Reality check
Are you afraid you won’t make it to hospital on time? Worried you can’t handle the pain? What about (the horror!) pooing on the delivery table? Here are some common labour fears and how to handle them.
Many pregnant mums, particularly first-time mums, say they are afraid of labour and birth. It’s the unknown entities which scare us the most, and labour and birth are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before. Here are some common labour and birth fears that pregnant women have – and the reality behind them.
Fear: “I won’t make it to hospital on time and I’ll have the baby in the car on the side of the motorway!”
Reality: We’ve all seen those news reports about the mum who gave birth in the carpark of the hospital, or in her bathtub, and feared we would be next. But the good news is, those cases are rare and unusual, and the vast majority do make it to hospital on time. On average, labour lasts eight hours – of course, some babies take more time, and some take less time to come. First labours are usually longer than that.
