AbbyMN needs your "pain relief in labour" thoughts.

i also believe I have a high tolerance to pain and a gutsy attitude

BRING IT ON!!!

no pain relief apart from g and a, and didnt bother with that in third labour - the pool was great

although I dont recommend a high forceps/ventouse delivery with no pain relief a la dd1 unless you want post traumatic stress syndrome

No, it was a hospital birth (which I very much wanted). But I did everything the MWs had told me to speed up labour - lots of walking around/sitting on a birthing ball for the early part. I really didn't want an episiotomy/ventouse/forceps if I could possibly avoid them.

Anna8888 - was that a homebirth? I am considering one myself.

I should probably add that I have quite a high pain / goriness threshold - I had my short-sighted eyes lasered with no sedation at all; had a varicose vein op under local. So I wasn't particularly anxious about pain in childbirth - I knew I would be able to bear it.

I had absolutely no pain relief whatsoever except for a long hot bath for the one and a half hours that preceded me starting to push.

It was all absolutely fine and if I were to give birth again I wouldn't want any pain relief other than a hot bath.

went into labour at 30 weeks.
hind waters broke and dd had restricted growth so was given the old steroids in the bum for her lungs but also put on a drip to stop the contractions.
Was kept in for 5 weeks and kept going into labour, was losing water all the time and dd stopped growing at 33 wks.
Was finally induced at 35 weeks after a sweep didn't work.

I knew absolutely nothing about the labour process, i had no clue what transition was or any of the stages really. The midwife led me through it all.
They gave me pethidine when the first pessary did it's job straight away as both dd and i were not too well so needed to rest.

The labour got really heavy but then stopped, so i was given cyntocin (spelling?) and the glucose drip thing but i was also given a epidural at the same time as they said the contractions would get very intense very quickly and they thought i was a bit too tired to cope with the pain.

I fell asleep for a little bit, when i woke up i told the midwife there was something between my legs and she told me not to be so daft, but i persuaded her to have a look and she then blanched, ran out of the room and returned with another midwife, a paed for dd and a consultant for me.
Dd's head was just about to crown!

Pushed for 20 mins and there she was.

Both of us were very sleepy afterwards, i was completely out of it, dd went to special care and didn't feed for nearly 48 hrs which i think was probably because of all the drugs i had.

If it were physically possible for me to have another i would have had a home birth i think with preferably no pain relief.
I feel cheated that i have no idea what a normal labour is like and never will.
Throughout the process the midwives didn't speak to me, they spoke to my mum and they were convinced that i was very young because i don't look my age.
I found that really patronising and wish i had been able to stand up for myself better. They were even bringing in groups of students throughout the day without asking me if it was ok. At one point i lost my temper when a group trooped in when i was being examined.
I told them they could at least have the decency to introduce themselves before staring at my fanny.

Phew! Sorry,you probably didn't want the entire birth story but that was really rather cathartic for me.

I had terrible backache with DS1 so I used a tens machine which was a life-saver as the birth centre wouldn't give me any drugs due to (apparently) not being in active labour. When the batteries died on the tens I felt the urge to push so I ended up rushed in in an ambulance, fully-dilated. Still managed to have the planned water-birth as contractions slowed down in the water. No time or need for drugs.
DS2 was also a water-birth. No drugs. Knew I could do it without that time.

Epidural with the first, no probs ish. Normal birth.

With second, begged for epidural and the MW kept fobbing me off. Was then "too late" etc etc. So just had gas and air and normal birth. Some MWs like to with-hold the old epi imho. Gives them power...

I used a TENS machine - great for early labour. My second stage was quick and no time for further pain relief - wish to staff had pointed us towards the G&A when we got into the labour room, but no pain relief was mentioned. Planning to remedy that this time round.

I did have a local for the stitches, in fact I insisted on one in a strident voice

I used gas and air. It was bloody marvellous. I had Mr Men hallucinations through my contractions, with the figure morphing from Mr Messy in between to Mr Sneeze at the peak. Bizarre!

I had wanted a natural birth, but up until about 6m in, I was terrified of the pain. (My mother had 4 dreadful deliveries - nearly died - and told us alll about it. Repeatedly.)

But then my fears just kinda dissolved in about the 7th month, I don't know why.

I meant to book a TENS machine from Tesco and even took a flyer, but labour started that night. And the MLU where I ended up didn't have them!

I went in the pool, which I had very much wanted to do. Hated it. Out in 10 minutes. (Think I am only woman in history to hate the birth pool!)

Was persuaded by MW to try G&A. She and dh both thought I was in lots of pain by then - maybe about 3hrs in? I don't remember it as pain per se, just that labour was very hard. Hated G&A even worse, as it made me unable to concentrate on contractions, so I gave that up after about 15 minutes too.

Then nothing else, til it became apparent ds wasn't coming out and we went for an ECS. Then the works, didn't feel another thing.

i wanted a natural birth but went in both times willing to have G&A if it got too bad, although i was hoping to cope without as people had told me it makes you feel drunk and that didn't seem appealing to me while in labour.

coped fine both times by just zoning out and breathing and both mine were back to back... dd turned and got tangled in the cord but ds was born facing the wrong way round.

i would suggest if you're not used to coping with pain (i've suffered lifelong migraines which painkillers don't touch) then a meditation or self hypnosis class would probably be of benefit if you want to go the pain relief free route.

