I had a group of medical students that came into my delivery room. Tbh, I don't even remember them being there. My oh just told me afterwards!

I'm very fussy about drugs and the baby and want as natural a labour as possible - Pethadine does affect the baby and if baby is born within an hour they have to have another injection as an antidote.
It can make you feel sick - once you've had it if this happens you're stuck with it.
It's a hallucinogenic (mind altering) so it won't take away the pain but will make you feel out of it enough that you don't notice it as much. It can increase the time of your labour up to an hour.

The epidural is a risky (but very common) process and involves a long needle being left in your back which works kind of like a drip. With an epi you also have a catheter fitted as you can't feel the urge to wee etc. You are told when to push. Ideally, you have enough feeling left to be able to do this yourself but it's a tricky injection to get right so obviously some ppl feel much more numb. This numbness means you are very restricted with movements and are pretty much on the bed on your back which is the hardest position for labour - will slow things down and make it more difficult as the position of the pelvis when you are on your back means the baby actually has to push up a little to come out - no gravity helping you.

Hospitals will often offer epi, pethadine or a sytocin (spelling sorry!) drip and they all have their benefits but often (understandably) the hospitals prefer you to have these drugs as they can manage your labour more effectively. Sytocin speeds up labour but has the same effects to the baby as pethadine.

Entonox (gas and air) is the only one that doesn't pass through the placenta and therefore the only one that has no effect whatsoever to the baby.

At antenatal we did pros and cons of each drug and intervention available - maybe you will get to do this at your classes.

Try Babycentre for advice (on the web) and links to videos of waterbirth, epidural etc.

xxx

The midwife at my antenatal class told us that pethidine was more to relax you than relieve pain. She said it wasn't a pain reliever (but I just googled it and wikipedia says it is so god knows )

I'm in two minds about it to be honest....I've had people tell me its the best thing ever, and some people say they hated it. I think its an individual thing....I personally hate the feeling of being drunk so if thats what it feels like then I don't think I'm gonna like it!! However, I do think I'm gonna be majorly stressed because I suffer with anxiety so I'm probably gonna need something to relax me a little....it relaxes your muscles down there so makes it easier for baby to get out (apparently).

Oh god, I'm as confused as you are now!!!!!

Tell you what....you have it then let me know what you think

xx

Yes, i say go with the flow....

May find having an active birth aint for you and using birthing pool is your best option, may find that water is enough to get you through, or may find you need an active labour with every possible drug u can take.


Its something you'll find out at the time, saying open minded about every option that will available to you.

Every pain drug has differnt effects on every women so going to get all differnt views on it.

G&A for me, wasnt a good thing. It made me extrememly sick, so i gave up on it and tried pethidine, which for me worked wonders, i totally loved the feeling of being wasted! I have read, given to late can make baby sleepy, but again cant know when baby is going to appear so i dont think this should stop you from trying it, personally.

G&A & pethidine both didnt do anything to the pain for me, just took me to a loopy place which i enjoyed but felt every contractions. MW explained me reason this happened was because they both were given far to late, id passed my pain level, probably only thing "may" took away complete pain woulda been an epi, but i wanted be in & out asap, also i wanted an active birth.

Oh O/T but I was gonna mention the thing about students....

I've had students both at my scan and a MW appointment....I thought it was really good because everything got checked twice - first by the professional and again by the student. Also I felt like they were more thorough than they would be normally because the student was there...

I don't want a big group gawping at my bits though ha, so I've put in my birth plan that I don't mind individual students but no groups!! I'm actually kinda hoping that there is one....I like the thought of helping them learn (does that make me weird??!!)

Suz, you do crack me up!! If I have it I'll tell you what I think!!

MummytoAmber, thank you for giving a positive side to pethadine. It's good to hear. I think your right in the sense that as every drug affects ppl differently it's best to just see how you feel. Screw what my family think...if I want it at the time I'll have it.

New2bumps, thanks for the website I'm going to get reading tomorrow. Unfortunately last night was my one and only antenatal class (good ol' NHS gave me a whole hour and half of info!!!) I might have a read and then next week at my BF class (which is run by the same MW) I'll ask any questions.

I guess also it'll depend if I go into labour naturally, or induced (which my consultant said could happen) as to what type of pain relief I want. I was told if induced an epi is much more likely....labour is one big guessing game!!

Suz, not weird at all, it's good you've had good experiences of students. A friend of mine is a student MW so I should be more considerate!

BUT when I was admitted at 30weeks 2 student doctors were left alone with me to put in an IV (quite simple you'd think and they weren't young) I was on the bed strapped to moniters (had been for 2 hours at this point) and it took the 2 idiots 4 veins and 45 mins to get the IV in. I have good veins too, they were soooo stupid. Blood was everywhere and they left as I started crying (oh and didn't take my daily bloods to check my amylase levels, that was the only reason I was in there, and because they didn't take bloods, no one did). The whole experience made me hysterical, so there's no way I'm allowing it during labour. It'll stress me out beyond belief.

I was induced and didnt have a epi and i never would have!!

Pethidine was great for me and would have it again with my next one.

My son was delivered by a student midwife and she was much nicer and more helpful than the qualified midwives.

I think u should go into labour with an open mind. Dont decide on anything until its happening. See how u feel at the time. See how ur labour progresses etc. If u manage to get in the birthing pool, it does help with pain and gas n air is great. But if u start to feel your not coping then the option of an epidural etc is always there.

Yeah, I can totally see why you and other people wouldn't want them there. I was going to put "no students" on mine until I read a few posts on here bigging them up! Then I had the student MW at my appointment who was really nice so that kinda made me think twice.

Don't like the sound of your experience though....sounds a bit scary to me