had been feeling I should be pushing for half a day, but neither husband nor I could actually find a midwife anywhere. And when I said I didn't use any pain relief, it's due to lack of care. Until they examined you and decided you are in active labour, they would not give you even gas and air. I had the emergency c-section. I can assure you it was a welcome relief and no big deal. I can also vouch for gas and air, pethidine and an epidural, all of which I had in the course of a long labour before the section. It's fine if you're not interested in having a baby. For a long time I wasn't either. But don't make out it's horrifying. In the vast majority of cases, it simply isn't. With my first baby, labour lasted more than 28 hours. For most of the time I was in the hospital and contractions were at short intervals. For many of those hours I was given gas and air, which reduced the pain to bearable levels. Towards the end of the time, I was violently sick and went immediately into second stage. The doctor had to break my waters and the baby was born half an hour later. There were no ill effects. With the second baby, I was given pethedine injection, and that worked fine as well. With the third, I was only in labour for about nine hours, and did without any pain management. Those