Active versus physiological third stage?

I had the syntocin to deliver the placenta.
I decided that once Hannah was out I wanted to put all my (remaining) energy and attention to her (so we could have immediate skin-to-skin and straight onto the boob).

I didn't even know it had come out until the MW held it up triumphantly

Ah! I had a thread that I started on this somewhere, let me see if I can go find it and bump it up for you (think I may have titled it 'lotus birth' or similar).

Basically I am planning on a purely physiological third stage with *no* management or intervention (including no drugs to expel the placenta and definitely no cord traction) - right through to leaving both the cord and placenta attached to baby until they detach of their own accord.

I had the ecbolic with all three placentae (the gremlins shared one between them [:p), with Maya it had been a long labour and I wanted it over with, with the gremlins the risk of RPC or PPH was too high to not have it and with lil miss I had to have it coz I did have a PPH after the gremlins.

I had planned to have a physiological delivery of placenta, but left the final decision up to my MW (who was very pro-physiological). However, because the pushing phase of my labour had been quite long, and I had some tearing, she decided the ecbolic was required. Once the baby is on your chest, you don't even notice what else is going on down there!

ETA: I was totally fine with the MW making that decision for me - she had a better knowledge of if the ecbolic was required or not.

Edited by blondy

I have it in my birth plan I would *prefer* a physiological third stage....obviously like everything else in my plan, it's just an ideal and I will go with the flow should it be deemed medically necessary.  My reasons are simply that I want as few a drugs as possible given to me or our baby.

I had an active third stage, for me the placenta is just a bit of goo really, I wasn't attached to it the way some people are. IMO I'm the one that kept my baby going, not the placenta so it wasn't important to do it naturally. I had the drugs which didn't matter as I'd been drugged up for the last half of labour anyway, it slipped out 3 mins after I had Jack and other than having a quick glimpse of it, that was it. Easy peasy and would rather focus on my baby than having to potentially wait another half hour or so to deliver it.

When Gabrielle was born the placenta just came out quite quickly after she was born. I don't remember any pain or deliberate pushing.    I remember a slight contracting feeling (and an icky warm slushy feeling LOL!) but no pain as such. I didn't have any pain relief during labour.

SpecialK wrote: ] Is an ecbolic the same as the jab?

Yes.

My plan was that if my labour waas natural with no intervention, then I'd do a natural 3rd stage as well. As it was, I had loads of intervention and had the ecbolic. I needed it cos I was having a PPH. From what Emma said, I'll probably need the ecbolic in the future.

I was the same as FionaS.
I was quite prepared to have the jab if required. Maybe I was lucky but I hardly even noticed that part, but probably also cause we were too distracted with the amazement of what had just happened!