what pain relief would you recommend for labour?
Posted By Admin on February 3, 2012
i have 11 weeks left and im not sure what pain relief will work or would be best for me. its my first child and im really scared. what would you suggest?
Chosen Answer:
by:
on: 1st January 70
I had an epidural and it was wonderful
Epidural. It’s what pretty much 95% of women in hospitals go with. All you feel is pressure, no pain for the waist down. You have a ton of time to discuss different options with your doctor though.
If you can, get an epidural, if not then try to avoid painkillers through iv drip because those affect the baby too.
For me gas and air was enough as pain relief and i don’t have a tolerant pain fresh hold, but because my birth plan didnt go to plan and with complications i was told to have a epidural, which give me no pain at all.
I would say see how you feel when your in labour thats the only time you can decide what you want if the pain is ok or if its to strong of a pain.
I had gas/air and 2 diamorphine injections.
My advice would be to not rule anything out completely as far as epidurals, etc, but only take it when you feel you absolutely need it.
people say oh yeah epidurals are great, although they take away most of the pain, you cant feel when you need to push there fore have no control of it, it also makes labour longer than if you hadnt had it.. im not against them by all means if you cant cope have it.. but see what else is there first..
i had gas & air only i was 16 when i had my first & looking back id still only have gas & air, as thats what i plan doing with this second baby too. it takes the edge off & can make some things seem funny, i told the midwife i wanted to beat the woman next door at having the baby lol.. but that also isnt for everyone.. best thing to do is start off with gas & air, & if the pain gets unbearable ask for something else
but dont jump str8 for the epidural it isnt always the best thing.
good luck x
I had an injection in my buttocks area when i had strong contractions, don’t know what its called though. but it knocked me out good enough until i had to deliver. Its only temporary,short lived but it worked, i would have tried anything BUT the epidural. Testimonials from everyone i know who’s had it says it gives back problems for the rest of your life. Besides i wouldn’t want a huge needle inserted in my back, having a tube placed up my urethra to pee and temporarily paralyzed because you cant walk.
I felt great after delivery, i could get up and walk(with some pain) of course.
my 1st pregnancy was a twin birth so had to have an epidural (hospital policy) although untill they did the epidural i was managing fine with just gas and air, i really wanted to avoid any other pain releif because i am extreamly needle phobic and when they put the drip in before the epidural i did manage to fait luckily avoied fitting (which is common for me) this time aslong as its a single pregnancy i plan on having just gas and air but i will see how it goes and if i need more then i need more see how you get on
Tough one to answer cos every labour is different and everybodies pain threshold is different. If you are really frightened perhaps the epidural is a good idea, however it’s not sucessful for everyone. Morphine with gas and air works for some, for me the epidural was a winner.
Forr my partner gas and air was enough for her as pain relief as wanted to have the chld naturaly as having a epidural is cheating and you wont know what child birth is really like.
dad of a 4month old little girl
I do not agree with answerer who said not to get an epidural because you don’t know when to push and it makes your labor slow down. That’s completely false. I waited until i couldn’t take the pain anymore to get my epi (had bad back labor) after 10 minutes i felt so relaxed, took a nap and woke up about an hour later feeling contractions so they gave me another surge of medicine, rolled over, slept for like 20 minutes…felt contractions again so they checked me and said, “how about we have a baby?!?” You don’t rely on your “feeling” of having to push, the nurse doesn’t, they go by your contractions. When you start having a contraction they tell you to push. I pushed for 25 minutes, through 3 contractions and she was here…They said i was text book pushing like i was a pro. I’m SOOOO glad i got the epidural. It made my latter labor and pushing a wonderful experience that was free of pain so i was able to concentrate on getting that baby out!!
if you can cope with gas and air just have that try to relax as mutch as possible if you are scared that will only heighten youre pain i have 3 children and didnt have any pain relief at all not even gas or air and i was labour for 11 hours with my first. i was a little scared but not not a lot if you worry or panic you are not doing yourself any favours only making the pain worse
I have had 3 children:
With my firstborn, I only had the Pethidine Injection – Which was fab! It allowed me to have a breather nearing the end of the labour, before the birth, just when I needed to preserve my energy and get a little shut eye. Such a relief!
With my second, I only had Gas & Air, because I thought I was being clever!!! Oh no, it was a nightmare. I felt dizzy and sick. Not good at all. During labour I like to try and keep active, but I absolutely could not due to the Gas & Air. And it didn’t help with the pain at all.
With my 3rd, I avoided Gas & Air AT ALL COST, and just had Morphine when the pain was unbearable – at that time I discovered the hospital no longer offered Pethidine, didn’t ask why, just told them to give me whatever injection they had,as you can understand. Which was a relief, although I felt very drugged up, and felt a bit too distanced from what was going on for my liking, but it sorted the pain for a while.
Got to mention, my husband in all 3 labours was a God send, he massaged my back on demand, with mustard/olive oil and it helped SO much. Best form of pain relief I would recmommend – Constant massage, definitely.