u/_Grumpy_Hedgehog

Hi all,

I gave birth a few weeks ago and had an epidural - it made all my contraction and back labour pain go away which was great.

During the final stage of labour though I had no idea when contractions were (no 'pressure' as I've heard some people describe), no urge to push or feeling around my back passage. However, as the baby came out (I had a forceps delivery, episiotomy and 3rd degree tear) the pain was absolutely excruciating - beyond anything I could even have imagined!

Anyway it's all over now and I'm recovering okay, but what other people's experience was of epidurals - did you feel any pain/pressure from contractions, and what about the actual moment of birth or any tearing that happened? Partly thinking towards baby 2, partly just curious!

Thanks in advance for sharing🫶🏻

I feel like this should be obvious but I'm a FTM only 5 weeks into breastfeeding and I can't work out what to wear that will work to feed in once I'm back out and about in public (I had a difficult birth so it'll be another few weeks still).

Atm I just whip my whole top and bra off but that's not gonna go down well in a cafe😂

I'll need to buy new clothes (second hand) anyway as most of my prepregnancy stuff doesn't fit, but I'd rather avoid getting tons of specialist "nursing" clothes so that I can continue to wear them after weaning.

What are people's go-to outfits?

As the title says, looking for recommendations of nipple balms or creams that don't stain. I've been using the lansinoh lanolin but realised today that it doesn't wash out... Which would have been great to know before I got it on most of my tops and all the reusable breast pads🙈