I was determined not to have an epidural, but apart from that had no strong opinions on pain relief before it started.

Began with a TENS machine - which didn't seem to do anything, but it gave me something to fiddle with which I suppose was a distraction.

Midwife brought gas & air to the house - I threw up after the first puff.

After a while, was clearly going to need some form of pain relief so had to go to the hospital.

Pethidine injection into leg - threw up. Lots. Felt a bit more "distant" as a result of the pethidine, but not really out of it, and still a lot of pain.

Glucose drip for ketosis and syntocinon to increase contractions (turned out to be a bad idea)

Had forceps delivery, as fetal heartbeat dipping in a worrying way. Local anaesthetic for the episiotomy.

More local anaesthetic during stitching, as first one was earing off.

I knew that for medical reasons I would not be allowed an epidural. This upfront knowledge really made me focus on the fact that, no matter how horrendous things got, I would simply have to cope.

The result of this was that - slightly inexplicably - I chose to have no pain relief whatsoever. I kept on declining their offers of gas and air, thinking (while screaming) 'but what if this gets even worse?' as I didn't want to use up my few pain relief options too early.

As it was, DS was born by ventous after a total of 27 hours in labour (14 in established labour) with no pain relief - just the last 8 hours with me screaming like a banshee!

(I had actually hoped for a waterbirth, but they laughed at that idea when I got to the hospital and told me I wasn't allowed one due to my medical conditions )

oh forgot to add....had nothing with DD. not so much as an aspirin.
it hurt like hell but was a fantastic experiance. it ws all over in about 3 hours, 30 minutes from feeling pressure.

she was handed straight to me and we went home later that day. she was a pink and happy baby.

There is no way on this planet i would ever use any form of pain relief during birth again.

With my first i had an epidural. i am a total whimp and knew i would ask for it.
it ended up totally ruining the birth of my son. it tired him out and more importantly i couldn't feel when to push. i was tired and wasting my energy.
by the time he was born (74 hours) he had had to have a needle in his head, i had to have an epesiotomy and they had the forceps ready.

he spent 16 hours in special babies and was jaundice.

He is Autistic and has various behavioural issues, learning delay, language delay, gross and fine motor difficulties...the list goes on and on.

not all of it can be placed atthe feet of my horrific labour but i do think that it will have impacted on him...especially after reading about birth trauma and cranial osteopathy

Just G&A but I sucked on that baby like a Whitechapel whore. Was still clutching the mouthpiece long after DD was born. I planned to have nothing more than G&A but after transition began begging the MW for a caesarean. When she told me it was too late I turned to DH and loudly declared "I hate that bitch"

"I personally found the pushing stage easier to cope with without pain relief - it just felt as though my body had a job to do and was getting on with it. Very hard work but not as painful as the earlier contractions which were just unbearable."

Tatties, me too - at least you feel like you're getting somewhere with the pushing stage. Transition was just grim.

I had on my birth plan that I wanted G&A only, no pethidine, no epidural

TENS did nothing for me, G&A did nothing for me, had two shots of pethidine which were lovely and helped me rest but they refused to give me any more. Eventually after 42 hours of back-to-back labour and only 3cm dilated, I had an epidural -- I was literally paralysed with pain and absolutely exhausted. The epidural worked in terms of stopping the pain of contractions but left me somewhat uncomfortable as my whole legs had pins and needles!

Eventually ended up in a ventouse delivery and episiotomy as DS's heartbeat was dipping.

Hoping that DC2 is a bit quicker so I've more chance of making it through without the epidural...

I had pethidine and G&A during earlier stages but pushed ds out with nothing (midwife took G&A off me as I wasn't pushing hard enough!)

I wanted to have a birth without pain relief, but also realised that I might change my mind when the time came.

I was induced and didn't cope very well with the contractions, tried TENS but just couldn't relax (being in a tiny cubicle on ante-natal ward didn't help) so agreed to pethidine. It was bliss and I rested and slept. Then woken up by very intense contractions - called for midwife who said a bath might help. It didn't, I was wailing, saying I couldn't cope, needed an epidural. But of course that was transition and I was fully dilated so was too late for an epidural. Then had G&A while pushing until MW took it off me.

I personally found the pushing stage easier to cope with without pain relief - it just felt as though my body had a job to do and was getting on with it. Very hard work but not as painful as the earlier contractions which were just unbearable.

I desperately didn't want an epidural unless it could not be avoided (ie emergency C section) because I have an absolute terror of anything happening to my spine.

I was open to the idea of pethidine but didn't have it. I have a high pain threshold and knew I did anyway, but wasn't sure how it would hold up against childbirth, I mean that's the worst thing ever or so you think before you do it.

Labour was straight forward if protracted (36 hours from onset of contractions to delivery during which they came every five minutes without ceasing, getting progressively stronger), didn't have any pain relief until I was 8cm dliated at which point MW broke waters and contractions came much stronger and faster.

I asked for some gas and air at that point (or specifically, my mum unhooked the tube and mask from the wall and fitted it together herself because she thought I might faint!) and that was all I had.