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Original poster

Pain relief options in labour

72 replies

New2020 · 17/09/2020 22:21

I've been educating myself on the various pain relief options and curious to know what other mums/ mums to be opted for..

What are your pain relief preferences and what was your thinking?

I'm not sure but I was thinking starting with gas and air but concerned that too much will make me feel sick and out of it which I really would hate. If it gets really bad then an epidural though I am concerned that contractions can slow and may result in assisted birth :(...

I ruled out opiate injections as it crosses the placenta to baby

What did you plan for?

OP posts:
casio85 · 17/09/2020 22:25

I had diamorphine for both my labours and I thought it waa really good.

UserFriendly14 · 17/09/2020 22:27

I was fine on G&A and didn’t feel sick at all. Yes a little out of it, but a few normal breaths and your head cleared. I still knew what was going on in the room and how I was delivering.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 17/09/2020 22:29

Following with interest- did just gas and air with my first and this time I want stronger! But like you I don’t want to slow things down

devonmum8 · 17/09/2020 22:32

I planned (vaguely in my head) for the complete opposite of what I ended up with! I wanted only gas and air and TENS machine, in the pool. In the end, I was induced on the drip, contractions went from 0-100 in the space of a minute and I happily accepted pethidine and an epidural. I pushed my baby out in 15 mins, no intervention and could self administer the dose so I felt more than I expected.

I'm happy now with how it went, but felt some guilt at first, largely due to the hypnobirthing course I did prior to labour which really painted drug-free birth as the pinnacle of womanhood! My experience wasn't floaty and fairy-lit and you make the best of what you get, so I'm at peace with it now. The best advice I can give for birth is to think of the things on your plan as "nice-to-haves" and nothing more; you never know how you'll cope or what will happen to disrupt things.

Good luck!! Smile

kkr168 · 17/09/2020 22:38

I tried gas & air but didn't like it, it made me physically sick.
Went the rest of the way on nothing until the midwife checked me 15 hours in & said I was very unlikely to have the baby until the following day, so I had pethadine. He arrived 2 hours later, I wish I'd held out having it because I was so out of it after he was born, those 1st moments are still a blur.

MojoJojo71 · 17/09/2020 22:45

I had an epidural with my first but in retrospect I feel I had it more because I was frightened really. When I had my second I used some hypnobirthing techniques, TENS and gas and air. Like you I was never keen on opiates because of the potential effects on the baby.

stayathomer · 17/09/2020 22:48

I had an epidural for first but the next three were quick and they advised that epidural slow it all down so just gas (not the mask), and it was amazing as I could breathe and bite down too

reallylovely · 17/09/2020 22:49

I had an epidural with my 1st and regretted it, I couldn't move or even wash myself after giving birth and everything is a blur!!
DC2 I bought a tens machine to use at home, I was 7cm dilated when I got to the hospital and DC was born 2 hours later. I had a little gas and air but it made me feel sick.
Good luck

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 17/09/2020 22:50

Does pethidine make you nauseous?

WeEE · 17/09/2020 22:55

I planned for gas and air with my first, but for me it didn't even touch the sides. I ended up having an epidural and it was the best thing in the world.

DramaAlpaca · 17/09/2020 23:01

With DS1 I planned for nothing... but ended up having an epidural, which led to intervention in the form of a forceps delivery.

With DS2 and DS3 I just used gas & air. I loved it. It would almost be worth having another baby just to experience gas & air again Grin

nokia3210567 · 17/09/2020 23:12

I had gas and air for most of mine and loved it tbh.
After a long labour had diamorphine but it was so horrible. Didn't take any pain away just made me fall asleep in between contractions. Ended up with an emergency c section anyway!

emptyplinth · 17/09/2020 23:17

Honestly? Drop the ideas of options and preferences and ruling things out.
If you have an easy labour you'll be fine with gas and air.
If it's difficult, protracted and complicated, you'll need stronger pain relief.
You won't know until it's happening and you might end up needing opiates.

Dyra · 17/09/2020 23:21

I escalated pain relief as and when I needed it even though I was on the drip. I was fortunate though and didn't start contacting immediately, so I had a fairly gradual build up to the proper drip induced strength contractions.

