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?

I did both mine on gas and air but not through choice. 1st time there was no anaethesist free to give me an epidulral, 2nd time came too quick to have anything. If i could have had it I would, but I got by ok with out. It was the worst pain ever but once baby's out its' fine.

I had DS via CS but my girls were a G&A birth. I found with dd1 that it was such a quick and intense labour (2 hours from time I was taken to labour ward to deliverly) that I had inhaled so much that I was sick afterwards. With dd2 I more aware that it made me sick and took it easier and slower...

I hope it is!

I'm going to a midwife led birthing centre (Caerphilly Birth Centre) to have my baby so epidural won't be an option.

I have no idea how I'll cope with the pain. I'm slightly nervous about the gas and air and pethidine as I've heard that both can make you sick (and I have a phobia of vomiting!) so if I decide to use either I'll take it very easy on the G&A and maybe ask for a small dose of Pethidine to see how it makes me feel.

I've also been given anti emetics to combat nausea as I get so scared by it - yeah I know I'm a wimp, its just that asking me to cope with sickness in labour is like asking an arachnophobic to give birth in a tub full of tarantulas!

I'm gonna take it as it comes and I guess if it really is too bad I'll have to go to hospital and have an epidural although I really want to avoid that as I love the Birth Centre so much and want to deliver there. Its really clean, warm and homely with a lovely atmosphere and only a few minutes drive away from our house. Its much nicer than the University Hospital of Wales which is 30 mins away, very big, very crowded, pretty shabby, overworked staff, dirty toilets etc. Don't like hospitals!

So I hope it is possible to "do" labour without too much in the way of chemical pain releif but I'm going into it with an open mind.

KRabbit - just say to yourself, Relax. Breathe in on Re and out on lax. Force your body to unclench and relax. Tight scared muscles, clench up and stop the baby coming out. Relaxed muscles let it out. So relax. Relax. Relax. It is do-able.

Krabbit - did you have a look at the links i posted and the book recommendatiosn...?????? on your thread...?

try some visualisation too...of your cervix dilating and opening & the baby moving down and being born...think gentle & calm thoughts!

trust that your body knows what its doing...this is what you are built for.

if you dont try and fight the contractions allow them to roll out and remember to breath.
It is going to hurt but as soon as baby is out the pain stops.

that smiling little bundle is the greatest pain relief on the planet.

Well of course it must be manageable, given all the women in the world who don't have acces to any kind of chemical pain relief.

From personal experience, given the chemicals on offer and my experience of labour, it's not preferable however.

I'm also a member of the group who find the pride some women take in having given birth without pain relief puzzling. No medals as someone else said, you don't get more of a baby, or a better baby or whatever. Shrug. Who cares what you did, how you got through it, how or where you birthed your baby?

Bottom line, you birthed a baby and surely that's where the pride comes in?

Bit off topic, sorry about that.

Hi Lulumama

Yes I have had a look at the links thanks, they were really helpful.

I hired my TENS machine from the Birth Centre today as well! Other Half knows how to use one as his mum used to have one for back pain and he used to put it on for her.

I guess I'm worried that if I can't do labour without an epidural and I have to go to UHW not only will it be a scary and traumatic experience for me (my mum said I'd have to ask them to give me a sedative to stop me freaking out and having massive panic attacks!) but I'd feel really stupid for trying to do it epidural-free in the first place! and I bet there will be loads of people saying "I told you so!"

I hope I will be able to relax and cope through labour. Other half and I know CBC and the midwives there really well and both feel more comfy to think we're going there. If things go well I will find labour much more bearable there, in the hospital I'd be having to cope with my hospital-phobia as well as labour and I think that would just be too much to cope with.

im not saying that women shouldn't have pain relief, just that in my experiance of having one with and one without i would rather not have the PR if ever i had another.

you can do it! fattymumma has basically condensed pretty much everything i would say about getting through birth into 2 sentences......! she speaks wise words

breathing is imporant!!

I had all 3 of mine without any pain relief BUT they were all very quick and I didn't have many contractions (sounds weird I know), so you never know how your labour will go.
As others have said though please don't rule anything out - go into it totally open minded.

YES!!!!!!!!!

and I'm a doula so I know about these things lol!

totally echoe fattymummas words - though would add birthpool is great painrelief....

