labouring music?

[durafemina]

So I`m sitting here contracting every 20 or so minutes and making a playlist to listen to for the real labour - I am always soothed by repetitive, calm music and I figure it`ll be great until I totally zoned out in labour-land.

Anyone else got labour music in mind, or listened to any in their previous labours?

[roostery]

I'm interested in what other people come up with. If I stick with my regular listening I'll be laboring to Air America and NPR.

[Dena]

Originally Posted by roostery

I'm interested in what other people come up with. If I stick with my regular listening I'll be laboring to Air America and NPR.

As entertaining as both are, I hardly think of them as calming!

I have a list on the computer of my usual dweeby stuff: Barry Manilow, John Denver, Bette Midler, Patty Larkin, Train, Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, etc...

And I set aside a whole pile of classical cds to fill in. Including a Gregorian chant CD, speaking of repetitive and calming... and, Durafemina, you might try Phillip Glass if you are really into the repetitive stuff. He goes a little far for my taste, but dh loves to zone out to his music.

[Devaya]

so far in my 'early labour', i've been surprised to find myself listening mainly to the Beatles and Joni Mitchell! thought i'd be all on the yoga mantra's which really soothe me and i listen to so often, but for some reason they were just a bit TOO chilled for me!

[candyapplez]

I downloaded some ocean waves.

[Vicitoria]

Ds was born to Beethoven. I had a realxing cd set for the occasion but I'd left it at home. It turned out we'd listened to Beethoven strings cd so many times it was really perfect. DH is German, DS was born to the European National Anthem. He's always really loved Beethoven from Baby Beethoven and up. (so does dh)

[AlpineMama]

I really wanted to bring my laptop to the hospital because it has my whole music collection on it. Stuff from happy, to angry, to soothing, to nature sounds, to classical, you got it. But then when it came time to go, I didn't believe I was going to stay in the hospital (or for it to go so quick) so I didn't even bring a labor bag! I figured DH could go home and grab everything we needed because we live RIGHT up the street. Everyone told me labor would go pretty slowly for my first. But as soon as I started contractions... bam. There was no going back. There wasn't time for DH to leave.

And I think music would have distracted me anyway. I was so tuned inwards. And honestly, my whole labor lasted a couple of hours but to me it seemed like maybe 15 minutes to half an hour long. I think if I was conscious of music, it might have been more aware of the passage of time. Like, "oh, ok, I've listened to three cd's so that must mean two hours have passed" or something like that.

I don't PLAN to listen to music during my next labor either, but I'm going to try to do a home birth so my whole collection will be right here. I honestly have no idea what sort of music I might be in the mood for! I would say that AFTER birth I would like to listen to some music for the bonding time with the baby. I think my Esoterica new agey music might do nicely for that time. I'm not solely a new age nut but I do like setting the mood with it sometimes.