pain relief and labour

[Riley's Mommy]

im getting a little nervous. i want advice from you lovely ladies.

my pain threshold is awful lately. and im scared about labour, if ill be able to take the pain.

ill have gas and air. dnt want pethadine, as it made my mom ill and i dnt want to take that chance.

im very dubious about epidurals. i dont want to not be able to feel anything. or be out of control.

so help lol.
i really dont know if ill be able to cope on just gas and air.

 

[Nic'n'Keeley]

i did the first 24 hours with nothin belive me if i can do it anyone can i'm a wimp
then i had gas and air then a epidural...which was so good
but the only things i found bad with the epidural is i always felt like i needed to poo

and as my legs were numb i got stretch-marks in some weird places

 

[foxymum]

yes you will be able to cope hun, i have had 3 babies with just gas & air, it can be done.
but if not don't hesitate to ask for MORE DRUGS PLZ MIDWIFE !!!!

 

[Emmerdale]

I thought my pain threshold was low but I managed to go through labour with no pain relief at all

Just see how you feel at the time and don't be afraid to ask for anything, that's what the midwives are there for, to help you through labour

 

[Urchin]

When you are in labour you will see things differently, I don't mean this in a bad way at all...but your pain threshold and adrenylin etc will take over. If you need to, you will know if you want to ask for an epidural, or for something else.

Find out if your hospital offers meptid, I had it too late to be of any benifit to me but it helps lots of people in your situation.
I found the tens machine a great help too.

Don't worry about it too much, your body will take over and you will know what to do.

 

[Dee1985]

i love the epidural it was great i look back at Diors labour when i had a epidural it was great i was incontrol and felt so happy and i coped with Harley i was a total wreak i couldnt cope i was out of control and resented Harley when he eas born for putting me through such a bad time

 

[Lyndsey]

I used TENS to start with and then Gas and Air. I did try an epidural but it didn't work but to be honest I found the Gas and air worked just fine!!

 

[jennywren]

I just keep thinking

''well I had by belly button peirced twice and I didn't think it hurt, and so far 3 tattoos which I also did not think hurt remotley so my pain threshold musn't be that low so I think i'll be ok''

it's getting me through to the end with out paniking anyway

 

[Redshoes]

I think there's a lot of great advice there, thanks Mummies

Before I got pregnant I was terrified of labour, I believed I'd never have children because of that fear, but since getting pregnant I've found I'm more relaxed about the whole idea. Sounds daft but it's just like an exam, it will be difficult and you'd rather not go through it but afterwards it will all have been worthwhile

I just believe whether it is little or a lot painful, it will be how it will be, and you can help yourself better that by feeling positive, by knowing no matter what happens you will do your best, and you will be proud of that

 

[josiegirl]

Redshoes, I feel the same way. I literally almost didn't want to have a baby because I was so afraid of labor. But now it really feels like a very small part of pregnancy. There's nothing I can do but get through it, so no point scaring myself. I'm trying to take the idea one stride at a time. The only thing I am still concerned about is that I really don't want to have to have a c section!

 

[Sarah&Braydon]

I am the biggest wimp ever
if i get a paper cut its the end of the world but i went thro labour with no pain relief well i had a tens but hey lol
the only time i had pain relief was for the stitches and that was gas n air

 

[Princess_Puddles]

I am the biggest wimp ever
if i get a paper cut its the end of the world but i went thro labour with no pain relief well i had a tens but hey lol

I done mine on just TENS too and managed it, you will be fine hun!

 

[Rosebay]

I was sooo terrified of the pain of labour but coped with gas and air and TENS in the end even though I'd written "please give me an epidural" all over my birth plan! I kept waiting to feel like I couldn't bear it but it never came to that as I was off my face on gas and air . Seriously that stuff is great! That said if you do need extra relief don't beat yourself up about it, it's not a test of how much you can endure & there is no "right" way to do it. It's also not like other pain because you know it will end and that there's something cool at the end of it, not just no more pain, and you won't be pregnant any more (a big bonus to most women at that point who feel like they really have had enough!).

If it was that bad we'd all be only children and the population would have died out long ago- it's all worth it!

+++

 

[nathanmum]

i am a whimp i hate pain and i managed with the gas and air. i would recommend waiting till you really cant take anymore then start using it, so you really feel the benefit.

 

[Riley's Mommy]

thank you for all the advice ladies.

my original plan was to start with gas and air, and only have an epidural if it did get too much.

so ill stick with that i think.

rosebay - you made me laugh. the bit about epidural all over your notes lol

 

[josiegirl]

I feel a bit silly asking, but what do you guys mean by ten?

 

[Minxy]

Just keep a completely open mind!

I agree with Urchin, your body takes over and you'll know what you need. I had all these plans to breath and use gas and air but had epidural (to relax a swollen cervix) G+A and pethidine. Twice.

I was dead set against the pethadine but it was all I could have on the ward as they wouldn't send me down to delivery. So many factors influence what/when you can have drugs there really is no point planning as such.

The epidural was nice but I wouldn't have needed it for pain relief I don't think and it contributed to the reasons I needed episiotomy and ventouse - ouch, so I'd try and avoid it next time. I LOVED the pethadine, it was fab

 

The contractions (all 20 hours of them and coming every minute) were so basd that the midwife asked if I wanted pethadine so I had it and it did absolutely nothing then while I was pushing I had the gas & air which was great and I was asked if I wanted an epidural and I said yes and asked the midwife why she asked me and she said it was because she didn't think I needed one because I was doing so well without one but in the end had to have an emergency section so had the spinal block

 

[Rosebay]

josiegirl- TENS is a little machine you can rent from your MW or chemists which you tape to the bottom of your back on your spine. You have a little dial with which you can control electrical charges coming from it- there's a button which changes from a pulse to a constant charge when you have a contraction. If you put it on early labour it's supposed to increase your bodies natural pain relief or confuse them or something like that! For me when I put it on at mark 1 it just felt like tiny electric shocks but I liked the fact that I felt I was doing something when I had a contraction and everyone knew when I pushed the button I wanted everyone silent (no joke! Don't know why?!) Lol! As the labour went on the dial went up and up until eventually it was at max power constant burst for the last hour or two but by that point I didn't even notice it until I turned it off and realised that it had felt like someone massaging by back all the way through which was nice. I wasn't convinced before labour but actually it was great and worth the money to hire as it gave me something to do, a sense of control, was comforting and probably did help the pain quite a bit!

+++

 

[Jaidy]

Tens is fantastic, I got to 6cm with it and the midwife didnt even think I was in established labour because I was coping so well with the pain...then it hit me

I had an epidural, and to be honest if you dont want to feel out of control in the sense you want to be able to do as you please, then dont have one as you wont be able to move at all and will be stuck on the bed!

However, they are fantastic for pain relief (if they work, mine had to be resited) but when the time comes you will know what you want and because you just dont know how labour is going to fare for you I really would keep an open mind.