I started off on paracetamol, codeine and heat packs for my back. That was ok for a few hours, after which I went on the gas and air. Eventually gas and air wasn't enough either, and I had a choice. Opiates, or go straight for epidural. Like you, I was not keen on having an epidural. I was having an early induction, FTM, and had high BMI. Adding an epidural to the mix just felt like I would be asking for an assisted birth, and I had zero desire to see my colleagues in theatre. So I had the opiates. It was definitely the right decision for me in the end. While I was fairly loopy, (and don't have many memories of labour as a result) I was sound asleep between contractions. So when it came time to push, I was surprisingly well rested. By a sheer stroke of luck, it was also timed to perfection. 5 hours after administration, it was wearing off just as I hit 10cm. Pushing was textbook, and baby came out perfectly content with an APGAR of 9, improving to 10 after a minute. There's absolutely nothing I would change about the decisions I made in labour. Don't discount opiates.

SockQueen · 18/09/2020 00:12

You don't have to decide beforehand. You can try different things and see how it goes. They only limitation to this is that if you choose a MLU, you won't have access to an epidural without transferring into hospital.

I looooved gas and air, worked well for me first time and I was doing fine with it second time but I had to do on the oxytocin drip so I got an epidural at that point.

Oneandabean · 18/09/2020 10:14

I was induced with my first, started on gas and air, really didn’t want to do anything else but midwife decided for me that I was going to have pethidine. It made me feel really horrible I didn’t really know what was going on, after a few hours she decided I was to have another shot of pethidine and that totally knocked me out. I remember lying with my eyes closed hearing someone screaming and took me a while to realise I was the one screaming. It’s like your mind being trapped in your body with no control over it. I refuse to have it again this time.

Kayjay2018 · 18/09/2020 10:19

@New2020 I have 2 DC, the first is 16 years old and I decided against opiates and left the options open on everything else. I went from birthing ball to paracetamol to gas and air (I felt sick so didn't do this for long) and then an epidural. With my DS (4 months old) I had the same view. I lasted at home on the birthing ball for ages with no pain relief and by the time I got to hospital there was only 45 mins to her birth so has and air was the only thing available. I personally found that was good in that it gave me something to focus on but for me didn't do much for reducing pain. I was keen to avoid an epidural this time only because I gave birth at the height of the lockdown and wanted to be home ASAP. As it happens we had to stay in for 2 nights anyway!

Cherryrainbow · 18/09/2020 10:24

After how my first Labour went, my birth plan for this baby is basically do what you (hospital) have to do but I did say I would like the option of having an epidural which means I'll need to be on the ward not the midwife led unit

mrsed1987 · 18/09/2020 10:29

I didn't have anything. First baby, was 8cm when I went to the hospital, just managed at Home, water birth, they got the gas and air out but I didn't need it!

HumbleCrumble · 18/09/2020 10:39

I'm a bit worried about this - I'm not at all anti-drug but opiates make me really drowsy and sick so I want to avoid them for that reason, and reading this makes me wonder if gas and air might have the same effect (general anaesthetic has also made me sick before, I am just a pukey person Envy).

Not sure that leaves me with many options other than epidural! I'm going to ask my midwife about it at my next appointment.

Original poster
New2020 · 18/09/2020 10:44

This is great guys thank you..I'll go through and come back with questions I'm sure!

@HumbleCrumble I've read that it can make you feel sick and out of it if used for a long time but the effects are short term so if you stop taking it its out of your system fairly quickly

My friend recently experienced this and just stopped and had an epidural

I have the same concern..I really HATE feeling sick and the out of control drunk feeling..so my birth plan says gas and air but I want to stop if I feel sick and move on to an epidural.

I don't want opiates for the same reason I don't want to feel sick which is common with them apparently and it crosses the placenta

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Original poster
New2020 · 18/09/2020 10:45

@mrsed1987 it would be amazing if thas the case for me but who knows! Everyone has a different pain tolerance threshold and all bodies are different

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Original poster
New2020 · 18/09/2020 10:46

@Kayjay2018 thanks I think that will be my approach too! Try it and then move on if it's not what I want or working

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fellrunner85 · 18/09/2020 10:48

Just stop the planning. It's utterly pointless. What you plan for now bears no resemblance at all to how you may feel 24+ hours into a very difficult labour.

FWIW, first time I planned a drug-free hypnobirth in the water pool. Ended up with diamorphine and eventually an epidural over the course of a very long and complex labour.

Second time I planned for an epidural the minute they'd let me. Instead, I had the drug-free waterbirth I'd planned first time...

Original poster
New2020 · 18/09/2020 10:49

@Oneandabean that sounds horrible!!! I would hate that I don't even like feeling drunk. Why did they decide for you? I think I'll put a no to opiates

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