yep, distraction is a good way to go at various stages... music can be great for this.... persoanlly i found that soft new-age whale sounds etc were NOT helpful LOL I thought it would be the kind of thing I would want to hear but it turned out that it annoyed the cr@p out of me!!! I ended up discovering that wearing headphones with loud, rhythmic techno was actually more useful... oh and Kate Bush... she was great during my third labour

ETA: yeah don't hop in a warm bath until you are in well established...rocking from side to side and groaning kinda labour... often a warm bath can relax you too much and actually slow labour down if you hop in too early.