Is it possible to deal with the pain of being induced and not use epidural?

[Spockrates]

they want induce me I am just waiting to hear back about the date but I heard induction is more painful than natural labour I don’t want an epidural it’s never been part of my birth plan has anyone ever been induced without an epidural?

Induction at 37 weeks 5 days using pessary and then having my waters broken. Used gas n air, but that's it. If they offer you the post Labour pessary for pain relief take it, great stuff took away all the discomfort from a big baby causing a 2nd degree tear.

I had an induction with just gas and air. Pessary at 3pm, drip started 9pm, up to full dose by midnight
Unfortunately I failed to get past 2cm so had emcs at 10.30 next morning (with a spinal block as I had turned down the epidural!)

What is the reason for them inducing you & more importantly are you happy with it?

For me, I was 11 days overdue by their dates (& actually 19 days over by mine!) and my leaking waters showed full of meconium so I knew I had limited time to get baby out

I had an epidural with my induction. I didn’t want an epidural as I wanted to be able to move around. However my induction was straight to hormone drip so I wasn’t allowed to move around anyways.

Induction for what?

I was induced and the pain was absolutely unbearable I was literally crying and screaming in pain during the 10 minute wait for the person to come administer it. and I am not a wimp by any means, I consider myself to have a very high pain tolerance. Absolutely don't regret my decision. However I really hope if I have another I don't have to be induced as it is forced Labour I didn't realise until after how unnatural it feels to be forcing baby to come early when they aren't ready

I was coming on to say exactly this. Open mindedness is key.

You may be lucky, sail through labour and just breathe your baby out, or you might have more difficulty. There's every shade in-between too. You simply can't know beforehand how it will go and how you and/or the baby will react.

Don't set out with too rigid an idea of what you want. The best laid plans of mice and men can go astray, and childbirth is often unpredictable.

I do hope that the rest of your pregnancy goes smoothly, and the birth too of course.

Because pain thresholds are individual and even the pain of each childbirth varies by birth, not by woman? So the pain you felt isn’t the pain others feel.

That’s why I don’t judge anyone who goes with or without pain relief of any form or strength.

I was induced and didn't have an epidural.

However, it depends on what type of epidural.

I had the pessary and it worked enough that they could break my waters. From then on it was a 'normal' delivery.

The midwife told me if the pessary hadn't worked / worked enough, the next step is the 'evil drip' (actually what she called it - luckily after I'd had ds!) - and an epidural would have been recommended then.

It is possible to be induced and not need an epidural. If you want to avoid one, have a discussion about other pain relief options on offer and make your wishes known that you like to try one or more of them before being offered an epidural. I agree you can’t plan because you won’t know the pain until you’re in the thick of it. It varies by woman and varies even for each birth with the same woman. As in, you can have a very long and painful birth followed by a relatively painless and short birth or vice versa. I know I did. My sunny side up/back labour baby was magnitudes more painful and the labour 3x longer than my facing the right way baby.

I think it totally depends! How ready is your body to labour? Is it your first? The method of induction.

Induction does tend to be more painful as the contractions can come more frequently and strongly and you are missing your bodies own oxytocin which has pain killing properties that synthetic oxy doesn't.

I would just be open minded about what pain relief you will accept, but remember a lot can be achieved with gas & air, hypnobirthing techniques etc. And even with an epidural you could use a peanut ball / side lying so you don't have to birth on your back x

I was induced at 38 weeks in both of my pregnancies, both times with the pessary first and then onto the drip, both were managed with paracetamol and gas and air. Was it painful -yes but not unbearable. I was able to move around during labour and give birth in a position I felt comfortable in.

First induction I did it without an epidural. Second time around I needed one.

I had gas+air throughout with both, and a shot of diamorphine at 5cm with DC1. I wasn't keen on having an epidural, but was open to having one if needed. My preference was to ideally work my way through other analgesia options first.

