Pain relief in labour

[MissMissy93]

Hi everyone. I'm pregnant for the first time and have no idea what labour will truly feel like. I'm torn on what to do pain relief wise - my mum says she just gave birth naturally and it wasn't too bad, but I know people who have said they needed epidurals. Some have said gas and air made them sick, others say epidurals gave them long term back problems. I would like to think that no pain relief is a good idea, and I do have a fairly decent pain threshold, but wondered if anyone who has been in labour before can weigh in too so I can see lots of opinions before I make a decision. Thank you :)

My birth plan was that I had no plan. You can't really know what you'll need until you need it.

I have a ridiculously high pain threshold and I needed an epidural because I was induced with the drip. I ended up with a spinal and c-section but didn't need anything other than sporadic paracetamol after the section.

They gave me a shot of fentanyl whilst they prepped me for surgery because my epidural failed. It was the shit. Oh my god it was lovely - I had it again when I had my gall bladder out and I highly recommend it

Pain relief is there because it's needed. If you need it and want it, have it. There are no prizes for doing it all in agony!

I've just had my second baby 3 weeks ago and I have to say an epidural is amazing.

My first baby I just had gas and air, and ended up with forceps at the end. This time I had an epidural with my second and I really wished I had it the first time round as it would have changed my experience.

My second was quite a big baby he was 10.6 and they didn't know he was so big so I'm glad I opted for the epidural. It was just such a better experience second time round, I was fully aware of what was going on but there was no pain.

I feel that at the moment a lot of mums are under pressure to give birth with no pain relief but I think you will just have to decide in the moment.

My first birth was a pool birth but she didn't end up being born in the pool and then this time I just knew by the time I was 5cm I couldn't do it again on just gas and air.

I'd say just be quite open minded anything can happen and you don't know how your pain threshold will be as it's no pain that you'll ever have had before and each mum is different.

Honestly, you're not going to know what you need in terms of pain relief till you're in labour, so I wouldn't plan it too much. You don't get an award for not using pain relief, so don't feel guilty if that's what you end up doing. Every birth is different, every woman is different.

Up until I went to theatre for a c section I had 2 lots of pethidine, gas and air and I used the birthing pool which was amazing! I felt like I was coping really well and would have happily carried on had everything not gone a bit tits up.
After my c section as I hadn't had a spinal or epidural I had tap blocks while asleep & a morphine PCA for a while afterwards.
If on the day you feel you need the pain relief then take it, it's there to be used and modern medicine is a wonderful thing. It's hard to predict how you'll cope because for me it was so different to what I was expecting. I really struggled with 1-5cm but when I was given the gas and air and got in the pool I was coping really well! Good luck

Gas and air was amazing for me. Epidural didn't really work. Also tens machine for pre 4cm (when you can have gas and air) was also amazing relief for me.

Thanks everyone, I will go with the flow and see what I need on the day :)

Honestly just wait until you are there to decide what you want.
I’ve got a good pain threshold and didn’t have an epidural with either but that’s because I was 7cm when I went in with both.

I wish I had had an epidural as even though I was 7cm it dragged on and I was exhausted.
With DC1 no epidural , gas and air and diamorphine towards the end.... I ended up with a spinal in theatre. Should have had an epidural as I was just shattered (up for 30 hours by pushing time!)
With DC2 I was 7cm again when I went in, so offered an epidural....just gas and air but had complications after so ended with a spinal in theatre so might as well have had an epidural!!
It’s the exhaustion that got me....

I always say if you take parcetomal for a headache, lemsip when you feel flu like... why wouldn’t you have pain relief for the MOST painful experience of your life.

So not offered and epidural it should say

So I had a long 48 hour labour . It hurt but I was surprised by how manageable the pain was . It’s hard to explain but the pain felt easier to manage because I knew the more it hurt the closer I was to meeting my baby . And you do get breaks in between . Even 30 seconds was enough time for me to prepare for the next contraction . Sometimes I wonder if I had it easy and if it was a tougher labour I would have needed an epidural 🤷‍♀️

I tried gas&air but I found it didn’t do much and gave me the hiccups . I had pethadine early on and really liked it .

