Personally i only want one but im sure things could change depending how this goes everyone in my family is about 3 years apart.

the only thing im going to say is *give me THE EPIDURAL*..... please i hope that its available... but at the end of the day, its gonna happen....one way or another lol

I've read a couple of good books recently about labour - sorry, but can't remember the titles, they came from the library! Both were written & published in Australia, and were basically encouraging mothers to look on labour as good pain, suggesting methods for working with the pain (eg. breathing, mouthing, shouting) but also distracting yourself with other physical activity (eg. rhythmic tapping of feet, kicking out) so that you don't focus on the pain but instead on the benefit the labour cramps are giving to the process.

Im another one who is going to tell you it really aint all that bad Its not like the pain of injury you KNOW its positive pain and you know baby is on its way and there is only a matter of hours or minutes until baby finally arrives. I had only gas and air with my first and I had a slight tear on the "inside" rather than an outer tear...wasnt bad, barely noticed it actually despite its location...actually I didnt know Id torn, didnt feel it and just had gas and air whilst they stitched and that was that....honestly if you have torn you dont care at that point as you are more interested in looking at baby!
At first I was worried about labour but I watched a LOT of pregnancy/brith programmes on TV and it definately helped, I had a very good idea of what to expect and the degree of pain so I highly reccomend watching as much as you possibly can from home birth to water birth to C sections. The only thing I am worried about is having to have a C section....but if I have too I have too and will just deal with it at the time.
Wish there was something else I could say to help, I am really looking forward to labour this time and if there was anything I could say to help you look forward to yours I would!

Hi, just wanted to add that I felt the same as you do now, except I was feeling it this time last year!

I can promise you this, you can cope and get through it. I was pleasantly suprised with how labour went. The first contractions are like period pains, which are familiar to us women and bearable (and I'm a wimp), they became a little stronger just before I felt the urge to push - but I asked for pethadine and it was fine! Wierdly...... the 'contractions' during the pushing stage aren't painful they are just a 'sensation' of wanting to push, I didn't know this!!!!!! The grunting you hear on the videos is just women using their energy to help. I'm probably telling you stuff you already know, but it was all a suprise to me.

Have as many or as little drugs as you need or want! No one is judging.


In some cases you can have an elective c-section if fears become too much!

I dont have any fears about labour next time, if I'm lucky enough to fall pregnant again!

Good luck! xxx

My first birth was horrfic, im permantly incontinent now and that was 7 years ago, but i still went back for more and have 2 boys and one on the way lol!

glutten for punishment me ha ha ha!

ACK!!! Don't even say that!!!! I am terrified of labour too - but wayyyyyy more afraid of tearing!! The majority of the birthing stories I read mention some degree of tearing and the thought really freaks me out. But I try not to worry about it now - theres nothing that worrying will accomplish except stress me out more. And once labour starts, I really have no choice then - my body will do what it wants LOL. I don't want an epidural though, because I don't want to give up what little control over my body I DO have. I want to make sure I am mobile and can move around.

I was scared of labor when I had my son last October, but in reality it wasnt half as bad as I thought, though I did have gas and air and epidural

the worse thing was when the pain from the tear could e felt lol

dont worry too much about Im sure you will be in good hands

I am going to make it clear to my doctor i would rather be cut than tear i dont want to just rip freely eeek and not to mention the scar after all crooked and what not. My mom said to get cut as she had to with both of me and my brother.

I suffered a 3rd degree tear with my first and a 4th with my second,

which wasnt repaired or seen at the time of delievery, most that are repaired there and then are ok, but for me it was 6 weeks at my post natal gp check, and by that time it all scarred and healed... so my prognosis for surgery was very poor.

It was a fuck up by the hosp, and they offered me an out of court payout to shut me up.