Great post Cricket I have to spread the love too IYKWIM

I remember preparing for my first baby and really wondering what the pain would be like. I knew I was a strong person but I just wanted to know what exactly it was that i was up against. That was 14 years ago. Having had 3 babies since then (none of them particularly 'easily" either) the best way of describing it (for me at least) is to say it's like a marathon. Like a previous poster said, it's also a bit of a mind game. Your brain will be your biggest asset! The reason I say it's like a marathon is because (for me) labour was loooong (20+ hours all of them, from the first twinge). I was surprised how exhausting it was... and I was fairly fit. The pain changes in nature throughout labour.... and different strategies help with each stage. Distraction is a great one in the early hours... try to distract yourself for as long as possible! Music was a great one for me until about half way then I needed to get rid of that! The nature of the worst of the pain was a kind of really bad stitch that feels like it's consuming your whole body... imagine running a marathon, getting a bad stitch and being told that you can't stop running! But it will be different for some people. I guess this is why breathing is important: the muscles are working hard with contractions so I guess a lot of the pain is them crying out for oxygen. One thing that might surprise you as you go into transition is that you get a break! This only happened with my 3rd labour but was great! The contractions really spaced out for a while... I used this time to relax deeply. With my first I was a bit more frightened at the end and the best strategy for me was to kind of astral travel to a place where i was visualising a peaceful place that I use in meditation. I have never done hypnobirthing but I have heard many great results and I guess this could be a form of this.

One thing that I was able to have with my second labour was to have the lights dimmed during the final pushing stages. I found this quite calming too.

Enough of my ramble! LOL Know that you WILL get to the other side darl. You will feel so proud of yourself! And you will feel that after labour you can do anything! No one ever told me that (I wish i had BB, but this was back in 1994) but I think this feeling is pretty universal!