Hello there. Firstly, you need to calm your nerves and calm down. It is indeed not good for you to worry about such things when you need to be resting well and taking gd care instead worrying and losing sleep. I have a super low threshold for pain.
Q1) I will be honest. My initial dosage seemed low. I felt the contraction pains (to me it was like severe menstrual cramping..) Then I buzzed for the nurse to up the dosage. Then the pain lessened. However, with the increased dosage, I had severe side effects. I threw up so badly for abt 6 times in total. I also shivered uncontrollably.
2) You are injected only once as explained above by the mommy. They have a tiny tube linked to increase or decrease dosage.
3) Mine lasted from 1.30am till abt 8am. I delivered ard 5.30am
4) No. Just tingling sensation, ticklish in my opinion
5) I was being induced (a medicine inserted to speed up dilation). the speeding up of dilation made contractions more painful. I buzzed nurse to increase dosage. by then my legs were numb and slumped. completely couldn't feel them! I didn't feel any 'natural' vaginal tear as my gynae prepared me for episiotomy. When gynae arrived, i gave 2 sets of 3 pushes and baby was delivered. I didn't feel any pain by then at all..I didn't even know that my push was that strong enough that the baby was out that quickly. Yes the epidural did numb everything from lower half. cutting and stitching did not hurt at all and I didn't feel anything at all. My gynae did a very good job. Fyi, when my elder sis described labour pain and what episiotomy was...I went weak in the knees and felt like fainting (that was before I was expecting). But when the time came for me, I was much stronger than expected...likely because the baby in me gave me strength and courage. Post delivery, nurse gave me painkillers to take after epidural effect wore off. But I could manage and did not pop any painkillers.
After I delivered, I still threw up because of my high dosage of epidural. They didnt pass me my baby for the supposed skin-to-skin bonding as soon as she was born but instead gave me the little basin to puke... they were afraid I would puke on my newborn.
I think you should go for maternity tour and parentcraft sessions to learn more..They will topics like massage and exercises to help w labour pain and how to push/prepare for delivery.
If you feel strong enough, try to walk more. I walked a lot and took the stairs instead of escalator and I think that helped with the quick delivery.
mommy-to-be, to be super honest, everyone has different thresholds... some people can tahan the pain without any epidural.. whilst I know I couldnt, i opted for epidural. Suggest u read up abt the side effects and tell urself labour pain is like severe menstrual cramps. And then u decide what to opt for. Remember, no two persons are the same. And if I get pregnant again, I will still opt for normal delivery with epidural.. unlike my sis who went for both natural without epidural.. Ur spouse can give u mental and moral support in the delivery suite. he can also give you massages to help u cope w any discomfort.
Dont go crazy thinking abt this. The pain is more manageable than u imagine. Go keep yourself occupied with other stuff so that you dont keep focusing on this fear. It really is manageable. Glad to address anymore questions u might have.
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