Pain relief help

i visited MW last week and she has told me to prepare my birth plan as i havent even started yet. i was just wondering about pain relief. I want to try it natural but should the need for pain relief interveen i would like some advice. i know of gas and air but there have been some debates between my friends who have recently given birth, one says pethedine other says diamorphine? what are the differences and what would anyone recommend. this is my first and due in just over 6 weeks, please help so confused 🤔 🤔 🤪

Hi, well i'm not sure on the actual differences but i know some hospitals use pethedine and others use diamorphine. Essentially it does the same job, i was told it doesn't actually take the pain away completely it just makes you more able to cope with it. It tends to give you a chance to rest more through the contractions, but it can make you feel a bit spaced out and not with it and it can also make you feel sick but is very effective in a lot of people. It also can cross the placenta to the baby and baby can sometimes be a bit sleepy when it's born if the drug is given quite close to delivery. I think an open mind is the most important thing and not to rule anything out until the actual time. I just used a tens machine and towards the end some gas and air with my son. But everybody copes differently. The tens machine i had was brilliant. You do have to put it on at the start of labour as it helps build up your natural pain relief hormone which takes a while but although i didn't think it was working when i took it off i really noticed a huge difference in the strength of the contractions and it went straight back on again! haha. Hope this helps hun? xx

Hi there

I went in with a strict birth plan and it all went out the window. I had also been having hypnotherapy

I think pethedine is good in early stages, but it can slow down contractions. I did not want this but was advised as my labour was taking along time. I actually quite liked it.

Tens machine fab in early stages

Gas and air kind of helps, but i thought this would be magical but did not do alot.

They suggested epidural which i was against but all i can say this was my saving grace.(i would ask if i could have another next time for certain)

Everyones birth will be different, for reasons like position of baby etc.

Not long now, it will all be fab

xxx

my birth plan involved just pethedine and gas and air

they told me to go in when contractions were 5 mins apart which i did and by then it was too late for any sort of pain relief

so i did it with just gas and air, this time round i want a similar experience involving no injections etc etc

hire a tens machine, and take the time to learn how to use the gas and air properly (because i was so panicked that i wasn't breathing it in properly and didn't really get much help from it) and try and hold out from going in till your contarctions are 5 mins apart (if you have a car, i was told 45 mins for a taxi 😲 and ended up calling a friend who was round in 5 mins ) 🙂

i had tried gas n air with my first and it done nothing at all was just like breathing in and out normaly but i did have pethidine it didnt slow done contractions and it helped to take the edge off the really strong contractions towards the end.

I had a birth plan the first time and it went out of the window when I went into premature labour at 34 weeks. This time I've not bothered really - just said let's see how it goes. I'll go natural until I demand something else 😇

I'd suggest having a think about what you would *like* but keep an open mind. Every birth is different.

For me, it was gas & air for a while then when they said I wouldn't be having her until 11am and it was only just 4.45am and the contractions were coming one on top of the other, I asked for pethadine. They gave me that without checking (they'd checked at 4am and I was 4cm) and when I felt at 5am that wasn't working, I asked for an epidural (something I'm terrified of as I broke my back many years ago and have a fear of anything around my spine even being touched) as I didn't feel I could go on. At that point they checked me, I was fully dilated and it was just 'push girl' and out she came 20 minutes later - whole labour 3hrs 20mins!

I hope whatever you choose you just have the best labour possible 😀

I was never asked for my birth paln whe I went to the hospital (I had to go to consultant unit because I was induced instead of local midwife unit I wanted)

I personally would not recommend diamorphine to anyone if they have another choice. I was totally out of it and was hallucinating theough my labour. I did try gas and air (On top of the morphine) but I was violently sick with it. I felt I had no control of my labour. They also gave me an injection to close to delivering Joseph and he was blue when he was born and it took 2 doctors and a senior MW to bring him round. I wasnt even asked if I wanted it I was given it when I starting having contractions during the night 'to make me sleep' (I later found out they didnt want me to deliver during the night because they were short staffed!)

my pal had pethidine for all her births and said it numbed the pain but she felt in control.

I would say have a very open mind when you do go into labour and voice any concerns/questions you have.

thanks guys for all the advice, i wil try with just the gas and air and hope for the best, but as i may be having water birth (if pool available) i can only have G & A anyway, will stay away from diamorphine if i have to have pain relief as i dont want to feel out of control, will also hire a TENS machine as a lot of people have recommended them. 😀

I did gas and air for last 5mins of first birth and it didnt make a differance just felt better to bite on the mouth piece....

With the twins i did it 100% natural total labour of 1 1/2hrs

Next time it will be natural homebirth so my girls can see the baby straight away