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..

I didn't want pain relief. I didn't change my mind so I didn't have pain relief. If during labour I had wanted it I would have asked for it. I imagine if my labours were longer I would have wanted and got it. Dont rule anything out for yourself, you might find it fine without, you might want it, and both are equally ok.

From personal experience, I would suggest not being too set in your plan. We did Hypnobirthing with DD1 and I bought into the whole ‘there is no pain’ ideal, and kept telling myself that thousands of women round the world just breathe their baby out. I was so adamant that it was what I wanted that I convinced myself I would be a failure if I had anything. I stuck to that during labour, and due to some slight complications, it was a painful, miserable experience. I ended up having a spinal block after DS was born!

With DC2 I decided to be more flexible in my approach and to assess pain relief as I went along. I accepted gas and air when I was reaching my limit, and went on to have a very relaxed, low pain labour.

I’m not saying don’t try for it, but try not to make any definite plans that you won’t be willing to be flexible about.

I had an epidural with DC 1 for medical reasons . This was good as i didn't have to agonise about whether or not it was the right thing.i had a very easy and completely painless labour and delivery with no interventions. One important thing that rarely gets a mention is that I wasn't tired afterwards and felt very much on an even keel. This helps for establishing feeding and getting going etc. With DS2 I had a precipitant delivery which was excruciating and quite frightening. It was very brief and again I wasn't tired afterwards and didn't have stitches but I think the baby and I were both shell shocked afterwards. DC3 was a planned Caesarian so again all rather calm. It is easy to extrapolate one's experiences and think that a decision one has made has influenced the outcome eg feeling calm and relaxed leads to a straightforward delivery but really it is all chance, physiology and anatomy.

I think it depends, how the baby is lying is a factor also whether or not you have been induced. I've had 7, 4 were Ok and I could have managed without any pain relief, the other 3 were incredibly painful - 2 back to back and the other induced.

I always went with a see how it goes approach, it's so difficult to know beforehand how painful out will be A friend of. mine who says she has a very low pain threshold recently gave birth to (big!) twins with no pain relief as she said she didn't need it. So fingers crossed

Honestly? Well I've had 5 assorted deliveries - no pain relief, gas and air and epidural.Loved them all. My advice is have an epidural, read a mag, job done!

I had no pain relief with all of mine but not through choice! I was begging for pain relief but my babies just came too fast! I find once you’re in that situation you’ll do what’s right for you don’t focus too much on that now.

I have a friend that was very set on hypnobirthing and no pain relief and she ended up having an epidural and it was very hard to come to terms with! Honestly, my advice is take it as it comes.

Agree with PPs who have said keep your options open. In the end I wanted much more pain relief than was available to me. There's no way to plan what's going to happen and you wouldn't have surgery without anesthetic.

I'd refrain from being adamant about anything. You don't know what labour will be like for you or how you'll cope with it (neither does anyone else on here!)

OP I see why you want to do it after your mum has but you are not her. My mum has two straightforward deliveries with just gas and air. I ended up with an absolute nightmare, tens machine and gas and air followed by birthing pool followed by two lots of diamorphine then epidural then finally a spinal and forceps. All that happened is that I felt I'd failed compared to my mum. But it wasn't my fault. I tried hypnobirthing, I had a playlist and a plan, and it was just so unbelievably painful I needed everything. I don't regret it because I absolutely needed it at the time, and I get a bit narked at people who say things like 'I just breathed through it and I was fine' - when actually there's a hell of a lot of luck of the draw involved in birth experiences. Keep your options open.

@K1999 I'm glad you're not ruling anything out. Bear in mind as well, that it would literally be your son's first exposure to any analgesia and it is incredibly unlikely he would suffer any ill effects.

For my part, I wanted to do as much of labour I could with the minimum amount of pain relief, building up to stronger stuff as and when I felt I needed it, with the last resort being an epidural. Since I was induced and needed the drip, I needed the stronger stuff (diamorphine) a bit sooner than I would have liked (only 3cm at the time), and should maybe not have had the maximum dose (I was more than a bit loopy, when I wasn't sleeping), but I do not regret taking it. It was what I needed to get through labpir. Baby did come out a tiny bit woozy from the morphine, but was (and still is) otherwise fine.

I don't have anything to add (ELCS due to breech baby, which I LOVED), but I'm really enjoying reading all the birth stories on this thread .

@namechange8765455 that was super helpful thank you! Xxx

I had everything with my first as it was z pretty traumatic birth. The others i had nothing as pretty fast labours and i didnt like feeling out of control or the sicky feeling gas and air gave me.
My advice is to take it how it comes, decide at the time. Birth plans in my experience rarely go to plan. Just relax and look forward to meeting your baby 😊😊 xx

@Solomon1212 good point. I don't think I've heard of any plans that actually go that way! I'm almost 37 weeks and never done this before so I'm just letting nerves run away with me. But I've been getting to a quite relaxed point now knowing that one, my body is literally made for this and two, I have no control over whatever's going to happen so I just have to deal with it the best I can :)

Exactly. Your body knows what to do, its pretty amazing really. I dont think youd be human if you didnt feel anxious, we all feel nervous prior to giving birth.
Trust your midwife and listen to what she tells you, good luck and safe delivery xx

@Solomon1212 will do, thank you!! Xx

I just had gas and air, but I was only in active labour for about 3 hours.

Just see how it goes. You can always change your mind, I don't think the midwives even looked at my birth plan but I didn't have any real specifics anyway.

I got to 10 cm at home with my first, couldn't believe it when they told me in hospital after 36 hours at home. It wasn't as bad as I thought, bloody painful but not what I thought it would be. Which is why I stayed home for so long until I couldn't take any more.

Four hours of pushing with just gas and air later she was finally born and I had a third degree tear. Worst pain of my life when they examined me to see the severity of the tear. Still makes my blood run cold. Had a spinal block to stitch me up in surgery. There's no way in hell I would have let them anywhere near me to stitch me up without it.

Everyone's experience is different. They won't not give you something if you change your mind so don't worry. Although I did read somewhere that some pain meds maybe actually gas and air weren't being used atm due to Coronavirus. Might be worth checking with your midwife.