Hi

The best thing that helped me through was to sway your hips bending your knees slightly as you do it when you have a contraction. Drink little sips of water from the begining so you dont dehydrate! Whe you do first realize your in labour dont do what I did and go out and start walking the dog then come home and sit on the fit ball as you will be knackered by the time you really need your energy. If its early go back to bed and try and rest as much as possible, keep your self distracted and try not to think about each and every contraction and stay calm(very easy to say sometimes not so easy to do). When you do get the stage of contractions being regular and strong walk, roll your hips on the fit ball or what ever makes you feel comfortable and get DH/P to time contractions. If you can try and stand up or squat or kneel as the gravity really helps for the delivery part....my little bundle of joy was out with about 3 good pushes( i stood up and held onto the bed).
Just go with what your body tells you to do, I never really understood this when people used to say it but when in labour it just clicked and I felt very in tune with what I needed to do. It does hurt and its lots of hard work but it does end and you will be in excellent hands with who ever is assisting you during the birth. DO NOT listen to any negative things that people say, be positive about it and know that your body can do this.
You will be fine and no matter what happens you will have your beautiful little bundle at the end of it!
One other thing, dont be to dissapointed if things dont go the way you wanted it to go, your birthing plan should be a very open open one!
Hope this helps,

Sus
xx