I'm Having Baby In Hospital, But...

[Leopard]

I plan on going as natural as possible. With my daughter I had G&A and they gave me a shot of morphine (which did nothing), and I want to go down the natural path this time.

I have on order a TENS machine for when I'm 28wks-40 weeks, and I'm pretty sure baby will turn up in that time frame; so if you have any experience with the machine, please let me know .

Also, any natural techniques with dealing with the pain? My daughter was posterior and turned as she crowned, the pushing was probably the easiest bit because it was so quick.

So just tips and tricks. I won't be able to have a bath, but they do have showers, which I plan on doing before using the machine. Ta.

 

[Feronia]

TENS machines are good, I didn't use one personally but I've seen them work wonders on people (I'm a doula). They seem better for early labour. Showers are also very nice in early labour.

My biggest tip is to practice HypnoBirthing or Natal Hypnotherapy early on and consistently. I've seen some of the best results with that, but mostly when it's started early enough. I had a really comfortable home birth with HypnoBirthing.

 

[Smiler82]

Agree with Feronia. It's a little late but not too late to look into hypnobirthing. I did this and had a home birth with just a little gas and air (made me feel strange so didn't really use it). I used TENS in the early stages and it did help, but once the contractions got stronger, DH turned the machine up a fraction and it was so painful! I took it off after that. I did have a bath but didn't like it at all; too much pressure on my lower back and the water didn't cover my bump so just got cold!

I had my baby at home so don't know how much control you'll have in hospital but I found keeping the lights low, soft music and wrote in my birth plan for everoyne to keep their voices down and only talk to me when really necessary helped a lot. It just allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing. I think natural births are a lot to do with your state of mind so keeping calm is really key. This is where hypnobirthing helped me a lot, and I'd say since you've already given birth once you're in a better position as you already know you can do it My baby was in a perfect position but he was 9lb 9oz so pushing him out was the hardest part. I got scared at this point so really had to use my hypno techniques.

 

[AC1987]

I think its possible in a hospital to have as little or no pain meds I plan to attempt again this time around too I only had an epi during the pushing stage last time.. but I have no regrets about it.