Both inductions were at 37 weeks for pre-eclampsia with zero contractions until the drip. The main difference? (Other than their sex) Baby's position. DC2 was back to back, while DC1 wasn't. And boy what a big difference it made. DC1's total time on the drip until birth was ~11.5 hours. DC2's total time on the drip was ~14 hours. And that only got me to 5cm. I had the epidural at the 11 hour mark. After that we threw the towel in due to DC2 getting distressed and I had a C-section.

Never say never to having an epidural. Sometimes these things are really simply out of our hands. Especially if there's any malposition. I have zero regrets about getting an epidural, and if I have a third, I would go about labour the same way I've done with my two.

I agree with a previous poster about not getting too hung up on a birth plan. Research all options and see what happens.

My two births were completely different experiences.

I was induced with my second and managed with only gas and air. Wasn't any more painful than my first but was EXTREMELY quick....from first contraction to arrival was 40 minutes.

Good luck.

Yes induced early sun am. Gave birth tue eve. Only had gas and air

I had two long unpleasant births with no pain relief, and third one induced with an epidural. I have a very high pain threshold but realised that going through that level of pain and exhaustion had no benefit to anyone, including my baby. Unless there’s a bigger reason, I would encourage you to go for an epidural. Nobody gives you a medal for going without. You can feel your contractions (well I could) and the birth went smoothly. My son is super healthy and bright, I felt no negatives from the experience whereas the ‘natural’ way was just very very hard going and left me a bit shell shocked I think.

4 inductions here, but just pessaries as labour started without needing the drip. No epidural. Gas and air each time, which had zero effect on pain but I kept trying anyway, and pethidine once, though because labour was so fast he was born before it had time to take effect!

I’d keep an open mind about the epidural and see how you feel once the induction starts.

I had an induction without an epidural, but honestly, that’s only because the labour was relatively quick. If things hadn’t progressed as quickly as they did I’ve have had one.

I was.
Luckily for me, my waters had already broken. 48hrs previously, so once the drip was started, it was fast - 3 hours from the onset of regular contractions to hello baby 🤯
Unluckily for me, gas and air made me violently sick, and once I got to the point where I felt like I needed some form of pain relief, it was too late for the pharmaceutical kind and too late for an epidural. So I had to grizz it out. Having experienced an induced labour followed by two spontaneous labours, I will say that induced labour was a billion times more intense than my spontaneous labours. With my spontaneous labours, the contractions came in waves with an obvious lull inbetween. Induced labour was just like one giant, never ending contraction with no lull inbetween.

I wasn't induced but was on the pitocin drip on maximum dose for a long time which is sort of last stage of induction if other things aren't working. I can't have epidurals and I found it pretty unbearable. I definitely wouldn't go through that again.

The drip was much more painful than natural labour. It made contractions worse and no gap between them. If you only need first stages of induction it may not be as painful.

I was induced with both my DC - drip as the pessary didn’t work but I wasn’t even close to needing an epidural. I had gas and air and really felt a huge need to walk around and give birth while crouching.

Try not to get too hung up on the negative stories you’ve heard - there are lots of us who’ve been induced who have positive stories as well.

I had the drip after my waters went and the baby not following.

I had constant contractions with it and they eventually realised that I didn’t need the drip at all anymore. When they turned it off the difference in pain was night and day.

With my next labour I will be avoiding induction unless it’s medically necessary and if I do then I will be having the epidural. My pride stopped me from having anything stronger than gas and air but I won’t be so silly next time!

I was induced with no epidural. I was absolutely crystal clear that I didn’t want one and stuck to it. I’m absolutely phobic of needles and was willing to go through any amount of pain to avoid a needle in my back!

I was induced, gave birth to a 10.2oz baby girl, no epidural. Don’t rule anything out OP but also don’t go in with too many expectations. In my experience it rarely turns out how you thought anyway.
As for not going out in the rain without an umbrella, the answer is many times it’s too windy for an umbrella anyway, so why bother. :)

Yes. But why would you want to if it is available.