Ah, thank you ladies, I knew you would put my mind at ease!

Trish - I went to calmbirth classes AND had no fear of labour, so the actual, hideous, almost unbearable pain... well, that kind of took me by suprise! I guess I'm just not that good at going to my 'happy place' lol.

Re: A doula - I forgot about that, actually. I looked into having a doula for #1 but after meeting a couple decided against it, in the end I was glad it was just DP & the midwife, but I might look into that again, DP was a wee bit at a loss....