Looking for positive stories/encouragement to go ahead with unmedicated labour

[Lalarosex]

hi mamas

FTM here 38 weeks. I really want to give birth in water unmedicated and have read hypnobirthing book and this is my plan. However every birth video/story that I hear makes me doubt my abilities to do it as women describe the excruciating pain of unmedicated birth or are absolutely screaming in videos. I have terrified myself

I am of course open to needing an epidural at the time but would like some encouragement and positive stories of unmedicated birth. Wishful thinking but can anyone tell me it’s not that bad haha!

Thank you 🙏🏻

all i had was gas and air- not intentionally- because the drs took so long to get any painkillers and it was too late.

Not gonna lie- it fricking hurt! But i could barely remember afterwards.

have someone supportive there!

I used hypno birthing and had an induced labour. The consultant declared I was insane to do it, but in the main it was fine. I relaxed breathed and knew the pain was transitory. Only at the very end did it become a bit much. I think you need to listen to your body. My first C-section was unavoidable and needed. My Vbac was more real and I loved it.

I had an unmedicated birth with my first. It was a two hour labour. I had flashbacks for weeks because I had no idea that my body could handle that amount of pain and still be alive. I had had gas and air for my subsequent labours.

That was my experience. Some women don't seem to suffer the extreme pain I did. Maybe you'll be lucky, but I remember my naivety and wish someone had been honest with me.

The hypno birthing CD was on a loop. I didn’t speak to anyone or open my eyes for hours. You need to be in the zone.

I don’t think I would think of it in terms of your “ability” to do it - that’s sounding rather like a value judgement and as though not giving birth entirely as you wish is down to a lack of ability. It is great to plan and think about what you want in advance, but elements of birth are unpredictable inevitably- you may end up needing a section, that isn’t because you’ve failed, it’s changing your plans to fit the situation you find yourself in.

I had two unmedicated labours except for gas and air.... absolutely fine. Yeah, it fucking hurt, but it was alright and I certainly didn't feel traumatised. Go for it!

Completely natural. They tried to give me oxygen but I am asthmatic and could not even breathe properly....I did not scream, it was not easy but it happened in the end. 12 h active labour, only 30 min pushing

Agree with Danikm151, have someone supportive there. But also be open to intervention if you need it. Before labour I was determined to have an unmedicated birth, as natural as possible but when I was in the thick of things, I was screaming for an epidural. Unfortunately, by the time the anaesthesiologists came, I was already 8cm dilated so there was no point. My labour was also relatively quick (7 hours from the beginning of the first contractions) It is much better tp go into the experience with an open mind because we really haven’t experienced such pain in our lives & there are no medals for doing it without intervention or medication!

My first I had gas and air only (but wasn't breathing it properly). I genuinely wanted my life to end - the pain was so great.

My second birth I had gas and air only again, but this time I'd learnt how to breathe it properly. Much easier! Afterwards I felt so good about it I actually was up for doing it again!

So no, I wouldn't particularly recommend birthing without pain relief. BUT everyone is different. I think it's good to keep an open mind. Go for your unmedicated water birth, and maybe it will be great for you. But don't view gas and air as a failure. It's an amazing tool to help you deliver, without risk to you or the baby.

I would agree with this. There is no way of predicting what will happen so by all means go into it with the intention of trying to avoid medication but you may find you need it and that’s ok. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

I hoped to have unmedicated births but had to use gas and air for both labours. I probably would have had an epidural for my second too but there wasn’t time in the end. You just have to take it as it comes.

I couldn’t have imagined pain like it tbh. I actually found the whole idea of making a birth plan quite odd as a FTM. How can you know what you'll want/need when you have no idea what it will be like? However much you read up, it's very, very different for different women and different births. I wanted to be in hospital and to leave the experts to do what they knew was best.

This! It's not a failure if you do decide to have pain relief or other interventions. I'm due in a few weeks, and I do have some preferences but I'm keeping a very open mind. I have no idea what the pain will be like and how I'll cope, no-one does!

I just had gas & air and felt okay despite very very long labours. Being in water definitely helped. Didn't do hypnobirthing.

I think it helps to be open minded to pain relief and being guided by the midwives. Healthy mum and baby is the priority.

I have been reading the birth stories on this blog, BLOG | MIDWIFE PIP | WOMENS HEALTH, her book is also really good. It's more important that you are informed about the options for pain relief / other interventions and the pros and cons of each, even if you end up not needing or deciding to take any of them, it's better to be informed in advance of going into labour so you can make informed choices. From my reading and talking to others, it seems the most positive experiences are those where mums felt informed and that they'd made decisions themselves, whatever happened.

I had two unmedicated births (well, I had a couple of puffs of gas and air each time but it made me queasy and for me it wasn't worth it so I didn't have any more). I didn't have any particular desire to be unmedicated, it's just what happened. With DD1 I was in water, with DD2 I wasn't.

