No epidural

good on you for wanting a drug free birth!
I am THE biggest wuss in the world haha but managed a drug-free water birth with my DD. i just told myself i was going to breathe through every contraction and even from the early on ones that wernet too bad i still did it quietly to myself(kinda to get in the habit i guess hehe) I made sure i was active through the whole labour, rocking on my swissball etc while watching a movie/listening to music for distraction. when it got really intense i was in the birthing pool at the hospital by then, and it was silent and i just breathed in at the beginning of the contraction then breathed out slowly and forcefully as it peaked, the whole time in my head telling myself "this will finish soon" and trying to totally relax my whole body between contractions (the water REALLY helped with this!) yes i yelled my head off when the pushing started lol more out of fright than anything and the sheer intensity and physical exertion you cant really help what comes out your mouth haha! and held my breath or hyperventilated- out of instinct or fear i guess, and that made it hurt WAY worse, but the second my DH and the MW coached me to breathe slowly it helped the pain heaps as i pushed. i told the MW beforehand i didnt want to be offered drugs, and she didnt offer them until right at the end and even then i said no (coz i wasnt about to give up my lovely warm pool haha) and her and DH were amazing telling me i was doing great and could do this the whole time. before i knew it my 8lb 9 bub was born without drugs, not even gas! i officially had a 9 hour labour according to the MW but the full length (from first ouchie contraction to birth) was 24 hours. just believe in yourself you can do it! GL hun youll do fine im sure x x

Well, I stacked the deck by having Jacob at a birthing centre - I couldn't have had an epidural there, so would only have had one if I'd been transferred to hospital for some reason.

I was really (really!) keen on a drug-free labour, but on the other hand, I had never had a baby before, and didn't want to base my expectations around that and then feel bad if I caved and demanded every kind of pain relief possible! So for that reason, while I know it's not recommended as a way to achieve your goals, I kind of downplayed how keen I was on no drugs, even to the midwife and DH. That way if I caved, I was the only one who knew I'd been determined to do it without.

I think that's a bit weird of me, though?!

In any case, thanks to my spectacularly not-on-the-ball midwife, I had Jacob 15 mins after getting to the birthing centre (after driving there in transition) so drugs weren't an option. The weirdest thing is, I never thought about wanting them. The pain was the craziest pain I've ever experienced, yet for some weird reason I never though 'I want some painkillers to stop this'. I did have one moment in the car when I thought that if this was to go on for the rest of the day, I could understand wanting an epidural (at that point I thought I was going to be sent home as I hadn't progressed enough, not that I'd be having a baby 20 mins later!), but that was literally the only time I thought about painkillers. Don't ask me why!

I think the main thing is that the pain's all for a good reason. That was a thought I constantly had in mind.

Yea... your midwife getting annoyed at you just wouldn't be that helpful!!!!

I hate labour,hate pain (am sure noone likes it that much) and didn't prepare at all for any of them,yet I still managed three epidural free births,the first 2 were completely drug free ,the last I did have pethidine,didn't feel like it made any difference at all,and in hindsight I could have coped with out it.

I didn't prepare,I didn't have any techniques,with both my eldest daughter's and my son's (which was the most painful birth out of the 3) I just ...lived through the contraction,and wished for death or a baby to hurry up and come out of me,with my daughter I wimpered in pain and fear and with my son I cried and got panicky,not the best way to do it,but its a distant memory now and it doesn't hurt anymore.
My last baby,I breathed,every contraction I breathed deeply in and out ,long deep breaths,not cos I wanted to get in control but because it was what my body wanted to do and I was just going with that.

Only my son was a planned drug free birth,and I was screaming for the epidural,but by the time we got from the birthing centre to the hospital,he would have been born in the ambulance.
With my last I was so adamant at first that I wanted an epidural,am glad I didn't but would have had no qualms about getting one if Id needed,however I had a very quick labor (less than 2hours from start to finish) and I think the breathing did help a bit,cos despite me not caring if it made me feel more in control,to an extent it did

Positive affirmations really helped me. All the way up to the birth I told myself I was having a drug free birth - my body was made for birthng and I knew I could get through without pain relief.

During labour, my DH said stuff like "wow that was a strong contraction, awesome!" "one more step closer to meeting baby" "you will never need to go through that one again" etc. He actually peed me off when he reverted back to Mr Sympathy "Are you ok Sugar??" ("do i LOOK ok??").

I spent from about 7cms dilated in an H2OBaby pool. I loooved the water!!! And I found myself bouncing against the side of the pool during contractions. I had a good little visualisation going on my head - I was in a rubber dinghy out at sea and the boat had sprung a leak and was taking in water and sinking. My little girl Molly (we didn't know our baby was a girl until she was born) was in the dinghy with me saying "hurry mummy hurry" and I breathed hard into the "dinghy" to blow it up and pushed against the sides to push the water out. Bit crazy and dramatic but it worked for me .

I never once wanted drugs (except I did take paracetamol). I think it was due to a combination of all of these things, plus breathing right is really important. Good luck! You will do awesome.