No pain relief??

[K1999]

So I'm adamant at this stage that I do not want any pain relief. Gas and air at the absolute most. Any comments on this? 'You're absolutely crazy', 'don't be a hero' comments are all welcome, I just want to know how realistic this is as this is my first baby and have no idea what to expect other than excruciating pain..

If that's what you want, that is fine. If you get there and change your mind, that's also fine. Is there a particular reason why you don't want any pain relief? What about non drug pain relief such as water, hypnobirthing or tens machine?

It can be done. I had g&a with my first birth and nothing with my second. But if you're finding it very painful there is absolutely no shame in having pain relief, that's what its there for.

I did it with a TENS machine and then took that off before getting into the birthing pool.

Didn't have any other pain relief mostly because I had horrific labyrinthitis so couldn't have much as it would have made me worse.

It was totally fine, big baby but fine.

Can you investigate why you have associated childbirth without pain relief as being virtuous/good/something positive? You possibly wouldn’t be the same way about any other manner of pain such as a tooth extraction or anything with significant comparable pain. So where does this belief come from?

@K1999

Why do you not want pain relief out of curiosity?

Keep your options open. Would you consider a birth pool? Would you consider a hypno birthing course? I had second child as a planned home birth and didn't need pain relief after really practising Hypno birthing visualisations and breathing. First child was a planned hospital birth and I took ALL the drugs...

Meh, go for it, OP. You can't get much else in a midwife led unit anyway- I had some morphine stuff in the really painful transition bit (despite coaching DH to encourage me not to beforehand) and all it did was totally disconnect me from the birth. I felt nothing when that baby was placed on me. Absolutely nothing. I just was totally dissociated and there was no rush of love or anything. I would avoid it next time.

You can't plan for everything, but you can make choices based on a best-case scenario and make your birth partner aware of those so they can support you with them.

I had gas and air and a paracetamol I was given on arrival which did f all. I wanted drugs and was refused them. I'm still angry about that nearly six years later. It really hurt. It was like bad period pains that lasted for hours and hours and I take stronger pills for my period pain than fucking paracetamol.

That's fine, op, your choice but no need to be adamant about it, nobody is going to force you to have pain relief, it is just an option. You won't know until you are in labour whether or not you want pain relief and how long it's likely to all go on is a factor.

People don't always have excruciating pain, there is obviously some pain but yours might be something you can cope with and it may not last long.

The last thing you should do at the moment is make bold statements, it's a private matter anyway and who knows what your labour
will be like. If your pregnancy has progressed well and you have no health problems, stay at home as long as possible, walking about, before going into hospital. That certainly does help.

Good luck.

I’ve had three with gas and air. All fine.

I went with the plan to start with a bath and end up with as much pain relief as need. Really didn't fancy a epidural though because it's full epidural, not mobile, flat on back.

2 births.
First one I had gas and air for about 45 minutes and then for sowing up too.
2nd birth i had nothing.
Both labours were very quick intense births but I think if I'd of been labouring for days then I'd of had more drugs.

I did it, by accident really, 14 hrs of labour, wanted to do most of it at home, so my midwife did exactly that. I ended up needing an ambulance into hospital, first paramedic turned up in a car so had to order another ambulance. Trouble is I live in the sticks so it took nearly 2 hrs to get me in one and another half an hour to the hospital. Paramedics can only offer gas and air. Dd nearly arrived enroute. I asked for drugs when I got to the mat unit but was told it was too late. Dd turned up 10 minutes later. Looking back I'd not do it that way again, but it wasn't the end of the world and not as horrendous as I thought it would be. I adopted my second dd, tbh that process was more painful than giving birth with nothing more than paracetamol, gas and air

In all honesty you don’t know what your labour will be like, how long it will last, how much pain you’ll be in, what interventions you might need... Having a preference for a drug free birth is fair enough (although if you’d take a painkiller for headache then I don’t get why wouldn’t for labour) but I do think you’d be best keeping an open mind. Most importantly don’t be disappointed in yourself and let that cloud your enjoyment of your new baby if it doesn’t go to plan. Good luck!

I'm wondering why?

Ask yourself why you don't want it, as others have said you don't get a medal for a medication free birth but if you have other worries it's worth talking to your midwife.