In my experience depends entirely on the hospital/staff. Had ds in a fab, calm, well-staffed hospital where nothing was too much trouble and everyone treated me with respect. Hardly hurt at all, despite being induced with a drip and the drip making me go into full-on contractions, with no gentle build up.
With DD different story. Hospital overcrowded, under-staffed, no-one wanted me in the delivery suite that night (they tried to send me back to the ward twice as refused to believe in labour, just thought waters had gone). Midwife far more interested in watching telly than monitoring me. End result - lots of pain, difficult birth (they failed to spot DD's awkward presentation as they couldn't be arsed to examine me). I strongly believe their attitude and lack of respect for what I was going through made it hurt a lot more.

woohoo two people have told me im right. thats a record!

YES!

Yes

dd1, 9lb15oz, 25hrs @ hospital; dd2, 9lb3oz, 8hrs @ home.
Used birth pool both times, but nothing else.

Why do it? There are so many different reasons - each to their own, I guess.

Yes it is possible... I had TENS, water and g&a for mine, but I wouldn't count g&a as by the time I got it I was unable to use it properly so it had no real effect. BUT I would not recommend ruling out g&a - my labour was horrendous to the point that I never ever want to do it again. Not worth ruling out any chemical pain relief if the experience is going to haunt you forever (IMHO).

Yes. in my experiance for first second is quicker but still yes just look into other tech's x

Yes, both mine born on the bedroom with a little gas and air, I look back on both occasions as the most amazing experience, and the pain as a sense of achievment. This makes me sound like a right hippy chick, I am not, but I did love childbirth.

Yes, if you concentrate, focus, take it 1 contraction at a time i.e. don't think about the whole labour or how many hours it might take - just try and super-focus on the moment and reaching the peak of each contraction as you will then know it will recede. Also if you're having a hossie birth don't go in too early, only go in if there is an obvious cause for concern or if you feel you can't cope any longer without midwives, that way most of your labour is hopefully taking place in familiar surroundings with lots of distractions which makes things more manageable IME. Also, say to yourself that if you want to, you can have every pain relief available, that's what helped me not have it 4 times. Hth and good luck getting the birth you want.

Senorapostrophe, I had a mobile epidural, a quick delivery, was able to walk unassisted immediately after DD's birth. There was no longer 'recovery' from it, nor should there be if it's done properly. There's a lot of misinformation about epidurals, unfortunately.
There's also a huge amount of pressure on mums-to-be about the whole pay relief thing. I did an NCT class where 10 of us were told about pain relief options but that 'it was possible to go without', blah blah, which was better for you and baby.
But, out of 10 of us, only one of us felt we had a positive birth experience - and that was me. That was because I'd stayed completely open-minded about my options and didn't feel I was 'failing' because my 48-hour labour resulted in me having an epidural when I ran out of energy. I still look on it as a really good experience.
My other NCT pals found that the experience was tougher than they'd been led to believe, that most of them felt that when the resorted to other pain relief methods they were somehow compromising themselves and their babies. Two of them have been so traumatised by the whole thing that they never want to have another baby.
I think that's a huge shame. Women shouldn't be under this pressure. You should feel comfortable knowing that if you need pain relief, it's fine. If you don't, that's fine too.

Krabbit and others, try for a home birth or birth centre if you can. I'm convinced the reason i had a short labour was due to the home birth. I also felt alot more relaxed than i would have done in a strange environment.

I think that the quality of your support and environment play a huge part in how able you feel to cope with the pain. Length of labour is a deciding factor though. I had 5 hrs from waters breaking to baby arriving, only 31/2 hrs of that actually in labour. I can't imagine having o go thorugh that for longer and by 21/2 hrs i was screaming for more pain relief but baby was so far on they couldn't give me anything!

Another thing to bear in mind is that yes the pain is manageable but what that does to your mental state isn't great. i'm still struggling to come to terms with giving borth as the pain (without pain relif) was so intense. DH and my relationship has been tested to the limits and I suffered bad PND and had to have a referral for pyschosexual therapy cos i blocked myself from sex - in my mind sex = pain of childbirth.

Oh and i felt were bubs was at all times and its not somehting i care to repeat, the feeling of him wriggling his limbs as he pushed out of me was unpleasant and scary. tbh if I did it again i'd go for an epidural or elective C section it was NOT a magical experience!

yes - but it doesnt matter, never plan too much, go with what happens when it all kicks off and then forget about it. The important thing is your beautiful baby, not how it got here!