How can i stop obsessing over upcoming labor pains?

Question

i just cant stop thinking about it, im breaking out from the stress

this is my 3rd time around by the way. so i have an extremely good idea of what I'm in for

this is my 3rd time around by the way. so i have an extremely good idea of what I'm in for. also im afraid of drugs since my first 2 deliveries were natural

Answer 1

cant help you with thinking about it but this should ease your mind a bit

MANAGING PAIN DURING CHILDBIRTH
Topics you will find:
15 Ways to Reduce Pain During Childbirth
Understanding the Cause of Labor Pain
Pain Has a Purpose
3 Time-Tested Relaxation Techniques
3 Reasons Why Laboring in Water Really Works
How to Use Water for Labor
9 Breathe Right Strategies for Easier Birthing
Use a Healing Touch
6 Tips on Preparing a Labor-Friendly Nest
Understanding Medical Pain Relievers
Narcotics
Epidurals
7 Common Types of Epidurals


Back to topUNDERSTANDING THE CAUSE OF LABOR PAIN
It takes a lot of pushing and stretching to move a baby the size of a melon through a cervical opening that starts out as the size of a kidney bean. Muscles don't flex or tissues stretch without letting your body know it. Contrary to popular belief, it's usually not the contracting uterine muscles that produce the pain. Like any muscle, uterine muscles don't hurt unless they are forced to work in a way they were not designed to. Yet when a muscle is overly tired, the natural chemistry and electrical activity within the muscle tissues get out of balance. These physiological changes produce pain.

Most childbirth pain originates in the stretching of the cervix, vagina, and surrounding tissues as baby passes through. During labor the uterus doesn't squeeze baby out; what really happens is the uterine contractions work to pull the cervical muscle up out of the way so that the baby's head can then be pushed through. (Think of a turtleneck sweater being slowly stretched as you pull it over your head. ) The muscles and ligaments in the pelvis are richly supplied with pressure and pain receptors in the nerves, so the stretching produces powerful sensations that may be interpreted as pain, especially if there is tension in the surrounding muscles.

In order to manage childbirth pain well you need to understand how your body processes pain and how your mind perceives it. The contraction begins, tissues stretch, and the tiny pressure receptors in the nerves are stimulated, sending lightning-fast impulses along the nerves to the spinal cord. Pain receptors are stimulated as well if the surrounding muscles are tense. In the spinal cord these impulses must pass through a sort of gate that can stop some impulses and allow others to pass through into the brain, where they could be registered as pain. So you can influence pain at three sites: where it's produced in the first place, at the gate in the spinal cord, and in the brain where the pain is perceived. In working out your own techniques for pain management, you will want to employ pain-relief measures that can control pain at all three of these sites.

To do this, you can practice relaxation techniques to keep your muscles from getting tired and tense. And you can use efficient positions for labors that keep your muscles working in the way they were designed to. Next, you can close the gate in the spinal cord so the cars can't get through. A pleasant touch stimulus, such as massage, sends positive impulses that can block the transmission of pain impulses through the spinal cord. You can also cause gridlock at the gate by sending through a lot of competing vehicles, such as impulses from music, specific mental imagery, or counterpressure. Finally, you can fill up the receptor sites in the brain so that the pain-cars have no place to park. Blocking access to this third pain-perception site is how pain- relieving drugs work. You can achieve the same effect naturally by manufacturing your body's own painkillers, endorphins.

Back to top15 WAYS TO REDUCE PAIN DURING
1. Forget your fears. There is a connection between fear and pain. The efficiency of the magnificent uterine muscle depends upon your hormonal, circulatory, and nervous systems all working together. Fear upsets the balance of these three systems. Fear and anxiety cause your body to produce excess stress hormones that counteract the helpful hormones your body produces to enhance the labor process and relieve discomfort. This results in increased pain and a longer labor. Fear also causes physiologic reactions that reduce blood flow and thus oxygen supply to the uterus. An oxygen-deprived muscle tires quickly, and a tired muscle is a hurting muscle.

2. Address your fears. What specifically do you fear about birth? Do you fear the pain, for example, having had negative experiences with pain in the past? Do you fear having a cesarean or needing an episiotomy? Are you afraid that you will lose control midway through labor? Do you have fears about problems with the baby? List all your fears and alongside each one write what you can do to avoid having the fear come true. Realize, too, that some events and outcomes are beyond your power to change, and resolve not to worry about things you cannot change.

3. Be informed. The more you know, the less afraid you will be. While no two mothers' labors are alike, and each birth a woman experiences is different from the last one, childbirth does follow a general outline. There are sensations (aka "pains") that will always occur between the first contraction and the final delivery of a baby. If you understand what happens and why, and what it probably will feel like, you will not be taken by surprise. Having a sense of what to expect – and when it will end – helps most mothers feel confident that they can handle labor and delivery. A good childbirth class can help you understand what happens and why. There is no class that can tell you what it will feel like specifically to you, because this will depend on each woman's particular situation and her ability to cooperate with the forces of labor. Women can easily be taken by surprise at the intensity of labor. Some decide they do not like it one bit and wind up resisting the forces when fear takes hold.

