Pain relief for DC2

[Naetha]

I'm due to give birth to DC2 in 3 weeks time, and I'm vaguely sketching out my birth plan.

With DS, I went in with an open mind, had G&A, then decided to go for an epidural - by the time they'd found the anaesthetist and got me all wired up I'd started pushing, so I wasn't allowed it. Then, my midwife decided that I wasn't "concentrating" with G&A, so took it off me for the 2 hours of pushing that produced what turned out to be a back to back DS.

I want to have some degree of control over my pain relief, but I really don't want an epidural if I can help it. Are pethidine and G&A the only options?

What have peoples' experiences of pethidine been? Would you recommend it?

Try a TENS machine. I found it brilliant with DD.

If you want control over your pain relief be adament about it.
Do NOT let them take it off you if you want to keep hold of it. OR try accepting what they say for let's say about 1/2 hr and then if you can't cope demand they give it you back! lol

i wouldn't recommend it, but i think if used well it can be ok.

i had a big dose too early, it wore off and i thought i was dying. i was in transition.
going from no pain and thus falling asleep, to waking up in absolute excrutiating agony was horrendous, and led to me requesting an epidural, which led to me being laid on my back, which led to my ventouse delivery and 2nd degree tear.

classic cascade of intervention in my case.

that said, i do know someone who requested a half dose which took the pain away but didn't send her to sleep or leave her totally out of it and helped her manage her labour better.

for my second baby i had a homebirth, and managed to deliver him with no pain relief whatsoever!!! turns out it;s easier if it's just not available lol.
seriously though, he was back to back as well and it was hard, but for me definitely the environment i was in, my mindset and a lot of positive thinking techniques are what helped me most with pain management

Ooh I've just found out my hospital now offers Meptid - this sounds much better than pethidine. Again, anyone tried it?

meptid is pethidine i believe.

actually, i think i might be lying, but they're very similar

I think meptid is another opiate but from memory has only a 2 hour life vs 4 hours for pethidine. So in a way it's more like the half dose mentioned by thisisyesterday.

That would allow you to have the pain relief later on in labour - they don't like giving you pethidine within a few hours of anticipated delivery because of the effect on the baby.

Personal experience was that I had pethidine with DS1 and it was lovely, had much quicker more painful labour with DS2 so went straight for the epidural but wished I'd just gone for pethidine again tbh to allow me more freedom of movement. But I had also had pethidine in a previous knee operation and loved it then too!

I had half a dose of pethadine (as mw thought I was going to be another day or two)on ds back to back I had it about 30mins to an hour before giving birth my son had no ill effects I didn't feel drowsy and it took the pain away from pushing but not the sensation so I was able to push him out easily considering he was back to back. However if I had had more than half a dose I doubt I would have liked it as half was just enough.

slushy, how did you find breastfeeding? did the pethidine leave baby drowsy or was he ok?

I had meptid with my first - I hated it. It didn't help with the pain, it just made me feel out of control. I was actually banging my head against the wall! It turned out I shouldn't have had it because it was an ultrafast first labour and I was already in transition (they didn't do a great deal of checking I have to say, he was almost born in the toilets).

Baby was very drowsy and didn't latch on for days, he had to be fed sips of milk from a medicine cup for the first few days.

My subsequent two were without any pain relief and I much, much preferred that. Plus, your second child onwards is less scary because you have a better idea what you are doing. Anyway, I'm hoping my fourth will also be pain relief free, but I would never say never.

I would second a TENS machine, which aren't too expensive to hire/buy.

Have you considered hypnosis at all? It's not too late!
Have you considered a waterbirth?

Love my TENS machine - used it alone to get to 9cm before even starting gas and air this time around (in combo with natal hypnotherapy and waterbirth for final part) ...such a different experience to the first two births I had where needed epidurals.

Warm water works better for me than g&a. I can still remember the relief at getting into the birth pool. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh.

Waterbirth would probably be good for you. Also you can insist gas and air is not taken away from - that is unacceptable.

i was over dosed on pethidine and it ruined my first 3 days off motherhood, i cant remember the birth of ds and his first 2 days, it was horrendous, am now TTC dc#2 and will be electing c-section or epidural.
Good luck

My ds latched on fine and slept no more than dd who was gas and air only so I can honestly say it did not effect him at all.

However I couldn't say for certain that he was okay because of small dose probably but I may have just been lucky.

I would also recommend a TENS machine, the trick is to put it on early, and have the pads in the right place. I was totally skeptical about them beforehand!! Cheapest place I found was the New Road clinic and it was enough for me for 15 hours. Then had meptid as I'd been almost two days without sleep and was stalling at 2-3cm. I dozed but was still with it enough to press the boost button on the Tens! Came to 1.5 hrs later feeling much perkier and things kicked off nicely! Moved onto G&A when the battery on the TENS went (They found me a spare a while later) but then kept going with both. DD2 born 7 hours after I woke up, and I kept the G&A. I think the promise of food was a good incentive too because I was getting hungry for proper food (and a pint!) while I was pushing