Pain relief in labour

I've got a low pain threshold & to my surprise I went completely drug free. I'm like you normally, headache = panadol.

I think the best "trick" for me was to divert where I was feeling pain. So when all my pain was in my tum, I got DH to massage my back really hard.

Well I had an all natural birth - no pain relief - and it still lead to ventouse (after her heart rate started dropping), unfortunately you just don't know how things will go.

I second what kiwisj said - go in with an open mind. I was not sure what I wanted (except not pethidine - the idea that once it was in, that was it and what if you don't like it).

With Amy I had gas and it was enough - as Kirstine
said, it focuses your breathing and for me that was enough. With Sophie it was totally natural. I think with her birth it was so fast and smooth because I was so active in the earlier part of my labour - up and walking about at the park for playgroup .

Just remember an epi is not compulsory (even though you would think it is some times) and it is your birth, your body and your baby.

I thought I had a reasonably good pain threshold but labour ended up progressing quite slowly and so by the end of it I was on the Gas (and while going through transition was telling them I needed an Epidural ).

The things I would do differently (I think) is move around a bit more and stay in the hospital shower longer. I found the shower much better than the bath but didn't tell my midwife that I would rather be in the shower than get out and have an examination to see how far along I was - I should have said just leave me here a bit longer!

And I kinda got stuck on my back on the bed, I think I should have got up or turned over but I was a bit out of it and wasn't thinking straight and then started on the gas and it sounds silly but at the time I didn't think I was allowed move from my position otherwise I wouldn't be able to have the Gas. (even though I knew before that I was allowed to. I just wasn't thinking straight I guess.). I'm glad they made me turn over onto my hands and knees during transition.

With the Gas, I still felt the contractions...... They were still bloody sore. And if I sucked in the Gas too quickly (taking short fast breaths instead of deep breaths) - I felt nauseous and spewed up. It did give me something to concentrate on though and gave me something to bite on during the start of pushing.

But mostly - I agree with all of the others about going into it without any plans set in stone. Everyone and every labour is different! Hard to remember once you are in labour but the pain stops as soon as bubs is out (and I found that the pain didn't bother me or had lessened or wasn't there when I was pushing).

Sorry a bit rambling

This is great as I was wanting an epidural, but after antenatal classes though maybe I wouldn't... At the moment I have decided to go as long as I can without pain relief but MW has agreed to tell me when I won't be able to have an epidural so I can decide if I should have one or not, until then I'm just going to try breathing and gas.

I would definitely say keep an open mind. My friend attended the "natural childbirth" antenatal classes at Birthcare (the ones where drugs are not even discussed because everyone has decided to go drug-free), & of the 8 ladies in her class, only ONE ended up not having the epidural. I think it's fine to have a plan for your birth, but when you've never actually experienced the pain of childbirth I just don't think it's realistic to say I DEFINITELY don't want an epidural.

I had an epidural & it was bliss. I went from being in the most pain I had ever been in to being in no pain at all. Yes, I did end up having an emergency C section, but the MW says I can't blame that on the epidural. And in fact if I hadn't had the epidural in, they would've had to knock me out for the crash C section. As it was I had a top up just before being wheeled into theatre & the aneasthetist had a mask ready to knock me out in case the top up didn't have time to take effect. If it wasn't for that epidural I would've missed the whole delivery completely.

I say just keep an open mind. If you don't need the epidural, then great, but you shouldn't feel like a failure if you decide to have one. Labour is bloody painful

Odettenz wrote: but when you've never actually experienced the pain of childbirth I just don't think it's realistic to say I DEFINITELY don't want an epidural.

I totally disagree with this statement! It IS realistic to want and have a drug-free labour and not even discuss an epidural. I birthed in a birthing unit where epidurals aren't even on the menu! Women have been birthing babies for centuries and the invention of epidurals are a relatively recent thing.

Our bodies like a PP said, are amazing - we were made to birth our babies naturally (of course there are women who for different reasons need drugs & intervention during labour) but statistically you are more likely to have a straight forward birth!

To the OP - if you don't want an epidural you by all means don't need to have one! In terms of pain relief, I think that the best thing that worked for me, was preparing myself mentally. That's not to say it didn't hurt, but I knew I wouldn't die from it and it was all bringing me one step closer to my baby.   
From all the advice I read and heard about, this approach seemed to be the most important - Don't fight the pain, this ends up working against you! And I know you said you didn't think much of breathing, but I found my breathing kept me focused - long deep breathing. As soon as I started short sharp breathing it hurt a heck load more.

Another option is birthing at home/birthing unit where epidurals/forceps/ventouse aren't available? Perhaps, just a thought, although you have to be somewhere you feel 100% comfortable.

Good luck!

I guess its thinking of the baby. Epidurals tend to have an on going effect on the labour, many leading to assisted births.
I also think people just like to know that they can do it naturally without the aid of medical intervention.

hmmm interesting - everyone has such different experiences huh? my epidural was pretty much textbook perfect so i guess i have trouble understanding why everyone doesn't want one.

busybee - i think the answer to your question is to keep an open mind. only you can decide what is best for you, and until you actually start having contractions and go into labour it's hard to make any hard and fast decisions. just go with the flow and take it as it comes - that would be my advice

amykt wrote: hmmm interesting - everyone has such different experiences huh? my epidural was pretty much textbook perfect so i guess i have trouble understanding why everyone doesn't want one. busybee - i think the answer to your question is to keep an open mind. only you can decide what is best for you, and until you actually start having contractions and go into labour it's hard to make any hard and fast decisions. just go with the flow and take it as it comes - that would be my advice

I agree. Just keep an open mind.

I think it's fine to not want any pain relief, but I don't think you should beat yourself up if you decide to have an epidural. It's not failure in any way. Just because women have been giving birth since the beginning of time & didn't use to have any pain relief, doesn't mean women shouldn't have pain relief in our modern times. Times change. New technology becomes available.

My personal view on it is that no-one gives you a medal for doing it without drugs. I wouldn't go to the dentist & have a root canal without an aneasthetic, so why would I go through labour (which is apparently one of the most painful human experiences) without one. Yes, yes, I know it's a positive pain & it's for a good cause, but that doesn't mean I have to suffer if I don't want to.

I admire all the ladies who have chosen to do it without drugs, but personally, I'm not up to it. And I don't see myself as a failure or a coward because of it. Modern technology gave me the option of not being in excruciating pain for hours & hours & I took it. And I'm not ashamed to say. And my son turned out perfectly healthy (even if he did come out by C section eventually). I wouldn't change a thing. if I could do it again.

Good luck with your decision.