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 have an exceptionally high pain threshold.

Were it not for my misshaped pelvis and needing an assisted birth, I’m sure I could have birthed DD without an epidural. As it was I had to have a spinal in case a Caesarean was needed.

Gas and air, lower back massage, warm bath or birthing pool. I believe not everybody feels it the same way.

I had no fixed ideas about what pain relief I would use when giving birth. I would have quite happily asked for an epidural or pethidine if I felt it was necessary.

I just didn't need it. Gas and air was all I needed. No idea why.

First time: didn’t have enough time to have one.

second time: knew what to expect, used hypnobirthing to keep me calm, didnt panic. Count’ing contractions (using Freya app) knew it was four lots of counting and contraction would be over. At the end it got tol much, I wanted it to stop - which I knew is exactly what happens as the baby is coming. So I told myself this is not forever. It’s going to be five minutes of this and then I’ll meet my baby. Swore a lot. Baby out. Done. The sewing of the stitches was awful tho haha!

never lie down

Walk through contractions, even when they lift you off your feet.
Give birth standing up.

If you lie down for even a second when you have a contraction, it's (im experience) completely unbearable.

But I had second child with nothing, no intervention, and pain relief was the last thing on my mind, I needed my strength and to know what was going on. I can't remember any pain from that labour either. Just very strong squeezing.

Still traumatised from the pain of childbirth if I am honest, thought I was going to die at one point, I will never forget the pain of forceps and being ripped open. I wish I’d gone for the epidural…

DD1 - I had an epidural as it was a long labour, traumatic and with significant complications. For several hours it only worked down the right hand side and left a large window of agony down the left. In about the last hour it suddenly fully worked. No idea why. I was almost 17 hours in by then.

DD2 - labour was more faster (under 3 hours) and by the time I decided I needed one it was too late. I was suddenly 10cm dilated and she began crowning (awful, stinging sensation) so I just had to deliver her.

DD3 - born at 35 weeks by emergency caesarean after waters had gone and she became distressed. She was stable enough for me to have an epidural set up for the operation and guess what! The same problem happened as with DD1 and it didn't take down the left hand side at first, although the fantastic anaesthetist worked at me very hard and eventually got it working, whilst assuring me that he was ready with a general anaesthetic at a moment's notice should it be necessary. It wasn't needed in the end, but that had been a close run thing.

There isn't always a choice, even in hospitals that are good at offering epidurals. There are many variables in labour and sometimes it can move unexpectedly quickly, giving no time. So you just have no choice but to get on with it.

Exactly the same here ! I was induced and 10cm when the midwife finally agreed to check me! So G&A for me

my longest Labour was 4.5 hours, shortest was an hour. There was never time, but equally they were quick because everything was lined up right (none back to back or anything) I was young and physically fit so could move around and change position a lot to help with pain, had 2 at home so was pretty comfortable and just generally had a fairly easy time of it.

ladies who Labour for hours and hours and have more difficulty, but maybe need an epidural, you are amazing and so strong. I don’t believe for one second that I cope better than you I was just dealt a fortunate set of circumstances.

I don't really know how to answer that. I hated the idea of an epidural and though my first labour was very long I just kept thinking every contraction was one I didn't have to do again.

I loved giving birth though. Both labours were complicated but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

No matter what sort of pain I was in I would never have considered an epidural, partly due to a (very) bad experience a family member had with one but mostly due to having a horror of being numb.

With my first I was tripping on gas and air, it helped so much that I never felt panicked, in fact, at times I was too mellow.
Second was at home and back to back, the pain was unreal. I had G and A again but it didn't do much. Still I never considered going to hospital for an epidural, no way, I managed to get her out somehow, god knows how.

I had 36 hours of labor, no epidural. You get breaks between contractions, so it's not all pain all the time. It also feels more like work. Don't get me wrong, it fucking hurts like hell, but you have to do the work of pushing and there are muscles you don't know you need to use, and an epidural blocks that. Plus, the final pushing is what really hurts, and there's no way but one way to get through that so while it fucking hurts, you're motivated to GET.THAT.BABY.OUT.

Also, I've had worse pain than childbirth: tooth removal and gallbladder.

I've had an epidural for c-section and honestly, it disembodies you so much and the aftereffects are worse than a normal labor.

However, there are circumstances where an epidural would save you from excruciating pain, but most of labor is not that.

Gas and air!

I had the drip for my first and the anesthetist who put it in said ‘I’ll see you later for the epidural’ and I said ‘no you won’t.’

First birth was fine with no epidural. Had gas and air and didn't need any additional pain relief (crowning did hurt intensely, it did stop though).

Second birth was totally different and I needed an epidural. Back to back hurt so much I would have happily been knocked out with a hammer blow to the head (and indeed suggested it to the midwife when they were waiting on the anaesthetist to arrive).

