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Getting advice for having a natural labour and delivery.
Hello, I'm 37 weeks and 2 days along, I'm due December 24th (I really hope not!), with my first child which is a girl. SInce I got pregnant I've been educating myself on what to expect and getting advice from tons of women. My fiance and I have already made the decision to have the most natural birth possible, with very little medical intervention (if possible). My OB and I have discussed this and he is OK with it. The only problem is, I'm nervous about the pain.
I don't want to get a spinal block or an epidurel because quite frankly, they scare me more than the actual labour and birth. So, my question(s) is, what are the best ways that have worked for you during labour and birth without any pain medications?
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I had a quick labour with just gas and air, was already 6 cm by the time i got in, then my waters broke and pain increased, but was manageable with the g&a. Although, after an hour of pushing my boy got stuck so ended up in emergency c section. This meant i had to have a spinal, and actually it was such a relief! They let me use the g&a when they were doing it so i didn't even feel it going in.
Good luck and hope it goes the way you plan, but don't forget, you don't get a medal for going without pain relief, so if you need it take it, the main thing is you end up with a little baby at the end, how you get there doesn't really matter in the big picture (although i am hoping for a VBAC this time again with as little pain relief as poss!)
xxx
I also used massage ol, labour massage oil from holland n Barrett
Hope it helps
Hypnobirthing worked for me - the methodology is quite simple... Billions of women have natural, gentle births all the time, but we only hear the horror stories and see what is protrayed in the press and on tv. There is pain, of that no-one can deny but if you have confidence in yourself, and sometimes we need to work on this aspect, then you can easily do what your body was built to. I am pregnant with my second child - my first little boy has been so easy to deal with in terms of sleeping, feeding and all the other niggles that all parents face and I firmly believe this was because I had a relaxed pregnancy and a natural, relaxed birth and I am definitely going to practice Hypnobirthing again. If you simply zone out, breath and concentrate on relaxing through the contractions, letting your body do the work without forcing anything, then you will have the birth you want. I also used to go to sleep each night to a little daydream about my labor going just the way I wanted... I guess doing this over and over might have helped too! Good luck - its all so exciting! And as everyone above has said, it doesn't really mattter what happens - it's all worth it in the end ;-D xx