pains called braxton hicks. I wait for about half and hour before I wake up my husband who jumps out of bed and yells 'lets go to hospital', I calm him down and ask him to make me a cup of hot chocolate- after all the info...

glitter-fairy 10.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

labour of love

Advantages: you have a baby at the end
Disadvantages: it can be painful, there may be complications

...over to the nurse who said that perhaps it was time to consider pain relief, she had a quick look below and looked up rather surprised, telling me that I was already 7 cm dilated. I was moved to the delivery suite and given gas and air. The gas and air made me slightly drunk (rather amusing to my husband as I am not one to drink and so he has only ever seen me drunk once in four years.) After a while the effectiveness of the gas and air seemed to be fading and it just made me sick, everywhere. (be warned labour is not at all dignified.) The doctor suggested an epidural and I welcomed it with relief, relief I may add that was short lived. By now I had been dilated 7 cm for hours and I was desperate to see my little girl. The doctors gave me an epidural which only worked one side, they then had to top it up ten minutes later to try...

dizzymonkey 28.05.2007 (13.03.2008) · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

My experience of labour

Advantages: My baby Mia
Disadvantages: The pain, the midwives attitude

...I decided I wanted to use the local NHS birthing centre while pregnant with my first child. The main reasons for this were that it was very close, a five min drive if that. It was relatively new, with the hospital being only a few years old. The rooms were comfortable and not clinical, more like a travelodge or something similar. Another major reason was the fact that my partner could stay with me during the labour and when our new baby was born for as long as we were in hospital. This was extremely important to me. Birthing centres are managed by a staff consisting of midwives only. There are no doctors available and this can be a worry. They are a sort of halfway house between a hospital birth and a home birth. A lot of people choose birthing centres when they have an aversion to hospital environments. In my particular...

miasmum82 11.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

Loves Labours Lost

Advantages: Excellent covers of some old reggae standrads
Disadvantages: Sometimes a bit too slick

...The creation of entire albums of music from other artists is nothing new. It has been done to great effect by David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and many more. When UB40 followed up their first 2 albums which contained their own material with an album drawn from favourite reggae songs from their youth. Having established themselves as the conscience of 80s youth with their socially aware lyrics about unemployment and social injustice it could have been seen a s a commercial sell-out and perhaps ultimately it was. It was also, however, a very fine album. That it must have been a labour of love can be heard in the loving way the songs are crafted and every track reproduces the excellence of the original. As a lover of real reggae I do have to make one minor criticism and that is that the album is too good. There is far more added production...

polydeuces 24.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Labour Of Love Vol.1 - UB40

Its called labour for a good reason (graphic)

Advantages: My gorgeous son, my pride at having birthed him myself
Disadvantages: my incontience, depression and loss of confidence

...When I was expecting my child I read. I read anything I could get my hands on, subscribed to all the mother and baby magazines, bought the self-help books, I just devoured every single piece of information I could to help me understand what giving birth would be like. I would say now that I possibly knew too much, and at the same time not nearly enough! I thought by preparing myself I would enable myself to make labour as 'sweet' as possible. Hardy har har. It turns out Labour is called labour for a reason! And not one of the Mother and Baby magazines prepared me for a labour which wasn't text-book. I had never expected it to be easy, nor had I expected it to traumatise me the way it had so I feel now that if I were to have another child I would be prepared in a way that only a second time mother can be. There are no rose tinted...

lulu2004 14.12.2007 · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

A labour to listen to.

Advantages: None for me.
Disadvantages: Poor arrangement and no real direction to the album!

...I have always considered myself to be a bit of a UB40 fan but after buying the Labour of Love volume 3 album I started to look further into my enjoyment of UB40 and soon realised that apart from maybe 10 songs there is actually very little the band has done that I enjoy. I think the fact that the original Labour of Love album was so good made me believe that this was a band I enjoyed, I bought volume 2 also and yes I played it but very rarely. When I first played this album (volume 3) I couldn't believe that I was listening to the same band that had created the marvellous Labour of love volume 1 because instead of a whole album full of great tracks I was greeted by an album of very similar sounding tracks none of which appealed to me at all. The tracks. ~~~~~~~~ 1. Holly Holy 2. It's My Delight 3. Come Back Darling 4. Never...

lynseyb 03.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Labour Of Love Vol.3 - UB40

LABOUR SAVING DEVICES .... NOT!

Advantages: The bundle of fun at the end.
Disadvantages: The pain!

...becoming too desirable to hold back and I had to make a dash for the loo! I managed to use the loo a bit , and I felt comfortable sat on there. The desire to use my bowel remained though and became much stronger through out the labour. So on the loo I remained, I didn't care if I got a ring of confidence around my cheeks from the loo seat! At this point I was offered Gas and Air, which I took in abundance. I did get ever so slightly high, well I had to have a perk! Ten o clock came and the midwife did an internal examination, she said I was fully dilated, then she changed her mind. She noticed that a small lip of my cervix was blocking the way for the babys head. This meant although I was pushing naturally, couldnt help it, I had to move onto my left side on a bed and pant until the cervix had corrected itself! At eleven o clock she checked...

Harryslarry 19.11.2003 (01.04.2004) · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

Labour of love

Advantages: ends justifies the means
Disadvantages: pain

...Having just been happily delivered of our first born I wanted to give a man's view of his partner's labour. I cannot describe the sensation in the delivery room when your wife is giving birth without using cliches. It was magical, like nothing I have experienced and my wife also agrees. Labour is not pain but a means to an end and the end is beautiful. My wife also now two weeks later is ready for another. She went through 9 months of fear and trepidation and during the labour she surprised herself and at the birth we both wept with joy. I was proud of her she at all times kept her dignity and delivered with some style she laboured for 9 hours and pushed the baby out in half an hour. I am sure many out there have very much worse labours and really do suffer. We however had a normal labour and delivery. Normal means just that "normal...

cabletow 03.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

A LABOUR IN ITSELF

Advantages: A baby at the end of it
Disadvantages: THE PAIN!!!

...This takes me back to when I had my children, the last one 3 1/2 years ago. Aimee, my daughter is now 7 years old and she was my first. She was 4 days early and obviously not having a clue as to what to expect I was very scared as are 90% of first time mums. At the time we were living in North West London and that day I was at my mums in East London. The hospital I was booked into was in Enfield and I went into labour at my mums. The journey from her house to the hospital was the longest ride of my life and every bump and ditch in the road felt thousand times worse that it should have done. My waters had broken and I was advised to come straight in. If your waters break they normally advise you to go straight in as there is a risk of infection because the waters are from the amniotic sac which protect the baby, and once...

allyb2003 23.12.2003 · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Labour And Birth

More on labour pain and the birth experience

Advantages: the end result is always worth it
Disadvantages: you lose all your pride during the event

...All births are different and that makes it kind of hard to prepare for it fully. You learn all the breathing techniques and you hope they'll help when the time comes. For a lot of women, it does end up that all the best intentions go out of the window during labour, and you'll want some kind of pain killer. and it's not only first births - each is an individual event. I've had three children and every labour was different. Young, single and quite naive, I didn't realise I was in labour with my son, now 6'2'' of 29 year old male. I was nauseous all day, and had the odd cramp, now and again. I thought I'd gone down with a tummy bug. Well, on all the tv shows, women in labour were screaming constantly. I expected pain, bad pain. In the middle of the night, I went down to the loo, and ended up giving birth to my son - all by...

poet831 23.12.2000 (08.09.2001) · Read review
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Review of Members Advice on Pain Relief in Labour