The pain of labour -- is it less painful if you don't panic / can you re-train your mind??

[electra]

I'm reading 'Childbirth Without Fear' which discusses the fear / tension / pain issue and the theory that the reason childbirth hurts so much is because if we're fearful or apprehensive the muscles that work in labour are not able to work together properly so that painful spasms result.

I am wondering what your experiences are? Is it all to do with the situation you are in and how you feel about it mentally? Could we make it less painful by relaxing and not being fearful of what our bodies are doing?

I know that of my two labours the second was very bearable until I went into transition and panicked. The first time, I could not believe that my body could actually do it!

With my 1st labour I felt more in control, breathed the gas and air in when the contraction started and never got really unbearable pain. Only lasted 3 hours so that might be why!
Second time round though the pain was excruciating! I was induced and the midwife accidently broke my waters when I was 1cm dilated, within minutes I was almost screaming because of the pain. I didnt feel like I was panicking (until i felt the pain!) 5 hours later I was rushed down to have a emergency caesarean, the baby was very distressed and even though I had been fully dilated for a while her head hadnt come down at all.
I think if you do panic then you have a harder time, but anyone whos had a baby will no how hard it is not to panic!

no of course but drugs take the edge off. And you get respite between contractions. It's an OK sort of pain because you want the result and as PB says it doesn't last forever

I agree Starlight and I don't think a lot of women do expect the labour to hurt. I'm not saying women should have to endure pain, of course not, have an epidural if you want one. But I think in so many things these days we don't expect pain, we don't expect inconvenience, we expect to be in control.

I expected labour to hurt, I chose not to have an epidural because I have had previous spinal injury and felt very scared of the possiblity of an epidural going wrong. I didn't particularly want pethidine, although I was prepared to have it if I felt I needed it in the event. So at 40 weeks pregnant I knew I was going to give birth, barring complication necessitating a C section, with nothing but gas and air to get me through. And I knew that wasn't actually going to stop the pain.

I remember asking my mother if it would hurt and her saying No dear! we're not much used to pain nowadays

I think there's no doubt that relaxation, staying calm, not panicking etc must help, but it does make me absolutely MAD when people who have had a straightforward birth imply that they coped with the pain without drugs etc because they were able to do this or because they have a high pain threshold or something. There is no doubt that some labours are more painful than others. I have friends who have had 3 or 4 children and they all say that the experiences can be v different and definitely one might have been much worse than another. A lot can depend on the position of the baby - an awkward position can mean much more pain, however calm you might be. Also when labour is very long and the pain is relentless it becomes increasingly difficult to cope.

Thankfully no more labour for me so I don't need to worry about this now - section in 3 weeks!!

well I think a lot of it IS about attitude and preparing yourself. I had a 7.5 pound baby in about 2.5 hours and the final stage was as rapid as it could be, I know it was extremely painful but I had listened to that self hypnosis tape so many times that I relaxed into the contractions so they didn't hurt as much.
How much something hurts does vary from person to person and also how well we variously deal with it.
I wanted to avoid interventions (other than induction which I couldn't avoid) so I was willing to deal with a lot of pain. It is do-able but women are given a constant mantra that the pain can be taken away.

It can be - but there are consequences to that too!

I fought against my labour - wanted to stop each contraction.
I don't, in retrospect, think that was a good idea, and if I can't have an epidural next month, I shall try to remember NOT to fight it, as I'm certain it made it worse.

Electra - in my opinion, yes it is less painful if you dont panic. If you educate yourself as to physiology of labour (as you are doing) then you know in advance what your body is doing - any pain/sensations you feel are "good" sensations rather than ones to be feared (a doula friend likened childbirth to having a really big poo - it may not be particularly smooth or quick and may cause some painful sensations but it's all part of your body doing what comes naturally - though the end result is of course much more pleasant ). I was induced with DS1 and evil midwife terrified me with the news that induction labour pains were about to get 10x worse - with DS2 I'd done my reading and preparation and had my mind in the right place (and birth companions with strict instructions to evict any non-supportive midwives; fortunately they didnt have to) and while it wasnt pain-free any pain I did have I managed entirely with breathing, vocalising, movement and ultimately a water birth (I got into the water during transition and it was wonderful - very grounding). Best of luck for your birth.

I agree minouminou, if you accept the pain, somehow it's just easier. I think a lot of women are scared of the last stage of the birth and they just don't want it to happen. but actually, I found that was the easiest, because it's shorter and the contractions hurt so much that you're kind of blase by the end, if that makes sense. If you're not scared and resisting every contraction, it all seems to go faster...

Also agree about not relying on drugs: although I had DD1 with nothing but gas and air and TENS, it went really well (it DID hurt a lot but somehow I got through it, and I'm usually a complete wimp).
DS2, however, got all tangled up in his cord and was in distress, so they gave me an epidural for possible emergency C-section (thankfully not needed in the end) and it only worked on my left side, leaving me with crippling pains on the right (and it was a back labour too)(ouch).
I would definitely say the drug-free labour was by far the most pleasant, even though it was my first baby.

I think the problem is seeing it as a sharp dichotomy: either relaxation makes no difference or if it does, then that proves that it's fear that causes pain.

I don't think life is that simple. My dd has a painful joint disorder. There is no doubt about it, you have only to look at her to see that her knee joints bend the wrong way, it's bound to hurt. It is not something she has inflicted on herself by having the wrong attitude. But what this does not mean is that it's not worth doing her relaxation exercises. To the contrary, it's precisely because there is a reason for her pain that she needs to learn to cope with it. And anything that helps her to focus away from that has got to be a good thing.

