Anyone else NOT doing gas&air?

[amitymama]

I tried gas and air with my first and didn't like it at all so ended up having pethidine. I'm having a home birth this time so plan to do it without any pain relief at all. I want to tell the midwife not to even bother bringing the gas and air as there's no need to drag the canisters in when I know I won't use it. Most people think I'm mad for not having it but it's just not my thing. Anyone else doing their birth completely drug free?

I'm thinking I will do my next one with no drugs. I have fast labours and very strong contractions from the beginning and they come on really strong so the Gas and Air doesn't really have the chance to work on me. I will just concentrate on my breathing as that is all the gas and air did for me anyway.

Good luck. Home briths are great

We don't have gas and air in Belgium, so it took the choice away from me, and because of that, I think I was quite well prepared not to have any pain killing drugs. I relied on dh's back massage and the birthing pool as pain relief. The water didn't help that much, but dh's massage did!

I'm doing it all again in a few weeks time, and I am rather nervous of the pain, even having done it twice before (or perhaps because I have done it twice before!).

Good for you and good luck in your choice.
I did my second birth with only a TENS for pain relief and had a wonderful birth. The Gas and Air made me feel sick on my first birth (and I had an epidural too) so wanted to do the second with as little 'drugs' as poss.
Hope it all goes well for you.

If you've got time, why not look into hypnobirthing. Teaches deep relaxation and can help with the pain. I'm planning to use it this time round as I can use it to make my SPD pain 'go away' while I'm relaxed.

I'm still going to get G&A delivered for my homebirth though even though it made me sick last time, just in case. I've been told I wasn't taking deep enough breaths of it last time and that is why it didn't work for me

I had nothing for my 2nd, it was fine. I react badly to G&A and any anaesthetic, so i chose not to.

I am the same as Pinky, fast strong labours, last time I did have the gas and air mouth piece in my mouth, but when I took a breath of it, I couldn't make enough suction to actually get the G&A out of it, so all it did was regulate my breathing and make me concentrate on it. For that reason I'd use it again, but it didn't actually give me any pain relief.

I only used TENS with DS, though I want to try the G&A this time to see what the fuss is about . If you know you don't like G&A tell your mw. Can she organise a prescription for pethidine in case you need it?

It's not on offer in France either, and nor is pethidine, so I have had three babies with no pain relief, including an induction.

Fortunately I had 3 relatively easy, fast labours!

I didn't have anything, not even gas and air, for DS3 (well, I had a very good doula, she was better than artificial pain relief!).

I had DS2 with gas and air only but I was not convinced that it helped me much and it just made me feel so so dehydrated.

With ds1 I had hospital birth with pethedine and G&A. Didn't like either of them.I had ds2 (hos) and dd (HB) with no pain relief either and hoping the same for this one, anpther HB fingers crossed, due in 2wks!

Just easier to concentrate on my breathing without anything interfering.

Good luck with it all

No time for hypnobirthing I'm afraid, I'm due in five days! I have worked on some visualisations and breathing though, so I'm hoping to cope well without any pain relief. I thought about asking for pethidine 'just in case' but I'm convinced that it was the pethidine that caused the long pushing stage and eventual ventouse delivery with DD so I'd rather steer clear. It's only one day, right? That's what I keep telling myself anyway. LOL

I'm another who is not planning to use it this time.

Hallucinated wildly on it last time (used it for about 90 mins, during a loooong posterior transition, losing consciousness every time I took some and disorientated every time I came round from a contraction. Horrific. Like I imagine a bad LSD trip to be, not ever having had an LSD trip).

Visualisation and just letting your body do its thing, that's what I'm aiming at!

Doesn't work for everyone anyway. Found breathing worked better.

If needed will you be stitched at home? G&A can be helpful then.

was told by alot of people that gas and air is like being drunk so as i gave up drink years ago i decided against it.

had both babies completely and utterly pain relief free.

with dd i had blood in my waters, the mw had to manually stretch my cervix to get her out when her heart practically stopped as the cord was around her shoulder, had an 18 hour labour (not including days of twinges), she came out with her hand over her face and had a few stitches

ds was posterior and even came out back to front, had his hand over his face and was also 18 hours of labour.

didn't feel i needed anything with either although i'd kept open minded about the possibilty and i am generally not great with pain.

people think i'm mad but tbh i'm proud of myself for not subjecting my baby to any drugs via my system or added intervention because i was too out of it to push.

do learn some meditation and breathing techniques though, it can get quite intense during transition.

