Labour and period pain, are they similar

[Lolli]

Ainsley- I was actually told the same thing as Satya... you have to 'walk' rather than 'run' through pain relief options- midwives won't concede to giving an epidural unless you have had a hot bath, then gas, then pethidine, and given each a 'reasonable' amount of time to work. I had a friend who was told for a good 45 minutes that there was no pethidine they could give her as she was in the birth centre not the delivery rooms of my local hospital... they finally gave it to her when she screamed 'bull****!' and called them a whole bunch of very unladylike names

[bubNo.2]

hi :
LoriRae:
Of course it is a different story again if a women is in a Birthing Suite rather than a delivery room !
Well personally i wouldnt be very happy with that outcome and i would be like that women
your friend and yes the midwives wonder why they get abused.
LoriRae: me being an Rn div 1 i dont understand how any nurse/midwife can justify refusing giving pts pain relief in private or public hospitals. But as i said earlier the BIrthing Suites are different again as they usually push the new mum out after a certain time (dont know much about them). With 'refusing' i mean telling mums labouring, to walk rather than run through the labour. Each pt knows what they can handle pain wise so ideally the nurses/midwives should go by that and advocate the pts wishes rather than push their own ideas on to mum to be.

Oh and im not directing any negativity towards nurses reading this who do advocated for the pt/mum to be and that do assist mums/pts with their labour.

I had some wonderful midwives 8 years ago at a public teaching hospital here in Melb. I was induced as my labour ceased naturally and they tried to break my waters . I asked for an epidural after they had three goes at breaking my waters and my midwife said 'of course you can darling'. BUt even the night before with all the gels etc i was in the antenatal ward and i was in pain and i was extremely exhausted and then too i asked for pain relief as in IM peth 100mg and i got not one but two injection over 4 hours as my body was so stressed the first inject. didnt do a damn thing. I had a beautiful nights rest and i woke up ready and rearing to labour my beautiful Tom out ... he finally came out that night at 8 24pm with help with the suction cap!

cheers Ainsley

[Mad Scientist]

I didn't find the pain to be as bad as I expected (I really did expect the worst). My little girl was posterior presentation and I managed to push her out without any drugs. I found that the hardest thing to get through was the exhaustion of dealing with the contractions and finding a comfortable position. My labour was quite intense as posterior births have constant back pain, so you don't get that "break" between contractions. But it really wasn't as bad as I imagined. Contractions do get bad. I had to move all the time and walk around the room to try to coax my little one down the birth canal. The pain did get bad towards the end where I couldn't walk and just had to hold onto my hubby but I breathed through it. Your body will tell you what it can and can't handle and there is no shame in having drugs during labour! I was totally open to it but managed to get through it without it. My midwife forced me to have some gas when they were stitching me up though (I needed an episiotomy). If someone had offered me a shot of energy though I would have taken it for sure. All I wanted was to have a five minute nap!!! Good luck. You will be fine. It was one of the most amazing experiences and such an achievement for me. I loved every minute of labour because it meant I was so close to meeting my baby.

[jenjams]

I too had a loooonnnnnngggggg labour. I was so exhausted that when I asked for an epi they let me have it so I can get some rest before pushing. (I ended up being induced) I didnt like the sensation of the gas. I didnt want pethadine. I reckon if I had have had some sleep before having DD (instead of 4 days of none) I would have been able to cope with the pain for longer than I did. Even still DD had to have the vacuum cap to bring her out... and 3rd degree tearing but thats another story.

[catherinemoses]

It felt like period pain for me. It was kinda just achey pains not too long and not very often. It started in the morning about 9 o'clock. It got more intense and closer together but still manageable by 5pm. By 8 pm I decided to take some Panadine. I threw up at about 8:30 (was probably from the codeine) was at hospital by 10 and was in pretty bad pain was having 2min contractions and was 7cm dilated. They gave me the gas which I had heard terrible stories about but found quite good. It doesn't make the pain go away but certainly takes the edge off. The pain comes in waves. Starts slowly, peaks and is quite painful then fades, as labour progresses this pain gets longer. It is certainly a painful experience but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was very manageable until about an 1hr before I got to hospital. Then I had 4 hrs of more intense pain managed by the gas and the last hr was very intense/severe but still just had the gas. I can remember the pain but it really fades very quickly and I was not worried about it at all once I was holding my beautiful new baby! Try not to doubt yourself too much, and definately do as others have already suggested and be as educated as you can be
HTH
I found what I wanted most (more than pain relief) was to go to sleep!!!