No gas & air during labour

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My midwife has just told me they are currently not allowing gas & air during labour due to Coronavirus Sitting here in floods of tears as I literally don't know how I will cope Last time I relied on that and TENS machine for pain relief before it all got too much, very long labour and ended up with forceps delivery as I couldn't keep going with the amount of pain I was in.
Please talk me down and tell me how you coped without gas & air?

I'm only 14 weeks so hoping the worst is over by September, I had a water birth with gas and air and had a brilliant experience so hope it's the same again.

I wonder if private clinics are offering everything as normal? I know it's a lot of money for people (myself included) but I would be tempted to put it on a credit card 🙈 the constant changes are worrying, or I'm considering a home birth

I didn't use gas and air for either of my births as I didn't like it. For my first I was fine with the birthing pool and TENS. For my 2nd I did 7 hours on the induction drip with just TENS and was honestly OK. Hypnobirthing helped, just breathing into each contraction and not fighting it.

It is a cheap ineffective way to placate women who are in abject pain.

It is cheap but it’s very effective for many women, not all of whom are in abject pain. I’ve seen hundreds, probably thousands of women in labour and for many gas and air is an absolute life line. It’s very quick to set up and to have an effect and if women don’t get on with it it doesn’t mean they can’t put it down and move onto something else.

I didnt have anything with my first. It was fine. Tbh i had it easy but i didnt even think it was that painful in the grand scheme of things

It is a cheap ineffective way to placate women who are in abject pain

I love gas and air, it completely removed the pain of contractions for me. Its big advantage is that if you try it and don't like it then it doesn't linger in your body.

G&A I thought was like the level of drunkenness you have after a single small glass of wine, just slightly removed from life but knowing it wouldn't last long. Pethidine I hated, it was like the level of drunkness you have when you've already vomited and you desperately want to feel better but know you're going to be lying on the cold bathroom floor for hours until you sober up enough to get up, brush your teeth, get a pint of water and go to bed. That makes me sound like an alcoholic, I actually have a very low tolerance for booze and it has been years since I felt like that!

Anyway, while the fear about increasing areosols sounds reasonably sensible cross contamination dosn't. The mouth pieces are disposable and the system is pressurised so the gas comes out, nothing goes back into the system.

My third DC came very quickly and so I had no G&A. It was OK, a first labour is different to subsequent babies, you know what you are doing and mentally can manage the pain better. It's like running a marathon, the more you do it the easier it is mentally.

This terrifies me.

My first birth was a homebirth, in a birthing pool, with gas and air. Still agony and still triggered my PTSD, but I got through it and felt I'd manage again.

Now homebirths are cancelled in my area. Then no waterbirths and now no gas and air. And there's no escape from what's going to happen.

My second birth was a lot easier than my others, I'd recommend squatting on the floor while leaning onto something it was the best position I've birthed in also your breathing techniques will help massively , if things get too much I'd consider the pain relief injection not the epidural it's something else I can't remember the name sorry!

I used gas and air when I gave birth to my 1st child and loved it. Was really looking forwards to having it again when I gave birth a 2nd time. However once I got it in my 2nd labour I hated it, having to hold the mouth piece just annoyed me, so ended up giving birth with no pain relief. Obviously it was painful, but no where near as bad as I thought it might be and I was terrified as I had a difficult and complicated first labour that ended in an emergency episiotomy and ventouse delivery.

Also my 2nd labour was so much quicker than my 1st one. Only 1hr of active labour! So hopefully this time round will be quicker than your 1st labour. Good Luck.

@holidayhuntress completely agree with you. Women’s care is being sidelined and it’s not ok. I’m not due until November but praying this is over by then. Terrified of scans without DH, already had one MC and scared of a MMC on my own. I get that hospitals will be overloaded but removing normal basic care for pregnant and birthing women when they’re not actually the ones at higher risk from the virus is just cruel and will undoubtedly lead to more problems for mother and baby than there would have been.

I just called my london hospital and they are still offering this have you checked directly with your local hospital?

is this definite? They are still offering it at my hospital? I gave birth last week & used it (and hated it as much as with my first, made me so nauseous & thirsty) & a couple friends are due over the next month and have just double checked with the midwives!

We are in Yorkshire..

Just to update, I contacted our local hospital and they said all pain relief options are available!! If you have Covid symptoms I think it may change things. But phew, big sigh of relief.

The guidelines seem to be evolving daily and I must've seen the midwfie before she was aware it had changed.

Couldn't agree more Iris. I was induced for 4 days before baby arrived and they kept having to up the drip. Because of a very strict, hard line 'natural' birth line from my hypnobirthing teacher, I was so reluctant to have any pain relief. My body reacted to having waters broken though and I couldn't stop vomiting for hours. Luckily, once in labour ward, the lovely midwife gave me an anti sickness injection and recommended an epidural and I felt like I had been given approval of some sort to take some pain relief. It was absolutely what I needed and turned the situation around from being very intense and scary to being back in control and enjoyable. It also allowed them to take me through the night on the drip, upping the dosage while the epidural allowed me to sleep and get some rest after 4 days of being in hospital. Not every labour is the same. Millions of women have epidurals. What is imperative is that women are given the correct treatment according to their situation, not someone else's. There is so much shame around it in today's society and it is wrong