I had sterile water injections last time as DD was posterior and i have to say while this was extremly painful at the time and the only time i swore during my whole 50hr labour it definatley helped to relieve the unrelenting pressure in my back and calmed me down heaps, giving me the second wind i needed to keep going. Not sure if all hospitals are doing this now but it may be worth researching further.
For me it was water on my back while I layed over the fit ball and closed my eyes. I don't think I even opened my eyes the entire time I was in labour! lol
Change your mindset NOW.
Remove the word "pain" from your vocab, and begin some positive NLP.
Ditto everything Dusty said. Especially regarding pain relief - do NOT let them offer it to you, put it in your birth plan, have your DH reiterate this when you go in, labour as long as possible at home first. Remember to stay in a safe place - once you even subconsciously feel "unsafe" or watched, your labour may well stall or slow.
Fingertip massage helps - have your DH practice it - lightly stroking your skin works just like a TENS machine - it confuses your nervous system and allows you to focus on something else.
Honestly, I think most of it is state of mind. If you go in expecting pain and trauma and hurt, that is what you will get. If you are able to teach yourself now that it isn't any of these things, you will do much better.
Breathing definitely helps, and being able retreat into your own headspace.
Depending on how open minded you are, take a look into some orgasmic birth info... fascinating stuff, logical and very achievable.
Anything else - I will let you know in a couple of weeks!
The "aaahh" sound that Jas mentioned helped me to stay focused with DS and not lose it. I think it meant I was in control of the contractions.
Other things were stomping whilst leaning on a windowsill. I found an object (a blue office chair) to stare at in a window across the courtyard (well, until the stupid cleaner turned the light off!), once things got a bit unbearable, I hopped in the shower, where DH alternated the shower head between my front and my back, whilst I lent on the handles and stomped. I also blew the pain away down the plughole - this really seemed to help. But for me, movement was the biggie, no way was I sitting down.
Definitely the 'aaah' sound. Open jaw, open cervix. In any case, it was as if the noise coming out of my mouth was like releasing the pain through sound, itms. As if I were transferring it out of my body. Hot water on my back helped, leaning up against the wall and letting the water play on my back during contractions helped.
Mostly the second time it just helped to know that soon it would be over.
Re the pain relief, I agree with the birth plan idea... and M was right there to reiterate that I didn't want any pain relief; saying that, if I'd needed there were other options (pethedine, morphine) but I have a reaction to opiates (I vomit) so they weren't for me. Gas didn't seem to do anything, tried about 2 sucks with S and got nothing, so didn't even bother with T. If you want to try TENS, I've heard it's good - my mum uses it on her back - but start practising now so you can get used to using it.
Good luck. Remember above all that you can do this.
first time contractions came on really quick and hard and lasted about 16 hours i was stuffed at about 12 hours got a peth shot i would not recommend it i couldnt get the gas to work
second time contractions were bareable untill my waters broke hot water helped heaps and when i had a contraction i would stare at something stationary and that helped a bit sorta like a distraction DD came about 4 hours after the doc broke my waters and when i needed to push i had to walk from my room to L&D lucky it was right next to it but the middie copped a serve lol
i wana go and apologise to her coz she was really nice and helped me so much but i think the relaxed environment helped first time i was on ABs with a cannula and it was all rushed and impersonal the environment helped a lot
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