What's the bottom line - is giving birth without chemical pain relief manageable? Yes or No!

[Baretoes]

If you could answer either 'yes' or 'no' ONLY - what would your answer be?

[auntymandy]

had 5 only gas and air with them all...is that yes or no?
Actually thats a lie, they gave me pethadene with ds1 after I had said no!!!

[MKG]

Yes, it's possible. From personal experience. The fear comes and goes. It's natural to be a little afraid, just don't let it take over. Keep an open mind to pain relief. I ended up not needing an epidural (that's the only option in the US), but my attitude was, "I'll see how it goes".

Don't decide anything until you are in there having your baby.

[RosieMac]

Yes, twice, if G&A OK (not sure if it has any real effect but it gives you something to do and I found biting down on the mouthpiece good). Rx

[bundle]

of course but why would you want to?

[gegs73]

No (unless your too far gone and there is nothing you can do about it)

[burstingbug]

Yes

[Mellowma]

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[star1976]

I had an epidural with my ds as was scared into it by midwife telling me that pain could go on for 'hours'! Felt as though I wasn't in control and couldn't pick her up properly afterwards cause of drip in my hand which I had to ask them to remove. And had really bad backache for weeks.

Just had G&A with my ds and it was a much better experience (not that I am saying it didn't hurt but I was 6 cms when I arrived at hospital and was offered epidural then but thought as I'd managed that far 'what the hell'). And I was on my own with just the midwife and prefered that to previously when my partner had been there!!!!

YES IT CAN BE DONE!

[Pruni]

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[fennel]

Baretoes is counting G&A as pain relief.

No. absolutely would not dream of trying it without pain relief. G&A is great, but without that, no no no.

[PrettyCandles]

yes, of course. That's how it's 'always' been done, it's only the last few generations in some countries that have had any other choice.

And from personal experience, yes, too.

[Socci]

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[sweetkitty]

yes but it all depends on the individual and how long your labour is

my experience was that once the contractions started I could not believe how painful they were I would just get over one and the next one would start, it was horrendous as the MWs made me feel I was making too much of a fuss and I could have hours of it with a first baby and that really scared me, I thought I can't cope now what if it gets worse. They told me to get on the bed and use the gas and air if I needed to. Of course once I started making pushing noises they realised I was fully dilated, DD1 was coming and not time for pain relief other than gas and air. They did apologise afterwards though , with my second labour it was still as horrendous but I knew it wouldn't be that long and once I got to the pushing stage it was nearly over and you have something to do with each contraction, I found that once you can push it's actually easier than just suffering each contraction.

It's well worth it though

[TeeCee]

Even counting gas & air, answer, imo, is still yes, it can be done without pain relief. Not always but for me, yes it was possible.

No gas and air either time. With 2nd I discovered how wonderful water is for pain relief.

[puzzle]

Yes - I felt really pleased with myself for being able to do it all naturally. The labour was only about three hours though, if it had been much longer I may have given up.

[pebblemum]

Yes, ive done it twice, no gas/air either (one was 22hr labour)and im a total wimp when it comes to pain so if i cant do it then it is definatly possible.

There is nothing wrong with chemical assistance though if it helps you get through the pain. I just chose not to have it as i have a deep rooted fear of needles and anything that makes me feel ill (ie gas and air)

For a non chemical form of pain relief i can recommend Tens machines. I used one for the first 10hrs of ds1's labour and it was great

[Elasticwoman]

Yes, I've given birth without any drugs and not regretted it. I do recommend TENS but you have to put it on at the first twinge, and then it is only useful up to transition stage - when a birthing pool comes in v useful. I gave birth to a 10 lb 6 oz baby in the pool and needed no stitches afterwards (hence my nickname). Yes there was pain, but the water helped me relax in between contractions, and there was never distress or panic. I thought I made quite a lot of noise during the whole thing, but the student midwife said, when she met me by chance 6 months later, that it was the calmest birth she'd ever been at! I was lucky that this was possible for me because nothing went wrong, there were no special problems. I think it helps to go into childbirth with faith in your own body, but also with an open mind to change course if necessary.

I am more scared of pain relief than I am of pain, but I would have accepted drugs if I'd needed them.

[threebob]

Yes, or else the human race would have died out long ago.

[frumpygrumpy]

yes

[Loshad]

yes - have done it, but my labours are always quick so don't know if i'd last the course of a long one

[puppydavies]

oh yeah, totally possible.

as long as you don't have op presentation, 18 hour "pre"-labour (ha!), 18 hour 1st stage, arm, augmentation, 2 hour 2nd stage, epistiotomy and ventouse. totally possible

put it this way, you have a difficult delivery you wanna subject yourself to post traumatic stress as well as a newborn to care for or you wanna take the painkillers?

[Peridot30]

Obviously it is possible as many women do it, but why go through all the pain if you don't have to.There are no bravery medals at the end of it.

Ive had an epidural with both labours and would highly recommend them.

[elibumbum]

Hypnobirthing and Gas and Air (from 5 cm) - no pain relief during 2nd stage. If I am lucky enough to do it all again at some point I would try and be more active (G&A pipe was a bit short!) and add a birth pool in to the equation.

I didn't want anything more than G&A but didn't rule them out completely as I didn't know how I would deal with it when it was actually happening. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and the pain was manageable.