Pain Relief

Contrary to popular opinion, women don’t “choose” to be induced.It’s not something you can request so your baby will be born on the right date.There are several reasons why a birth might be induced, pre eclampsia/high blood pressure, very overdue, diabetes,previous fetal death, previous still born,bleed during pregnancy and other ante natal problems that warrant watching during delivery.It ensures that the Medical and nursing staff are all on board during the labour and the delivery is controlled.

There are several ways to induce delivery depending on how far advanced the pregnancy is,the reasons for the induction and the “ripeness” of the cervix.

Stretch and Sweep, this is for a cervix that is “ripe” and is a little uncomfortable as the membrane is separated from the cervix and the the cervix slightly dilated with the Dr or midwifes finger. Labour usually starts in about 48hrs and proceeds normally.

Prostin gel and pessaries are used to soften the cervix and encourage contractions to begin,usually used on overdue women it can be uncomfortable as it starts to work.

Rupturing membranes,or breaking the water using a long plastic spatula, is done when the cervix is “ripe” and the baby’s head is in the pelvis.Usually within a few hours labour starts, if not an oxytocin drip is then started,as now that the membrane is broken,the baby should be born within 24hrs,to avoid the risk of infection.

Oxytocin is administered via an IV, after your water has broken either naturally or artificially and labour hasn’t started.It is also almost always used to kick start a failing labour that has already begun.The dose is steadily increased and you are usually on the drip until delivery.It makes for a short sharp delivery as the contractions often come one on top of the other as the dose becomes higher.

I had 2 induced deliveries, one due to overdue baby by 2 weeks and hypertension and the other due to hemorrhage at 20 weeks.

The first was my first child, and I was well overdue and had been in hospital for 3 weeks with high blood pressure. I was desperate to deliver and each day the doctor would say”tomorrow” cervix isn’t soft.Even on the day I delivered there was doubt about my cervix and I was told the induction may fail,which sometimes happens if your body is just not ready.

The drip was applied and I waited. My water was broken once I got severe period pain. Labour was short but sharp lasting 6 and half hours.I had pain relief of gas and pethidine.The pethidine seemed to put me into transition and I delivered very quickly but this meant baby needed narcan on delivery as he was sluggish from the meds.

My 3rd child was induced as the doctor was worried about my placenta after I had had a hemorrhage at 20 weeks and intermittent bleeding on exertion.

My water was broken,and then a drip started and withing 3 and a half hours the baby was born.I used gas for pain relief,having no time for anything else.The contractions were so strong that it affected the baby and I was given oxygen for about half an hour before he was born. He was also placed on a fetal monitor with a scalp electrode during delivery.

During both deliveries I felt as if I was in safe hands and that the whole thing was carefully watched and controlled and everything and everyone was in place in case of any complications.

If you do need an induction for any reason, do a bit of research, to see what is involved,what is happening to your body and why and ask other mums who have been through the experience.Once labour starts,the experience is not a lot different,though it is harder and faster.There is one downside and that is that you will be in a labour room and not the nice new birthing suite.

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The question of pain relief is something that differs for each individual mum to be. More often than not, a decision to have a drug free labour is quickly overturned by fear, anxiety and stress in the first stages, especially for those of us who are having our first baby. Personally, I was so happy to be having a baby but at times it was almost overshadowed by the thought of the birth. I even toyed with the idea of asking my midwife if i could elect to have a cesarean section as i was so afraid of the impending birth.

The day finally came (as it inevitably does) and i was adamant that i would try any pain relieving drug that they offered me. I had gas and air and when that stopped taking the edge off the pain i had morphine on more than one occasion. When the pain finally became too much to bear, 17 hours since i had first arrived at the hospital, i was given the option of whether or not to have an epidural. By that time i would have cut my own arm off if it would have made the pain go away so i accepted. I found having the injection itself quite distressing as by this time my contractions were so close together that i found it hard to sit still for the anaesthetist to inject my spine. When the injection had been completed i became more distressed as my movement was now restricted and i found it increasingly difficult to find a comfortable position while hooked up to the drip. On more than one occasion i ripped the line from my hand which left it bruised and sore for days. Finally when it was time to push i literally had to have my legs moved and held by my birthing partners as i was unable to do so on my own. I was unable to feel any contractions at this point and was completely dependant on the midwife telling me when to push.

