epidural or water birth?

[warthog]

I'm about to have dc3 and beginning to worry about the birth.

for dc1 i was induced with a drip - very painful and by the time i convinced them to give me an epidural it was too late.

dc2 had just g&a and had 2nd deg tears as the pushing was very fast and involuntary. only 10 seconds!

now i don't know what to push for: epidural or water birth?

how much pain does the epidural take away? is it truly magical?

likewise water birth?

i don't want to go through a 3rd birth without pain relief dammit. i've done it the hard way. now i don't want to know about it if at all possible!

I had an epidural with DD1 as they gave me drip to speed things up as I wasn't progressing fast enough. For me the epidural was AMAZING and I couldn't feel a thing. What relief!
However, I couldn't feel a thing to push and had no idea whether I was doin it right.
I pushed for an hour, they then said they wanted to intervene, I ended up with ventouse, forceps and episiotomy.
Every experience is different I guess.

I dont have any experience with water births. But I am assuming as its your third that you may have more of a straight for birth?

Sorry if this doesn't help. I'm pregnant 40+4 with DD2 so will be experiencing another birth very soon.....hopefully!

An epidural should take away all of the pain. A water birth may help with the pain by making you more relaxed and helping with moving around but it won't take away all the pain.

If you are planning a hospital birth why not see how you feel as you go along.

in an ideal world i'd like to see how things go, but realistically...

they won't give me an epidural in the water birth suite so i'll have to move.

dc2's birth was 2 hours from when they said i wasn't in labour and that i should go home.

maybe i'll just go for the epidural then. or maybe i'll have another dc so i can try out both

I ended up with both for ds1, which worked out reasonably well - the water was great for hours but I just wasn't progressing and my SPD got even worse so I was in huge pain for that (contractions? what contractions?)

So we agreed an epidural would be a good idea but I got to stay in the MLU until the anaesthetist was ready, and only got taken down to the delivery suite when he was on his way.

The epi was great for me but I did throw up a lot.

Could you start with water and see how it goes?

well i had my first in october, i give birth in the bath in my labour room, with just g&a i had a fantastic delivery, and i honestly thank the water for that!