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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Pain Relief - what worked for you?

24 replies

Myrtle1 · 01/08/2006 21:13

I've just finished my ante-natal classes and the last session was on pain-relief. I'm not sure what to try and wondered what had worked for others and what the disadvantages and advantages were of all the different types of pain relief?
At class, the mw talked about epidurals, pethidine, meptid, gas and air and TENS.

OP posts:

Lemmingswife · 01/08/2006 21:15

Epidural both times & it was great! I am a big wuss!

orangegiraffe · 01/08/2006 21:15

In my case pethidine made me sick,didnt like the feeling at all, like being drunk iyswim

gigglinggoblin · 01/08/2006 21:16

tbh i have not found any drug i liked, for various reasons. best pain relief was water! had a waterbirth with ds3 and it was wonderful, felt loads better than with the previous 2 where i had lots of drugs

Tweezerqueen · 01/08/2006 21:17

Used gas and air which helped for the first 4-5 centimetres then had pethidine which I loved, completely took me away from the pain and I was ready to push after that so my body release the chemicals it needed to get through the last bit.

Callisto · 01/08/2006 21:17

I had tens and no other relief. It was brill.

flutterbee · 01/08/2006 21:18

Gas and air and pethidine bloody marvellous, nearly snapped the midwifes head off when she told me I was too close to pushing to have anymore pethidine.

I was sucking on the gas and air after ds was out and being weighed.

flutterbee · 01/08/2006 21:20

and to be honest not having anymore pethadine only meant I didn't feel so drunk, it didn't make much difference to the pain side of things by then.

Angeliz · 01/08/2006 21:22

I had gas and air both times.
Both times when i was in transition (NOW i know that), i asked for pethidine and they got it ready. The first time the angel midwife talked me out of it as i was so close and the second time she would have given me it had i not told her she must examine me. She did this and said 'oh do you need to push?'. DD2 was born 9 minutes later.
I have just this minute had this conversation with my DP telling him that if i want it i'm probably in transition and to try to dissuade me.

Gas and air worked o.k for me but i had 2 very speedy deliveries. If i'd gone much longer i think i would've needed something more. Glad i didn't have to though.

Best of luck!+

Angeliz · 01/08/2006 21:24

(BTW, DP just told me that he really wanted the first midwife to stop hesitating and give it to me to stop my pain! AAHH bless! I'm glad she didn't)

liath · 01/08/2006 21:25

TENS then a hot bath. Too late for anything stronger as was fully dilated when I got to the hospital. TENS very good, would thoroughly recommend it - especially as I was a bit sceptical about it beforehand.

HTH

hairymclary · 01/08/2006 21:27

i hated gas and air. it made me feel horrible.
pethidine worked but in retrospect it actually made things worse. It wore off when I was in transition and I just went mental because all of a sudden I was in the most immense agony and just unable to control it at all. That in turn led to an epidural, which was fine but made my contractions slow right down and I ended up with an assisted delivery.

So, for any future births I would maybe try gas and air again and then perhaps a much smaller dose of pethidine OR I would love to try a water birth

quootiepie · 01/08/2006 21:28

TENS!!! dont underestimate it! I wasnt going to use it, but when at 5am a nurse came with it, and put it on me... woweeeee... if your having a really bad one turn it up abit higher and give yourself a shock... takes the edge off the pain!! I was then strapped to machine, so had epidural... something I wasnt going to have AT ALL, but it really was excellent. I had a bath after being on TENS awhile, you dont apprichiate (sp??) it until after you get out. I hated gas and air as I felt really out of control on it... but I think for most its very good. Definatly give TENS a go!

beansprout · 01/08/2006 21:30

TENS didn't do a huge amount, then had gas and air which made me feel very sick, and so went onto an epidural. Should point out that I had a failed induction and back to back baby so it was never going to be good. I had planned a lovely water birth at a birth centre and ended up with a c-section but, no matter, ds was (is) beautiful and there are no medals. Do what you need to do to get through it and best of luck!!

TuttiFrutti · 02/08/2006 09:44

Myrtle, something I wish they had made clear at the antenatal classes is that epidurals are in a class of their own and shouldn't really be regarded as equivalents of the other types of pain relief. Epidurals completely take the pain away - they are basically a local anaesthetic. All the others either give you something else to think about, or put your brain into an altered state, a bit like being drunk, so hopefully you won't FEEL the pain so much although it is still there.

TENS didn't work for me at all and I found it really annoying having a heavy machine strapped to my knickers while I was trying to walk up and down! Pethidine was horrible, made the room spin and I passed out thinking I was going to vomit - I've since found out it is in the same class of drugs as heroin.

I finally got an epidural after 16 hours, and it was bliss. The pain totally vanished and I became a normal human being again, chatting and smiling instead of swearing and screaming.

One thing to watch out for is that it can take a long time between requesting an epidural and getting one, because they have to be administered by an anaesthetist and he may be busy in theatre. I think the average wait between request and epidural is 60 minutes, then it takes about 20 minutes to set up and another 15 minutes for it to start working. So my tip is to ask for one early if you think you might need one.

pucca · 02/08/2006 09:49

Gas & air i thought was fab! made me feel a bit sick at first but then i loved it the more i had lol.

