I am planning a natural birth at a birthing center. I was wondering what those of you who had an active childbirth wore for laboring. Obviously a gown of some type but TMI HERE... what do you wear underneath?! I mean can't things get kinda bloody?! So do you wear undies with a pad or what? I mean I'm planning to use a birthing ball and whatever other coping methods I find comfortable at the time, I just got to wondering how that works.

Please forgive me as I've never been through this before! TIA, you ladies are life savers :)

Honestly, didn't wear much of anything for most of the labor! Oh yeah, started with a gown, went to just underwear and eventually not even that! Trust me, the further labor progresses the less you'll care about modesty! GL!

While I was walking around in the halls and such I wore undies with a really big thick pad. I went through several pairs though but we had brought a plastic bag to wrap them up in to wash later. But yeah, Ruth is right, the longer you go the less you care LOL. Eventually you will be birthing and you won't be able to have a pad or anything in the way and it WILL make a mess. lol.

They do have these elastic straps that you can hook a pad into, but i really hate them. I preferred to just deal with my own undies, for afterwards too. I brought like 6-8 pairs because i hate wearing them if they are really soiled and i took a lot of showers while laboring, and wanted fresh undies every time LOL

I'm not going to be of much help here. I'm walking around in my regular clothes, whatever that happens to be at the time, for most that has meant pajamas..old tee and comfy pj pants..until I feel the need to push or get in the water.
Then off come the pants, generally barely in time LOL *I gotta push..as I'm pushing..pop goes the water*
My labors have just progressed that quickly, most of them.

With my first..again, tee and pj pants for most. Then I was in and out of the tub/shower so I just did the tee and undies until I was about ready to push. If I remember correctly, that is. I don't think there was a whole lot of time spent w/o undies before things started happening. But then I spent a good 2 hr pushing..that was all undie-less.

I wasn't "messy" until after labor... at which point I was allowed to put my regular clothes on... I did wear a pad when walking the halls because my water broke, but that didn't help too much... and I really just didn't care... Once you really get things moving, nothing else really matters except breathing through a contraction, and then pushing your bundle into the world! :)

Haha, thanks ladies. This gives me an idea anyways! :)