Music during childbirth

[sazzybee]

Never let it be said that I don't focus on the important things in life
There's a CD player in the delivery room so I'm thinking of getting together some music to assist/distract me.
What did you find good? Whale song? Chilled out tunes? Something loud and furious?

I had a collection put together on my ipod that I called 'Frank Banana'. It included Frank Sinatra, Rat Pack, Harry Connick Jnr, Nat King Cole etc

It was great - mellow but strong music that I could zone in and out of.

DD crowned to Frank Sinatra's 'That's Life'!

oops, dh tried to put relaxation music one i was so annoyed and told him turn off.
what relax? im giving a birth

I have a feeling I might want to kill if I listen to relaxing music too. I wonder if the White Stripes would be acceptable?
I quite like the idea of Frank though - that might be good!

thjis isn't constructive AT ALL but DPs suggestion when i asked this very same thing was "welcome to the Jungle" by aerosmith

how about some ferocious choral music

when I had ds it was all a bit of a rush and the radio was on in the room, I remember the spice girls playing as I was pushing him out lol

We took some CDs in with us. Not one of them got played. I had far more important things to think about at the time.

I've put my Queen greatest Hits to one side for the big day...Fat Bottomed girls, etc as I reckon it might keep me cheerful lol

twinklemegan - I suspect that's quite like but I'm being induced so there might be quite a lot of hanging around time waiting for action.
I'd be gutted if I didn't bring any music and really fancied some but was stuck with the radio

I didn't think of taking music into the delivery suite with me - i was also induced but from first contraction only took 21/2 hours to have dd.

The midwives were very helpful though and sang sugarbabes round round!!!

same as twinklemegan...we took cds in, but didn't play them.
There was a tv in the room, though, so while in labour I watched Carols from Kings. (twice... also saw the repeat at midnight) Very inspiring.
Although so was the feature length version of Porridge.

Hello BTB!

hello twinklemegan!

Muminfife, love the idea of water music for a water birth.
Themed music, that's what you want!
(mmm...p-push it baby)

i had grand plans for music during labour and then completely forgot all about them, and my labour was very long and i was at home so i had no reason to forget! You never know when you might like silence... but enjoy the music if you have it! Hey, maybe my labour would have been quicker with music..?!

I have to say music really helped my labour. I had my walkman on and in-between contractions rewound the same song again and again (midwife thought I'd gone mad, especially when the intervals between contractions got shorter and shorter and I was desperately pressing rewind button to it was ready for the next wave of pain(lol)!

It being just me who could hear it was brilliant (dh wasn't too keen on the song I'd chosen anyway) and it made me focus and shut out everything else during the pain.

I danced to it during the early labour stage, swirling my pelvis in time to the music and I'm sure it helped things drop iyswim.

It was from a cd called sacred spirit - earthy native american music - at just the right tempo - slow with a distinct beat. I think you need to find songs that speak to you, otherwise you'll find them irritating. I knew this would help me cause I'd danced to it during late pregnancy and it just struck a chord. I sound really hippy reading back over this - but am far from it, believe me.

oh and my labour was 1 hr and a half start to finish - perhaps the staying upright and hip swirling was the key factor rather than the music.

Message withdrawn

push it - salt and peppa

Well I've assembled a collection of CDs which includes everything from Jack Johnson, Nina Simone and Elvis to the White Stripes and Nirvana
I'll report back

OMG, this is the sort of thing I thought about before having ds1. I don't think I'd actually have noticed any music whatsoever at any of my 3 births so any time spent choosing would have been utterly wasted!

I doubt it makes much difference. Maybe useful if you are in little pain and just hanging around but once you're in teh swing of it...hmmm, I think I'd have been shouting 'turn that f*cking thing off!!'. You go into another world- music irrelevant.

IMo anyway

Lol - glad it wasn't just me that went to big efforts to make sure I had loads of music. The ipod only came out of my bag once I'd got back home. The radio was on in the delivery room but I didn't notice it most of the time. Fastest 8 hours I've ever known. Salt and Pepa - pmsl :-)