what did you focus on during the pain of labour?

[finbarr]

I have 7 or so weeks to go now, and thinking back to my first 2 births, all I could think every time a contraction hit was ' ow ow that really f hurts' which I'm sure didn't help! Can anyone give me any advice/ tips on more positive things to focus on which will maybe shift my focus from sore bits, and help me get through.
Please guys, I know you are all good at sharing and giving advice, and I would really appreciate something other than 'picture your cervix opening like a flower' which just doesn't do it for me
maybe that first bacardi and coke?
or counting backwards in spanish?
finding out what flavour it is - blue or pink?

what thought kept you going?

thanks guys!!

[finbarr]

vizbizz - am now thinking of 'wax on, wax off'..........

[finbarr]

wow, so many replies and suggestions - thank you all!
I love the contrast between the calm, relaxed breathing, and the hand clenching, swearing: it just proves how individual childbirth is for each of us, and how comfortable we are with different ideas.
Think I might try singing Keane's 'this is the last time' - coz it definitely is!!!
I was also thinking how some of us would just love to be able to say 'oh yes, I managed without any drugs or intervention', and then the pressure we put on ourselves to meet that idea is ridiculous - who would even know if I lied and said that? No one will be there but me, dh and medics........You'll not believe me now whatever i post in birth announcements!
I am due at the end of April, and my 2 ds's are now getting rather excited - one wants a sister, and the other would prefer a brother, so at least one will be happy!

I really appreciate your suggestions, no doubt I'll run out of time to plan, and go into labour thinking 'ow ow ow' again.
(must try harder)
love the idea of smelling dh's t-shirt: I do have a slight washing powder smell fetish, so that might help - imagining clean sheets on my own bed at home (hopefully my mother in law will do her fantastic usual big clean while I'm in hospital.........)

[vizbizz]

focussed on staying relaxed, and breathing.
Think Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid: breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Nice deep breaths

[hester]

I focused on the pain, visualising it as colours swirling down a tube - like the beginning of Dr Who. Started off red and green, but as the pain intensified it got black and yellow. I don't know where that trick came from, but it DID help. Something about not trying to escape from the pain, but going to meet it I suppose.

[madamez]

IN early stages I sang - or at least did vague opera-singer vocal exercises -sing out a note and hold it, going up the scale a bit as the contraction peaks. Then I got g&a - use it like a scuba hose and just breath in and out, and once you get over the initial yukkiness it's great. I spent the rest of my labour convinced I knew the Great Secret. Which was something to do with clowns and cuckoo clocks... Also, I had a brief spell of wanting something worse than swear words so shouted BUSH! BLAIR! BLUNKETT a few times...

[recoveringmum]

i was in the bath which surprisingly really helped. i closed my eyes and thought: i thought about relaxing my whole body so that it would loosen up gently and let my baby into the world. and i thought about how much my dh and i love eachother and how wonderful it is that our baby will soon be here.

i read that the pain of labour has a psychological element related to all sorts of fear we have. when we feel the labour coming on we tighten up (due to our fears) and this actually obstructs the birth process (where we are supposed to relax so our muscles and bones can open up and let out baby). the tighteingin releases a hormone that sends pain messages to the head.

so the point is to prepare before by sorting out any fears you think you may have. (just chatting with your dh might help on many of these). and then during labour, to think about the fact that you are opening up to let your baby out and the best way to do that would be if your body became very soft.

hope it helps. i made it really far without feeling pain really. or at least with making the pain disperese gently and totally.

[Linnet]

Same as LadyTophamHatt, big breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth. I kept telling myself to remember to breathe. Sometimes I counted to 10 in my head as well. This was with dd2. With dd1 I had no idea what I was doing and no idea how to breathe through a contraction and none of the midwives offered any advice. 2nd time around I was determined to try and be in control of the situation.

[Doulaklaw]

TENS and G&A, one in each hand and God help anyone who tried to take either away!

Unfortunately I took the diamorphine, against my better judgement from last time which ended in emCS. It doesn't take the pain away, it makes you drowsy, less able to labour and affects baby's trace..... So for my VBAC I ended up with blasted forceps as I was in no fit state to argue my case. They then take away my TENS & G&A -before- siteing spinal, anaesthetist tries to ask me questions and gets a mouthful!

