Pain relief during labour

[Faerie87]

Hello

I am a FTM my little girl is just over a month old now, apart from being tired and drained I absolutely adore her!

What I wanted to ask is what was your experiences of labour? Primarily about pain relief? I’ve seen on a couple of other threads on this forum and others that a lot of FTM have ended up going through it with little to no pain relief due to not being believed that they were that far gone?

My experience was, at 38 weeks I was induced due to having high blood pressure and baby measuring small. Shortly after the second gel my waters broke and about an hour after that I was having contractions every other minute! I had to go on an ECG as baby was not moving much and her heart rate was quite flat, that was quite uncomfortable as I could not move around while I was having contractions, also the ECG was not picking up the contractions :-( anyways I kept quite quiet due to still being on the maternity ward, there were women there who were not in labour and I did not want to disturb them! So after about 7 hours of contractions about a minute apart and only having paracetamol I called the midwife over and asked if I could go up to delivery, I was told there was no room up there but I would be the next one up! I waited another half hour and then I walked over to the midwife station and had to ask again to go up! I think they believed me then!

After going up I was given gas and air! Think I was too far gone by this point to feel the effects of it! But it was a nice distraction during the contractions (also nearly punched my partner when he asked me to do a Darth Vader impression!) anyway at this point I was told I was fully dilated and obviously there was no time for any more pain relief! I was absolutely terrified! As I was a FTM I did not know what to expect.

During the birth however I was told my little ones heart rate dropped and it was now or never, that pulled me out of my panic and I just powered through the pain as I was extremely worried and did not want anything bad to happen to her!

Thankfully she was born happy and healthy albeit quite small, but it has stayed with me about the pain relief during the birth and reading other people’s experiences I wanted to see how common it was?

I am in no way complaining, the hospital and the team who looked after me were great and I think it was partly my fault for trying to labour as quietly as possible that the staff did not believe I was as far gone as I was :-)

Once I was in the birthing suite/on the labour ward I had whatever pain relief I wanted as quickly as they could provide it. I waited two hours on the maternity ward though before there was a midwife available for me. Couldn't have gas and air because I was unsupervised and there was only one midwife covering the whole ward so she made it sound like very hard work for her to get me pethidine because she'd have to call someone over from the labour ward to countersign, and she kept just saying 'the midwife will be here in 10 minutes anyway so just wait because you'll probably be fine on gas and air'. So in my circumstances, it wasn't due to not believing I was that far gone, but due to staffing levels, and I do think it contributed to my labour stalling.

If you were managing not to scream the ward down you were doing better than me though 🙈

What pain relief were you hoping for?

Not a FTM but I was induced and my contractions were every 1 and a half minutes and lasting 2 minutes each time, and I was checked and only 3cm - I said he’s going to come soon and she said no you’ve got a way to go yet. She wouldn’t even give me gas and air and said I wouldn’t appreciate it when I needed it.
DP went to tell her I’m growling (I growl when I’m about to give birth, totally involuntary!) and DP was told to keep timing my contractions with an app and he did, anyway I screamed he’s coming and he was on his way out! She was so shocked, bless her heart. They rushed me in a wheelchair to the delivery room and my son arrived 10 minutes after.

I didn’t want pain relief but gas and air would have been nice, and being believed would have been even better!

Although I don’t make much sound in labour because I zone out so she probably thought I was fine.

I was not fine

I think at the point of getting to the delivery suite I asked for an epidural! I had been at it for quite a long time with contractions coming every minute and was knackered!

The midwife checked me over and said well the heads in the birthing canal so no time for that and I’m gonna need to start pushing! (Deer in headlights time)

I’m quite chuffed with myself for doing it with little pain relief but I think if I ever do it again! I will be asking for everything! Lol x

I've had three all with no pain relief but I have quick labour's, I don't think I could go through an induction or long labour with no pain relief!

Well done girls! I had a long labour and had everything! 😂 i did have to wait 1 hour for the epidural because the staff were changing from day to nightshift and it was the longest hour ever! I dont know how yous coped!

I was induced as baby was 2 weeks overdue, one round of gels and 4 hours later I started contracting regularly. Midwives kept offering me pain relief and "something to help you sleep as you probably won't go into active labor until morning" but I had a feeling things would kick off so I declined. Sister in law (who was midwife on shift that night) came and said hello, I told her I thought I was in active labor and the baby would come soon, as the contractions were about 3 minutes apart. Sister in law didn't believe me as I looked calm and was able to hold a conversation with her. She said "First time mums usually take ages in labor, especially if induced".
Anyway, not long after that my waters broke and then it was on for young and old, contractions came on very strong and long and close together.
I was taken to delivery suite and labored from 9pm to 4am... Using gas the whole time, bouncing on an exercise ball, walking around, sitting in the shower, and telling my husband to massage and push on my lower back.
At 4am I felt like I needed to push, and I also felt exhausted so I got on the bed and laid sideways with legs up on the bar.
Head Midwife checked me and said "Don't push yet, you're only 5cm".
Head midwife left and I couldn't help but push, my whole body just took over and pushed of its own accord. Head midwife came back and saw that the baby was actually crowning (I went from 5cm to fully dilated in less than 30 minutes), and I used the gas while delivering.
Of course, once the baby was out there was a bit of tearing, and I was given local anaesthetic while they stitched me up, and was on a regime of paracetemol, ibuprofen and tramadol for pain relief over the next few weeks.
Next time hopefully they'll believe me when I say I'm in labor lol.