I had G&A with DS & I think I overdid it - I was pushing for 2.5 hours with very little result & I think it was because I'd had too much gas - I felt very weird.

With DD I didn't want G&A again & I had an incredible midwife who got me through it without anything at all (except possibly hypnotism) - I just tore a little bit at the end, which the midwife said was due to the fact that DD was actually born sucking her thumb!

I felt much better afterwards & I remember much more about the whole thing - I can't really remember DS's first feed , but with DD it's all much clearer.

My first was painrelief free till the last hour when I collapsed (in the interval of Saturday Night Fever) and an ambulance was called, but I wouldn't breathe it because "you don't give entonox to a pregnant woman" kept going through my head from my own ambulance training. It was only when I got to hospital and Mum told me off for not breathing (???) and made me take it properly I got any benefit. I wouldn't say being drunk, it's like your brain and your head separate, pain is still there but you don't care!

Second time they wouldn't let me have any pain relief, food or drink in case I had to have a GA (I did).

Didn't think it was that bad either time, the entonox was mainly so I didn't have to think about anything.

One way to avoid the long pushing stage and interventions due to exhaustion is to listen to your body rather than the MW. If you don't have an EPI, wait until you want to push rather than pushing because the MW says you are complete and at 10.

I had the EPI, wanted to push to told the MW who didn't bother to check me and told me I was wrong. I kept ringing the bell and insisting especially as his HR kept dropping until they checked and LO has made it most of the way on his own with just the contractions and no work from me.

Just a few pushes and he was out.

I only pushed once, and that was after the head was already out, to get the shoulders out as couldn't be bothered to wait for next contraction so gave LO a 'nudge'. I was upright in a pool!

Me, I did it drug free last time. I had a few drags on the G&A with DD1 and hated it, made me feel reaslly sick. I had a homebirth with DD2 and whilst the G&A was there it never even got connected and switched on!

Big birth ball and Michel Odent/Shiela Kitzinger* was all I needed!

(*they weren't there, but I had read thier books and was so charged and confident I didn't need anything else)

I was sick loads with G&A so I requested never to have it again and had two home births following, both times with pethidine, both times it worked really well and I delivered with no complications.Didn't fancy a water birth. Did try TENS but it wasn't enough, really. A lot of midwives don't like administering this at home, though, but luckily I had a midwife who was happy to give it.

I tried G&A with dd1 took one breath felt like i was going to throw up and couldnt touch it again. I ended up having pethadine because the midwife told me i "had" to have something i was young and followed there lead. I found it was the pethadine that made me feel out of it and because of this i specifically said i would not have it again. So i ended up having ds1 and ds2 with no pain relief at all and to be honest id rather work with the pain and know what my body is doing then be out of it in anyway during labour. Being in labour still makes me nervous though and ill be going through it again in dec!

I went drug free for both of mine - the thought of the side effects for each of the pain reliefs on offer was enough to put me off e.g. I loathe feeling sick and so I didn't go for gas and air - I decided that how i was was far better than feeling sick. Before I knew it, DD was born and I'd managed without. 2nd birth was a home birth - me, my gym ball and day time TV and no pain at all infact. We found an unused canister rolling around under our sofa a couple of weeks later

I had four at home with no pain releif. No G&A. The animal noises and dancing around helped immeasurably and when the going got tough I squeezed dh. Very hard.

When I was having my first miscarriage, in hospital, I tried G&A but hated it, then they practically forced me to do pethidine, which I felt didn't take away the pain, it just made me too out of it to complain or to recover properly between contractions. (It was quite a late m/c with full contractions etc.)

I think this bad experience was what convinced me to go for home births with no drugs. They were fine. In fact I LOVED feeling all the feelings and felt in control and empowered. A great start to any mother/child relationship.

I remember the M/Ws bringing in gas and air but it stayed in another room and never came out.