I thought that when the 21 hour labour was over and my little girl was born the stress would eventually be over but as soon as the epidural drip was removed i felt nauseous and started to be sick due to the side affects of the drugs. So much so in fact that i then had to be given another drug to counteract the side affects of the pain relief. My baby slept for almost twenty four hours after she was born due to the drugs that she was subjected to during the birth and to this day i still regret not being the first person to hold my daughter when she was born. It actually took around an hour and a half after the birth before i was well enough to hold her. I was also unable to walk unaided for hours afterwards and had to be helped by nurses as i could sill not feel my lower body.

The birth of my second daughter was some what different. I admit that second time round you do at least have an idea of what to expect, but never the less i was more wary of the pain relief that i was offered. I delivered my second baby with just the help of gas and air. Yes, it was painful, i wont say that it wasn’t but it is a pain that i cant remember now. It stopped the minute she was born and i was able to hold her, feed her, change her and bathe her. These were all things that i had not been able to do and i feel that i missed out on first time around.

In my opinion it is the choice of the individual. It is not a decision that should be made lightly but providing there is no medical reason why not, then it should be given to those who want it. However, from my experience, I would not choose an epidural again as the pain is not so unbearable that i would ever forget those first moments my my new born baby. They are precious moments that once lost, you can never get back.

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What do contractions feel like?

This is a difficult question to answer because you can only really know if you are having contractions to know what they feel like, but I will do my best to help any expectant mums out there to relax and know that all of those horror stories out there that you have heard, they are simply not true!

Quite a lot of women experience period pains when they are ‘on’ and this is the base from where we start to try and understand just what a contraction can feel like.

Period pains are caused by the uterus contracting to release the womb lining and an un wanted egg and this is much the same when it comes to a labour contraction.

A contraction is the uterus preparing itself for birth, a contraction allows the uterus to dialate enough (usually by 10 centimeters) to allow the baby to be pushed out.

If you have never had a period pain then, aside from being very lucky, you will be more un prepared than most for first stage contractions.

A period pain feels like a crap in your stomach at the very least but for some women it can feel a lot worse, it can make you feel sick, give you back pain and last for a long while.

Many midwives say that a contraction feels like a period pain but ten times worse, this can sound very scary especially if you suffer from bad period pains but when they are happening to you, the pain is gradual.

When my contractions first started they felt just like little stomach cramps, like hiccups in my belly.

After an hour or two they began to feel stronger and took longer to dissipate so what you need to remember when the contractions last a long time is to breath slowly through them and to count to ten and when they do ease this is the time to relax and to calm yourself.

To me, personally they did feel like bad period pains to begin with but as the labour progressed I found that they were more painful and this is where gas and air can help because if you use it as you have a contraction it helps you to breath through the pain and it also helps to ease it.

There are many pain relief’s now a days for contractions and if you opt for any of them then they all help to control the pain.

Such as gas and air being the favourite which I used at the start of my labour, stronger drugs and then to stop all pain you may now be offered an epidural or a spinal tap which means that you will not be able to feel the contractions.

This can be a good thing if you are not coping with the pain but it means that when it comes to push you might not be able to feel enough to push the baby out and you may need to be helped out with forceps. (This is not true of all cases.)

In conclusion, you never really know what a contraction feels like until you have one but if you prepare yourself and know that contractions are simply pains to help your body get ready for giving birth then you will be fine and at the end of it you will have a beautiful baby and what contractions feel like will no longer matter to you!

Good luck!

