What pain relief to use in labour?

[justanotheryoungmother]

Hello everyone,

I'm probably jumping the ball on this one as I'm only 24 weeks pregnant with DD, but this is my first birth (I'm 19) and the thought of it is making me anxious and I just wanted to know people's experiences using any type of pain relief and what they'd recommend? Obviously everyone is different, but I just wanted to know people's experiences and opinions on any forms of pain relief.

Also, if anyone had a water birth, then would you mind letting me know if it made it easier or worked as a pain relief?

Out of interest, does anyone know how easy/difficult it is to get an epidural once you're in hospital?

Thank you

Read "birth skills" by Jo Jo someone. This will really help. Trust me.

I also did pregnancy yoga with an element of hypnobirthing before and that helped a lot.

With dd1 I had a lovely water birth which definitely helped with pain. I loved being weightless and I used just gas and air. I have short Labours though and I know for sone women it can slow labour down.

With dd2 I was caught off guard at home and had an even shorter labour of 3 hours, no pain relief until the very end when the midwives showed up.

I'm not having a 3rd but I'd definitely consider having a home birth because I don't think I'd get to hospital in time!!

I had to be induced ( due to GBS) and luckily had an amazing midwife who warned me early on in labour that I if I wanted an epidural I needed to decide before the pain got too much for me to manage - because it took time for the anaesthetist to be booked and arrive.

This was excellent advice. Might be different in your hospital of course, but just passing that on. If you are induced for any reason then labour can come on quite fast and possibly the pain management options you thought you would use might fly out of the window. I would agree with previous posters ( and my midwife team) who said to have a plan that you feel happy with but prepare to be flexible if everything changes. I had planned a waterbirth and wasn't keen on an epidural, but ended up with tens, gas and air and then an epidural.

My advice is use what you need and go with the flow. I planned and planned and things changed. I was upset because I had too much of a plan in my head. I recommend staying active and standing but other than that whatever you need, use. Don't worry.

I'd also highly recommend hypnobirthing/yoga because you can start practising now, it can help you reduce your anxiety in the coming weeks and you can still choose other pain relief when the time comes, but being relaxed and calm could reduce your need for the other stuff... Plus the early stage of labour you might be at home and not in hospital etc so great to have some things that you can control.

I had 3 relatively short labours and had nothing (first), tens (2 & 3), with g&a too for stitches after third.

This was fine, because for me the pain wasn't that bad and didn't go on that long (no more than 2 hours of hard to deal with pain I would guess). But if it had been longer, I'd got tired, needed sleep etc then would have tried other things. Probably not diamorphine as generally am a sicky dizzy person and didn't think it would suit me.

What I am trying to say is the pain relief that will work best for you will depend on the labour you have which you can't know in advance. So just educate yourself in advance, share your thoughts with your birth partner and see what happens when you get there.

Re epidural, both of my hospital births were in a midwife led unit with no epidural available. If you are sure you might want one, make sure you are booked into somewhere that does them. I suspect hard to get moved from MLU "just" for an epidural if all progressing well, just painfully for you (although will probably vary depending on distance and how busy etc).

Good luck when you get there.

Can't give any advice for an epidural as I had only gas and air with both of mine. First labour was over 40 hours and they made me stay on the bed, on my back, it was hell. If you want to move then do so, I was very young the first time, nobody listened to what I wanted, so I do agree with PP saying those who shout the loudest are listened to more.

Second time was only 6 hours and I had a water birth and a midwife who backed off and just let me tell her what was happening. I truly believe it was the water (and being on all fours in it) that provided the majority of my pain relief, in fact I wasn't much bothered by the labour at all until the last 5ish minutes.

I was due DC3 6 days ago and am planning to use the pool and gas and air again if he ever gets here.

It's so different for everyone though, people have different tolerances to the level of pain, if you need more pain relief then definitely take it.

What I would say is to be open-minded about what pain relief you might need. I have a high pain threshold (although not an extremely high one) but I was surprised by how much the last 3cm hurt (after 3 days of slow labour, things sped up quite suddenly) and the pushing phase really, really hurt. It isn't like that for everyone but you should accept the possibility that you won't be having a completely pain relief free labour (and there is no reason why you should unless you want to). If you know yourself to have a low or average pain threshold, plan for that and don't expect to be able to 'breathe through the pain' - I breathed all the way through labour and it still bloody hurt!

Agree with keeping an open mind. I practiced Hypnobirthing which was great in the run up for relaxation and I planned on not using medication for pain relief. Unfortunately I ended up being induced and had gas & air - marvellous stuff but I felt like I had left the planet I was so spaced out, had an epidural for medical reasons so was easy to get as it was pretty much enforced/required which later came into its own for pain relief and I would have another if needed, I was able to move around with mine. I then had a spinal block and felt no more.