I have had a very troublesome pregnancy and I am now nearing due date which is wonderful because A) the lovely bambino will be here and B) I will soon be able to take my medication regime that was previously regulating my FMS . I am however interested in other peoples experiences and especially on labour and birth as it is so close now . Many Thanks in advance
Hi I was wondering if anyone on here ... - Fibromyalgia Acti...
Hi I was wondering if anyone on here can share their experiences about pregnancy with no medication and labour / birth??
Hi,
I had my little boy in 2005, I had pethadine during the labour but really wanted a water birth to help with the pain, but due to other reasons couldn't have this.
I focused on my breathing and tried to remain as calm as possible throughout. Although I cannot stress how much focusing on the breathing techniques really helped me.
All in all, I didn't find it too bad, but I was absolutely exhausted after and in pain and due to breast feeding still couldn't take anything so I just got lots and lots of rest, slept when baby slept and asked people to help out with doing everything around the house till I was back on my feet.
Good luck with it all
I was fortunate in that my Fibro was under control before I got pregnant, although I did need to come off strong medication to get pregnant.
I used Natal Hypnotherapy during pregnancy and found this hugely helpful for birth. I ended up with an emergency Caesarean, but that was because of an intervention cascade due to pregnancy complications (I was induced at 38 weeks), nothing to do with the Fibro.
I didn't have a water birth because of what happened but I would recommend anyone with Fibro seriously looks into this. A waterbirth is considered to be very effective labour pain relief for most women - the only thing stronger is epidural which has a lot more associated risks. Warm water is also good for Fibro.
You can take basic medication - paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine when breastfeeding if appropriately educated and monitored. Those three are the standard post-caesarean medications anyway.
Establishing breastfeeding was tough for us (nothing to do with Fibro), as it is for many people, but we persevered and I feel that breastfeeding may well have helped keep my Fibro under good control - it has a relaxing and muscle relaxing effect after all!
Get lots of help for after the birth. If you don't have helpful family around, you might want to consider a post-natal doula: doula.org.uk/ . Trainee doulas are limited in how much they can charge fwiw.
Also read about safe bed sharing. Sleeping with a baby is not officially recommended, but the real risks come from people falling asleep with baby in chairs or sofas, or if there are other risk factors (either you or your partner smokers, drinking alcohol, etc). I looked into safe bed sharing when I realised I just could not stay awake during some night feeds. Bed sharing can really help with establishing breastfeeding without overly exhausting the Mum too. There is a great Unicef leaflet on this but I can't find it online atm. This checklist is helpful though:
Thinking about after the birth, Breastfeeding Network and Kellymom.com have the best evidence based information on medications whilst breastfeeding. Both use the information from the Hale Guide 'Medications in Mothers Milk' which is considered the best source of evidence based information on this topic.