Painless Childbirth? Really?

[goofy!]

Do you really think there is such a thing? I don't. I am feeling a bit nervous with my upcoming birth -it's totally worth it- but you would think that by now they would figure out a way for it not to hurt. Epidurals imo don't really work that well. When it is time to push they might as well put a hot poker in your eye because the pain is still bad! I have had 3 epidurals and 1 without (no time) and I can't say that any of them were painless.

What is your take on it? Did you have a painless birth? If so what did you do to make it that way? Drink a bottle of Scotch? Close your head in the drawer really hard? Put ambesol all over your lower half? Stick pins in your head to deflect the pain? Tell me your secret!
TIA!

I was one of the lucky minorities too. And I also don't usually tell people, especially pregnant women as my births were highly unusual. It also seems a bit braggy to say I had 3 children naturally, they were all under 3 hours and no pain. But since you asked...

My last child, I was laying in bed doing the "count how many times he is moving in 30 minutes) and my water broke. It was just after 10:30 pm. We rounded up the other two children, dropped them off at my mother's house (10 minutes away) and headed to the hospital - another 5 minutes. So, total time was about 15 minutes.

Was put into the room at 10:50, baby was born after 2 pushes at 10:59. I literally did not feel a thing. It is a good thing he was my third and I was warned about fast births. My doc said any warning, I head to the hospital - so we high tailed it to the hospital. If I had waited to count contractions, he would have been born at home as I didn't feel any contractions. I was amazed that I had completely skipped through transition.

We called my mother to tell her our son was here. She thought we were just calling to let her know that we were settled into our room. Elapsed time from time of water breaking to birth - 29 minutes.

So, to answer your question - painless births do happen

Edited to add: I fully support women using any and all drugs and means available to them. As my ob/gyn told me, there is no reason to be a hero if you can limit the pain. Although I also support women who choose to go naturally. However, I was fully prepared to have epidurals.

 

[pigletgirl]

I always say, when I get pregnant I don't want the epidural due to the fact that I really don't like needles (in myself) and I've heard lots of horror stories and whatnot. BUT, after reading these I may change my mind!

Now that I think about it, labor freaks me out!!

 

[overlyspoiled4sure]

Childbirth isn't all that fun, but what a wonderful reward!! A beautiful baby!!

Our babies came fast too; all I got was something before the episiotomy. The pain shots (demerol?) didn't do a thing for me. When our 2nd came, we left for the hospital at 3pm, right at the start of rush hour, & our baby girl arrived at 3.59pm! No time for anything except a quick shot before the episiotomy.

At the time our babies were born, the nurses still did the shave bit; our daughter didn't give them time for that. My water broke when the nurse was out of the room & then things moved very fast. Not the most comfortable but not all that bad either. I agree with a PP who said it's easier if the water breaks later in labor.

I do believe, though, that a blood clot in the lower leg hurts far worse than labor pains. At least that pain goes away after the baby comes. It took more time for my leg to quit hurting after the blood clot.

 

[Planogirl]

<-------- I had an epidural and I loved it! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.


Everyone is different though.

 

[doccoc2002]

I did hypnobirthing with all three and I can honestly say it wasn't that bad. Did it hurt...yeah, but the pain goes away so fast once you have that beautiful baby in your arms(don't really remember it)! Congrats by the way!!! I have never had drugs and the last two I had pitocin...my first was 8lbs11oz(tore)...my 2nd was 10lbs3oz(no tearing)...3rd was 10lbs6oz(nothing again except dry birth...water was leaking and didn't know-they actually tested me and said 99% NO LEAKAGE WRONG I was and I had only one pocket of water by her butt...but she was fine).
GL! I am sure you'll do fine

 

[DumboPrincess]

The easiest births I have ever seen are women who did not give birth on their backs - I swear gravity comes into play.

I was at the birth of two babies who moms used hypnosis - it was unreal - calm, no drugs very easy.

This is what I did with my second birth--hypnobirthing--made a world of difference. No pain--even walked to the nursery for her first bath! It was awesome--even my Dr. was in awe.

This is what I did:

http://www.hypnobirthing.com/

Best of luck with your upcoming miracle!

 

[traviesojmt]

In the grand scheme of things, I was fairly blessed. I had both of my children naturally. With #1, my water broke at home around 6:30 am. I didn't start having contractions until around 3:00 pm. He was born 7:30 pm. With my first, the entire labor was back labor. I can honestly say that I had about 2 hours of intense pain.

With #2, contractions started around 5:00 pm and she was born at 8:35 pm. She would have been born sooner, but my Dr. was delivering another baby next door and they told me to pant and not push. It was more painful not to push when I needed to than the actual pushing. My DD was over 9 lbs, much bigger than my first, but she was much easier to delivery.

For me personally, childbirth was painful but bearable. I will admit that I did not intend to have a natural childbirth with my 1st. We were stationed overseas and they discouraged drugs. By the time I asked, I was too far along. With my second, I figured that I lived through it once so a second time would be manageable. I was fortunate that my deliveries were pretty fast. Given the option, I would choose natural again.

 

[skw444]

With my first, my midwife was great and said that she thought I should get the epidural early on. So, I did and it truly was painless. When it came time to push, I couldn't even feel the contractions and they had to tell me when to push.

Because my first was so painless, I had it in my head that I could do the second one naturally. Well, I experienced pain this time...enough that I still remember it 5 years later (who says you forget all the pain when you see that beautiful baby!). After being in so much pain, I finally gave in and asked for the epidural. Well, the epidural didn't take on one side and they had turned up the pitocin full strength!

So, my advice is ask for the epidural early enough so that they have time to make sure it works!

