What did you have (or use) to focus on during your labour?

[biglips]

as i had nothing and i was flippin in serious pain (it was my first baby and i was induced after being 12 days late, had G&A throughout and Epidural couple of hours later) i remember the pain was ssoooo unbearable as im terrible for pain as i do actually go light headed in real life on pain

OR

i possibly go for "as soon i step my foot in the hossy i want Epidural"....

lots of swearing got me through

Medication that wiped me out until the hospital decided that I really should have a CS.

In our antenatal class the midwife distributed pictures of very stormy seas and got us to focus on the idea of the contractions as powerful waves and pracrise the breathing while focusing on that. I thought it was a wonderful image.

I had an epidural.

breathing out and sort of withdrawing into myself for the contraction.

had plenty of practice though as i've had migraines since i was tiny and painkillers don't help so contractions weren't too bad in comparison!

my chinchilla..miguel..i visualised his lovely soft fur and kept raising and lowering my arms as if i was a: pushing the pain down and b: stroking his wuvverly coat
..had to give him to friend after dd born tho

Hm, with es I was trying to keep my mind off it...spend a fair few hours in the bath reading little women by the time I got out of the bath and had myself ready and dressed it was time to leave for Hossie...tense machine helped me through the trip, and once I arrived in the Hospital I was just trying to breeth through it as I had learned in the Antenatal classes...
With ms...I was very relaxed and my contractions weren't all that painful and I just sort of rocked and relaxed through the contractions, and I would sort of completely block everything out and just imagine my baby coming lower, etc...
With ys...horrendous labour, lol, very painful, and I have no clue what I was thinking about, other then...hell...I want this to stop probably not the most positive outlook...well...ended in a Emergency C-section, too...not the best of my Births...oh, I suppose I did focus a bit to much on the gas and air, but the contractions were so much more painful then with the other 2!

Stomping, swearing, shouting, breathing, having dh push HARD into my back, the MW's voice (funny how i latched onto her voice, i found it so soothing).
Knowing that when each contraction was over, I would never have to do that one again helped too!
Going into myself and just blanking my mind really helped too.
A friend of mine had a great idea for if she was struggling and that was that her dh was to talk to her about the baby that was coming...... his hair colour, his smell, what he would look like, how he would feel in her arms etc. She didn't need it in the end but I think its a great idea
Maria xxx

early on I go into denial and clean - in case its a false alarm I try not to tell anyone for as long as poss then when the going gets tough I focus on the baby - just think you will meet them soon - all that waiting and they'll be in your arms and you can say hello

I mainly did lots of deep breathing and saying 'aaaaah' as I exhaled. I was also a bit Ina-May and visualised a flower opening I'd done some birth hypnotherapy which I'm sure helped too.

my last two labours have been very fasy and furious, no nice slow build up. I had my back rubbed very hard during each contraction as it seemed to act as counterpressure and ease the pain.
During contractions Ia also stared at something and followed its patterer, eg. the pile on my bedroom carpet, patterns in grains of wood. I found focusing hard on something I could actually see helped to keep me grounded.

oops, meant fast!

Gas and air - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lovely stuff. I was as high as a kite - well until I started hallicinating on the stuff and thinking that I was going to die.

Contractions!

Hi, I did an active birth course to help 'use' the pain their website , serious homeopathy and of course excellent support from DP, sister friend and Midwife all contributed to a wonderful experience. (maybe I was just lucky too )

My mw told me to say the vowel sounds (ahh, ehh etc), it certainly gave me something to focus on and stopped me screaming, made me feel far more in control.

DH read to me from Harry Potter, know that sounds weird, but between contractions it sort of helped take my mind off it. It was a quick labour so we didn't get far..! Other than that, lots of breathing big deep breaths and saying "relaaax". Oh and the odd scream as well .

I focused on my breathing and it did help in the very early stages. When it got to the "someone is trying to saw up my stomach with a chainsaw" stage though, no amount of focusing would have helped, only drugs!

I think a lot depends on how long your labour is and the position of the baby - if you have a nice short labour with baby in optimum position, then I can understand that mental focusing exercises might get you through it, but if you have over 24 hours of screaming agony with baby perhaps back-to-back or head at the wrong angle, then it's a different story.

so ive gotta find summat that works for me (for my furture labour) then....

anymore pls?

I focused on getting him out safely. The midwife focused on "moving him down the corridor and round the corner" which was most off putting.

I sat on a birthing ball for ds3 and rocked on it during contractions. I can't emphasise how brilliant it was. I was so sceptical that it could help in any way but I now I recommend it to everyone. Ds3's birth was brilliant, 'textbook'

i concentrated on ripping dh's hair out by the roots
I ripped it out successfully
but unfortunately not by the roots

I had my baby at home in my bedroom and stood staring at the wallpaper for the majority of the 15 hour labour. It's a flowery pattern we inherited - I'd never have chosen it - and I just remember thinking over and over 'must redecorate'... 'must redecorate'... 'must redecorate'...

I focussed on a pattern in the carpet. I also found counting loudly & slowly helped (as did shouting FCK! FCK! F*CK! in a rhythmical manner...)