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What can I say, but I loved it! Giving birth has been the most wonderful experience I have ever had – and ever will. Needless to say my pregnancy wasn’t all rosy and back pain free! I suffered from terrible heart burn, where I couldn’t lie down without being sick. At thirty weeks I suffered from severe lower back pain. My partner was on night shift at his work ten miles away, when a muscle literally popped after I sneezed! Luckily my parents came to my rescue and took me to hospital. I remember the pain being worse than the actual contractions. Forty one weeks later I went into labour. Only being one week late, I couldn’t wait. My bump couldn’t get any bigger. The hospital sent me home after being examined. I was only 2cm. That night my waters broke in my bed. My first response was that I’d actually wet myself, and after the realization that my baby was on its way, I had the urge to push. I spent five more hours pushing, to which I couldn’t stop myself, for the need was too great! I was taken into hospital and the midwife began to pour me a warm bath to ease the contractions, as she examined me. “I don’t think we’ll be needing that bath, your baby is almost here”. I was taken into the labour room straight away and without any pain relief, I gave birth to my beautiful son, Evan who weighed a healthy 7lbs 13 ounces. I was told after wards that I had done all the hard work at home with all the pushing. Thankfully I had gotten to hospital just in time or my son would have been born in the back of my dad’s new car!

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When you are nearing the end of your pregnancy, you will likely have many aches and pains and you think that each one is the beginning of labor. Some early labor pains are not labor at all, but false labor, which is called Braxton-Hicks contractions. They do start off in the same way as labor pains in that they feel like hard menstrual cramps, but they do not intensify and eventually stop. The early signs of labor vary from one woman to another, but most report that they do have crampy pains very similar to menstrual cramps that do start to get more painful and closer together.

During labor, the muscles of the womb start to contract to push the baby through the birth canal. They start in the upper portion of the uterus causing this part of the uterus to become tight and thicker. Generally, women report the feeling of a dull aching pain in their lower back and say they do not even realize it is the start of labor because they have no pain in their stomach. It is also possible to have aches and pains in your sides or even your thighs. The contractions occur in waves and could be 10 or 15 minutes apart at first, which is why many women dont even realize that this is what they have been waiting for. Even in early labor, if you place your hand on your stomach you will feel that it is really tight and tense.

The contractions occur and then you have a period of relief from the pain. In order to time the period between contractions, you start timing when the contraction stops and stop when another contraction begins. If you are truly in the early stages of labour, this time period will become shorter and shorter. You can also time the duration of the contraction to see how long it lasts. As the space between the contractions decrease, the duration of the contractions increase.

Doctors will tell you that when you find your contractions lasting for one minute and occurring five minutes apart, then it is time for you to call your doctor and to go to the hospital. Your water may or may not have broken and you probably didnt notice that the mucous plug has been released from the cervix. However these are questions that you doctor will ask. Leave yourself plenty of time to get to the hospital, but if you are a new mother you can probably delay this until the contractions become so intense that you find it difficult to breathe through them.

There are stages of labor, just as there are stages of pregnancy. In the early stage, the cervix is just starting to dilate. This first stage can last for many hours until the cervix is completely dilated. First time mothers usually have a longer first stage of labor than they will with subsequent births. The second stage is much shorter and ends with the third stage, which is the birth of the baby.

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I had my daughter four years ago in a private hospital, the only private hospital here. This was because I had heard so many nightmare stories of childbirth in the government hospitals which are free for citizens of my country. I wanted a natural birth with normal pain killers but not epidural. I always thought of myself as the kind of person who could endure a great amount of pain. I was in for a real shock!

I went through my first four hours of labour quite well. The fifth hour started to really hurt. The pain is undescribable and my respect goes out to all the mothers out there! By this fifth hour I was contracting every two minutes and the nurse kept telling me I was doing very well and that it would all soon be over. This gave me some comfort. Then five hours became nine hours and nothing had happened. Despite the contractions, I was still only two centimetres dilated and the pain was horrendous. I remember turning to my husband and telling him that I did not think I would be able to make it through. He went a ghastly white and left the labour room for a few minutes. My family told me that he had burst into tears, regained his composure and came back in to be with me.

