Pain Relief, what did you have?

[jofeb04]

Im really interested in your views on the following:

What pain relief did you use during labour?

Did you have any complications?

The reason Im interested in this is because many people say that various pain relief can cause complications, but in my case, the complications caused the pain relief

TIA

BTW, the information will be printed off, but will be held in confidence.

Mrs Doolittle
did Paracetamol work for you?
as the delivery suite was so busy I got moved to a regular ward (full of grandads) & they said all they had was paracetamol

• when I said are you having a laugh - they gave me pethidine - which was a complete waste of space - as I was on taking it. I'm sure they gave it to me to shut me up!!

dd1-In hospital ,i had tried the gas and air during a lengthy examination (due to bleeding) the day before and hated it so when i was in labour my only preference would have been an epidural but i was fully dilated by then so didn't have any,no complications.
dd2-at home with no medical assistance so no option of pain relief but absolutely no complications.

Message withdrawn

dd1 - nothing,

DD2 - epidural

Needed stitches with both (2nd degree tears)

dd - gas and air for 10 hours then diamorphine for 7 hours and finally got an epidural 2 hours before she was born was also on a drip to speed up labour.

ds - one puff of gas and air before i threw it across the room as it did nothing. He came so quick there was no time for anything else.

TENS - didn't work at all.

Pethidine - a nightmare, didn't stop the pain and made me feel hallucinogenic as if the room was spinning.

Never offered gas and air despite 23 hour labour.

Epidural after 16 hours: fantastic, took all pain away, wish I'd had one right at the beginning.

Ended up with C-section but that wasn't related to the pain relief.

TENS = good for early stages

gas and air - love it

pethidine - great , was off my head and had a sleep. didn't take the pain away, it took me away from the pain iyswim

I was induced and had pethidine. Threw up big time despite the anti emetic. It made me feel relaxed and allowed me to rest between contractions.
Tried gas and air, but I have a bit of a phobia about breathing through my mouth, so I started to panic and decided it wasn't worth it.

Tens, G&A, Pethidine. No complications

DS - Nothing, no complications.

DD - Nothing, no complications.

I do shout alot in labour tho... I find it wonderful pain relief! lol

With DD1 and expecting DS in 11 weeks, I had gas and air and an epidural.

The epidural wasn't effective and so still felt pain. I was in established ;abour for 5.5 hours and knew when to push etc... Tried the whole screaming thing but did nothing except made me feel stupid! Don't really think gas and air did much for the pain as still felt it but I felt as if I was p**d.

Personally when my mw said that epidurals slow you down etc... it was rubbish for me. She came out fine a quickly and with no intervention. I didn't rip, i had a small tear and a graze but didn't need stiches. I actually looked in to the whole 'epidurals slow you down' the percentage rate that this is actualy true is a really low percentage- can't remeber what or where I found it but was something like 30%. Same with intervention and tearing.

Imagine how quick she would've shot out if it was true... ...

Ah. So glad to be asked.

Four home births with no pain relief whatsoever. I didn't even fanny around with water pools or hypno.

Two tricky, long and hard. One straighforward. One easy, almost blissful.

with ds diamorphine and gas and air
with dd had both these but had worn off by time I gave birth and the gas and air made me throw up like something from the exorcist.

none.

I had high blood pressure throughout pregnancy and it was very high during labour, during labour ds got cord stuck round his neck and therefore he stopped breathing they augmented labour and delivered via ventouse, i had 2nd degree tear and was in stirups for a good while, immediately after birth my bp dropped right back to normal, however mw made me have a shower near enough straight away I collapsed in the shower and for days after felt very light headed and dizzy is this normal, in a way it's scaring my from having another?

Ds1-had to be induced-pethadine and g&a-2nd degree tear,
Ds2-g&a-no problems

Gas and air and epidural for ds and dd, epidural was ok for contractions but when they came out it still really hurt!!!

DS1 - waterbirth, nothing else.

No complications.

DS2 nothing, not even water.

No complications.

ds1 - induced gas and air episiotomy as his heart rate was dipping and not rising (cord round neck) Easy delivery though three pushes no complications

ds2 - induced gas and air (10 mins) one push no complications

DS1 : daimorphine and then an epidural. I needed some oxytocin because the contractions stopped and ended with an episiotomy and ventouse delivery. However, I think the problem was more that the ombilicol cord was around DS1 neck so his heart beat was dropping each time I was pushing. Couldn't have carry on pushinh for much longer wo putting him in danger.
Hated the diamorphine. I was completely out the all time, didn't even hear the midwife saying 'Oh, it's a boy !' or realized the problem with the ombilical cord.
DS2 : very short labour (Less than 3 hours from the start of the contractions). Gas & air and water birth. Felt fantastic afterwards, no tiredness. Just full of energy.

dd 1 - epidural (but this was in Singapore - very American in their delivery style - ie I walked into the delivery suite and the midwife greeted me by saying ' Hello, would you like an epidural?'!!! In the UK I would have got by on gas and air.
dd 2 - epidural (again in Singapore - had false labour, but for the consultant's convenience, i was induced - 38 wks - and after 24 hours, I NEEDED an epidural)
dd 3 - TENS - what MAGIC - and gas and air for the final 30 minutes. Magic, and the delivery was, I swear, pain free!
dts and dtd - TENS and gas and air (cos I thought they'd pop out like dd 3) and when I realised more pain was involved (had to break my waters to put clip on dts scalp) it was too late for and epidural! Mind you, I was very proud of myself afterwards - twins with no drugs!!!

I had :-

What pain relief did you use during labour?
Epidural, tens and gas and air - gas and air made me extreamly sick.

Did you have any complications?

sort of - not sure if it's classed as or not?? but 2 hours of pushing and had no Joey, needed to be cut I couldn't feel the contractions properly anyhow his heart rate droped and they used the vontuse thingy.

epidural was excellent for me touch wood no consequneces. however, mum had an epidural with DB (they'd not be out long! lol) she had the same delivery as me with the vontouse thingy/cut, but she's suffered imensly with her back ever since. she puts it down to the epidural being new out. with me thou she had G&A only hand was fine. might be 2nd baby, but epidural for me ment a vontouse delivery iycwim??

TENS in early stages.
Pethidine which wore off just as I got to transition.
G&A for the 1st hour of involuntary pushing, which got taken away because my pushing wasn't productive enough!
DS arrived after another 2 hours of pushing with no pain relief.
No complications. (Although ds was pale and floppy on delivery and was whipped straight to the resusscitaire He was fine though )

Hiya again!
Thanks for all the info, its great to have a "proper" insite into this.

Sorry in advance for a stupid question but am curious why people elected to have drugs or no drugs?

Do you think you followed a decision you had made prior to labour? Did midwives/staff promote a particular method?