Pain Relief In Labour....

[~*Leanne*~]

....i am such a wimp and have said all along i want EVERY pain relief that the hospital can give me

BUT.......

now its not far away (birth!!) I am getting a bit worried about the pain relief - i thought epidural would be best, doesnt it numb you so you can't feel the pain? GREAT!! BUT.. i have heard that you do things, such as have a poo and not know - OMG i would be distraught if that happened to me, especially with my mum and boyfriend in the labour room with me!!! so now im not sure i want an epidural!!

also, gas and air, i have heard that you talk loads of crap and i dont want to look like a pillock shouting random crap at my mum and boyfriend - also, does it take the pain away?

im so confused and dont know what to do!!!

ALSO....do you have to 'book' your pain relief? someone told me i do, but my midwife has not mentioned anything!

 

[SarahH]

hehe!!! Sorry hun, I should laugh, but your post made me giggle!

The poo thing can happen to matter what pain releif you have as it is just the pressure of you pushing, thankfully it didnt happen to me, but it did to my SIL and she said she didnt even know she did it the MW cleared it away to quick!

I didnt have an epi so cant advice on it. Gas and Air made me REALLY sick, the poor MW was at my top end more than my bottom end with the sickness. I had the pethidene.

To be honest tho, dont worry about the pain relief until you need to... just go with the flow as your body will take over.

 

[~*Leanne*~]

oh my word Sarah - i know it'll be me who has a poo i am DEFINATELY going to try and have a poo before i go to hospital i would be mortified!!!!

what's pethadine? how does that work??

 

[SarahH]

oh my word Sarah - i know it'll be me who has a poo i am DEFINATELY going to try and have a poo before i go to hospital i would be mortified!!!!

what's pethadine? how does that work??

Pethadine is like a shot of morphine. I had 2 in total. It worked for me, it let me have a snooze inbetween contractions too (Arianna didnt want to come out so my contractions to start with were slow)

The injection goes into your bum.

All dignity goes out the window when in labour

 

[daftscotslass]

Have a wee read of Dannii's thread, covers every form of pain relief under the sun!

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=87954

 

[Tillytots]

hun if you poooh you wont be mortified, you honestly wont even care, thats if you even know about it. I dont think I did when I had James, no-one said anything and I was too busy pushing for Englan to even notice

Epidurals are great. Gas & Air is good too if you can use it right, lots of people dont get the hang of it so it does nothing for them. I didnt sing or do anything weird on it

Wait and see how you feel at the time, you'll prob breeze through with nothing now you've said you want everything

 

[Sherlock]

Have a read of this recent thread here

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=87954

FWIW you won't care about pooing or your dignity when in labour. You really won't. And besides many women poo when pushing. Its one of those things. You won't feel it with or without an epi. And chances are if your MW is good you won't even know you've gone as she clear it away really quick.

I'd suggest considering using a birth pool.

Gas and air I found ok for a bit. I posted in the above thread about things so you can read there.

FWIW Pethidine crosses the placenta so you really need to have it early or else it will make your baby sleepy and slow to react when born and also possibly slow to feed etc. It needs to be carefully considered.

 

[Sherlock]

oh my word Sarah - i know it'll be me who has a poo i am DEFINATELY going to try and have a poo before i go to hospital i would be mortified!!!!

You really won't have any control over pooing or not in labour. Even if you have a good clear out (and often womens bodies do this in early labour anyways) you may still poo when pushing. Its one of the things than can happen in labour so don't worry about it.

Besides, your Mum went through it to have you and many men hve been at their partners births and all have handled the poo thing fine You just get on with it and don't worry

 

[Mrs_Jay]

i just had gas and air so cant advice on the rest. but i found it helped just to give me something to think about other than the pain iykwim. I didnt say anything stupid on it either as far as i remember

 

[Mildly]

Your antenatal classes should cover what pain relief is available at your specific hospital and also any procedures that will need to be followed for asking for pain relief.

