I had so many coming in and out of my room while I was in labor, I would have never been able to focus on any music. I was in labor for 28.5 hours, but only about 10 were extremely active labor. After the first hour of intense labor, I opted for the epidural. After that, I didn't care if I had music or not. I was feeling no pain and enjoying the company of my family. Once, it came time to push I was too focused on that to have listened to any music.

However, Celine Dion's "A Mother's Prayer" is a nice, soothing song, and I would think a lot of piano music would be soothing. Good luck to you!

yeah thats what im hoping to avoid by having my baby at home. The whole hospital scene just feels stressful and scary. Not for me. Its just going to be me, my hubby, and my friend Donna. I am leaving it open to my other family members though. With the pain I will experience I know I will be crying for my mom...lol.

I will check her song out tonight, thanks ! I have limewire so I will have to download all the music. I really dont have the funds to go out and by stuff.

There are some cd's called "Pure Moods" that I highly recommend. They're pretty meditative. I'm also really fond of Gregorian chanting. Enigma is one of my favorite artists too - their earliest album is Gregorian-sounding, and their second album is Native American-sounding. Ooh, and Enya! Enya's really soothing.

Okay, because I'm a big nerd I looked up the album titles for you! If you have iTunes you can sample the tracks in the store, or you could probably listen to them on youtube or last.fm or something.

Enigma - MCMXC A.D. (Gregorian album)
Enigma - The Cross of Changes (Native-American album)

Of course anything by Enya is going to be soothing, but my favorite albums are:

Shepherd Moons
The Celts
Watermark

And while I have my iTunes open, I also recommend some soft Charlotte Church tracks like "Ave Maria". Andrea Bocelli is also amazing, and Josh Groban. There's also a song from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack (I think it's the Two Towers?) called "Evenstar" that's really soothing.

I'll think of more, I'm sure of it. Half the songs I'm in love with are rare and hard to find. If you're interested, I can see about getting them hosted for you so you can download them and try them out.

wow thanks for the awesome suggestions! When I go home I will try and get them all together. I know I have heard tons of great soothing music I just never remember the names of them. So I have all this stuff in my head but I dont know where to find it. LOL

That would be great if you could get them hosted too. Thanks again.

Did you use music with your birth(s)?

No problem! I'll pm you with the links to those songs.

I didn't labor to music last time. I watched Cops on the hospital's super-awesome cable tv, and when I hit transition I was too distracted for anything else. I might this time though.

Pura Fe is good. Check out her Myspace page there are some free downloads there. She is a native american (Tuscarora, I think) blues singer and she has a great voice.

oh check out sinead o connor's "my darling child" i love that song. it's so soothing and my daughter loves it too.

I'm with MamaT with all the people coming in and out I wouldn't have been able to concentrate. But....

When I need to relax I usually pop in contemporary christian. Casting Crowns is my favorite band. Another good one is Jars of Clay for relaxation music. I know it's a little silly but the sound track to Good Will Hunting is pretty good too. I used to put that on in the car when my son was screaming and it would always calm him right down. (Song 1 especially, it's called "Angelas")

Maybe just make a CD with specific songs you like or take an Ipod.

Wow. A homebirth? I don't think I would have been that brave, kudos to you! I would have been too worried about complications arising and not being able to get to the hospital in time (we were 45 minutes away from the hospital my OB was at). Thankfully, I was at the hospital for my birth. There were some complications with me during labor and after my daughter was born. During labor, I spiked a pretty high fever and they had to put an antibiotic in my IV line to ward off any type of infections that could have been harmful to me or my baby. I also had some major bleeding problems after the birth. I hope things go well for you though!

Thanks! We will have my friend there, she is an RN. She is definately not a midwife but she is a little more experienced than me. We are about 4 minutes away from my hospital and midwife. So if anything goes wrong we will have care fast. We are ordering all the supplies online for the birth like the cord clamps, scissors, and such. So it should be good.

But thanks so much for all the suggestions! My internet at home will be up Thursday so I am going to dig for all these songs and make a special CD or something for me.