Please assist me with your knowledge

lolasmit

My midwife was mentioning how if I am laboring for 24 hours or more I would want an eli or even pitocin. She said that DH and I need to come up with a limit of when I will want medication. Based on your experience - how do I know how much I can handle? or when I would even want meds - if I do labor that long-. 

DH will be my birthing partner so I am trying to let him know that if I labor for X amount of hours that it's okay to get me meds. I know that my midwife said to just labor for as long as I can at home so that when I get to the hospital I am at least dilated 5 to 6 centimeters. But, we all know that with birthing not everything works out how we planned it. 

The other thing is that I am very sensitive to drugs in general. I know that if I get any meds I will pass out and won't be able to push thus there goes a C-section. I am trying to avoid that because I would like to have a vaginal birth. Clearly, if it puts the baby at risk sure I will do what needs to be done since the purpose is to get the baby out. 

A note is that I am preparing myself by doing prenatal yoga, birthing classes (Don't know which one yet), and reading books. As well as watching videos, but I am trying to go with an open mind as well that if I need it I MIGHT need the meds and/or a c-section is possible. 

I guess what I am trying to say is -

How do I determine that X amount of hours? 

aylafsu88

Honestly, I think your MW suggestion is a bit ridiculous. Putting a time limit on how long you will labor before drugs is unrealistic. Labor is unpredictable and the stages are different for every woman. You may have a really long early labor but the contractions are managable and you are able to rest a lot. You may only be in transition for a short time and not necessarily hours.  I think having a time limit is silly and you should go by your labor and how things progress for you, not a time. I went with my gut and knew that I did not want any medication.i Had a relatively quick 11 hour labor. There was a point where I wanted drugs right before I started pushing. In my case a time limit of 20 hours would have been silly and something that never came up. I would also have been upset with my H if he started pushing medication because I had reached a time point but felt fine. It would probably have deflated me and made me lose my positivity.

pe3we303

I agree with the previous poster. Putting a time limit on it is crazy to me. Maybe you want a code word that when you say that it means you need meds. I was induced at 41weeks 6 days because I developed high blood pressure at 40weeks 6 days and I went 40 hours med free with pitocin, at 40 hours I was too tired to do any more. I got an epi at that point after talking to my hubby. It was a good choice because baby girl wasn't born for another 15 hours. My labor was nothing that I expected and dealt with each stage as it came, I couldn't imagine having a time limit on things. I know I tried my hardest for a natural birth. Also I thought the epi was awful! I had a major anxiety attack that I couldn't feel my body. It had completely worn off by the time I pushed tho so that was good.

HannahsHope

aylafsu88 said:

Honestly, I think your MW suggestion is a bit ridiculous. Putting a time limit on how long you will labor before drugs is unrealistic. Labor is unpredictable and the stages are different for every woman. You may have a really long early labor but the contractions are managable and you are able to rest a lot. You may only be in transition for a short time and not necessarily hours.  I think having a time limit is silly and you should go by your labor and how things progress for you, not a time. I went with my gut and knew that I did not want any medication.i Had a relatively quick 11 hour labor. There was a point where I wanted drugs right before I started pushing. In my case a time limit of 20 hours would have been silly and something that never came up. I would also have been upset with my H if he started pushing medication because I had reached a time point but felt fine. It would probably have deflated me and made me lose my positivity.

I agree with this. Every labor is different and people have different "acceptable pain" levels (i.e. whats a 5/10 for me, may  be a 3/10 for you, and still feeling comfortable). And you may have a lengthy early labor, and short transition. Ya just never know. I think its acceptable to talk about accepting pain management, but I definitely wouldn't recommend putting a "time limit" on it.

jamrosj

Another thing is that putting a time limit on yourself could actually stall labor. "Being on the clock" makes it hard to relax and let your body dialate.

rooftop

I started to "put a time limit" on labor as I was going on 70 hours but I would reach that limit and go "I made it this long I can make it x more hours." I helped to have mini goals in that extreme situation but if I had went into it with a time limit in mind I would never had made it to the beautiful natural waterbirth of DD after 75 1/2 hours. I think it's terrible advice to put a maximum amount of time since you really won't know what you can accomplish until you try. If you are going to set a goal make it a MINIMUM amout of time before you consider pain meds. GL and hope your MW is more NB supportive than she sounds.

lolasmit

Thank you. I appreciate your insight. I will talk to the midwife on my next appointment. 

Dreamingmommy4

Putting a time limit on it is ridiculous. You don't know how much you can handle until you are doing it. You could come up with a code word between you and YH to signal when you are really done and can't handle it anymore. I personally was able to labor 14 hours without meds, but my body got tired and stalled out at 6cm and I had some extreme hip/pelvic pain. When I decided I needed meds I looked at DH and just told him I was done and he knew it was time. Talk with your MW about your med sensitivity. I am very sensitive to meds. I have to take fractions of doses if prescribed certain things or change what I'm taking all together because it is too strong or whatever. I did end up getting an epi and some IV meds before that. When I decided in needed the epi, I needed to have the pain go away NOW. I didn't want to wait for the epi for pain relief because who knew how long the anesthesiologist might take. So my MW suggested fentynol (sp?). I warned her about me being sensitive to meds, so I was given 1/4 of a dose and it worked just fine, it took the edge off the pain and allowed me to sit still for the epi (I don't think I could have sat still without it). The epi worked like a charm and I was able to feel enough to direct my own pushing when the time came.

LOVEmyLUTZS

joules235 said:

I agree with PP as well. The whole birthing by numbers and time limits is something that I am trying to get away from. One of the ways I did this was by choosing a midwife, 24 hours is a very normal amount of time to be in labor for and by saying that you will have medication by this time is silly and honestly undermines the whole idea of a natural birth and letting your body do what it needs to do. I had a 36 hour labor with DD and at no time did I feel like I needed pain medication or any sort of intervention. If my midwife would have made this suggestion to me I probably would have switched care providers. My midwife said we wouldn't talk about medical interventions unless there was something actually going wrong.

I agree!!!! She must be a very medically minded midwife if she even suggested a time limit on labor. If you don't relax your body can't do what it does naturally better then any medication or medical intervention that has ever been made. And putting this time limit thought into your head I feel it's only seeing you up for failure. Try to keep your mind as positive as possible!