to managing birth pain, as a frightened mind and tense body will not easily open up to release the baby. With this in mind, some women use aromatherapy, massage, hypnotherapy and meditation, often in conjunction with more formal pain relief, to help keep them in the right frame of mind and aid the process. It's worth keeping in mind that in the hours and days after giving birth, when the infinitely more overwhelming fact of having a newborn baby in your arms sinks in, a lot of people are somewhat amused by the amount of time they spent worrying about labour pain. It all feels trivial in comparison. And while it may only be anecdotal, many women I've spoken to -- myself included -- found that labour didn't actually hurt anything like as much as they expected it to. Most second-time mothers I know say the ghost of labour pain rarely haunts them this time round. How did you manage the pain of labour? Or, if you haven't given birth, does the prospect of pain put you off? Comments i chose a water birth for my first baby. for some medical reason i could not go through with it. lying on the bed with gas and air for company, i thought i was going to DIE with the pain. with my second baby, all went well and i laboured in the water with gas and air for company. OMG it was absolute heaven!. baby 2 came out in 6 minutes.