4. Employ a professional labor support person. An experienced woman, called a PLA, will help you interpret your sensations during labor, offer suggestions for managing your pain, and help you understand and participate in any medical decisions.

5. Surround yourself with fearless birth attendants. Fear is contagious. Be sure you do not allow any fear mongers in the labor room. Don't think that this is the time to finally prove something to your mother; if she has a fearful attitude about labor, better she watch your birth on video afterward than be in the birthing room infecting you with her fears. (Many men, including fathers-to-be, are afraid of birth. They don't understand it, and they find it very upsetting when their mate hurts and they can't "fix" it. It helps to inoculate your mate against fear so that he won't pass the bug onto you. Prepare your partner for the normal sights and sounds of labor. Tell him what may happen if events don't go as planned. A calm birth attendant can give your mate a much-needed break and help him keep focused on his job, which is to support you and share in the birth experience, not to protect you from this perfectly normal process. )

6. Avoid fearful replays. Don't carry scary baggage from your past into the delivery room. Birth has a way of stirring up uncomfortable memories of previous traumatic labors or even of a past sexual assault.

7. Take responsibility for your birth decisions. While a painless childbirth is as rare as a sleep-through-the-night newborn, most pain in childbirth is under your influence – if you are ready for it.

8. Choose your practitioner wisely. Does your doctor or midwife take an active role in teaching you about the birth process and helping you to trust your body to give birth? After each visit do you leave believing your birth will go right? Or does this person create a fearful mindset about birth, filling your mind with all the possibilities of what could go wrong?

9. Understand labor and the birth process. Do you know what happens during contractions, what it is those "pains" actually do? Do you understand how being upright and changing positions during labor can influence how you experience contractions?

10. Understand which technological tools (such as electronic fetal monitoring) are likely to be used during your labor. Are you confident that you are knowledgeable enough to participate in decisions about the use of technology in your labor?

11. Be aware of the options available for medical pain relief, such as drugs and epidural anesthesia.

12. Understand the importance of releasing and surrendering to your body during labor. Are you determined to assume whatever position works for you rather than tensing up, resisting the labor process, or becoming a passive patient and spending a lot of time in the horizontal position?

13. Learn to relax your birthing muscles. Relax is more than just an empty word for helpless bystanders to throw at a mother who is experiencing the most intense physical work of her life. But relax is what you must do to help the work progress. Relaxing all of your other muscles while only your uterus contracts eases the discomfort and speeds the progress of labor. If there is tension anywhere in your body, especially in your face and neck, this tension will spread to the pelvic muscles that need to stay loose during a contraction. Tense muscles hurt more than relaxed ones and they tire sooner. Chemical changes within an exhausted, tense muscle actually lowers the muscle's pain threshold, and you hurt more than if the muscle were working unopposed. When tight muscles resist the relentless, involuntary contractions of your uterus, the result is pain. Exhausted muscles soon lead to an exhausted mind, increasing your awareness of pain and decreasing your ability to cope with it.

14. Learn to relax to balance your hormones for birth. Two sets of hormones help you labor efficiently. Adrenal hormones (also called stress hormones) give your body the extra power it needs in situations that call for tremendous effort, like labor and birth. These hormones are often referred to as the "fight or flight" hormones, and are there for the body's protection. During labor your body needs enough of these stress hormones to help you work hard, but not so many that your body becomes anxious and distressed, causing your mind and muscles to work inefficiently. Stress hormones may even divert blood from the hardworking uterus to the vital organs of the brain, heart, and kidney.

15. Relax to boost endorphins. Another kind of hormone also works for you during labor – natural pain-relieving hormones, known as endorphins. (The word comes from endogenous, meaning produced in the body, and morphine, a chemical that blocks pain). These are your body's natural narcotics, helping to relax you when you're stressed and relieving pain when you're hurt. These physiologic labor assistants are produced in the nerve cells. They attach to pain receptor sites on the nerve cell, where they blunt the sensation of pain. Strenuous exercise increases endorphin levels, and endorphins enter your system automatically during the strenuous exercise of labor, as long as you don't do anything to block them. (Tensing up blocks endorphin release. ) Levels are highest in the second stage of labor (pushing) when contractions are most intense. Relaxing will allow these natural pain- relievers to work for you. Fear and anxiety can increase your levels of stress hormones and counteract the relaxing effects of endorphins. Endorphins stimulate the secretion of prolactin, the relaxing and "mothering" hormone that regulates milk production and gives you a psychological boost toward enjoyment of mothering. Studies have shown that endorphin levels are increased by laughter.

Back to top3 TIME TESTED RELAXATION TECHNIQUES
To practice relaxation with your partner, you need to be very comfortable. Collect a bunch of pillows and teach your partner where you like them. Do these exercises in various positions: standing and leaning against your partner, a wall or a piece of furniture, sitting down, lying on your side, and even on all- fours.

