Was just reading the post on why does childbirth have to be painful and it made me remenber a question I meant to ask never got around to after I gave birth.
I got to 8cm's dilated with just gas and air. Was admitted to hosp at 9pm and was 4cm's already (however had been experiencing painful regular contractions since midday that day).
Somewtime in the early hours was unfortunately told i would have to have Continuous fetal monitoring as they could not do the intermittent due to staff shortages (this was true and I have no complaints whatsoever about the care I recieved but it may have made a difference???)
For this I had to be laying on a bed. Basically did not dilate any further after this and at about 10 am the next day I had drugs via a drip to speed up the labour.
At midday, had an epidural as was so tired just felt I could not physically get through without having a break from the contractions (epidural was great imo,they turned it down once i was 10cm so i could feel pressure as i pushed).
Anyway, I just wondered if anyone out there knows if a labour can really 'stop' at 8cm's, i had been having contractions for ages so maybe my body just ran out of steam. What would have happened if they had not given me drugs to make the contractions stronger and most importantly is it likely to happen again? Am wondering about a bithing centre birth if we have any more but if my labor is just going to peter out I feel i may need another epidural lol!!