With my second it was easier because with my first I did panic a bit at the extent of the pain. With my second I was able to stay a bit more in control of my breathing and relax a bit more because I could kind of think "yep this is like before, this is do-able". So I definitely think if you can stay calm and not fight against the contractions it will help (I never really knew what people meant by that until I had my second and realised that with my first I had really tensed my whole body with each contraction and it made it worse).

It wasn't pleasant. But I'm fortunate that it wasn't horrendous either. But I really think you need to go into it with an awareness that there is only so much you can control. And while there's nothing wrong with not wanting medication, there's also nothing wrong with getting halfway through and thinking "well that was a bloody stupid idea, give me the drugs".

I had no pain relief at all for my baby. He was B2B, and so I laboured in my back. It hurt like hell. I screamed a lot.
But I had completely forgotten the pain of it by the next day.

The main thing I picked up from my hypnobirthing classes, was if the plan changes take your time to make the decision, use BRAIN and once the decision has been made don't look back with regret - know that you made it for the right reasons at the time.

I was planning a home water birth, but the midwives couldn't find a consistent heart beat (probably because he was B2B) and there was some meconium so they recommended we transfer to hospital. I was only there 85 minutes before I birthed him.

I think you can plan the birth you want but you don’t know how your body is going to react.

Be open to having all the drugs if you need them and don’t wait too long to have them as they take time to kick in

Make your birth plan but just be open to changing it if you feel like it in the moment

I think sticking to your birth plan is a rarity rather than the norm especially for first births

I planned for all of mine to go this way (home births), only one did. That was definitely the least painful and distressing birth of all of them. First one I was transferred to hospital and ended up having pethidine and an epidural (that didn't take) after a really long labour as I was exhausted.
Second birth at home with just gas and air, 9lb5oz baby and easiest of them all.
Third I had meconium when I waters broke so transferred myself to hospital before my midwife arrived at home and lucky I did as had shoulder distocia during delivery and that was agony. I don't think I had anything other than gas and air though as it was too late by then.

Just he aware that whatever you plan for might not happen.

I had a home birth. Had one puff of gas and air, didn't like it, didn't have anything else. It was hard work, and obviously it hurt towards the end, but when I woke up in labour I was flooded with this indescribable sense of calm and certainty that my body knew what to do. This surprised me because I'd been horrifically anxious for months, but I remember it so vividly. I walked miles that day, up and down the length of the house, up and down the stairs, and it really helped. Laughter helped a lot as well. We had lovely midwives and my best friend was here looking after the dogs, so I was incredibly lucky. What I would say, though, is not to set your heart on a particular birth plan - things do change, and you need an acceptance that you need to go with the flow to keep your baby safe. I hope you have a lovely calm experience though.

I have 4 children .Last two at home, with no pain relief needed. I realised that if I deliberately relaxed during each contraction the pain subsided before it became unbearable.

My second and third were with no pain relief. All good. It hurt but I had a good midwife to talk me through the contractions. Third one was at home and I really felt that I could listen to my body and get into the right position for the delivery of my baby.

But my biggest bit of ‘advice’ would be to keep an open mind and don’t build yourself into a situation where you feel like you e failed if you have to have pain relief or a more medicalised birth experience.

Had three home births with tens/gas and air for first and tens for others. Being at home helps as you're relaxed I think. First birth entirely unmedicated might be trickier than subsequent ones I'd say and also - I hated being in water. Didn't want it. Didn't want to be touched either. So be prepared for your plans to change.
Can I ask why you're so keen for this?

2 births here, first no pain relief at all, as went in was 6cm, got to 10cm in 15mins and they barely had time to move me from the assessment unit to a delivery room before DD arrived about 10mins later so now time for anything even gas and air! Total labour was probably around 7 hours from first contractions and can’t have been that bad as did it again with DS. Again fairly quick around 6hrs total but had gas and air this time as was admitted earlier due to quick arrival of DD. Both were manageable and to be honest I don’t usually have a very high pain threshold but found this was a different sort of pain to manage

Want to know why my children are 8 years apart?
Because I was traumatized by being basically torn in two for DC1 to get out with no pain relief.
20 years ago in Italy it was either emergency caesarean or full on natural birth, no gas, no epidural. Now some hospitals have the last two but water birth isn’t really in water as they pull/ed you out at the last minute to avoid water in the baby’s lungs.
So I say “Take all the pain relief you want, there are no medals for doing it without!”

I had my first with just a TENS machine for most of labour and then the water. (I didn't like the gas and air and didn't use it.) It was a great experience. Yes it hurt, but the water really helped and, I don't know, I just went somewhere inside my head and I could deal with it. I just kept breathing and let it come and my body did everything it needed to. I felt absolutely amazing afterwards.