steph, its all worth the pain, when you hold that baby in your arms,

I had an epidural with both mine and didn't feel a thing lol. I thought about natural this time but the more i think about it i think i will have another epidural lol.
I hurt down there once it wore off as well especially when you have a wee god it stung like mad, I had split alittle bit so it hurt.
Luv Cheryl xxx

i was induced and labor increased over 3 days, was ok for the first 36hrs then midwife gave me a really rough internal and within 2hrs i was on morphine, gave birth 31hrs later!it hurt like nothing i had expected(lets face it you want honesty!??!)i used morhine, TENS(irritated me more than helped)but i have to say gas and air was THE BEST THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! remember if you have GnA to make sure yr birth partner keeps giving you water, helps with the really dry mouth you get and the nausea.
labor was THE hardest thing ive ever done, actually pushing my beautiful girl into the world was THE most exhilirating thing ive ever done(took 20 mins bizarly bearing how long id labored!!)

if you want any advice its to try and focus. when your really struggling and thinking this is soooo hard, can i do it, focus on you and your baby and tune out evrything else. i ignored the midwife when she told me to push(actually swore at her when she started shouting the word!!) and controlled my breathing, then pushed as my body was telling me NOT what the mw wanted me to do. i delivered a 8lb11oz baby after 20mins of pushing with no stitches, this hands down is the biggest achievemenbt of my life so far(infact the only thing i think could suppass it would be doing it again tbh)and i think about it almost every day.

Giving birth is THE most amazing experiance, and just you wait till you clap eyes on your baby for that very first time, omg..................................................................................
xxxxx

The best advice I was told was 'remember that everyone and every labour is different.' Just because something happened to this person and another person had this its not going to be the same for you.
When my midwife asked me about a birth plan I just told her I didn't see the point as I didn't know what to expect or what its going to be like so why worry about 'well I should be having this drug & I should be doing this etc!' You just don't know what its going to be like until you get there. I kept an open mind and thought I'll have what I need!
I ended up hating the Gas & Air, I had 2 puffs and refused it, and just thought sod it, wack an epidural in and I'm so glad I did!
I didn't have the best of labour's (having to go to theatre!) but I'd do it all again tomorrow!
For most of my pregnancy the one thing that I kept thinking about was having a wee (silly I know) after labour, I was so scared it was going to sting I didn't wee until midnight & I'd had Noah at 11am! All feeling was back down there by then (I couldn't sit down!!) I didn't feel a thing weeing (and I had been cut) needless to say the midwife was quite shocked at the amount of urine sample I'd provided!!

Just keep an open mind, listen to advice etc but remember its you going through it and you have what you want, don't feel you have 'failed' by having drugs......it aint called Labour for nothing!!!

Hi ladies, long time no see.
As some of you know, I am/was the most paranoid person you will EVER meet, so labour and pregnancy for me was possibly the worst thing I was going to go through in the 22 years I had been on this earth (exageration you're thinking?)
Anyway, all through pregnancy, I was terrified- I thought my baby was going to die, I thought I was going to die during labour, the whole experience (at the time) was a nightmare for someone like me.
When I FINALLY was admitted to the hospital with contractions, I was ready for it being bad, and I could never see me getting passed the labour stage, I just couldnt see my baby being born because I could not imagine going through something so shocking (this was all in my head of course)- but after that epidural went in (that wasnt pleasant as I kept throwing up and it only froze one side of my body) I was ok- I was sat in my bed for 2 days (gross) pooing myself lol, being sick, I couldnt eat, could only drink water (which makes me gag) and was having tubes shoved up my pee hole every few hours (NIIIICE) but couldnt feel much pain at all.
I had labour complications, my babies HB dropped dramatically and that was my worst fears confirmed- dr's were running in and out all over the place and I thought we were both going to die (you're probably thinking "this aint helping", but wait a sec ) anyway, within seconds my lil boy was out, screaming like a trooper and althouth my worst fears were confirmed, when I saw my baby I didnt even feel like I had just given birth- (sounds silly I know) This of course was until I tried to walk (I had an episiotomy)
I think the point im trying to make is that no, in my opinion its not that bad- I feared EVERYTHING going wrong, but at the time when I knew things wern't going to plan due to a couple complications, I dealt with it brilliantly and the dr's (despite not speaking much english) were brill.
There's really nothing to fear at all-- I miss being pregnant, so much so that I want to go for round 2.
If I can do it Steph, you can;
Having a baby totally changed me.

PS: Make sure you have someone there supporting you. I could not have done it without my dad- even though he wasnt with me when I gave birth. I would not have done it on my own....

I was exactly the same I was so tired and thinking I dont have the energy, I wasnt really thinking about the pain, I had TENS machine and Gas and air and that was enough for me, it was a strange feeling what I remember, more than actual pain, there's so much going on you dont really think about it, the thing that hurt me the most was the tiny injections to numb me for an episiotomy!

you'll be fine hun you will probably be surprise at how well you cope! I was!

it does hurt but it's one of those pains that u forget about!

I only had gas and air with first one and i suppose i had quite a gud labour. But its different for everyone, every baby and birth is different.

You'll be fine though!! its all worth it in the end.

haha oh my gosh i was the same about the episiotomy injection pmsl!!!!

I always thought Id be scared of the pain, but Im really not. Its the only way he's going to come out, so its what needs to be done. Im ok with pain, had a few piercings and tattoos and always come out giggling, so I think Ill be ok.

Im going for an epidural and gas and air I think. If you're allowed both anyway. I would love a water birth, but someone told me if you have one of those you cant get an epidural.

Itll be reet plenty of people do it again and again after having one so it cant possibly be that bad.

My first birth was with Pitocin....and that pain was just UNNATURAL. It hurt so bad. I felt like I was being ripped open by the jaws of life. I wound up getting an epidural and then a C-Section. If you can avoid an induction, please do! My second birth was natural. No Pit or epidural. It was painful. Very painful...but it was different. I just kept thinking that this pain is just a means to an end. With every contraction I told myself that I was another step closer to meeting my beautiful son. So yes it was painful but it was worth it. It was a good pain!