Hi.

I think its great to have an idea of what you want in labour but I also would really strongly bare in mind that you just dont know how you are going to cope and that once you are in the situation you need to do what you feel you need - and not worry about what you had planned in regards to pain relief.

I was adamant with my first labour that I did not want an epidural and so booked into my local hospital for delivery (as only entonox and pethadine are available here). I planned to only have entonox and didnt even want the pethidine. As it turned out because of established labour still not happening for 42 hours from my show and contractions starting, they sent me to be induced at the alternative hospital - which when i got there they said i didnt need to be induced and could see that i would get to 3cm on my own in the next few hours (4 and a half hours later) now i know contractions get a lot more painful, but at the time i thought surely this was the worst is what going to be!!! ( Oh how i laugh at myself now!)

So once down on delivery suite the contractions started getting worse obviously and finally they gave me some fricken entonox!!!!! Fabulous stuff!! Made me giggle my head off and helped to take the edge off the concentration i had on the pain (still only 3-4cm at this point and labour progressing well, but slowly (this was at 7pm) on a friday evening after my contractions starting at around 8am on the wednesday.

So, to get things speeding up midwife said she wanted to break my waters which she did around 7.45............................................ can i just say OMFG - where the hell did that pain just come from??!!! Not breaking my waters - but the contraction that followed!! Now all the pressure was pushing down with no fluid for bub to be supported in I thought I was dying! I just screamed and cried and I guess i was panicked too because nothing can prepare you for how sore it is ( I know some people have higher pain thresholds but im just sharing my experience)

Anyway, the point i am making is that i was so adamant i would manage just with the entonox, that when they midwife said i should consider an epidural i was really annoyed and swearing that i didnt want one - by 9pm my epidural was being administered. They had been concerned that because I hadnt slept in 2 days and because of how worked up i was at that point that when it came to it i wouldnt be able to push from exhaustion.

So, epidural went in, not the most comfortable thing in the world to have done but by 10pm I was in heaven. No pain, able to have an hours sleep, watched some tv had a nice chat with oh about how it was that baby was coming. At 2am the midwife said it was time to start pushing, so she told me when the contractions were and i pushed (didnt find pushing difficult with the epi at all she was out withing 20 minutes).

God havnt i rambled!!! lol

So I just wanted to say that whatever you plan to do pain relief wise - just be open to other options for yoursef too, i wishe i hadnt had an epi, but im quite sure without it i would have ended up in section. Obviously my labour was long and tiring - others are lucky and its only a few hours, it just depends on what happens on the day/days So whatever happens, you shouldnt beat yourself up if you decide to go with more pain relief!

This time round i am planning to go with entonox again and if i need to pethadine as i am booked into my local hospital again for this birth, i am hoping that this time round it isnt such a long ordeal.

Guess i'll have to wait and see!!!!

just to say you may have a great birth, i thought i had a low pain threshold, but when i called the hospital to say I am having contractions, they asked if they hurt and when i said no they advisd not to come in till they did. I waited and by the time they hurt I got to hospital fully dilated and ready to push. I had gas and air, but looking back I don't think I really needed it. Alex was born within 40 mins and I was laughing and joking through labour. I had not had any antenatal classes and went in with the attitude I'll see what I need at the time. Also the best form of pain relief was dh rubbing the bottom of my back

Good luck

Diamorphine is actually supposed to be quite a bit better than Pethadine during labour (less vomitting etc for the mother and less transference to the baby).

They are currently doing a (blind) Diamorphine/Pethadine trial/study in my local area at the moment...

QT