 

[Liberty Belle]

I have heard a few people say there wasn't any pain for them, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

My labors were extremely painful. Epidurals don't work well on me and I was induced both times. My contractions started near the 200 level and I was in labor for 26 hours the first time and 16 the second.

Well worth it, but...

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Those of you who had epis and no pain I am totally jealous of! I had epis for 3 of my 4. Every single time when it was time to push they turn the stupid thing down! "We want you to feel so you know when to push"
Give me a break! It's not like you can even control the urge to push. Your body does it naturally.

That is insane!

With my babies--I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE when "they" tell me what to do.

So for my epi's where I felt..absolutely...NOTHING...

I used the monitors. When it showed a contraction, I pushed. I told everyone to just leave me alone and they did. I couldn't feel anything..not urge, no pressure, no nothing. But I was able to deliver 2 babies with that monitor.

I'm glad I went med free last time. They built a new wing and the design of the room--the monitor is not visible by the patient at all. Perhaps I could ask them to relocate the bed, but I doubt they would. I just have no interest in being told what to do while in labor.

They made you "feel" when it wasn't necessary.

 

[ElizK]

No meds with either of my kiddos. I was significantly more afraid of the epidural needle than I was the pain. I'm sure it helps a lot that I have a high pain tolerance. And that neither of my girls weighed much over 6 1/2 lbs.

With both labors, I disassociated from the pain. Not sure if I can explain that any better. It took a lot of concentration, and it really pissed me off when the nurse chose to ask me questions during a contraction.

With baby #2, I was having painless contractions off and on. I could feel my belly tighten, but there was no pain. It was weird.

 

[cybrkitn]

But-with my last child, I decided to have natural labor to "see what it was like" LOL- I do NOT recommend this at all

It depends on the woman. I did natural with DS7 with nothing but the hydrating meds in the I.V. (of course, I didn't know it until the next day ). I refused an epidural b/c I'm terrified of needles, especially after I found out it goes about 2 inches in - YIKES I can take an I.V. without a problem though.

 

[cheerful chickadee]

When pregnant with my son I had all kinds of complications so my OB advised no epidural when I went into labor, I did get some kind of pain medicine through an IV that sucked, did nothing for me. The labor was torture! When I got pregnant with #2 I was SO looking forward to the epidural since I felt I got screwed out of getting one the first time around. When I went into labor with #2 I let everyone at the hospital know that I was getting that EPIDURAL haha. So the anesthesiologist came in, did their whole spiel and finally administered it and ahhh, relief! 20 minutes later....I was screaming in pain! They came back in and continued to increase the pain med level to the max and still....nada. My epidural didn't take! (can you tell I'm still bitter? lol) So when anyone mentions painless childbirth I get really uptight and remember that feeling of how much I was looking forward to that epidural only to have it not work! I was in labor for 13 hours! I also had pitocin for what seemed like forever, ugh, terrible stuff.

I think I got to a place of disassociation too, I was on my left side, holding on to the bed rail for dear life and breathing/moaning for hours, last time check was 12:30pm and now it was 3:15pm and time to push. My OB came in and checked me often, DH tells me he asked me all kinds of questions which I didn't hear or reply to, my DH was the one who finally got through to me that it was time to push. We definitely find ways of dealing with the pain.

 

[pooh4evr]

Epidurals are wonderful!! At least mine were-- Not a big fan of needles- I just didn't look at it- in my head I kept telling myself it was wort it and it would make everything better..aahhhhhhhh-- then again my kids were 8 lbs 4 oz, 8lb 12 oz and 7 10- all 21 1/2 inches.

 

[Piecey]

I had more pain from my one c/s recovery than my combined 40+ hours of active labor! You could always tell the ******l deliveries from the c/s deliveries walking the hospital halls. I think it's rare to have major abdominal surgery, with cut muscles and skin, stitches and staples, and have no pain. I've never met a single person who had this experience.

Yeah, my c/s was definitely not painless. I could feel her "messing" around in there during the operation, too. They say pressure but that doesn't feel like pressure to me. Just feels strange.

Getting out of bed for the first time was probably the single most horrifically painful memory I have. That may be because I was on major drugs when I had the back labor, though.

How do you have a pain free c/s?? I want one of those next time! I'm doing a RCS and I want the pain free type!

My incision is really high (even with my hip bones) so I wonder if that is why?

 

[AmazingGrace]

Well, you're pushing a watermelon out of a hole the size of a peanut. There's gonna be some pain. I had a really long labor with my daughter and by the time it was time for me to push, I was spent and the pain took over. It hurt like nothing i ever experienced and in about an hour after I pushed the first time, the pain was gone, just like that.

There are things you can do, like hypnosis, or breathing or an epidural, but honestly, not to scare you, there's going to be some pain involved and that's okay. It'll pass. But I promise you, you look at your sweet baby for the first time, it'll be totally worth it. Having my kids is the best pain I ever went thrugh and I'd go through all of it again. God bless you and your little sweet pea. I hope all goes well for you all!

 

[handinpocket]

Had epidurals with each of my children and didn't feel a thing. I need to turn in my Mom card, lol.

 

[AmazingGrace]

Had epidurals with each of my children and didn't feel a thing. I need to turn in my Mom card, lol.

Oh, I wish I didn't feel a thing. Epidurals didn't take with me, so I HAD to suck it up. Either that or knock myself out with a bed pan. i'm so glad your epidurals worked for you.

 

[tinkerbell198530]

I am affried to use drugs I am affried it would harm the baby

 

[Keira1387]

I know of another girl on the dis who used hypnobabies and swears by it. I've never been pregnant, but I do find it interesting that there have been quite a few people that have had success with it. I personally am afraid of needles and will even pass out when blood is drawn so I don't see an epidoral in my future.