Good luck ! There is no right or wrong way to labour !!

My mum said the same about her birth with me but when I was in labour, basically said it was a doddle. But for me, wow, it was the worst time of my life (not including the baby coming, obviously that was lovely!). I went in thinking I'm prepped, water birth will be fine and I'll do it as naturally as possible. I was screaming for an epidural, later on it failed and that was the worst pain. Eventually it was fixed but then events unfolded and so it ended with a emergency c section.

As the previous poster has said, if you need it and want it, then have it. You'll have no idea what it will be like until you're in it. You can prep as much as you can (hypno birthing etc), you might have a high pain tolerance, you may have a low one but I honestly think it doesn't matter, it will be what it will be! The very best of luck, keep active, eat healthy and stay positive.

Concentrate on your breathing and keeping calm during contractions and keep an open mind. If you get the chance to labor in the water go for it.
Labor and giving birth is different for everyone no right or wrong way.
I was fortunate that i managed without pain relief but a friend who had a strict birthing plan in mind wasn’t able to have this due to unanticipated difficulties.

I also should mention that nobody cared how I laboured . I think a few friends who were expecting themselves asked about labour but that's it .

Only a select few people know I didn’t have an epidural so you really, REALLY don’t get a trophy or praise for a natural labour lol. Nobody cares !!!

I wanted all the drugs and wanted an epidural. I had 2 paracetamol and gas and air that made me throw up. It was all so quick there was no time for anything else. The worst pain for me was after giving birth I had a retained placenta and had an hour of people's hands rooting around to
Find it with only gas and air until I demanded a spinal. Good job I did as it took another hour to find it all and stitch me up.

I found pethidine really takes the edge off the contractions until the very ending when your ready to push and then gas and air to help breathing with the pushing very helpful.

I just had a bit of gas and air at the end and was in the birthing pool. It was a pretty quick labour, only about 3 hrs start to finish.

I would NOT recommend this. It was agony. I was in a midwife unit not attached to a hospital so nothing else was available drug wise. Had it been, I would have taken everything on offer.

Go with the flow but do your research first! For me, I didn't want pethidine in any circumstance. I had gas and air with both children - an epidural with one as it was a very, very long labour and I was tired (pain wasn't unbearable though. With the other I didn't need an epidural, water birth and gas and air were fine (I much, much preferred this).

I had diamorphine, then gas and air, then epidural when I was given induction drugs. A number of people recommended an epidural if you do end up with an induction drip. This happened in my case because my waters broke and they were worried labour wasn’t progressing fast enough, meaning there was a risk of infection. I was told that contractions are more intense more quickly with the drip and so had the epidural before it was administered. This also meant it could just be topped up when I had an emergency c section. I had a tens machine at the beginning and found it really helpful. All the way through even with the induction and c section I knew what was happening and that the baby was healthy and getting closer so it all felt doable! Wishing you all the best xx

My advice would be look into what pain relief you'd be comfortable taking but don't make any solid plans. I had in mind I'd have an epidural and ended having no pain relief! Things progressed fairly quickly and I didn't even get offered gas and air and didn't realise until after as was so caught up in it. As long as you know what options you're happy with just see how you go on the day. Good luck!

I went in with an open mind, but a hard no to pethidine. I did manage without in the end, but it was a quick labour, am pretty sure that had it been longer I may have gone down the epidural route. Although one thing that held me back from that was that I was settled and comfortable on MLU and didn't want to switch and go downstairs to the labour ward. I do remember thinking about it and then all of a sudden I started needing to push.

The thing about your mum giving birth like shelling peas isn't hereditary unfortunately. I like to think that if I'd been allowed to go into labour naturally I'd have been like my mum - 4 hours and barely needed gas and air - but unfortunately it wasn't to be. My sister had one vaginal birth and followed it with two sections. Apparently she needed all the drugs in her first labour and I felt my mum judged her for that. My sister is a teeny tiny wisp of a thing with literally no pain threshold at all, having been through it myself I don't blame her for requesting sections on babies 2&3!