I only used the bath as pain relief, but honestly it took the pain from a 9 down to a 5 for me! As I continued to progress over 2 hours in the water this time, pain went up again, but not as crazy as before, and water was so warm and relaxing that I felt quite able to recover in the spaces between contractions...also certain positions helped, like laying back against the side of the bath in water with my bum off the ground pushing the other side with my legs took lots of pressure away. In my next birth I felt better being on all fours and staying very still. Doesn't always have to be drugs that work better for some people (but I can't compare so don't really know! I was quite happy with my pain relief for the first 2 anyway so will do the same for my 3rd birth too)
I really wanted the gas but the hospital was out of tubing for it! SERIOUSLY?!?!? How does a hosp run our if something so important? And then I am allergic to every iv pain med they offer. I had to get my epidural at 4cm and had it going for about 25hrs, which was 2hrs into my labor before I ended up with a c section. I hope to try the gad during my next labor, whenever thst may be lol
get the gas!!! Its amazing! You have to be 5cm along to get it but it works wonders! Made my pregnancy fly by! I opted for the gas as I knew I did not want an epidural, also I got the demerol and maybe it was just me but it did absolutely nothing except give me a pain in my thigh where it was injected, waste of time
Keep anymore advice you have coming. I just know the last time I tried the epidural it took two attempts from the first specialist to try to get it to work. When I told I could still feel everything (toes included) the director of anesthesiology came down to do it himself. He was even baffled as to why it wouldn't work. I'm thankful I don't suffer back problems. I'm about 9 weeks away from my due date and I appreciate any alternatives if I need pain management this time
So as far as non medicinal options, you can get nitrous oxide (laughing gas). They just give you the mask with it during each contraction to help you through, they also offer sterile water injections in your lower back and it acts as an anesthetic for a few hrs. Them for medicinal options they have an iv medicine called nubane, it's a sister drug of morphine and they mix it with benedryl or Phenergan and it works as a pain medicine along with nausea and the antihistamine in it will help keep you relaxed and sleepy. There are lots of other things they can do besides an epidural
They can also inject you with a local anesthetic called lidocaine at the site of any tearing so you dont feel it
When I delivered my second baby 2 years ago I didnt have anything, but about 45min after the delivery they gave me fentanyl (which i was told is the replacement for stadol nowadays) because i had to have the doc scrape tissue out of my uterus because i was hemmohraging. But it (fentanyl) was really calming, although I'm not sure how much 'pain relief' it actually provided. I had stadol with my first 9 years ago and hated it, I felt drunk/high/loopy and it just made me tired.
My first birth epidural didn't work but second birth it worked great. Good luck.
Demoral. It won't take away the pain but it puts you to sleep between contractions. I don't know of anything else this is my 5th baby and I've had successful epidural for 3 of them and one completely natural