Pain relief in labour - need reliable info

[blueskydrinking]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can direct me to some accurate, reliable (and impartial?!) information on pain relief in labour.

After a horrible first birth I have an appt with consultant and senior midwife to draw up a birth plan for DC2. The consultant was brilliant at the last appt and I'm pretty confident they'll give me some good advice, but I'd like to go in feeling informed.

I understand the basics, I'm looking for more detailed info. Any links would be VERY gratefully received.

TIA

What information exactly? Side effects? Reliabilty? Impact on you and baby?

how about this

or this

Thanks, maxpower - those links are helpful.

StNicks that's a good question... yes to all the points you mentioned. For example, last time there was no pain relief available whatsoever, until a number of hours after transistion when I ended up with a shot of pethedine (sp...) and a spinal injection in quick succession, just before DS was pulled out with forceps. So struggling to understand why pethedine wasn't able to be given in the first place, given that it only takes 20 mins or so to work and there's an antidote if causing probs with baby's breathing.

Also need to know more about epidurals (the links above make them sound like quite a good option, they mention the risk of instrumental delivery, but how common is this?)

I suppose that a lot of my questions are quite specific to my case and can be discussed at the appt; but I do want a more thorough understanding before I go in. It's a very good question actually, I need to clear up my thoughts on this as well.

Just found the NICE guidelines which are also really useful.