1. Tense, and then relax muscle groups. Check your whole body for muscle tension: a furrowed forehead, clenched fists, and a tight mouth are the easiest ones to spot. Then practice releasing each group of muscles from head to toe systematically. Tense, and then relax each muscle group to help you identify the two different states. When your partner cues you with "contraction," think, "relax and release. " Then feel these tight muscles loosen.

2. Practice touch relaxation. This conditions you to expect pleasure rather than pain to follow tension. Find out which touches and what kind of massage relax you best. Do the same head to toe progression as above. Tense each muscle group, and then have your partner apply a warm, relaxed touch to that area as your cue to release the tension. This means you don't have to keep hearing the verbal cue "relax," which eventually becomes irritating. Another goal is to be able to relax a tense muscle when your partner puts just the right touch on that spot before it begins to hurt. Practice: "I hurt here – you press hard (or stroke or touch here). "

3. Use visualization to relax. A clear mind filled with soothing scenes relaxes a laboring body – at least between contractions. It also encourages the production of labor-enhancing endorphins that can help your labor progress. Sports psychologists use mental imagery or visualization to help athletes perform. Follow these steps to use visualization for relaxation during labor:

Determine the thoughts and scenes you find most relaxing and practice meditating on them frequently throughout the day, especially in the final month of pregnancy. You may find the following scenes helpful: rolling waves, waterfalls, meandering streams, walking along the beach with your mate.
Think about appropriate images for use during contractions. When a contraction begins, picture your uterus "hugging" your baby and pulling itself up over his or her adorable little head. During the dilating stage, imagine your cervix getting thinner and more open with each contraction.
Change scenes from painful to pleasant. Grab the pain as if it were a big glob of modeling clay, massage it into a tiny ball, wrap it up, put it in a helium balloon, and imagine it leaving your body and floating up into the sky.
Between and during the more painful contractions, imagine the prize rather than the pain you have to go through to get it. Picture yourself reaching down as your baby comes out, assisting your birth attendant in placing your baby on your abdomen, and nestling your child against your breasts.

Answer 2

It's perfectly normal to think about it and worry. Just try to relax and if you really think the pain will be too much for you, ask for an epidural. I gave birth to both of my kids natural with nothing for pain and I'm not going to lie, it hurt, but not nearly as much as I was afraid it was. When it was time to start pushing, there was so much going on that I did not even have time to notice the pain, and then of course, when I held my babies for the first time it made it all worth it. You will be fine and try not to worry. In this case, the anticipation of the pain is so much worse than the reality, and the reward is so much better than you can ever know til you actually get there. :)
Good luck and you will be fine!

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How can i stop obsessing over upcoming labor pains?
i just cant stop thinking about it, im breaking out from the stress

Answer 4

I was the exact same way. I had myself near nervous breakdown status by the time my water broke. Labor hurts, I'm not going to lie to you but I will tell you that the truth is, that as soon as you see your baby and/or hear he/she cry you will forget the pain instantly. So many people told me this when I was pregnant and I thought they were crazy, but when I was in labor, when it got to the pushing the baby out that was the worst but it was over in like 5 seconds and then it was all forgotten and i was overcome with joy. Why do you think women have more than one child? You forget the pain. I do recommend an epidural, they will really lessen your pain but in the same not makes it harder to push because you are numb. But if you're a baby like I was then get one asap.

Answer 5

It could be labor. Do the pains radiate from our lower back to the front? From they way you are describing it is sounds like early labor. And the brown discharge sounds like the mucus plug is coming out. I am certain you will be delievering any day now. If there is a bloody show or the pan is so intense that you can't sleep or walk, feel like you have to have a bowel movement but nothing comes out or your water breaks you need to call your doctor or head to the hospital.

Answer 6

First read read read the more you understand the better youd be. Labor is painful but if you understand whats going on its not as bad. The more scared you are the more it hurts. About the 8th month take a class. Stress isnt good doing pregnancy and especially doing child birth.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Relax. Your body was made for this. If it gets too painful to handle, you can get meds to manage the pain. Try to think about the end result...holding your beautiful baby! Stressing over the possible pain will only make it worse.

Answer 9

come join other moms --- we can take your mind off it. We have a huge pregnancy, kids and other topics board going on right now.

But you need to get a good book for when your not on the computer and think about all the things you need to do before the baby comes, crib, clothes, diapers and so on...that should help take your mind off it as well. Think of anything you may still need.

Answer 10

You need to talk to a bunch of real moms who have been through labour, yes you will horror stories, but you will also hear stories about how it isn't painful for all women and that fear makes the pain worse. When you are afraid your fight of flight reflex kicks in, all your blood rushes to your arms, legs, and brain. Which deprives your uterus of blood causing it to not have enough oxygen, and as you know from exercise when your muscles do not get enough oxygen they create lactic acid which causes the pain.

You need to find your tribe of supportive women, I don't know who that would be for you. For me it was the women at
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/EmpoweredChildbirth/?yguid=172227525

Maybe that is for you, probably not. But really find that group of women online or in real life who nourish and support you!

Answer 11

i actually didnt worry about it at all until about the week i had him... i just tried to keep myself busy, and i thought about how much i wanted to see my little boy and just kept thinking that it wouldnt be too bad...