I just added this on a comment for an expecting FTM and thought I would share for everyone! It got a little but everywhere so forgive me 😁

I had a pain drug free birth as a FTM at a hospital. I saw a midwife practice during my pregnancy and it was great. At 37w6d (on my birthday) my water broke at home after have some increasingly uncomfortable back labor contractions (begin of labor around midnight). My water had a green tinge to it so we met up at the birthing center to confirm before going to the hospital (I wanted to give birth in hospital entire pregnancy, but if my midwife thought things were ok then I was going to go back home to labor more). She wanted us to go to the hospital for monitoring, but she wasn't worried.

Got to hospital around 7:45. I was having contractions on my own, but wanted to give my body a little help so started pitocin at noon at the lowest setting and only got up to 3. Turned pitocin off at 3 PM. I also did not want an epidural if I could avoid it, but was open to other pain management options first of I felt like I needed it. Around 4 I felt like I was having irrational thoughts, one of the signs of transition, and thought "a c-section sounds so nice right now!" My sister was due 2 months after and had a scheduled 3rd c-section haha I told my team and knew it wasn't too long.

My body started pushing and I honestly didn't even realize it at first. I was on my hands and knees on the bed, but got my left foot under me to get into Captain Morgan like pose and pushed for 20 minutes and my daughter was born at 4:47 PM on my birthday! Even with my 5 minute contraction (after my pitocin was turned off), my midwife stretching my "lip" of my cervix from a 9.5 to a 10 during a contraction, and having 2 tears that needed 5-8 stitches total I would totally do no pain meds again! It was such a unique, painful experience but totally worth it. Something that I didnt realize would happen is the pain will move as your labor progresses. I had mostly back labor, more abdominal pain during transition, then no abdominal or back pain while she was moving through my vaginal canal, but mostly weird pressure/some pain, then intense (but very short) external lady area pain. Literally as soon as my daughter was out I had no pain. I looked down and said "hi baby!" Haha the next time I felt some pain was when I tried to pee (stopped hurting the 3rd pr 4th time), when I got my fundal massage and when I got stitched up. I got some numbing medication before I was stitched, but it was super uncomfortable because I was sore and my adrenaline was gone.

I was one of the women who got a short break (I have no idea how long honestly, a minute or 2?) right before the pushed. I had a moment of clarity and realized I was naked on the bed with my mom, hubby, midwife and nurse next to me haha I'm normally pretty modest so I had a minor embarrassing moment so next time I'm wearing a sports bra I don't care about.

Post partum I felt so much better because I had lost all of my water weight- I had gained about 50 lbs and my daughter was 6 lbs 5 oz. When I would nurse I would get a contraction which sucked haha Also got really bad night sweats that went away after 2 weeks. My daughter would nurse every 2 hours around the clock for 5 weeks ☠ sometimes I still say my brain is still trying to recover haha After sleeping training using a modified Ferber method around 8 months my 19 month old daughter sleeps through the night!

Anyways thanks for reading! Sorry it got so long and a little disorganized, I wanted to add a few details that I remembered. Good luck and you got it!!

Then

Now at almost 19 months (tomorrow)