I have a little hand held massager packed- the one that's just metal w/ four little wooden ball "feet", that worked really well for the first few hours in the hospital w/ dd.
Just googled birthing ball...
Midwifeinfo - Birthing Balls
looks like it's basically an exersize ball which i think i will pick up since i want to attempt to avoid the epidural...
You know, at this rate, we're all going to need DH to bring a wagon in full of stuff!