posterior labour - best pain relief at home?

[MissChief]

HI - expecting our 2nd soon and anxious about posterior labour having had 1 last time and fairly likely again (due to current position of babe & tilting uterus). Last time had to do all stage 1 only with TENS for pain relief (mws didn't realise how dilated I was due to v irreg contractions)- rather agonising, v. long and don't want to repeat experience!
I'm planning to book a pool & to use this as soon as in established labour along with gas & air, and if poss to stay at home. A couple of quesitons:

1. have others found this bearable pain relief for posterior labour or wd epidural be better option?
2. have people found a 2nd posterior labour to be quicker than the first? TIA!

bump -scuse the poor joke..
any mws out there or anyone been thro this??

Hi there. I seem to have posterior labours - and also have a backwards tilting uterus - though I think it rights itself when you get more pregnant.

1st time was horrendous and long etc etc - 2nd & 3rd time gas and air was all I needed til transition. I found leaning forward really helped speed up the labour and made it more manageable so your birth pool should really help.

My 2nd was longer than first but 3rd shorter. Although 2nd was longer I found it far far far far far easier to cope - and even while doing it thought it was a breeze. (I like to say that then fall apart during transition! lol)

Thats all probably totally useless to you but good luck! FWIW I am planning no.4 at home so I will see how it goes this time.

p.s. Have you tried OFP? To get the baby to not be posterior - spend the last few weeks leaning forward, make sure your knees are below your hips when sitting down, try to lie on your left hand side, don't sit back in a sofa, try not to spend too much time sitting in bucket seats of cars..basically encourage the heavy part of the baby (the back) to roll into a forwards position. HTH.

I had back labour and DS4 even came out back to back. 2nd time round you're likely to find it easier. I had no pain relief simply because I don't like it, but was fine during stage one. Didn't have the famous back ache. Only bad part was coming out (stage 2). I wish I'd slowed down during pushing as I did some damage upon exit. To that end it might be worth trying to calm down second stage.
Good luck.

I had 3 posterior babes. 2nd and 3rd definitely easier. They have more room and you know how to move in labour to ease the back pain. Leaning forward definitely helped me too.

I was wondering about this. Never knew I could have a tilting uterus, but that makes sense given all 3 were in the same position. Looks like if I have a 4th it would be the same then.

Look up OFP on Google or such. There are loads of good resources. There's also a book of the same title available from NCT which I would recommend reading.

FWIW I managed 2nd and 3rd with only gas and air. Positioning really made a difference. Good luck

OFP= Optimal Foetal Positioning (sorry if you knew that already!)

thanks girls - I feel reassured by yr experiences!
Am trying to avoid sitting back - tho hadn't thought about knees being lower than hips - my armchair's gone then!

MissChief - have a look at this website for more info about OFP. Its quite a fun site and makes it easy to understand.

My dd was posterior. For the last 2 months of my pregnancy, I spent hours on all fours, leaning over a bean bag! Not very attractive with a bottom the size of mine, but seemed to do the trick eventually. (Very hard on the knees too!) I had 4 days of contractions which I managed with a tens machine on the final day only, and then gas and air once I was in the birthing pool. I suspect DD had managed to turn around by then and she was certainly the right way round when she came out.

I had an extreamly painful 1st labour as ds was posteria, it lasted 3 1/2 days and every secind was agonising (apart from when I go an epidural about 3 hours before ds was born). Ds then ended up in special care for over a week. So I was very scared when I had my second baby, but it was a breeze! Started at about 1.30am, got to the hospital at 7.00am and ds2 was born at 7.05! With NO pain relief!
I had been told I was having another posteria baby as well and was doing all the things you are, everyones different so try not to panic!!!

I haven't any advice about posterior labour pain relief - I just know it hurts !

But maybe you can try and ecourage the baby to turn by lots of time on all fours, and leaning forward generally, and limit the time sitting back in a sofa, or with your feet raised. Sitting in upright chairs helps, and also sitting on one of those birthing balls (I found that the most comfortable place to sit in advanced pregnancy.)

I had a posterior labour first time round and managed fine on gas and air right through the syntocinon, transition and second stage - they gave me a spinal block as preparation for a caesarian but i 'got away' with forceps and a third degree tear (can't believe i said 'got away with' there ) - so with respect to pain relief, it could be fine and if I'd had the strength to push her all the way out myself I wouldn't have had anything but gas and air throughout (she was face first by then and wasn't shifting).

Had anterior labour second time round so have no idea if a second posterior one is quicker, but I've heard it said they often are (pupuce?)

Does anyone feel they've been left with physical effects from having posterior labour,especially if any of you had waters broken,Pethidine and made to deliver on your back?

My third labour was posterior, although it wasn't detected until I delivered DD's head and it did a complete turn as it came out!

I'm not going to lie to you - it was agonising and I do remember screaming at one point that my back was breaking BUT I did it all at home, with NO pain relief whatsoever as the MW forgot the G&A mouthpiece!

I did spend it on my knees leaning over a birth ball which probably helped, but ended up delivering on my back as I completely lost the plot during transistion and was rolling around on the floor and I just kind of ended up on my back to deliver.

I was very lucky in that the entire labour only took 2hrs, I honestly don't think I'd have managed a home birth if it had taken any longer. Having said that, had I been able to have G&A it may have made it so much more bearable - who knows?

The important thing though is to see how it goes - if it gets too much then you can always transfer. I was coping really well whilst my MW was helping me breathe through the contractions and DH was rubbing my back. Then, they started having a conversation about something totally inane and stopped helping me and that's when all control I had went completely out of the window and I truely lost it with no chance of regaining any composure. I have told DH that I'll never forgive him for that!! If you can prepare whoever is with you and encourage them to keep you calm then that would help immensely imo.

I'm now pregnant again and praying that I won't have another posterior labour as I want another HB but what will be will be I guess.