So no to diamorphine!!!It just makes you compliant. What I REALLY needed was support and encouragement that I was doing well and physical support to labour in positions that helped me and baby. Oh well, there's always next time!

[DimpledThighs]

oh yes or counting back from 300 in 4's or something.

[calvemjoe]

Counting backwards from 100. dh wanted to know what I was thinking cause of the look of concentration on my face!

[PavlovtheCat]

should say 'friend who was thee at my birth!!! i was the pregnant one, sorry!!

[PavlovtheCat]

friend who was pregnant 'walked me' up some stairs, with each breath through a contraction, concentrating on getting to the top, then as it crested, walked me back down. Reminded myself that these stairs were taking me closure to seeing my baby.Made the pain purposeful and more bearable as each 'lot of stairs' had a top which i could invisage and therefore an end.

[Blandmum]

First a warm bath, then a tens machine, then gas and air, then a shot of diamorphine, then another one, then an epidural

And it was all positive (and I'm not being snide) and I never felt out of control and they were all my decisions.

[DimpledThighs]

tens machine is good - not because it works but because you can focus on pressing boost buttons etc - ditto gas and air - how you work it and stuff, but careful or you get wankered.

I focused on using the opportunity to remember as many swear words as I possibly could and shouting them out with great aplomb.

[mwro]

I breathed in and out very deeply through each contraction (in through the nose, out through the mouth) and kept my eyes shut. Concentrated on the fact that after 5 breaths (which increased to 7 breaths at the end), the contraction would be over. Obviously worked for me as I didn't have an epidural!

Oh - I also had a TENS machine but that didn't really do anything once the contractions got bad.

[CODalmighty]

oscar dresses

[juuule]

Same as Nally with my last baby Sat on a birthing ball leaning on the side of the bed reading "Talon of the Silver Hawk" which I'd propped up on a pillow. Same as Nally I lost concentration once I started to feel the urge to push and pressed the buzzer for the midwife(big mistake but that's another story).

[Kif]

Err.. I found great comfort in the smell of my dh's T shirt. I made him stand close to me, then i could stick my face in his chest or t shirt when i had a contraction. guess it focussed me on breathing, but most of all it made me feel safe and taken care of.

[nally]

well i was reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, so I set myself the goal of finishing the thing. Towards the end of my labour, as I could feel dd2's head getting lower I found myself reading the same page over and over again, unable to concentrate enough to get past it - only 20 pages before the end

[specialmagiclady]

I concentrated on singing VERY long, very LOW notes during contractions. And seeing how long I could hold a note/how low I could go really helped.

That and the TENS machine.

Also imagined I was doing evil sweaty Bikram yoga which had previously been the worst thing I'd experienced of that ilk!

[octopussyintummy]

ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow every two minutes for about 8 hours!

This time I'm going to focus on my breathing and not say 'ow' but think of millions of tiny stars going in and wrapping themselves around my lovely baby, breathing in energy and out with pain - all theoretical of course, but thats the plan Maybe focusing on rocking backwards and forwards on my ball.

When are you due - I am 15 april - 5 weeks to go....

[colditz]

I got as twatted as I could on the gas and air. hallucinated quite nicely throughout the labour. Thought I was in a night club - only problem is, it distorts your sense of time and I would shut my eyes, think it must be time to push and only 7 minutes would have passed, whn I thought it had been hours.

But if you really use it, not just sample it but treat it like actual air, it works very very well.

I was just heaving on in, saying "In, 2, 3,, 4, out, 2, 3, 4..."

[funnypeculiar]

Finbar - dh was told (in no uncertain terms!) that his job was to look back and bloody count too !

[warthog]

i found imagining waves on the beach helped. and counted while breathing g&a, not that either of those helped very much!

[daisyhun]

Listened to Classic FM and focused on relaxing through contractions saying to myself "stop stop stop" when I felt myself tensing up.

Oh and gas and air made me focus on how I was breathing rather than the pain.