Oh and for me at least pushing didn't hurt it was more like pressure lots and lots of pressure. And it's very very tiring. It's hard to explain,

No epi. I had an IV shot. He was there and it helped more then I can explain my whole labor team was actually amazing. I was siting up with my legs pulled to my head. If you can get up and walk or get on a yoga ball do it even if it's not really what you want. Walking can suck but can help bring on more contractions and each one moves you a little further along so do what you can but at the first part of labor sleep as long as you can you will need your rest.

Did you have an epidural? Was your husband there & do you feel like that helped? Did you give birth laying down? Any advice on how to improve the labor intensity/duration? Thanks so much ❤️ @californiahaley

Hey honey. Well for me I had high BP while doing anything but laying down so I couldn't do anything to progress my labor faster which lead to 36 hours of labor. I also had bad back labor so after 34 hours With zero sleep, I needed a break. At that point I went to the hospital for a small IV to rest. They also broke my water then. I was in labor for another hour after that. And pushed for two hours. Due to my sons position being so low I couldn't help but start pushing at 8-9cm which probably lead to the two hours pushing. I had zero pain relief while pushing. Honestly pushing didn't hurt (and my son was over 9lbs, my family is still in shock I didn't need a csection because in not that big) pushing felt more like pressure then pain and it's just a lot of work so it wears you out that's for sure. I also had a 3rd degree tear, which hurt after and was extremely swollen but it stopped hurting about 4 days PP. I stretched my ligaments bad while pushing and so those a re finally healed. Today was the first day nothing hurt. Almost one month PP. If I had to give advice it would be that you insist that your doctor puts your baby on your chest as soon as baby is born. Before they clean him or even cut the cord. As soon as my son was placed on my stomach nothing else around me mattered.