Is it normal to 'pass out' between contractions?

Hi all,

I was about to hijack someone else's thread to ask this, but I thought I should not be so rude and start a new one.

Is it normal, in heavy labour, to 'pass out' and be completley unresponsive between heavy contractions? Dh reckons I was so far gone he almost had to remind me to breath- my breaths were coming short and shallow and sometimes I'd take a big gasp to 'catch up'. I was unresponsive to everything he said, although I do remember snapping out of it a few times at cruical points- like to protest when dh asked for an epidural.

I had a shot of pethidine 3 hours before I gave birth (in a five hour labour, judging from the point of regular strong contractions), so I was actually thinking it could be that.

So, is that normal, or was it the pethidine? I'm trying to get a few answers on the confusing aspects of ds's birth.

I was exhausted and had no energy left not long before DD2 was born. I was dozing between contractions so it is possible that that is what you were doing.

It's certainly normal for a woman to be so focussed on labour that she becomes unresponsive, but not that she stops breathing.

Is it possible that DH was very worried and interpreted your focus on labour and how much of your attention it was taking as a crisis (since he asked for an epidural on your behalf - seems very strange to me!)? So many men just don't know what to expect and the way labour looks can be so far from how it feels.

When i was at the end of labour (2nd stage but roaring rather than pushing) i know i was so relaxed between contractions i was drolling onto the pillow i was leaning on. XP wiped it away and laughed at how zonked i seemed and i can remember mustering a smile for him then because i FELT out of it.

Did a midwife comment on your breathing? I'm not too sure what effect peth would have on you in that way.

Bx

not sure if its common but it sounds like the short shallow breaths may have had a similar effect as hyperventilating, if you aren't breathing deeply enough and getting enough oxygen you will pass out this is the bodies way of protecting itself becuase when you pass out your breathing becomes regular and deeper

Hmm. Thanks girls. Ali, I was completley exhausted, so that's highly possible too. I lost all sense of time and I thought I had been there for a good 12 hours.

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Is it possible that DH was very worried and interpreted your focus on labour and how much of your attention it was taking as a crisis (since he asked for an epidural on your behalf - seems very strange to me!)? So many men just don't know what to expect and the way labour looks can be so far from how it feels.

Did a midwife comment on your breathing?

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Bx- That's possible. He was very worried- I think he asked for the epidural I was passed out and he assumed that meant I was in a hell of a lot of pain but literally couldn't speak for myself to ask for one, ykwim? And he assumed, being in that much pain, I'd want one (I didn't).

I really don't know if he misinterprated it... but he swears up and down it was not focused breathing, iykwim. I don't recall the mw saying anything (tbh, I don't remeber very much about that stage of labour at all- if I fell over the mw in the street, i wouldn't know her) but dh reckons that by that stage bubs was in distress, according to the foetal heart rate doovy thingy, so she was generally looking worried about everything and waiting for the ob to get there...

i passed out between conractions towards the end of my labour too and also had a pethadine shot bout an hour b4 she was born. it was kind of like i was asleep but could still hear everything going on around me but i didnt have the energy to respond, kind of like when u have way too much to drink and u go to bed, ur mind is stil awake but ur body is non responsive

i slept inbetween contractions while in labour with dd.. so much so my dh would wake me up when tipping more hot water in to the pool i would do a full jump.
also at that stage i had been awake for 28 hrs.....
drugs do some weird stuff to our bodies that isnt really written down as its such an individual thing. with DS i was delirous eyes rolling in the back of my head, slurred speech(well it felt slurred to me)

When I had DD1 I passed out 3 times. Reasons being...
1, I was exhausted. I'd had 4 hours sleep in the 3 days leading up to it. Just half hour the night I went into labour.
2, I had pethidine, as well as gas & wasn't breathing properly on the gas, so I was hyperventilating as well.
The contractions would wake me up & I was wondering what on earth was going on! I'd completely forgotten I was in labour.
I was so high I was seeing purple sparkly flowers!!! Til the contractions brought me crashing back down to earth, lol!!!

Apparently I was the same in my final stages too. DH said that my eyes rolled back in my head and I was completely unresponsive (until each contraction when I pushed like a mad woman and then slipped back into my coma like state!!). He was completely freaked out. The MW told him that my body had started to release endorphins to help cope with the pain. She said that this was totally normal and actually a positive sign as it meant that labour and birthing was progressing well. I had a drug free birth but I actually remember doing this. It was like being on the most amazing drug like high... If only we could bottle that!!

I can remember labour with my third baby much better because it was a drug free birth. And I remember at the end sort of "shutting down" in between contractions, just before pushing started. Eyes closed, not responding, not moving. I can vaguely remember DH saying "It looks like she's asleep" and the midwife saying "she might be". Not quite the same as what you experienced, I know, but it may have been something sort of similar, exaggerated by the pethidine shot you had. :dunno: I think your body grabs whatever opportunity it has to rest as much as it can in between the awesome effort of pushing that baby out!

Thanks everybody. From reading all those experiences, I reckon what happened to me was 'normal' (and probably made worse by the peth). Sound like we all had kinda the same thing, just a different perception/reaction to it.

So that, for me, is another open question answered... well on the way to having a better understanding of the whole experience. Thanks again :D

I remember 'sleeping' between contractions with #1 because I was dosed up with pethidine...I wasn't fully asleep and I wasn't awake either. The other two I remember resting between contractions, eyes closed, nice deep breaths, but I didn't sleep and I didn't have that spaced out feeling that you get with drugs. I think with #3 I fell asleep during transition because it lasted for ages - a couple of minutes I think with no contractions. But didn't I feel it when they came back!