My experience: was up for any pain relief but wanted to try without an epidural as it would mean staying in the much nicer birthing suite (midwife led) afterward which would also mean my husband commits stay in the bed with me too rather than the upright chairs upstairs. When it came to it after a horrendous 42hrs of prelabour where they would only give me paracetamol the main event happened so quickly (4cm to out in 20mins!) that I didn't have time to get an epidural anyway. The icing on the cake was that I then tore and had to go upstairs anyway, had a spinal anyway so I could be stitched up in surgery. Long story short don't plan too rigidly, be prepared for anything! Good luck :)

I was also adamant that I didn't want anything more than gas and air, because I was worried that anything stronger would hinder breastfeeding. I laboured with just gas and air with DS, ended up with no pain relief at all whilst forceps were attempted (failed) and an emergency c section under GA. With DD I used a tens machine at home and then also gas and air once we got to hospital and they got me through absolutely fine. When it came to pushing DD out I barely used the gas and air because by that time I was busy bearing down not breathing in! Used it again to birth the placenta. Actually focussing on pressing the boost button on my tens machine and coordinating it with breathing in the gas and air probably helped too! Crowning hurts, but it's doable! I'd also recommend looking into hypnobirthing which gives lots of techniques which will help with a medication free labour.
It's good to be open minded though and remember that the best delivery is a safe one. Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

I only had gas and air for both my births. Wasn't planned, just the way it went. I was so away with the fairies on G&A that I forgot anything else was available first time!

Second time I was in the pool and didn't need anything stronger. Just go with what you need at the time and don't have any rigid plans. I love gas and air! Be warned though some people feel sick with it.

I did it with my second (not through choice) wasn't so bad but the whole labour from start to finish was only about 6 hours.
With my first I had a 38 hour labour and didn't manage to get an epidural until an hour before he was actually born. I think they gave me diamorphin about 15 hours in.
Tried gas and air. Absolutely hated it.
Think they only gave me the epidural with my first because I was so knackered.

Stick in your notes that you want everything going, if you don't want it at the time, you don't have to take it. Always best to be prepared.

As a midwife my concern would be that if you’re “adamant “ about this and then on the day think “fuck this hurts, give me that drugs” - will you feel you’ve let yourself down, that you’ve “failed”.

Because obviously you won’t have done but sometimes people with quite set ideas about how they want the birth to go can be more upset if the birth doesn’t go that way.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

I had TENS, paracetamol and wee bit of G&A with dd2. It was fine. I don't think I was a "hero". I didn't really need anything else which was lucky because my hospital didn't have epidural as an option.

I had emergency sections with the other two and had all the pain relief going obviously.

It really doesn't make any difference, you know. There's no shinier, larger medal for not having a wee sook of gas or an epidural. Absolutely no one will care about it except you for barely even 5 minutes and then you will look at the brand new human you have in your arms and realise that the birth bit is over and done and you actually have other, bigger, more important stuff to think about.

All the best with the rest of the pregnancy.

You do what you want to do. I just wouldn't discuss it with people. I had an ELCS and knew I'd be judged for that so I never told anyone. None of their business anyway. I'd keep an open mind, you don't know what it's going to be like.

Why don’t you want any?

I think you just need to wait and see how your labour goes. One of my labours was relatively okay as labours go and I had no pain relief. My other labour was a back to back nightmare that lasted 3 days. I was exhausted and pretty much off my head with the pain by the time I had dilated enough to be admitted to labour ward. I took all the pain relief on offer with that birth and my only regret is that I couldn’t have had the pain relief sooner.

All labours are different and you don’t know how long, how quick, how painful etc your labour is going to be.

What is 'at this stage'? Unless you're at this very moment in active labour, you don't need to make any decisions right now.

Wow I wasn't expecting so many replies!
For the people asking why - a few reasons really. I don't take any medication for anything. Not even paracetamol. Reason being is because if you rely on meds for anything, (I used to be on antidepressants, anti anxiety and sleep meds every day) it will take a toll on your liver ect. Also taking pain relief regularly weakens your immune system and since not taking anything for probably about two years, I haven't been sick once. Not even a cold.
Also, and this may sound silly to some, my mum passed recently, actually just before baby was conceived, and she had all 4 without pain relief and I just wanna follow her in that way.
I've read some scary stories about epidural and being the 'everything will happen to me' type person I am, I've convinced myself I'll be one of them!
I'm not ruling anything out though, I know anything can happen so I'm keeping an open mind. I just hope and pray I can do it without. Thank you everyone for your stories they're really helpful!

That's the dream OP, but it doesn't always pan out like that unfortunately. Nobody can predict how your labour will go. Just keep an open mind.

Please don’t cut off any options at this stage. No one will force you to have any pain relief but you might end up desperate for it. Birth experiences vary hugely but especially first babies, it tends to be more difficult.