How bad does it really hurt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The fear increased the sensations to agony.

This is very true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found it to be similar to a really bad case of food poisoning involving bad stomach cramps and diarrhea -- similar pain level / sensation, but more intense.

And it comes in waves (that "vision" helped me get through it). "Waves" that last like 60 very long seconds.
The pushing part feels like you are pooping (and some women really do) but the poop feels like a bowling ball passing through you...on top of the wave of intense food-poisoning contractions.

Oh yes, and than there is the ring of fire. No explanation needed.

But somehow we "forget" all this and moms continue to have more than 1 child.

I have always described it as giving birth to a bowling ball that was on fire. I have never heard the "ring of fire" explanation. I would concur. I did not choose a non-epidural birth. It happened so fast no time for an epidural.

The pain was beyond belief - thankfully I gave birth 15 minutes from hitting the hospital bed.

I would neve have chosen that path.

I had 2 other non-eventful births that were glorious. (epidural and all)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:how many of you were wailing or sobbing or hyperventilating for a good part of labor? I suspect I might do all that since I am such a baby with pain.

None of that for me. The pain will be increased greatly if you freak out. Your plan should be to relax relax relax. Read Hypnobirthing and listent to the CD. I don't buy that there will be no pain but I do know the main difference between a fairly bareable natural birth and a different painful natural birth for me was not being able to relax into the painful time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It wasn't just the pain, but the pain combined with vomiting and shaking that put me over the edge. Also, my contractions lasted 2.5 to 3.5 minutes, which was pretty exhausting.

During the pushing part, it felt like I was being ripped apart. When the nurse said she could start to see DD's hair, I was like "ARE YOU KIDDING?" I thought her head was halfway out. I had labial tearing, but none in the perineum, so not sure if my situation was different than most.

I had kidney stones and found the pain somewhat comparable in terms of discomfort, although DH said I handled childbirth much better.

First DC was a c-section. I would take natural childbirth over c-section recovery any day. Very different types of pain, but at least childbirth only lasted 25 hours.

c-sections are not that bad! they are over in like 5 minutes and then you start to recover. I know bad things can happen. But a c-section that goes well without infection or complications is really not that bad! You have no tearing, less bleeding, possibly less pain depending on the person. It's a different kind of pain -- it's not that urgent labor pain, it's just soreness of a surgery recovery pain.

The person you're responding to had a c-secton and she's saying she prefers a difficult natural labor. It's fine and true to say that both labor and c-sections are different for everyone but it's not fair to dismiss her preference for labor over the c-section based on her experience.

[Anonymous]

I had two very short unmedicated labors--5.5 hours the first, 8lb baby, and just over 1.5 hours with the second, 9lb baby (and I'm 5'3" and ~130lbs). My water broke spontaneously with each and contractions started very quickly after. With my first, I don't remember being in pain until the last couple of pushes/ring of fire. I remember it being very, very intense and overwhelming and that pushing was hard work. But not painful and I pushed for about 2 hours.

With my second, I remember thinking between pushes that I was absolutely insane for doing this again without an epidural. It hurt, and I did a lot of yelling, but at least between contractions I got a break and could think clearly. At one point, a couple of pushes before he was born, I remember begging the midwife to please just get him out. But I only pushed for maybe 10 minutes or so, so while it HURT, it didn't last long. I also remember wanting to punch the nurse in the face when she was doing a hep-lock while I was in transition not long after we got to the hospital. Both times, pushing was kind of like puking; I couldn't not push. I just had to.

I broke my arm when I was 20, both bones in my forearm, and needed surgery. The two kinds of pain were vastly different. The broken arm felt wrong and hideous and made me sick. Labor may have hurt just as much on a scale of 1-10, but it was a completely different kind of pain.

[Anonymous]

I also used a lot of self control to avoid punching a nurse during transition, PP. You'd think they know when to chill after seeing so many women give birth.

The vomiting from the pain is an awful feeling.