This was when the doctor offered me the epidural. being in the state I was, I agreed without another thought. Despite the long awaited blissful pain relief, i regretted making the decision. I fell asleep and my contractions slowed down. By hour thirteen, I was still only three centimetres dilated. This maybe could have still occured if I had not opted for the epidural. I will never know. However, what happened next was the irregular heartbeat of my daughter which caused alarm thus leading to a consequent emergency cesaerian. I was lucky to have a healthy bouncing baby girl weighing in at 3.555kgs. However she had had some infection and needed to be on antibiotics for a week.

The reason why I am writing for the natural birth is that four years later, I still have a bruised pain in the area where the epidural was inserted and I am unable to lift heavy items for a long period of time. I learnt only later that these were some of the side effects of the epidural. There are many other more, such as not knowing when to push when dilation is full, thus suffocating the child.

Next time round, I will have to grit my teeth and bear with the pain and go for a natural birth. Hopefully the next time round, labour will not be another thirteen hours!

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TENS for Labour Pain

What is TENS? TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It can be used during labour to help alter and modify the body’s perception of pain. It can be employed on its own or in addition to other forms of pain relief. It can also be effective after labour to ease after-birth pain.

TENS is often an ideal choice for prospective parents as there are no known side effects to the mother or the baby and the mother is in total control of the device. But how does it work? A TENS unit is a small battery operated device. It delivers a harmless electrical impulse to the low back region via electrodes placed on the skin. This impulse stimulates large nerve fibres that block or gate’ pain messages as they travel up the spinal cord. This is thought to modify the body’s perception of pain. This ‘transcutaneous nerve stimulation’ is also thought to enhance the release of endorphins; our body’s own natural opiod pain inhibitors.

Between contractions the TENS unit is set at an intensity that provides a comfortable, tingling sensation. During contractions a ‘boost’ button is pressed to increase the impulse frequency from low to high. It is imporant for the expectant mother to be realistic about the use of TENS. Pain is still experienced, but the perception of pain altered or perhaps dampened.

Clinical evidence suggests that TENS is most effective if used early at the onset of labour pain rather than waiting until pain relief is required. It is, therefore, often appropriate to commence use at home prior to going to hospital. Those that practice using a TENS unit 1-4 weeks prior to their due date become familiar & confident with the sensation & operation of the unit.

A TENS machine is not difficult to operate, however, it is important to seek appropriate advice and instruction in its use. You can hire a labour TENS unit from a Women’s Health Physiotherapist who will also instruct you in its use.

5.

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It is definitely a choice that only YOU can make, and you should not let others influence your decision. YOU are the one in the pain, and only you know how much pain you can truly handle.

I was truly fearing child birth. Towards the end of my pregnancy, thinking about it would keep me awake at night. I pretty much decided a few months into my pregnancy that I would have an epidural. I have always had a very low pain threshold and thought that by the time labour rolled around, I was going to be a screaming, swearing mess!

When my waters broke and 9 hours later I still hadn’t started having contractions, I was admitted to the hospital and put on a drip to induce the labour. When they first checked how dilated I was, I was already 3cm which wasn’t too bad considering I hadn’t had any contractions on my own!

About 5 hours passed and I had still only dilated another 1 cm. But the pain was very tolerable, it just felt like a mild period pain. The midwives couldn’t believe how well I was handling it all! Around 6pm the contractions started getting REALLY bad and I found them hard to cope with. So I asked for the gas. I found this, combined with the breathing techniques (and squeezing the life out of my partner’s hand!) really helped me get through the contractions.

I managed to get through the next 3 hours with the gas and breathing, but I still wasn’t dilating. My baby’s head wasn’t even engaged and the doctors were starting to get concerned as the labour just didn’t seem to be progressing. At around 9pm I decided to have an epidural. I didn’t feel that I could cope with the pain on my own anymore, but felt extremely proud for how long I had gone without pain relief (Apart from the gas).

Once I had the epidural, I felt extreme relief almost immediately. I even asked the midwife if I was still having contractions! An hour later the doctor came in and told me they had decided to do a C-section as the labour wasn’t progressing and also because my son was getting distressed with the contractions (not to mention his head still wasn’t engaged).

