in my room most of the time as they thought it was only in the early stages. To me the contractions seemed relatively painful and frequent, so after a while I went back to the nurse and said so. She tested me and said that it couldn't be time, as my contractions would have to be far more painful than that (my heart sank), but then 'had a look', and lo and behold the doctor came immediately and the baby not longer after him. So I ended up with no pain relief, partly as I thought I should put up with it 'at the early stages', without knowing those were the late stages. So a combination of 'what you don't know doesn't hurt you' and unexpectedly good tolerance to pain. I had a tiny tear and few stitches that time, but did not feel any of that at all; was pretty much numb down there by that stage! I was able to stand up and have a shower straight away, and was so delighted about that after the previous Caesarean that I felt on top of the world! I think the thing to remember here is absolutely NO two births and labours are the same. As a medical student I've seen a fair number and it doesn't matter what the birth plans are, whether people have had before or not, each is different and ends up needing different things. I've come across two patients who had really easy gas and