How on earth do women give birth without epidurals?

[Begaydocrime94]

genuine question, for those of you who have given birth without epidurals, how?? Just gave birth for the second time and was hoping for no epidural this time but caved pretty much immediately. How do women cope without? Do some women just cope better with pain etc?

I didn't have a choice. Everything happened so quickly all done in 36 hours so no time

Didn’t have a choice either time.

DD1, I really didn't want to come off the midwife led unit, I remember thinking at one point I can't do this, must have been transition as then all of a sudden I had the urge to push. Labour was short though, five hours from waters starting to break to her being born.

DD2 I was Induced, was offered an epidural when they broke my waters, decided because of DD1 that i would be able to manage without. I don't remember at which point I yelled for an epidural and demanded the anthietist, but they examined me and I was 3cm, so they went to get him as were discussing c section, 5 mins later I was 10cm and pushing, so again too quick, otherwise I would have had one, the syntocin drip contractions were nothing like the ones with DD1.

I had no epidural for 7 hours while having contractions - there were no beds in maternity - and only had gas (and it did not work).

What can i say. Imagine the goriest child birth representation in film - sweaty woman, on her hands and knees, moaning as in too much pain to scream. It was awful. I nearly vomited from pain.

When I finally got an epidural, it was like - whoohoo! Amazing. Anaesthetic is a wonderful thing.

Everyone is different. Both mine were quite quick, was at 10cm in each instance and didn't realise. My pain threshold would be high though.
Whereas my sister struggled terribly on her first and insisted on section for her next.

I had my second two with only gas and air, I didn't get a choice, 2nd was under 3 hours and 3rd was under an hour. I couldn't have done it if they weren't so quick, my labours were very intense, I always watch things were people are talking between contractions and calm in between, my contractors were pretty much constant with no breaks in between apart from the early stages with my first.
I had an epidural with my first, it wasn't great and I still had some pain it kept failing, but it did make it bearable.

My most positive labour was my 3 hour one, the last one was too quick, I was hallucinating and had no idea what was going on it was that bad.

No choice: went from having a lovely nap at home to a baby in my arms in hospital within 6 hours. There is no sum of money you could pay me to do that again!

Baby 1 - had an epidural but it didn't work, I had one numb buttock.

Baby 2 and Baby 3 - too fast

Baby 4 - emergency C-section. That epidural worked thank goodness.

Very quick labours. I used a tens, gas & air, hypnobirthing and the water. Second one at home so definitely no choice! It absolutely hurt, it just never reached a point I felt like I couldn’t handle and I was terrified of not being able to move and dreaded a cannula in the back of my hand more!

We are all so different with different sized babies, please don’t feel any shame or an ounce of internalised judgement - you listened to your body and did what you needed to. Congratulations on your new baby! X

I got the epidural but it didn’t work. I probably wouldn’t bother with it if again if have another child. The pain from contractions was manageable with gas and air and, while the pressure was very painful, it didn’t last that long. It was great having a catheter and not needing to get up to wee until the next day though.

Same—I was not in hospital, so not an option.

Water and gas and air! The pain difference in water compared to out of it was chalk and cheese! So much so I refused to get our of the bath in the triage unit with DS2 until the birth pool was free!

I also wanted to be on the midwife unit rather then labour ward as more clinical settings for me stopped labour.

DS2 was born out of water but used the pool for final stages before as my waters hadn't broken in the pushing stage and trying to push him in the sac was too much he was born 2 minute after waters were popped!

Didn't have any choice 😂 Both born far too quickly and wasn't taken seriously by staff when I said how far on I was. I'd have bloody loved an epidural!

Too quick. I asked with my first as soon as I got to the hospital but they said it was too late. DD was born half an hour later. Second time I didn't even get to the hospital. DS was born in the street.

DS1 was very quick (5hours) I got so fed up of people saying oh lucky you for a quick labour.....except they couldn't quite understand the longest break I got between contractions for the last 3 hours was 45 seconds so I know exactly what you mean!

I do have DS2 now though 😂

Hi OP. Sadly, some of us don't cope better with pain...we're just not given an option. Even more awful is that this hasn't changed in decades. It's the luck of the draw whether you're offered/ can access effective help with pain relief or not.

@FeelinTwentySixPointTwo

Thanks for saying this. Also a runner and decided to go without pain relief on day 2 after EMCS, but the birth bit felt to me like someone hammering a nail into my spine for hours. It set my teeth on edge and made me gasp initially and then became constant. I did have an epidural after 36 hours, which I suspect slowed things down, but I really wasn't coping, had vomited blood into the sink and was shaking uncontrollably. Had an EMCS. Baby was back to back and maybe was just wedged in anyway.

I had braxton hicks second time around and was like "wow, these are weird" but not painful

I've had 2 c sections now, so unlikely to experience natural birth, which I beat myself up about.

With my first I asked for one but I went from 4cm to delivered in an hour. I did half my pushing with a needle in my back before the midwife realised I wasn’t just being quiet, I was pushing and told the epidural man (which I called him to his face) to get out the way.

With my second I knew I could do it without so I just did it.

It also helps that gas and air gets me high as a kite so although I was in pain I didn’t actually care!

I didn’t think it was that bad tbh? My first labour was 22 hours back to back and I did have gas and air. The others were 11 and 10 hours and I just… did it? Idk

maybe I’d just imagined it to be so horrific that it wasn’t what I was expecting

but obviously that’s just me and no judgement to anyone who feels otherwise

also the thought of a needle going into my spine freaks me the fuck out and there is no way I’d be choosing that

Hypnobirthing, birthing pool and husband put pressure on my lower back during contractions. Ring of fire was suitably named but that’s over with the next contraction so not long to endure.

I didn’t want to feel out of control. (Possibly my NCT classes encouraged me to feel like that.) I think my back injury hurt more at one point, but that could be because I couldn’t see an end in sight, which is different with labour.

But there isn’t really any way we can tell whether some women experience more pain than others.

in agony tbh I would never lie about it, the pain was excruciating and I do have a high pain threshold but two back to back labours with significant tears were pretty traumatic HOWEVER I had the end in sight the whole time which is the only way I can explain how I got through it, I just kept reminding myself that at some point the pain would end and my baby would be here and in some way this made me relax with the pain and sort of become one with it? I’m not sure what I’m trying to say but I let it take over without losing myself and then all of a sudden it was over!

(I was induced, so it might be the drip that made it so unbearable, as well as malpositioned back to back baby)

Each Labour is different. With my first I was in agony - it felt like the pain was all centred on one tiny point on my back and the epidural was such a relief. With my 2nd I did it with just gas and air.

2nd baby was nearly 2lb smaller than 1st though (1st was10 days overdue, 2nd was induced 1 week early). With 1st needed forceps and also had a haemorrhage (think because baby was so big) - no way could I have done that without an epidural)

Both births were induced with the drip all the way through so pretty intense labours.

I did both with gas and air and tens machine. But trust me between the gas and air (ie needing the toilet and having to move mouth piece to other unit I was shouting blue murder!)