How unusual is it to give birth with no pain relief?

[*Star*]

I see a lot of people commenting on birth stories of people who give birth just on gas and air saying wow well done you etc. Which I agree, fantastic!

But, I don't see many birth stories saying that they gave birth with no pain relief at all. I was wondering how common it is actually?

All three of mine I had with no pain relief at all, not even water. And my 2nd labour/birth was induced.

A few of the midwifes I spoke to say it's getting more and more unusual for mothers to give birth with no pain relief at all.

I've done a poll cause I'm genuinly interested. I've made it so that you can vote more than once if you had more than one type of pain relief.

 

[beanie]

With Seren I had the works, g&a, pethadine and an epidural. With Cally I had nothing apart from a warm bath. It wasn't intentional, I had wanted g&a but the valve was faulty and I had a chest infection previously so couldn't take deep enough breathes. Despite it hurting like hell, I much prefered it as the recovery time was so much quicker, plus I felt more in control.

 

[Lou]

I voted epidural/spinal and gas and air

I had gas and air but once I got to 3cm dilated it was just toooo painful so I had an epidural and eventually a full spinal block as I had to have an assisted delivery

I think everybody has a diferent pain threshold and I definately knew when I had hit mine

 

[Squiglet]

I had relaxin to help me dilate. But relaxin isn't a pain relief its used to ripen/dilate the cervix quicker which it did do. Apparently I was so tense I was preventing dilation which is why it took me so long to start dilating. Sadly they popped me on a bed and strapped me to a monitor and refused to let me move at that point and it was really painful... I couldn't walk around, bounce on a ball, have a back massage... THen they decided my contractions weren't long enough (strong enough but not long enough) so they gave me a drip to make them worse and I couldn't do anything but just lie there and cry really ....I demanded an epidural at that point but there was an emergency. I was prepped for the epi, they have to do obs on the baby and me for 20 minutes to make sure they haven't hit nerves etc, or you bp doesn't go loopy, so she went away, got caught up in this emergency and by the time she came back I was already pushing... it was too late.

G&A doesn't exist in our local hospital, no birthing pools, no tens machines. Think of labour wards 50 years ago in the UK. The only thing you can have is an epi. If I had given birth in the old Vega Baja hospital there wasn't even that option available. Most women here give birth without any pain relief, because there just isn't any.

So I had 8 hours of constant contractions every 2/3 minutes...which for the last hour or so was made horrifically worse, so they were just constant... Never felt any urge to push because of the drip, just unending pain...and did it all on nothing. I don't think there are any congratulations involved I wanted drugs, demanded them... I just wasn't allowed them. And it made the whole experience very traumatic.

Funnily enough though the first time I did it with an epi from the moment I walked into the hospital...afterwards said I'd never do it again...this time, I felt all the pain and worse, yet immediately said I'd do it again.

So through circumstance think I was one of the few people who gave birth lying on her back with not a single method of pain relief medical or alternative...but I will be investigating alternative methods for the next baby.

 

[LisaJ1986]

I had 2 contractions with gas and air but i couldn't stand it so they took it away. I also had a shot of pethidine but it was too late and never had chance to kick in at all.
My MW's wrote down i had no pain relief, as technically i didn't.

 

[hennaly]

just gas and air for me but i have had a couple of epidurals with a couple of my other labours.

 

[Sherlock]

I tried a TENS machine also and hated it so took it off very quickly. I used G&A for a short time and also laboured a few hours in water.

Next time if all goes well and I have another homebirth I'll probably only use a birthpool. Never ever felt the need for anything stronger that this really during labour with Galen and have a high pain threshold and coped well with contractions so am happy to do this.

 

[charlie84]

Gas and Air and Pethidine for me.
Although the pethidine did buggar all for the pain

 

[Krystal]

I had Gas&Air, thats all I ever wanted.

I didn't want pethadine as I didn't like the idea of it passing over to the baby, at one point I asked for an Epidural but it all happened quickly alongside some problems with Jack's heartrate so I didn't get chance. I'm pleased I never had one though, I had never wanted one all along so it worked out for the best.

I had wanted a water birth and the room was free, unfortunately that was the moment I got scared and asked for the epidural so got moved to another room. That's my one regret as I would have liked to experience water.