I had my C-section at around 11pm and am glad that I had an epidural as I would have had to have one anyway.

I learned throughout my pregnancy, and still today, that everyone has an opinion on what is best for you, and for your baby. Only you truly know this. So I think if you aren’t coping with the pain of childbirth, there is nothing wrong with having pain relief and no one should make you feel bad for it.

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When I first found out I was pregnant I was so happy and could not wait to meet my little bundle of joy! However, I found it amazing that there were so many women out there who couldn’t wait to tell me how awful their labour was. This absolutely terrified me and it made me really scared. I started to stop enjoying my pregnancy and I got really depressed. Just about every mum I spoke to seemed to enjoy telling me the amount of pain they were in and how horrendous it all was.

By the time I got to 8 months pregnant I wanted to curl up into a ball and forget that in a few weeks time I will have to go through the same agonizing pain!

At 41 weeks pregnant I went into labour and I remember waking up at 09.30am, getting period pains and I knew it was contractions. I woke my husband and I cried and cried and cried! He asked me what was wrong and I said “I’m getting contractions which means this baby’s coming, which means I’m gonna hurt bad”

I can’t remember another time I was more scared and I kept thinking about all the horror storied I’d heard over the last few months.

By 1pm the contractions were getting quicker and really strong so we rang the midwife, (I was having a home birth). The midwife turned up and examined me – I was 4cm’s dilated. We then all sat down watching TV together and chatting, (in between my contractions)! At 4pm my contractions were really really strong and I asked to have some gas and air to get me through them, this was bliss! at 4.03pm my waters broke, I then started pushing and after 3 big pushes my BEAUTIFUL daughter was born at 4.13pm.

I have never felt anything more magical and beautiful and because I was so relaxed I had no stitches and felt great.

When I told people about my childbirth the first question most people ask is “what pain relief did I use”? When I tell them gas and air they seem amazed! A lot of women find the thought of only having gas and air terrifying but I’m so glad I only used this because I felt every part of my daughter coming out and that, in my eyes, is amazing. I wouldn’t change anything.

My husband found the whole experience, (in his words), “truly amazing”. He finds the female body brilliant and still can’t get his head around how a woman can do it!

Two months later and I’m now desperate for baby number 2!

Childbirth is the most natural, beautiful thing in the world and I urge women to ignore other women’s horror stories and enjoy!

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I’ve had two children, 24 months apart, and both experiences with childbirth have been different, yet similar in pain.

My first son was supposed to be induced, and you hear all sorts of horrible stories relating to inductions and on the day he was meant to be induced, my waters broke! And he arrived normally.

His labour began the night before, when I had back contractions instead of the normal abdominal contractions, and being my first child, I thought I wasn’t in labour at all!

The contractions came 5 minutes apart, and I handled it at home, alone whilst my then prtner slept and until my waters broke and I called for an ambulance.

The midwives were excellent, and after 9 1/2 hours, I delivered a healthy 9 pound 1 oz boy – all natural – and ALL without medications.

I could hear all the screams of women around me, but I didn’t scream! Which amazed all the staff in my labour room – probably the reason they were there!

My second son was born in quite different circumstances, as he was born after my separation and I was alone in the hospital with the midwife when he was delivered. I was induced with him, as they thought HE was too big – but in fact I had a lot of fluid around ME!

Such a relief though, and after 3 3/4 hours and some gas I delivered another healthy 8 pound 3 oz boy… The pain was horrendous, but yet I didn’t scream, just did the job at hand and made sure he was healthy. There were instances during the labour I had to turn on my side as the cord was around his neck, but thankfully, once I moved over he was great.

I had two miracle births as doctors told me I could not have children at all! And the experience of childbirth for me was not as horrible as I had imagined it would be.. you all get the “fear” factor when it’s your first time, the second time you know a bit more and are prepared…

My boys are doing great, no more pain childbirth wise, just little pains around me!

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