had my first child in hospital, the second two at home. One of the simplest practical things in all three labours was walking around at my own pace - keeping mobile if you can and as long as you can seems to be a really good natural pain reliever. I would lean against a wall, over a bed or against my husband to get through each contraction, then walk up and down. This combined with a TENS machine in my first labour got me to 5cm dilated, then I used gas and air till delivery. Walking plus rocking plus the comfort of being at home plus being free to get in any position I wanted to got me right through to delivery in my second and third labours. In the third, it was useful to have the stairs at home because not long before I was fully dilated the midwife examined me and found the baby wasn't quite at the right angle. Walking up and down the stairs gently rocked the baby into prime position for descent! We're very lucky in Bath with our fantastic community midwifery team, to whom I'm eternally grateful. My advice would be to be as vigilant as possible on your wife's behalf... if you're going to have a standard hospital experience, be ready to fight her corner because the midwives, bless 'em DO make mistakes and DON'T always listen - during my first birth I was induced and on a hydration drip and after a