 

[lea m]

Hun dont even think about it hahaha
Look at the different options so you know whats what but just go with the flow! See how you feel at the time!
Im determined not to have pethedine/diamorphine this time but heck if Im in pain and I cant do without it and they wont give me an epi then Im sure I will be giving myself the injections lmao
The pooing thing, I always worried about but hun if I did, I dont know about it!! ? So doesnt really matter anyways!
And it wasnt the G&A that made me say silly things (which are funny to look back on anyways hun) it was the diamorphine! lol

 

[charlie84]

I had Pethidine and Gas and Air.

The pethidine just made me sleepy did nothing for the pain- didnt like it wouldnt have it again

Gas and Air was great for me, didnt make me go funny and say anything funny. I dont think i said much during labour at all just grunted and moaned and then screamed when pushing

 

[LisaJ1986]

I had gas and air for 2 contractions, hated the feeling so they had it back.
They gave me pethidine but too late so it didn't have time to work.
I was in labour thinking was pooing, but i wasn't. I had been to the loo 2 hours before hospital and to be honest if it had happened i couldn't have avoided it anyway. I'm sure they'll have seen it all before.

 

[Steelgoddess]

I agree with the others, poohing will be the last thig on your mind when you just want that baby out!

With regards to an epi they can give it to yo ad then when you come close to pushing they can allow it to wear off so u feel whats happening...

Tbh why not just see how you feel first, rather then lining up what pain relief to have, yes its going to hurt but its not like a car accident, pain in birth is a very positive thing and lets u know things are going acording to plan

Good luck hun...

 

[SarahH]

FWIW Pethidine crosses the placenta so you really need to have it early or else it will make your baby sleepy and slow to react when born and also possibly slow to feed etc. It needs to be carefully considered.

I had two shots of it and you have never seen a more alert baby than Arianna. It didnt make her sleepy at all!

 

[lillou]

i started with gas and air and it didnt take away the pain but made me feel drunk, i then had an epidural and i didnt poo but that can happen with or without an epidural! i would say from my experience the epidural was great, but everyone is different so how it worked for me might not be the same for you IYKWIM

take it as it comes hun, once your there you might manage the pain better than you expect to

 

[jills10uk]

as above - i had g+a and an epi - i was like you, ultra worried about the whole poo thing but honestly it didn't even cross my mind. in fact it wasn't until about 5 hours after i said to dh - oh btw, did i poo myself?!
the g+a didn't work for me as i got the rhythm wrong and i was too far gone for it to have an effect really.
the epi was grand - i was numb but still had some feeling, ie i got roll from side to side and still move my legs, i wasn't paralised or anything. i loved the epi because i hadn't slept/eaten in a long time and was too tired to cope with the pain.
to be honest you will prob have to wait and see at the time. i had plans for g+a and waterpool but couldn't due to blood pressure issues so my plan went totally out the window

 

[daftscotslass]

I would make sure you read up on the potential side effects of an epidural. I had spinal headaches for 2 days (and in the end the anaesthetist admitted defeat and I DIDNT get the pain relief) and had to have a procedure done to stop them... odds of it happening are 2-3%. I was in the 2-3% and it wasn't fun.

 

[Redshoes]

There can be after effects with most drugs/intervention in labour, what's most important is to be open minded before hand, and not to feel disapointed regardless what you decide whilst in labour, its not something you can plan and some drugs can only be administered at certain times whilst in labour too, so better to be aware of that rather than miss the choice, if that makes sense Whatever you choose will be right for your labour and please don't worry about bodily functions, it really is insignificant whilst in labour and a distant memory once LO arrives, very best wishes

 

[sarah113]

i had gas and air with my 1st, 3rd and 4th and it was really good i was 9cm when i needed it though but fully dilated with my 3rd and i only had it with him to just try and keep him in till i got to the hozzie. with my 2nd all i had was the birthing pool as pain releif and that was the best labour and birth out of them all