by joodel » Sat May 10, 2008 2:48 pm
Ds was a home birth (unplanned, although I was booked in to the private "home-birth section of the local maternity hospital). No pain relief for either of them - just breathing, walking, visualisation (worked better with number 2 as I felt more like I knew what was going to happen, having been through it all before with ds. I had two wonderful private midwives who were fantastic during labour with ds! Laboured in the bath at home for a while with ds, then on the bed and in a squat position for the pushing. Unfortunately had a serious post-birth complication with ds and ended up in hospital needing blood transfusions etc. BUT, my midwives still managed to bet me back with my baby and bf within 2 hours of birth!
DD was a hospital birth because of my previous complication, but also no pain relief and my lovely midwives. Unfortunately dd's heart beat went down with every contraction as there was a bit of cord compression, so although I wanted to be in the birthing pool, I ended up strapped to a monitor most of the labour and lying on my left side as this seemed to help her heart beat. She was v active between contractions (kicked me like mad!) which was v encouraging. Whole thing was abotu 5 hours from start to finish and felt very positive and in control the whole time. Also felt like I could really trust my body and found the pushing stage so much easier than with dd...I knew where to concentrate my energies this time (iykwim?)
Not planning a third, but if we did and I was allowed...would go for another home birth au natural!!
I did use a tens machine for a while - not sure if it helped with the pain but it was good to concentrate on something other than the pain - but apart from that I had no pain relief 
