pain relief/management during childbirth?

pavlovs_dog

dont go knitting booties..im not preggers, and have no plans to be for a fair while yet!

what with all you babymachines out there, there's been a lot of pregnancy threads of late. ive learnt more from you guys than i ever learned in school (so much for sex ed :rolleyes:). i feel much more knowledgable and prepared now for when our time to get jiggy with it comes but something has been niggling away at me...

some of the stuff ive read has made me scared, not so much of the thought of giving birth (although i have my doubts sometimes :eek: ) but about epidurals. they sound absolutely horrid, ghastly, complication causing things :eek: :eek: :eek:

ive just been on wikipedia to find out a bit more about thme, and im still not particularly sold on the idea. i know they are elective, and i can choose not to have one. but what are the other options then to help me deal with whatever pain i am feeling? im a big wimp, and really dont like needles, dont like pain, and i think the only thing i hate the idea of more than an epidural is a caesarian :eek:

please share your knowledge and put my mind at ease

yours

pavlovs_scaredy cat

inkie

OK - Pethidine, with or without Phenergan (some units will use morphine instead of Pethidine), Entonnox (gas and air) can be used on it's own or with any other method - but caution if in pool, TENS Machine, Water (birthing pool), aromatherapy, reflexology, accupuncture.

Miss_Cinnabon

I had gas and air, never let go of the damn thing though:rotfl: nurse had to prise it away from me:rotfl: our hospital dont offer epidurals and i wouldnt want one anyway! :eek:

Last baby i had an injection for pain relief but cant for the life of me can remember what it was called! not that it helped as i was in agony! dont believe anyone when they say it doesnt hurt, cause it does!

You do forget the pain though, cause if u didnt no one would have kids again!:rotfl:

Hope im not scaring u too much:eek:

tranmererovers

Blimey - you are getting organised aren't you :rotfl:

It is really an individual thing and you have to do what feels right at the time. I have had friends who have gone in and demanded an epidural on arrival in the delivery suite and others who have breezed through with just a bit of gas and air (entonox).

With both my deliveries, I trusted the midwives and when they thought I wasn't coping with the current pain relief, I moved onto something stronger.

With DS1 I used a TENS machine at first and then tried the gas and air - didn't like this at all - could not get the hang of it and then had some of the 'hard stuff' - pethadine I think which made me cry :eek: .

With DS2 I just had gas and air and the midwife helped me get the hang of it so it was a lot more effective. I did want something stronger towards the end but I was too far dilated and told to start pushing :eek:

You have just got to pace yourself and use appropriate pain relief so that you don't knacker yourself out before you have to push baby out!

Please let us know when there is any news if we haven't put you off for life:D

little_miss_thrifty

Had an emergency c section with baby 1...why anyone would want to choose this way?!?!?!
Baby number two was a (painful) but fantastic natural birth using only gas and air...i was determined not to have pethadine especially as i had heard of a woman who had one, but instead of it killing the pain from the waist down, it knocked out all feeling completely on her left side, so she still felt the contractions anyway.

clairec79

OK basic run down (pluses and minuses of both)
Epidural - plus, can be a total block of pain, may reduce your blood pressure if it's high (I've put that as a plus but sometimes it works too well and your BP can dro too low). down - stops mobility to the same extent (some places do walking epidurals but it still isn't the same), you may not be able to push effectively so more likely to end up wit forceps or vontouse), sometimes doesn't fully take

Pethidine (or Meptid etc), injection into the leg - plus, can remove you from the situation, may relieve you enough to sleep. Down - crosses the placenta, if given within 4 hours of the birth it may make the baby slow to breathe - can affect their feeding for the first few days. If you don't like it it takes a few hours to wear off. You may find you can't walk about (it affects different women differently - I was almost unconscious, others seem fine and still stand, talk etc)

Entonox - breathe the gas in. Plus - if you don't like it you can stop and it's out of your system within a few breathes, takes the edge of the pains. Downs - It doesn't fully take it away. If it's plumbed in you can only walk as far as the tube stretches.

Water - either for labouring or for the birth as well. Plus - freedom to move about, takes a lot of pressure off your back. Takes some of the pain away but you can still feel any urges to push. Down - if you need continous monitoring most places don't have a monitor which can be used in water.

TENS machine (electrical impulsives in your back) - Plus, builds up your own endorphins, gives you something to concentrate on, can be used in early labour before many of the 'offical' pain relief can be used. Down - in the second stage you need to move the pads down your back or they stop working. If you leave it late (or have a very quick labour) it won't do anything

Though from experience what helped me was staying calm, breathe in slowly through your nose and out through your mouth - each contraction is one less before you have your baby in your arms. Women have been doing this for thousands of years, you can do this. I go into myself in labour and couldn't care less what others are doing around me (although I do remember a point with my third when the midwife and dh were talking about a film and not able to remember the name and I knew it and it bugged me that I couldn't tell them as it was too much effort to deal and a contraction and talk - I gasped it out between contractions then ignored them again)

Having someone you know and trust helps a lot - if you're in South Wales I'm available if you want to chat to someone and I know quite a few of the units if you want to know about the policies some of them have(I'm a student midwife)

pavlovs_dog

lol, thanks all. and no, you couldnt put me off. as scary as some of the stuff i have read is (afterpains :eek: pooing furing labour :eek: :eek: ), its nothing compared to the maternal instinct i feel. luckily, its in check at the mo, and im not feeling broody (toddler nephew going through the terrible twos is a great contraceptive :rotfl: )

what is a tens machine? does gas and air numb the pain, or just make you so high that you dont care ? can/will they put you on a drip, so that they dont have to keep poking you with needles if you need further pain relief?

Miss_Cinnabon

That was it! pethadine! remember now, i was not in control when i had this, hated it, wouldnt have it again, hubby said i was all over the bed and didnt know where i was:rotfl: that was def my worst pain relief:eek:

mandi

Just take the lot Pav..

Pethidine, entinox, tens machine, paracetamol, gin, .. The helium from your " good Luck " balloons.. A spliff or 2 ( Just joking)...:rotfl: :rotfl:

pavlovs_dog

mandi wrote:

Just take the lot Pav..

Pethidine, entinox, tens machine, paracetamol, gin, .. The helium from your " good Luck " balloons.. A spliff or 2 ( Just joking)...:rotfl: :rotfl:

:rotfl: :rotfl:

i think i know who to call when i need a birthing partner

angeluk69_2

with DS I had gas and air and started singing the Bee Gee's hit 'Staying Alive' (I was only 18 and this was only 5 yrs ago, I think it was cos they kept listening to the heart beat and so I started singing!!!)

Had the injection thingy at the end to help with the placenta and that flipping hurt more than the birth!!! So watch out for that one, then had to have stitches which I wasn't warned about and they really hurt, well, I nearly dropped DS cos of the shock.


With DD two years ago, I just breathed her out with a little bit of g &a but I did get a bit woozy with it and started hitting myself in the face with the mouthpiece and when I left the hospital the next day I had a big black bruise on my left cheek cos i had done it so hard. Thank god I didn't have any stitches 2nd time around.