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April 2016 Moms
elasticheart13
member
Labor and alternative pain relief
elasticheart13
member
So DH and I had the delivery course yesterday with one of the midwives at the healthcare center I am part of (in English so DH had a chance of understanding what she was saying even though her English was horrible and we were helping her find the words half the time)
I was quite surprised at the fact that the amount of women in Malmö (the city I live in) who go for an epidural is around or less than 10 %. Prior to this course I was pretty sure I would end up with one, even though I'd try to avoid it. It's giving me renewed faith that I can actually do it without an epidural, like I was planning initially. I decided I will be using laughing gas instead for the contraction pain. DH agrees that this would probably be the best for me so I finally feel good that I have a birth plan, although I know anything can happen.
She mentioned some other new technique that I had never heard of before called the wasp sting, which is basically 7 tiny injections of sterile water under the skin. The idea is that the pain feels like being stung by a wasp and lasts 30 seconds. The brain will be distracted with the new pain and release endorphins which will help the labor pain instead. She praised the method highly and several times and mentioned it's becoming one of the most popular methods in Sweden for pain relief. Has any of you ever heard of it and would you recommend if?
I was quite surprised at the fact that the amount of women in Malmö (the city I live in) who go for an epidural is around or less than 10 %. Prior to this course I was pretty sure I would end up with one, even though I'd try to avoid it. It's giving me renewed faith that I can actually do it without an epidural, like I was planning initially. I decided I will be using laughing gas instead for the contraction pain. DH agrees that this would probably be the best for me so I finally feel good that I have a birth plan, although I know anything can happen.
She mentioned some other new technique that I had never heard of before called the wasp sting, which is basically 7 tiny injections of sterile water under the skin. The idea is that the pain feels like being stung by a wasp and lasts 30 seconds. The brain will be distracted with the new pain and release endorphins which will help the labor pain instead. She praised the method highly and several times and mentioned it's becoming one of the most popular methods in Sweden for pain relief. Has any of you ever heard of it and would you recommend if?
Re: Labor and alternative pain relief
I am in the camp of "why have the worst pain known to Man, when you don't have to?" In fact in medical school when we learn how to assess a patients' pain, one of the standard questions we learn to ask women in pain (any pain in any body part, just so we can understand how much pain they are in), is : "In a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is no pain at all and 10 is labor, how would you rate the pain you are feeling right now?" For this and other reasons also based on medschool experiences I've never been interested in med-free birth.
I obviously don't have a problem at all with woman who want an epidural- free birth, and the above is just my very personal preference, but my advice to you is the following:
- If epidural free birth is your goal, set is as your plan A and go for it;
- either before labor or very early in labor, find out from your healthcare providers how late is it too late for them to give you an epidural (I.e.: how many cm dilated, how many contractions per few minutes etc). This is just in case you decide at some point that you've had enough of the pain and would like to change your mind before it's too late. I've seen far too many cases (including friends who are also physicians and thought they knew it all and had seen it all) who gave up their original plan and asked for an epidural only to find out it was too late in the game and they could not have it. It can be a real blow to your mind and your confidence when your mind finally decides you've had enough and then you are told you have to keep going as is;
- Based on the second item above, plan for the other interventions you mentioned when you are in an intermediate stage, so it's something you can try and if it works, you're golden, but if it doesn't, you still have time to decide the next step (epidural vs. none).
Good luck!
My main concern with the epidural is the risk of dealing with headaches afterwards as it happened to a few of my friends here. I was also told by several midwives that adding an epidural usually prolongs the pushing stage as you can't feel the pushes well enough. I guess practice here is different as they do not encourage the woman to go for the epidural and will suggest other methods first before discussing an epidural. I feel confident in being able to do it on my own, and will try out the alternative pain relief methods mid stage as you suggested just in case it becomes unbearable and I change my mind.
@MrsZko
The laughing gas offered here is a tube you hold so it doesn't sit on your face. I would have found that annoying as well haha. I totally agree that in some situations an epidural is the best option. If labor is progressing slowly and going on forever and the woman is getting exhausted there's no sense in not going for an epidural because by the time she has to push she would not have the energy to do so I imagine.
As as far as the other pain method goes it makes sense as far as a distraction method goes, but just like having an IV during birth it would annoy me too much and distract me from chilling out I think. I'm pretty good at focusing through intense pain, and moving past it on my own, but when I've been in, errr, "situations" where I should be focusing on something being inflicted that's largely painful, I couldn't get past stupid things like my feet itching, or something pinching. I'm usually the weirdo who doesn't take any medication during my periods or when I have mild injuries too though, so my opinion may not apply to how you would feel.
By the way, where do you live?!! And epidural rate of 10% is phenomenal!!
ETA: do you know what the local csection rate is? I'm just being curious now!
@CCLow87 I live in Sweden
As for support I have full confidence that DH will be an amazing teammate and remind me of why it's important to me. I am so terrified of tearing and I fear if I can't feel my pushes that I won't be able to control it, which is another reason why I really wanna go without an epidural.
After the course yesterday I'm no longer scared of labor; I feel prepared and ready for it, I'm more scared of the responsibility of caring for a newborn baby that now has to rely on me
Me- 25,DH-28
@CCLow87 not sure about the rate of c-sections as she didn't even talk about it or mention it, so forgot to ask, but I can try asking next time!
@Brandi81012 Not exactly sure, the way she described it was that the gas would start working 20-30 seconds after inhaling it so you would time it with the contractions and then stop again when the pain starts subsiding.
@St0v3s yes it is, so far I don't mind timing the use of it with my contraction but I might feel differently about it afterwards
I went without pain meds with DS and plan on doing it again. I think the biggest motivator for NOT getting the epi when I was at the worst pain level was DH asking me if I was ready to give up yet. Challenge accepted, and challenge won. I should have bet money on it. Darn it.
@LArunnergal
Yes, she mentioned it was especially good when you're having back labor pain, and offers relief for a while after the sensation has worn off. It's so interesting and I think I'll definitely go this way for the delivery. Almost looking forward to it in a weird sadistic way.
https://www.scarymommy.com/mom-angela-gallo-masturbated-during-labor/?utm_source=FB
https://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160303-the-surprising-benefits-of-swearing