So it depends on the birth you are having really. Epidural is a tool that isn't needed by everyone, but if you have one it doesn't mean you've failed or have a low pain threshold or any of the other things I've heard. It just means you needed (or even wanted) it.

I never knew about epidurals when having my ds in 98. His spine was back to back with mine. I was only 3 cm dilated when checked. I had horrendous back labour. I was given pethidine and a tens machine which never touched it. The gas and air was more use to me.

2001 when having DD I requested one. But I was told it wasn't worth having one as I was already 7cm dilated. I got through it with gas and air and nothing else. Not long after though I read about a mum who was left paralysed from an epidural being injected into the wrong part of her spine. So I'm actually glad that I never had 1. I'm also a wimp when it comes to needles. Having one into my spine would be my worst nightmare.

Too freaked out by the idea of an epidural 🙈

It hurt like crazy - I had a full induction, drip and all, and she came out facing sideways - but I was still too squeamish at the thought of a needle in my back. I'm not even scared of needles, it was just that particular one 🤣

it’s hard to say really- suspect all of these were a factor

Hypnobirthing
Easy / straightforward labour
Generally quite high pain threshold
Waters didn’t break until I was pushing
Stayed mobile and drank loads of water throughout Labour - labored mostly standing/ on all fours

Mostly it’s just dumb luck tho isnt it

First baby I was very young and was deathly afraid of the idea of having a needle put into my spine 😰 to the point I went all the way to the end without anything much. I did have a really fantastic midwife who helped a lot, and I did lose my sanity a bit towards the end though I wonder in hindsight if that was just transition.

I did find that a lot of the natural stuff worked for me like positioning, breathing, water and going into a sort of Zen inner space to get past the peak of each contraction, which, I apologise because I know exactly how wanky that sounds 😂 but it worked for me. I can't even explain it in any normal way. I don't even meditate normally, I don't have the patience for it. I don't have a high pain threshold either - I'm a total wimp about the most minor things. And it was definitely painful and exhausting. I made sounds that I had no idea my body was even capable of making.

Baby 2 ten years later and I barely got anywhere before I said fuck this, I'm getting the epidural this time. It then didn't work at all and I spent the next two hours screaming and panicking 😬 feeling like there was no break between contractions, before the midwives realised I'd somehow dilated 5cm in the last hour 😯 and started to get me to move into different positions. That was horrible, and I found the whole labour very difficult to cope with and traumatic in terms of feeling so out of control and having no way to escape that awful pain, and not knowing how long it would go on for (it wasn't traumatic in any other way so I feel a bit of a fraud saying that).

Third baby I was too scared to get the epidural again in case it didn't work again, decided I needed other things that I knew I could count on, so paced myself much better and was able to use the natural techniques again like with DC1. That was still exhausting and painful but I never got to a point I felt I couldn't cope.

I honestly don't know what I'd do if I had another baby. I have absolutely no desire to experience labour again either way. Luckily I don't want any more DC either!

I would add that for me labour was an active thing, something I needed to participate in and concentrate on. I was walking, swaying, kneeling etc. I couldn't imagine being immobile in a bed - I had no idea how anyone would get a baby out in that position (though I know loads of people do all the time).

Really fast labour, from 2 to 7/8 in less than 1h. By the time they transferred me to the labour ward (2 floors away) I was already at the pushing stage, so no time for epidural (the poor anaesthetist turned up 1 minute after the baby was born 😆). That was for DC2. I had an epidural for DC1, it was bliss - and very useful as baby went later in fetal distress and they had to perform an emergency C-section.

Went into hospital for an epidural first time round as DC1 was a back to back face presentation and we weren't sure whether she would turn. Rest were were home births with the same presentation. It was fine with very experienced midwives and a pool.

Same here, was 8cm after 20 minutes of very close contractions, 2.5 hours later my baby girl (DD1, now aged 9) was pulled out the birthing pool by the midwife. I had popped the tiny blood vessels on my arms- little dots of red. Due to all my terribly intense pushing 😆

Please don’t say this to pregnant women.

Labour may be a pain that you can embrace but that’s unusual.

My dm was a mw for over 20 years, she also had 6 dc.
Never would she minimise the pain of childbirth.
She reprimanded a dh when he said to his labouring dw who was in a lot of pain - it’s only natural.
Dm replied - so is dying but it’s not very pleasant is it?

Might be luck? I was in a midwife led centre and it was available but I preferred not to take it up. The tens machine was a bit useless, I vomited with gas and air but found the birthing pool amazing for pain relief. If pain had been unbearable I’d have had an epidural but it was much better than I was expecting!

@Xtraincome I burst all the tiny ones in my face! Covered in tiny purple dots for weeks!