I'm envious of C9BL and her ability to birth without pain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say that for me, pain was a piece of what was hard about labor. But moreso, all the unknowns of it -- how long will it last, how intense will it get, will a complication develop. I think not knowing how long each portion of labor would be, etc, was actually what was harder.

There was a point in labor where I was deciding to do an epidural or not -- the hard part was not knowing, do I have 1 more hour or 6 or 10 of this to go? How much more intense will it get?

Yes, this was my experience exactly. If I had had a crystal ball, something to tell me "do this for another six hours, then push for two hours, then hold your healthy baby" I would have coped much better. As it was, I went into it all relaxed and confident, believing I had that knowledge because my mother had had easy labors and deliveries, and gradually lost my cool over the next 12 hours. By hour 16, I was a wrung-out strung-out mess, and finally agreed to the epidural.

It's like in horror movies where the parts you don't see/ don't know are far more psychologically frightening than the actual scenes of mayhem. I could have coped with the pain. I couldn't cope with the unknown.

[Anonymous]

The pushing was my favorite part but it is the cramping that I hate.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to let labor start with the intention of going natural but if the pain is too much (If one knows one limits, having gone through surgery, accident, pain before), take an epidural and then if its still unbearable get a c-section with the same epidural on demand under duress. Honest question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also used a lot of self control to avoid punching a nurse during transition, PP. You'd think they know when to chill after seeing so many women give birth.

The vomiting from the pain is an awful feeling.

I'm envious of C9BL and her ability to birth without pain.

Man, I've vomited (and almost passed out) many times from incredible menstrual cramp pain. Can it really get that much worse?

[Anonymous]

I don't remember the sensation of vomiting but I did it during transition. My nurse had no idea where I was in labor and made me stand next to the bed so she could clean the sheets. Pain was pretty bad but like pps said could be born if only I had known it would be over soon. Instead I begged for "help" ie epidural during transition (after being told I was not in labor). Felt a lot better by the time the anesthesiologist arrive and delivered 10 min later!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also used a lot of self control to avoid punching a nurse during transition, PP. You'd think they know when to chill after seeing so many women give birth.

The vomiting from the pain is an awful feeling.

I'm envious of C9BL and her ability to birth without pain.

Man, I've vomited (and almost passed out) many times from incredible menstrual cramp pain. Can it really get that much worse?

You want an honest answer? Yes, it is much worse. I've had cramps like that too.

I knew my BP was dropping in response to the pain. I was clammy, had tunnel vision, dizzy, etc. Vomiting came soon after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible to let labor start with the intention of going natural but if the pain is too much (If one knows one limits, having gone through surgery, accident, pain before), take an epidural and then if its still unbearable get a c-section with the same epidural on demand under duress. Honest question.

Yes, assuming you're not one of those first-contraction-to-crowning-in-12-minutes cases. Sometimes labor does move too quickly for an epidural, but usually you can change plans along the way. You probably cannot get a c-section because of unbearable pain. Only because of an actual medical issue. If it looks like you're on track to deliver normally, they won't listen to you when you scream "just cut it out of me!!!"

[Anonymous]

So many experiences that I relate to here! For me, I was NOT AT ALL prepared for a non-medicated birth. My first was a piece of cake. My second happened so fast that I almost didn't make it into the bed. I am positive that the fact that I was SO unprepared to not be medicated made it 100X's worse. I screamed "NO!" the whole time, lol. The feeling of having to push was so terrifying to me -- the nurses kept telling me not to push but my body was going to push that baby out whether I helped or not. I remember feeling like I had absolutely no control over my body at all.

If we do it again I am getting an epidural at my 7 month check-up.

[Anonymous]

Natural labor with normal-small sized baby, not bad at all.

Natural labor with 9 lb 2 oz baby? Wow! Incredibly painful.

Back labor with average sized baby? The worst pain I have ever experienced in my life, and I have a high threshold. Got the epi for that one.