I think that goes for childbirth too.

Having said that, I have similar problems to ninah with relaxation techniques: I found being told to relax did very bad things to my blood pressure which it was supposed to be bringing down

'I think a lot of women are scared of the last stage of the birth and they just don't want it to happen'

Yes - that was me, without a doubt. I managed to get through most of it without feeling a huge amount of pain, but as soon as I got to the bit where I was going to have to let the baby out, I panicked and then it became unbearable.

In 'Childbirth Without Fear', the view expressed is that bodily functions don't usually hurt, so there is no reason why childbirth should, except that we have been conditioned to fear it, not only via word of mouth but also in the various legacies left in history, literature, religion etc. Apparently, we should only experience pain when something is wrong. The author doesn't claim that his theory has been scientifically verified, but cites his own experiences as evidence the theory works...

I don't know - think I will reserve judgement. But I am probably going to do a hypnobirthing course - I've left it very late now though as I'm 36 weeks now!

electra I think that's when I started listening to my hypnobirth cd. I listened to it every night as I fell asleep and it really worked for me.
Even a few days can help imo

But isn't human childbirth a bit of an evolutionary compromise? We give birth to offspring with very big heads, at an earlier gestation than the offspring of other animals are born, etc etc. I'm not convinced by that analogy, tbh. There is lots of evidence that signals from the brain can directly effect the transmission of pain signals to the brain, and that's why the theory works, but that works for any type of pain, and doesn't say anything about whether the pain is to be "expected" or not.

I find that attitude a bit patronising, tbh - you're only feeling pain because you're conditioned to. The author's experiences (or those of his clients) only tell you what I said earlier - that the brain can reduce the transmission of pain signals - it does nothing at all to prove his theory.

Am perfectly happy about the idea of hypnobirthing (apart from the nasty grammar), just don't like it dressed up in this unproven and probably unprovable theory, when there's perfectly good science to support it anyway.

I went on a hypnosis for childbirth course prior to having DS at home (second child had DD at home too) and I found it made a big difference, I felt very relaxed and in control and thus it wasn't particularly painful. I did the course because I noticed with DD that when I panicked the pain levels shot up.

Am reading with interest.

My first labour was short and very very intense and painful. I was at home and had fantastic support from DH and midwives, but I panicked. I spent the entire time wanting to run away from the pain and I am certain that the panic, fear and tension exacerbated my perception of the pain.

I am reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth to try and prepare mentally for the arrival of DC2 in a few weeks time. I need to find a way to relax and accept the pain (am under no illusions about how painful labour is this time round). Am finding it useful, and am also willing to try hypnobirthing.

During first labour, whilst I was panicking and telling everyone "I can't do this" one of the midwives said

"Your body is doing it, whether you think you can or not"

That was the best thing she could have said - and actually things got better once I gave in to it. I sort of felt proud of my body as if it were totally separate to me!

I think what Notsorampantrabbit says has a good point - often just one thing someone says to you makes it suddenly all make sense and you relax about it.

I wonder how many people who've done a lot of endurance type sport then find labour eaiser? That "must row to the end of the race even tho it friggin hurts" mentality helped me.

That and someone reminding me "you've got to let the baby get out, cos it wants to". One of those ah yes lightbulb moments!!

From wiki: Hypnotherapy in childbirth
Research

A post-review of patients who had used hypnotherapy for labor was published in 2004 in the British Journal of Anaesthesia 2004 (93(4):505-511) by A.M Cyna, G.L. McAuliffe and M.I. Andrew. The review suggested that there was evidence of the reduced need for pharmacological analgesia but a more substantial trial was required. Subsequently there is a major controlled trial currently underway in Adelaide, Australia which is seeking to conclusively prove that hypnosis can a make a significant difference to women in pregnancy and labor [1].
In 1993, a randomised control trial by M.W. Jenkins and M. H. Pritchard, 'Hypnosis: Practical applications and theoretical considerations in normal labour' [2] reported that hypnosis, combined with childbirth education,:
reduced the length of labour
reduced the incidence of pain medication use
produced higher apgar scores
reduced the incidence of postpartum depression
increased the incidence of spontaneous deliveries

I think that's really interesting, ipanema - but still reckon that hypnosis/relaxation/distraction techniques are useful for reducing the perception of all pain, and not just childbirth, and that childbirth pain isn't caused by fear, but the perception of it may well be reduced by hypnosis etc. Isn't that reasonable?

StarlightMcKenzie 7 other women (who all tended to be bigger than me, me being one of the runty bow pair) who would give me what for if I slacked off also was a motivator!!

It has all sorts of effects on your body, like slowing your heart rate down and that sort of thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if your body "learnt" to deal with pain somehow. But I am a long way from being a doctor . I gave birth in two different countries (if that's relevant!) and both sets of MWs commented that I seemed to have a high pain threshold. But I may be confusing cause and effect - i.e. I could row more because I didn't feel it so much as other people, rather than the rowing itself having an effect.

That's interesting SM, during my first labour I was in a lot of pain at 4cm dilated. I was very much focused on making the pain go away which must have been counter productive. I turned completely to the hospital staff in the hope that they would be able to stop any difficulty I was experiencing. The second time I did approach the whole thing differently but still think I have a load of room for improvement.

Even about 20 weeks into this pregnancy I was waking up in the night and panicking about how it would be when I went into labour. I don't want to dread it - I want it to be enjoyable if at all possible...

Ditto on hypnobirthing, also I recommend going to preg yoga classes with someone who gives you lots of positive info on how to handle birth. I was terrified of giving birth for two decades...by the time I reached 7 months' preg I was a powerhouse mamazon!!