I'm a music Nazi (I have been known to carry around a Party CD in my bag just in case I'm at a gathering where the music's rubbish) and just about the only thing in my birth plan will be "don't touch the music".

Best laid plans always come asunder but this is what I'm thinking: either classical or reasonably ambient dance/house (Air, DJ Shadow, Groove Armada) for early stages of labour to help calm me down but also give me something to concentrate on. (Sounds of the Windforest type stuff just bores me to tears so I know I would find that annoying and have the opposite of the desired effect).

When things get really yeuky, painful, I'll want music that makes me feel like I can conquer the world and push that sucker out. So some really upbeat rocky stuff like Jet, Dandy Warhols, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I must say my personal favourite given the circumstances "Take Me Out" (particularly if c-section) by Franz Ferdinand.

Am also thinking about printing out the song lyrics for my own mini karaoke session, but I think I'm just getting completely ridiculous now!

I guess the answer is decide what you'll need: maybe a mix of calming and inspirational and then choose stuff that you like, not what you think you should take.