Please help me with the pain relief for my 3rd labour

[QueenFee]

The first 2 were very long (32 hours of 1 min long 1 min apart contractions and I get exhausted beacause they won't give me pain relief till I hit 4 cm (which is ridiculous because I go from 4 - 10 quite quickly and the contractions before that are equally as bad no slow build up for me)this incidentally seems to be hereditary.

The last twice I have had gas and air and pethidine which worked but left me terribly exhausted. My DH is having flashbacks to previous births and is really scared for me.

Do you think a epidural will help?
Do you think I can convince them that I am one of the few women whose contractions are back to frontish? IYKWIM
Any other suggestions?

'Do you think I can convince them that I am one of the few women whose contractions are back to frontish?'

Is this a recognised condition then? Coz I was the same. My flashbacks were all about the pain at 2cm. 8cm didn't even hurt that much!

Have you thought about a homebirth or a pool?

i just had epidural for 3rd labour and am glad i did.

Actually pmsl at my suggestion:

'Have you thought about a homebirth or a pool'

I think I was VERY rude to anyone that suggested that when I was anxiously anticipating no.2 BUT, the pool was fantastic and you can get in it when you like, especially if at home!

I loved the epidural [sile], i had no pain relief with dd1, thought i was going to die, she was back to back and after 8 hours of pushing she finally came out .

I opted for a epidural with dd2 and had a lovely birth, 30 minutes after the epidural i pushed twice and that was it, the only down side was i had a bad tare and bruissing which sudenly hit me when the epidural wore off.

Before i had the epidural i was in the pool which was great but after being in there for 2 hours i was begging to get fed up and it seemed to slow down my contractions.

Well I have read on other websites that a small number of women experience this. I have a horrible feeling my midwife will just say thats just how you remember it because thats when you got pain relief but I know thats not the case.
I had bad tears with my previous 2 (they tend to fly out v quickly and I lost a lot of blood so I don't feel comfortable having a homebirth as hosp is 30 mins away. They have no pool at this hosp. Just baths.

excuse my ignorance - do you not feel anything at all then when you have epidural. I assumed it would only mask the pain?

you do feel everytihng with epidural, just not the pain.

i just had a ventouse delivery with epi and also had a forceps one under epi as well.

The main reason i had one was because i found being stitched up last time so painful, i thought the epi would still be working for the stitches and it was.

The epidural nubed me from the waist down but i had a small patch (on my bum cheek) where i could feel the contractions which felt odd.

I was hoping the pool would slow down my contractions as with no.1 I didn't have time to think and was completely out of control with the intensity!

Just to say epidural isn't always the magic answer..
I had epidural with ds 1 -induced, 27 hrs ventouse and the epidural was fab.

However with ds 2 it only worked down one side and was still agony on the other.

Epidurals can slow labour so they like you to be in established labour before you have on as if it stalls then more intervention might be needed as you already have an intervention iyswim.

An epidural means (in my case when it worked) I can feel no pain at all yet my body still contracts. I loved the first one.

Just wondered if I had one as soon as I could it would give me bit of relief to 'rest' before going back to full pain. How long does it last for?

they are infinite as it is topped up. Some hospitals let it wear off just so you can push, others, like mine let me have it until the end which was good as I was cut but tore anyway with ds 1. Ds ended in theatre with me having a spinal block but that's a different story!

I ended up having a spinal for stiching in theatre with DD which was a bit annoying after going all the way through labour without it

sorry ds 1 I tore but ds 2 ended up in theatre having forceps under spinal

Queenfee I wanted that too, but was told it wouldn't be allowed because it slows down labour, particularly at the beginning. Once to arrive at the hospital you are on a countdown to intervention. That is, you are on a timer and then they do things to you, so they won't slow things if they can avoid it iyswim.