Planning a natural hospital birth

[Pearls18]

In the UK we are encouraged to stay at home as long as we can manage it, this encourages a natural birth and you're more likely to labour better where you're feeling comfortable. My plan would be to go in when it starts getting unbearable (although being mindful this is your first so could happen quickly!) and when you get there maybe try some gas and air and keep mobile, I never understand how women can labour in bed, I needed to jump around like I had cramp! It's also helps it go along quicker!

I labored for days at home. It was latent labor, so the contractions were bearable and inconsistent. I even went to work and worked around the house, and walked around the mall to make sure the contractions kept coming. Finally my water broke and we went to the hospital. Man, labor started for real then! I was 4 cm when we got there, and delivered him 5 hours later. I agree with not laying in bed. It was wayyyy too painful to just lay still! Standing and walking was the best thing for me.
In the U.S. they don't offer gas and air... They offer oxygen only if you are havin a hard time breathing efficiently dur to back-to-back contractions or your are fatigued from pushing, or if they feel baby needs more oxygen. It was 100% au naturale for me.

That's a shame they don't offer it, that's a big jump between no pain relief and then pethidine/epidurals. Entonox isn't necessarily overly effective for everyone but I think it can be a bit of a crutch, less daunting, I think if I was doing it completely au naturale I may be thinking "ah I haven't got anything I can't do this" lol.

 

[BubsMom17]

In the UK we are encouraged to stay at home as long as we can manage it, this encourages a natural birth and you're more likely to labour better where you're feeling comfortable. My plan would be to go in when it starts getting unbearable (although being mindful this is your first so could happen quickly!) and when you get there maybe try some gas and air and keep mobile, I never understand how women can labour in bed, I needed to jump around like I had cramp! It's also helps it go along quicker!

I labored for days at home. It was latent labor, so the contractions were bearable and inconsistent. I even went to work and worked around the house, and walked around the mall to make sure the contractions kept coming. Finally my water broke and we went to the hospital. Man, labor started for real then! I was 4 cm when we got there, and delivered him 5 hours later. I agree with not laying in bed. It was wayyyy too painful to just lay still! Standing and walking was the best thing for me.
In the U.S. they don't offer gas and air... They offer oxygen only if you are havin a hard time breathing efficiently dur to back-to-back contractions or your are fatigued from pushing, or if they feel baby needs more oxygen. It was 100% au naturale for me.

That's a shame they don't offer it, that's a big jump between no pain relief and then pethidine/epidurals. Entonox isn't necessarily overly effective for everyone but I think it can be a bit of a crutch, less daunting, I think if I was doing it completely au naturale I may be thinking "ah I haven't got anything I can't do this" lol.

Oh I know... something to take the edge off would have made me feel a lot better. My labor was fast and I was having contractions every 30 seconds, lasting for 90 seconds of more... I kept telling everyone I couldn't do it and to let me go home. LOL... Like that would have done any good. It was good cuz it went fast, and they told me I could take an IV pain relief, but they said it wouldn't do much and would make pushing less effective. They also offered the epidural when I asked for something to help, but I knew I wouldn't be able to hold still long enough. It was pointless to even consider it. BUT despite it all, I am TOTALLY going to do it again!

 

[d_b]

I am in Canada but had no issues getting a med-free, needle-free hospital birth. I just left it til the last second to go to the hospital and was pushing as I walked to the delivery room, lol. Heplock isn't standard here as far as i know, but it seems you should be able to refuse it if you don't want it and there is no real reason to get one.