Gas & Air for me was fantastic. I don't think it was the fact it took away the pain cos it didn't really but it helped me concentrate on my breathing and I just went into myself

 

[daftscotslass]

Gas & Air for me was fantastic. I don't think it was the fact it took away the pain cos it didn't really but it helped me concentrate on my breathing and I just went into myself

What she said. It definitely didn't take away the pain but made it seem like an echo so that by the time I realised I was in agony the pain was gone

I was induced and after a few hours of contractions being constant and as strong as they could be, I demanded an epidural. They talked me out of it repeatedly and I feel they really pushed for me to try the diamorphine but I didn't. They couldn't site the epidural so I got the lovely side effect of a spinal headache and none of the pain relief. I woudn't ask for one again and if I was given the choice of that or a GA should I ever need a section I'd take the GA. I actually quite enjoyed the pushing stage with no pain relief at all, masochstic as it may sound

Having read a lot of birth stories about inductions I'm surprised that so many people who have been induced were told an epidural was a must - I found that they really, really pushed the diamorphine because it was less hassle than having to find an anaesthetist

I would love to have a waterbirth or at least labour in water next time too. Oh, and gas and air all the way too. I would buy that stuff

 

[widowwadman]

Cocodamol was pretty pointless
Gas & Air didn't take away any pain but made me feel really sick
Meptid was fantastic
Had to have an epidural anyway, because of the caesarean, which was ok, too.

Actually didn't want any pain relief and had my partner and my midwife shouting at me to finally let them help.

 

[nori]

Gas and air to start, then pethedine after the induction. I was determined not to have an epidural but had a spinal in the end cos of the c section. was so annoyed as i know i could have done it without anymore pain meds.. its all about the breathing!!

Claire x

 

[charlotte_]

i was induced, i went nearly five hours with nothing, then i only had gas & air and pethadine when my contractions started to overlap.
i had to have an emergency c-section though and my spinal failed, i ended up having a general anaestetic.

 

[maybebaby]

With ds1 I planned to have water and gas & air. When I actually gave birth though I didn't have time to get the pool up so no water, and I had 2 puffs of gas & air and hated it so I ended up with nothing. This time round I didn't bother even trying anything.

I have pretty quick labours though (2h 36 mins with ds1 and 1h 39 with ds2), I can completely see why people would need pain relief with longer labours. I also think that being at home both times helped as I felt relaxed and in control the whole time.

 

[Hazel]

I had gas and air when I got to the pushing stage. I refused it when I first got there but when mw told me I was almost fully dilated I thought might as well have it as I'd got that far without it so can't get any worse. It was sort of forced upon me but gave me something else to concentrate on.

 

[lea m]

Gas & Air for me was fantastic. I don't think it was the fact it took away the pain cos it didn't really but it helped me concentrate on my breathing and I just went into myself

Same here! G&A isnt pain relief, just gives you something to concentrate on and makes it more bearable! I wish I had paid more attention to it with my first 3! To know now I can do it with just G&A makes the fact I had horrid pethedine/diamorphine with my other 3 more annoying!
I love gas & air! Makes me feel drunk for the 5 seconds it lasts for heehee

 

[sarah113]

i used just gas and air with 4 of them but with my 2nd i used nothing

 

[debecca]

Water!!!! WATER is the way forward!!!

I tried gas and air but I'd been using it 10 minutes when we realised the nozzle wasn't attached to anything (!) so we gave up on that.

 

[lisa282]

I had G&A and pethidine with my first, although tbh the pethidine did absolutely nothing for the pain and just made me really sick I agree the G&A doesnt do much for the pain, it just gives you something to concentrate on and helps control your breathing With my second baby I spent most of my labour at home with no pain relief, just had about 10 minutes on the G&A when first arrived at the birth unit then cast it aside when I entered the birth pool, and just used the water for the final stretch It was by far the most effective and calming pain relief I used

 

[uncle_bens]

I dont think G&A is really pain relief well it didnt relieve any of my pain, just gave me something to concentrate on like the girls have said. I had TENS then got into pool, I could use G&A for pushing stage tho, it was too weird.