What painkiller to have?

[justanotheryoungmother]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking through the pain relief options and haven't been keen on any of them! I'm due my first child in the beginning of May, and I have no idea how I'd like to have it! I've considered water birth, but I don't know if that'll be any help? For pain relief I've looked at: gas and air, pethidine and an epidural (TENS machines were just a no), but I don't like the look of any?! From other people's experiences, I've been told that both gas and air and pethidine make you really sick?? Is there a pain relief that won't make me high (as I'd like to remember it!)? The thought of having no pain relief is even worse, but none of them appeal?? The hospital I'm having my baby at don't guarantee an epidural, which is rubbish, but the one person I know who had it had to have an assisted birth because it made her lose the ability to push?! So whilst it helped that pain, it made the delivery (and recovery) even worse! What pain relief would you recommend (if any?)

With ds1 I wanted as natural as possible. Hated the thought of epidural. Practiced hypnobirthing, ended up with breech baby and elcs.

Ds2 was born Saturday. Ummed and Ahhed for months over whether to try vbac. Booked c section, changed mind and had waters broken. Hadn't given much thought to pain relief, but went through the while range. Tens was great for early labour. I moved onto gas and air, which made me feel sick for the first few times but nothing too bad. It passed very quickly. Again, it helped a lot, but made my throat and mouth very dry. As I had had waters broken, there was talk of giving me the syntocinon drip which I have heard is brutal so opted for epidural at that stage. The anaesthetist wasn't immediately available due to an emergency which went on for some hours, so ended up with a shot of pethidine. To put it politely, I was off my tits on it. But managed to get some sleep overnight. I didn't have the syntocinon as by the time the anaesthetist was ready I was dilating well.

Epidural - I had a background one, so not totally numb, still some pain, and then it was tipped up when I went into theatre. I did end up with assisted delivery but this was due to an urgency to get baby out as my bp and heart rate plummeted, so did baby's. He was also massive and back to back.

So intervention was required but I don't think as a,result of the epidural.

So.....I'd say don't rule anything out. I didn't think.i was coping at all well, but turns,out I was close to the end when I though there was farvworse to come

Meptid - not as harsh as pethidene and has an anti-emetic included. I also asked for Stemetil as am phobic about being sick so wouldn't try gas and air or pethidene.

My midwives gave me peppermint essential oils to sniff which stopped me feeling sick with gas and air.

Gas and air can make you feel a bit spaced out for the first couple of contractions then I don't notice the spaced out feeling any more (I went through 2 canisters of the stuff with dd2).

You may be sick in labour even if you don't have any painkillers. Gas and air is great and if you don't like it the effect doesn't last very long so you can just stop taking it.

I had a birthing pool (loved the warm water) for pain relief and gas and air. Which I also liked ... You control it and can stop anytime. Breath in at the beginning of contraction and then stop and by the end of the contraction it has worn off. It didn't make me sick, but if it did you just don't breath it in again if the pros don't outweigh the cons.

There isn't one perfect labour pain relief option - if there was, everyone would use it!

I would just say don't rule anything out at the moment. SOME people find gas & air makes them sick, but it's far from universal. It made me feel a bit woozy, but definitely not high, and really took the edge off the pain. The effect wears off within a couple of breaths of fresh air so trying it is definitely an option. Some people swear by pethidine, but I really wasn't keen. Bear in mind different hospitals will offer pethidine/diamorphine/meptid, they may not all be available everywhere.

I didn't have an epidural as I progressed relatively quickly, but I put them in for a living, so would definitely have had one if needed! You are right that they CAN reduce the sensation/ability to push, so there is an increased chance of needing forceps/ventouse, but the pain relief (assuming it works) is second to none.

You don't have to have a plan set in stone, just see how you get on and what you feel like trying at the time.

Gas and air is fantastic, it makes you feel like all is right in the world and so happy, it did'nt make me feel sick at all.

I then had half a dose of diamorphine because I did'nt want that spewy lewy feeling. At that time our hospital did'nt do epidurals, so that was'nt an option.

I ended up with a c section, which was pain free too.

Is there a reason you've ruled out tens? My advice would be to progress through the pain relief depending on what you need.

So start with the tens machine and paracetamol at home. If you get to hospital and are coping go for the pool and gas and air if you need it. (The pool helped me enormously). If those things aren't helping you enough then you can try something else. Opt for an epidural if you're not coping with the pain. Without knowing how you will cope and how painful it will be for you personally it's impossible to decide imo. Start with the minimum and work up from there