I agree.. support is the key. DH was all I needed. He was my spokesperson.. went and told the midwives to stop telling me to take pain relief. And being informed of the risks of pain relief for the baby were enough to make me refuse it too.

Admittedly, I was almost ready for an epidural, coz I had no idea where I was up to.. turns out, I was pushing within the next 2 contractions I thought if the dr came and told me I was only half way I'd be asking for that epi coz I was simply exhausted! LOL. Turned out I was in transition.

Definitely read up on EVERYTHING. Even learning about the stages of labour, and knowing there's a transition stage right before pushing where you're most likely to cave and request drugs.. if you're aware of that, you know it's only a short time to go, and can cope better. And picturing the pain as being the body doing it's job opening up and moving the baby down etc makes it more bearable.

Another thing that helped me.. altho other people would probably hate it.. but I watched the clock and had goals. heh. The dr was coming back to see me in 3hrs, so as each hour went by, I was like.. ok.. that's one hour down.. I can do another hour. Once it was 1 1/2 hours.. I was halfway! hehe. My first goal was to go drug free until the OB came. Turns out I was ready to push when he came.. so I made it right through!

btw.. my labour was augmented with the drip.. so it is possible!