Pain relief when in labour

[Nazz10]

Hi

34 weeks and have been worrying about what pain relief options I would want.

I have a horrible feeling that gas and air is going to make me feel sick. I almost have a phobia of vomiting/feeling nauseous (and yes, I was one of the lucky ones who has got to this point without vomiting once!!!!). I don't drink for this reason. I just hate the feeling... and I've heard that gas and air makes you feel like you've had a couple of glasses of wine

I'm also not sure about epidurals.. I want to feel like I'm in control and so don't think this would be suitable.

Has anyone used hypnobirthing before? Did it actually work?

I'm going to opt for a water birth if at all possible and providing everything goes ok.

Any ideas or feedback on methods used?

I'm not planning as such as I know that not everything goes to plan but I think it's good to have a general idea and just worrying that I'm just going to go round in circles.
So any personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I had gas and air and diamorphine (neither helped me) like u I was also reluctant to have an epidural but ended up requesting one. My hospital done ‘mobile epidurals’ I was still able to move about the bed and they intermittently catheterise and I was up walking to the toilet 10 mins after giving birth, I cannot rate it high enough I had absolutely no pain whatsoever when the epidural went in and IF I have another baby I would defo get an earlier one and save myself the trauma of the pain I was in (I’m a big wimp and don’t cope with pain well)
Not sure if these are done in all hospitals but worth asking about it x

My labour was more long than anything else. I was due on the Sunday 30th august 2015, I was booked in for a sweep originally on the Wednesday, but I started having contractions on the Tuesday so I decided to see if things would progress naturally. They didn't so I ended up having a sweep at 3pm on the Friday (40+5).
I got to the hospital at 9 that evening, was in the birth centre by 10.30, had my waters broken around 2am, then gave birth at 6.58am the Saturday morning (40+6).
It didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable at all and it did help move things along (the head wasn't fully engaged so things wouldn't have progressed on their own).
If I’m honest I was more physically exhausted after 4 days and nights of contractions. I think if I hadn’t been so tired I would have dealt with it better.
For pain relief I had my tens machine as long as possible, it really helped me. I started using it at home after my sweep, then took it off to go to hospital. I put it back on when I was settled in the birth centre. I also used the birth ball to try to get my waters to break which helped with pain. The birth pool was amazing, I loved being in there and would have stayed in longer and even given birth in there. But the midwife could see I was struggling and needed to rest before I had to deliver. So I had a pethadine injection so I could rest. It really helped.
I tried a bit of gas and air but it gave me a bad headache and made me feel sick so I didn’t want it. And I knew I didn’t want an epidural. I wanted as natural a birth as possible, minimal drugs.

Like others have said don’t have pethidine if you want to feel in control. I felt very detached but at the same time still in pain, and I was talking absolute nonsense like I was really out of it. I couldn’t engage with what was going on anymore, and totally lost the plot with pushing...
My favourite pain relief was the TENS machine in early labour and with my 2nd I had an epidural. That was amazing, I could still feel enough to push, felt very alert and knew what I was doing and calm because I wasn’t in agony.
It’s so hard to say though as everyone experiences pain and pain relief so differently! Gas and air didn’t do it for me but loads of my friends loved it.

I would say consider your options and look into it but don't become obsessed or worry over it. I personally hated gas and air I took one breath and felt like I lost all control over myself (that might be my in charge nature, blame in on oldest child syndrome) and in the end the birth went too quickly to worry about trying anything else. Birth plans can change with the wind

If men had to labour they would get early epidurals on demand. I recommend it as best pain-free option.

I had no pain relief as like you I didn't want to feel sick and dizzy (I spent my whole pregnancy throwing up so was a bit fed up of it 😆) or out of control and wanted to feel what my body was doing. I did however have a birthing pool and used some hypnobirthing ideas, lots of breathing, going with the pain and not talking about the pain etc. I moved around a lot too which really helped.

However I think if I hadn't had the pool it would have been a lot more painful so bare in mind that you may not always get one if its busy.

I will say that without any pain relief it is obviously painful but trying to go with the pain and realise it's not forever really helped.

Every birth is different, you may find you want different things at the time so be flexible, you never know what will happen.

Just a word of warning, I still threw up randomly during labour. I think lots of women do... but it was so sudden and I was rather busy giving birth so didn't even worry about it. Good luck!

I kind of did a very loose version of hypnobirthing. I didn’t attend any classes but read around it and practiced the breathing. I wanted a water birth both times but didn’t get one either time as I got to hospital too late, partly I think because I was able to stay home longer using the breathing techniques but also because my labours are relatively short. I did try gas and air for about 5 mins with my first but found it distracting. I found the really painful bit was very short lived and most of it was manageable, but I think each woman labours differently and even the same woman for different children. I guess what I’m saying is maybe have an idea of what you’d like as option A, but try not to be averse to other options if that either isn’t available or doesn’t suit you. Saying that, obviously you don’t have to be open to everything, but having a couple of options and not just one plan helped me to feel more relaxed about it.

I've had the lot

Paracetamol and a hot bath did the trick to start

Tens machine covered the next hours quite well

Gas and air was pretty good for quite a while

Diamorphine was amazing

Epidural was complete pain relief and I needed it when it came as by that time I was headed for an emergency section.

Two labours here.

Labour 1 - gas and air made me pass out between each contraction. I hated it. No pain relief at all and I hated feeling so out of it. Had an epidural but too late to kick in before DD1 was born. Liked it afterwards but I think it made me stay in bed for longer afterwards and I got really stiff.

Labour 2 - a much quicker labour. I said I didn’t want gas and air again but I took anything I could get. I was 8cm when I got to the hospital so too late for an epidural. The midwife gave me pethidine just to shut me up I think. Didn’t make a difference as I had it too late again. Had a wonderful pessary pain relief post birth though. It was a god send! I was up and walking about really quickly afterwards.

I wasn’t sick either times. I had anti-sickness injections.

I found gas and air ok but I was very sick - unsure if due to the gas and air or just due to labour. I did get anti sickness injections that worked brilliantly so if you do start to get sick I'd absolutely ask for that.

I had an epidural in the end and was very pleased with it. Would get one again no hesitation.

I found gas and air made zero difference to the pain so I wouldn't use it again. I was induced though so felt like the pain went from 0-10 really quickly. Ended up getting an epidural about 7 hours in which was a godsend as I could get a bit of sleep. As others have said, with an epidural you are still alert and aware of what is going on which I liked compared with other pain relief methods they offered.

It was also self administered with a button after initially inserted so I could control it and have more or less depending on how I was progressing. This made me feel in total control. I would just go in with an open mind and don't rule out any options until you are there. Good luck!