Can you take anti anxieties before giving birth

[DotStripe]

I'm not even pregnant but thinking about trying again. I had a traumatic experience recently with a late miscarriage and now I have so much anxiety with the thought of being in hospital and giving birth. I feel like in that situation I might have a panic attack. Of course I don't know that I would but the feeling I get thinking about it is how I feel thinking about getting on a plane and if I do that without medication I have a panic attack.

Has anyone else here gone through this? And what are your options to get through it? If I'm going on a plane I take a xanax or a sleeping pill which is enough to help me cope. But I'm not sure whether that's an option for labour and delivery.

Have you considered a home birth?

For second time mums it's statistically safer than birthing in hospital.

I also hate hospitals and knew I would never be able to relax enough to have a smooth birth so had both mine at home. It was lovely.

Unfortunately thats not an option for me as we live overseas. If I had a homebirth it would be unassisted. I know someone who with her second she delayed and delayed going to the hospital until her DD was crowning so she delivered in the hospital car park and avoided the hospital experience but was still in the right place if something went wrong. I'm not sure if it was deliberate or not!

I don't know if I'd be a candidate for homebirth even if it was an option as I've had retained placenta before (no haemorrhage though). It sounds so nice though.

Gas and air makes you feel drunk and I think pethidine has a similar effect.

Well l, there's normally lots of drugs available in labour. gas and air and pethidine change your mental state, rather than directly target pain. Discussing with a care provider about different medication such as zannex. Whether it could stall delay labour would be my concern. It's completely different to a flight which is a set period of time and you are passive.

I'm so sorry to hear about the late miscarriage. I wonder whether working through the anxiety and trauma of that might help your feelings about future birth? I know I had horrendous anxiety after several miscarriages - talking it through with a counsellor really helped. Also being upfront with medics involved in my care for subsequent pregnancies was really helpful as they could then take it into account.

It would be worth finding a hypnobirthing/birth coach imho. They will talk through your various options etc and some are expert in working with those who've had previous losses

Yes maybe I should look for a counsellor/therapist. I'm aware of the pain relief options available. I had gas & air with my first and liked it but I found it hugely traumatic with my late miscarriage. I'm not worried about the birth itself it's everything around it. To my mind it is like flying - logically on the flight it's super, super unlikely that anything bad is going to happen but I have a phobia which developed after a fairly mild incident and the first time I got on a plane again after that I had a panic attack. I'm trying to anticipate the possibility of that happening with giving birth and see what I can do to stop it happening.

I guess really it's something to discuss with my Dr if I get pregnant again but I was just wondering on here whether anyone else had taken xanax or similar prior to delivery.

I know you can't take it when you're pregnant as it can cause birth defects but by the time they're only hours from birth surely that's not an issue? I wouldn't be so worried about stalling labour tbh, a slower but calmer/less painful labour is fine with me.

For acute use for anxiety, then maybe something like propanalol (a beta blocker) would be suitable - something to discuss with an OB!

Are there private midwives where you are so you could explore home birth further?

Was it just that your placenta took a long time to come?

No, I think homebirth is actually illegal here unless you live out in the middle of nowhere. Huh ok so I just looked it up and it's not illegal! I think it's one of those things that everyone thinks is illegal here (like abortion) but actually isn't. Hmmm definitely something for me to look into further if the time comes.

Yeah there was no bleeding, it just wouldn't come out so was manually removed. Maybe it would have come out on its own but my OB was starting to get jumpy about it after 30 minutes.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

Yes there are options available but I don’t know where you are to know what local practice is. In the UK, women often have an elective c section after a traumatic experience. Those who would prefer a vaginal delivery are offered something like lorazepam to calm in labour but it can make baby sleepy when they are born. There are also other options but you need to check what local practice is where you are

Thank you, it's really helpful to have the names of drugs. I think I'd still feel the same anxiety with a C-section as it's not the actual pushing out the baby that worries me but more so everything that happens around that. It's hard to describe. To go back to flying I've been through turbulence loads of times, landed in bad weather where the plane a few minutes behind us had to divert and it never bothered me but then one flight there was some especially bad turbulence and since then I've had this phobia. I guess what happened with the miscarriage was similar, there's nothing I can put my finger on as being especially traumatic (although it wasn't pleasant) but idk, it's badly affected me somehow.

I read the guidelines and as expected I'd not be eligible for home birth due to the previously retained placenta.

Placentas can take their sweet, sweet time. As long as there is no bleeding, and you feel well in yourself, they can take a few hours. Especially if you're stressed! Your body needs the same oxytocin and relaxed atmosphere to release the placenta as it does when trying to birth a baby.

Hope you find a solution!

Lorazepam would be an option for c section here as well. We have a birth planning meeting with woman, her partner/anyone else she wants to bring and health professionals where we discuss the fears and options available. She decides what she would like and it’s documented and sent out to all relevant professionals.

I recommend finding out what is local practice where you are

This is all really useful and gives me a great starting point to open a conversation. Thank you so much!

Hi OP :)

Just wondering if you have mental health midwives where you are? I had a traumatic first birth (mostly due to the crap hospital care) and this time I have a mental health midwife as I’m scared about going back into hospital. If you have those where you live, they should be able to help, including with your birth plan.

Sorry about your miscarriage.

Hypnobirthing might help. Also going to a different hospital if possible, and having a tour of the facilities before you get pregnant/choose where to birth so you can gauge how much it would disturb you.

You'd need to hold in your mind that this time it would be different and there would be a lovely baby at the end of it. It might be a healing kind of experience in many ways. I think you could find a way to think positively about it rather than fearfully.

C section would also be an option to make it an entirely different experience.