Pethidene...I hated as it just made me want to go to sleep which was very frustrating when i had been awake from 4am Sun morn to 8am Mon morn!i kept nodding off only to be woken every couple of mins by contractions.

TENS...I tried and thought was rubbish, i just found it annoying tbh.

I really wanted a epidural and when i first started asking i was told it was too early, i kept nagging but they didn't want to keep giving me internals as my waters broke first and was 28 hrs from waters going to giving birth so was risk of infection...then i asked and it was too late, i was 9cm...so if you DO WANT a epidural keep pestering and pestering!

pucca · 02/08/2006 09:51

Forgot to add...G&A can make you feel sick at first but if you keep going with it, it is great! i was still going on it after dd was out! they had to snatch it off me, i wanted to take some home pmsl.

shazronnie · 02/08/2006 09:55

tried gas and air both times, but didn't like it.

had a tens machine first time, but found it annoying so ripped it off; 2nd time round tens was great because i put it on at the first twinges of pain.

had some meptid (like pethidine) 1st time round, and that probably helped a bit, but cannot remember!

TBH your brain forgets all about the pain pretty quick once you've got the baby!

shazronnie · 02/08/2006 09:56

forgot to say sinking my teeth into DH's hand helped alot!

monkey2 · 02/08/2006 10:41

Hiya, i had gas and air, pethidine and epidural and to be hionest i dont remember alot which i think is a good thing. I did however ending up having an emergency c-section.

acnebride · 02/08/2006 10:53

TENS was pretty good for a long time. Put it on as early as you can - I put it on almost before I could feel anything (but I'd had a leak of waters so thought it was likely to be IT). If it's a false alarm you've only wasted a set of pads, and you can get more of those. It gives excellent sense of control as you switch it between modes as the contractions come and go, and can turn it up as time goes on. If you don't like it, there's no problem, so I think it's absolutely always worth trying.

g&A unfortunately the machine wasn't working when I had ds. My antenatal teacher said that if you like being drunk or high, you're likely to enjoy G&A and pethidine, but if you don't like that you won't, IYSWIM. I quite like being drunk and enjoyed G&A when I had stitches, with a different machine, so wish it had worked for me.

Pethidine I've heard very mixed reviews for. Again, on here I've seen half doses of meptid/pethidine recommended as a first go.

Water. The best. My contractions climbed in intensity very fast, and it was quite hard to take, and getting into the pool actually caused the intensity to drop very markedly - allowed me to 'catch up' and feel a little less out of control for a while. Also it feels so luxurious - which is not a sensation often experienced in the caring arms of the NHS.

serenity · 02/08/2006 10:58

Tried TENS, but it didn't do much at the lower levels and when I turned it up it made the muscles in my back twitch in such a gross way I gave up on it.

Tried Pethadine, but they overestimated how long I was going to be in labour for and by the time I'd had it and it had started to have an effect (takes 20 minutes) DS2 was out (and fast asleep, slept for the next 12 hours - could have been a problem establishing bfing, if he'd been my first)

My best pain relief was the Gas and Air, didn't take the pain away (maybe 50%?), but gave me something to concentrate on which worked for me.

I never ruled out an Epidural, but I didn't like the idea of it (catheter, paralysis, longer stay in hospital) I had too many contraindications for it to be comfortable about it (low blood pressure, preexisting back problems and migraines) Luckily I never got to the point where I felt I needed it.

FWIW, when I had my antenatal lessons with DS1 I put the options in order and decided I would work my way through them depending on how the labour went. It gave me a feeling of control.

serenity · 02/08/2006 11:00

oh, xposted with acnebride - I hate being drunk, and I didn't get that sensation with either the gas and air or the pethadine, but I think I might be in a minority there

100Vicki · 02/08/2006 13:24

It's difficult to think about what you want use during labour if you have never been through it before isn't it?

In my case, I had a TENS machine but it really annoyed me and I didn't feel like it was doing much to help the pain. I managed the contractions without pain relief for about 5 hours but then went into hospital and was put on the Gas & Air. This was great at first but like others have said it makes you feel a bit out of control. After a few more hours I was given pethidine. This really took me away from what was happening and made me feel very woozy for about an hour - I liked this as I felt like I was getting a bit of a break!

Unfortunately my labour was progressing slowly and I was getting very tired so I opted for an epidural. Once it started to take affect it was great. I even managed to have a little sleep!! The only down-side was that when I was fully dilated, they let the epidural wear off and I couldn't cope with the pain. Also, I had no urge to push so wasn't really sure what I was doing. They had to use forceps to get my ds out in the end.

I'm now pregnant again and hoping to have an easier labour this time. Hopefully I'll get by just with Gas & Air but if I need to have an epidural then I will. Don't let anyone make you feel inferior for having an epidural. We all cope with pain differently and you've got to do what is right for you. Good luck !

Original poster

Myrtle1 · 02/08/2006 21:14

Thanks for all your messages.
Serenity - I think the idea of listing all the options and working my way through them, depending on the pain, is a great idea. It is hard to try and imagine what the pain is going to be like and whether I'm going to be able to take it so I'm not ruling anything out.

OP posts:

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