Did you have a 'Painless Labour'?

[Pruners]

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Not always

Moxa can really help though, it's an almost beautiful feeling!

I'd got to 6cm by the time I realised it was definitely labour and not braxton hicks - fine on gas and air until fully dilated, delivery absolutely bl*y agony (2nd degree tear)

First labour I had to go beyond my endurance of pain and suffering to bring my boy into this world. I now realize why mothers never tell their daughters about labour. Second birth was quick and painless really.

OK I'll be highly annoying too.
First time - it HURT! Asked for pain meds, gas and air wasn't cutting it.
Second time - read about hynobirthing, at home, genuinely honestly pain-free. Which actually has its own disadvantages as I didn't think I was in labour and the midwives were literally walking through the door while I was crowning. I held back on pushing while my husband frantically ran around trying to find towels and plastic sheeting and doing an impression of Hugh Grant.

Mine bloody hurt! Much, much more than I was expecting. I was BEGGING for pain relief and had an epidural the moment I could. I think am a bit of a wuss though, but really couldn't manage. Like nothing I have ever experienced and really don't want to again.

agony, unbelievable.

Breathing through contractions was like being tortured. The pushing part was better, though after 2 hrs of this I couldn't get him out so I was given a spinal block before they used forceps. The spinal block was pure heaven.

I wouldn't say it was painless, but it was all bearable. It genuinely didn't occur to me to ask for pain relief.

I did have a bit of g&a though - they offered it to me to keep my mind off pushing when I was in the ambulance being transferred from the MLU to the main hospital.

The stitching was about a million times worse than labour.

like being tortured - I can honestly say it was the worst thing - in terms of physical pain - I have ever experienced. Absolutely unbearable.

First time, hurt like hell, hideous, awful, didn't know what to expect and was scared witless. Ended up with an epi and ventouse delivery and an hour of stiching...vile

Second time was completely different, I had read the hypnobirthing book but hadn't got to the exercises part (!) BUT I did have a completely different attitude. I was there to do a job and get home to ds1 as quick as possible. It still hurt but I used a tens throughout and didn't make a sound. dh said I literally disappeared within myself with each contraction. All I remember is concentrating on breathing and counting and visualising a small hole opening up. When they asked me to move so they could do an internal and start up some g&A I felt bub slip down and crown and my body took over. MWs went nuts as it took them completely by surprise and nothing was ready. I remember them literally ripping my knickers off...first time for everything

Absolutely no pain whatsoever just huge (and scary) surges that I pushed with and within a few minutes he was out. I can honestly say the haemarroids after the birth were FAR FAR more painful!

Can't remember first time round (6 years ago, you do forget). I had an epidural because I'd started to pass out and the MW said at one point (with wonderful epidural in) that the contractions were 'off the scale', so it must have been pretty painful without it. Second time round, no time for any pain relief, and I used a hypnobirthing CD that I'd put onto my mp3 player - it helped me right the way through to getting to hospital. A friend said I seemed very calm, and I was. Sadly the hospital wasn't the best place to be if staying calm was the point - lost notes, confusion about what stage I was at - so I started mooing a bit, BUT at the moment I said it had to stop because I couldn't bear it, the MW said 'the head's out', and it was pretty much all done!

my labour with dd (no 3) was painfree and short (about an hour from 6cm to delivery). it was great, did have gas and air though, just because i could!

ds1's labour was fairly painless too but abit longer (3-4 hours), ds2's labour was very painful but also very short (about 2 hours).

I think one of the worst things was feeling so frightened and out of control. When your body is just doing it's own thing, and it's all happened irrespective of what you think or want it's bloody scary.

poohbah, natal hypnotherapy is not HypnoBirthing, and they differ considerably in approach.
You'd have to google hypnobirthing to find the info (I can't manage links!)

i did. thanks to an epidural.

hahahaha.

first time round, i screamed my way through most of it

It wasn't painful with dd2 until I was fully dilated, which was odd, seeing as I was in agony with dd1 with dd2 all the contractions were mild backache, until my waters broke, then it got painful till I pushed her out.

It was so much worse than I ever expected. It HURT! A lot! 54 hours of hurt!

hypnobirthing link here - still think it's the best thing ever, even before the birth - I used to fall asleep to the CD every night for about 8 weeks prior to giving birth

All 4 of my labours were Ok, that is they were uncomfortable but not agony, I was forced by dh to use gas and air for the actual birth with dd1, but had no analgesia at all with the other 3, in fact I had friends visit when I was in labour with dd2 and they had no idea I was in labour, dd was born an hour later. I recall the bit that hurt was the stitches afterwards.

I gave birth just under 5 weeks ago, and the labour wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - however the contractions in the lead up to it were awful. I didn't think I was going to be able to continue and I wasn't able to have gas and air as I was only about 3 cm diliated at the time. Fortunately the final 7 cm went in about 2 hours and I could had gas and air for the actual pushing bit. My beautiful daughter Zoe arrived about an hour earlier and I completely forgot about the pain...

It hurt. It hurt standing, it hurt kneeling, it hurt sitting and squatting. And yes, it hurt lying on my back, but it was the one position I thought I might not fall over from. While I appreciate the support for women to labour in the position they feel comfortable in, sometimes I feel as if people on MN think I'm daft for delivering on my back! I had almost no gaps between contractions and 2 hours active pushing. Consultant and midwife were brilliant - it was the consultant who recommended no interventions. That said, I had no G&A for the birth itself as I just couldn't concentrate using it.

Habbibu I couldn't agree more. With ds1 the mws had me everywhich way, hanging of this, bouncing on that when after 12 hours all I wanted to do was lie down and concentrate. I felt bullied. That time ended up with an epi and a ventousse

Second time, I spent 5 minutes after they broke my waters hobbling about, then I got on the bed and got on with it and ignored all attempts to move me. Delivered on my own 3 hours later. bliss.

Sometimes I think mws should back off and let women labour as THEY feel comfortable not as the mw THINKS they should feel comfortable.

Hmmm, one overwhelming message from this thread. Grantly Dick Reed was right, there's a fear-tension-pain syndrome in the west that most of us just can't get past, people refuse to believe that birth doesn't have to be agonising. Thank God I've got my hypnobirthing techniques for my imminent delivery, I'm not scared at all, just very excited yet open minded about the whole thing.

Gilly, is this your first baby?