think why do women scream and shout in labour

[AuntiePickleBottom]

is there any real need.

i didnt scream like arrrghhhhhhhhh, it was more of ooooooowwwww!!!! as i had that burning sensation on my fanjo when my dd was crowning cos she got a big head and yes it fucking did hurts!!!

Each to their own I suppose.

Thing is, I don't really get why every woman I know (if FB status updates are anything to go by) is so obsessed with watching other people give birth anyway. I mean, I've had my tonsils out, but I don't feel the need to watch anyone else having it done.

I did not really scream during labour. I passed out between contractions it was so bad. Then groaned through them. But I DID scream when they had to manually remove my placenta without anaesthetic and I haemorraghed.

Pleased for the OP she found labour so straightforward. She was very fortunate.

I really empathise with any way a woman tries to deal with labour or childbirth.

I've had two induced births. They can be more painful than unintervened with labour as the body has not produced its full arsenal of pain killing strategies. My ds was over 10 days 'late' and I was induced which meant he came very suddenly and very painfully. I only had gas and air.
dd was much easier because she was my second and because I'd learnt a hypnotherapy technique. Despite being induced with her I didn't holler until the very end. I laboured very quietly while left alone but once they plonked me one of those incredibly uncomfortable delivery room horror beds it hurt much more. I like to be up on my knees to labour and I had my back to the door, people were coming in and out, it was so horrible.

I wish I could have had an unintervened with birth and that I could have been somewhere lower down, clean, dark and quiet with supportive people. But I think some of the hollering is about shock and a feeling of being out of control.

Any woman who can push a baby out deserves support and given that the system is all about safety and very often not at all about the mother's ease, then hollering is what you're going to get.

All women are different; all births are different.

With DD1 I had an epidural,lots of puffing and panting

DS1 was a 1hour precipitate labour ending in shoulder dystocia. Not a peep out of me,even when they set about my fanjo with a giant pair of scissors in order to get him out. I was too shocked to scream. (both he and the fanjo are fine now )

DS2...I was a complete drama queen. I sobbed,screamed,swore, begged them to kill me and save the baby, and during crowning I howled like a wolf.

DD2 was another precipitate labour; I hypnobirthed and was silent except for delivery, when I got it into my head that I was a polar bear and 'growled' the baby out (bloody InaMay Gaskin)

If making noise helps me get the baby out then I'll make all the bloody noise I can. Better that then being locked inside myself with fear and pain and too scared to scream.

I was really quiet in labour but not because I was trying not to scream I just found it so much easier to concentrate on my breathing and it really helped me. But I dont see it in a way as I coped better it was just my way of coping iyswim.

Women can scream all they want in labour it really does hurt and for some people screaming and shouting can let out all there anger and help them :)

YABU - each woman uses different coping techniques for different birth scenarios. I was very calm then had to really scream to help me push out DS1 in an emergency birth scenario when he was induced - the screaming helped me channel the fear and anger and put it into something productive by encouraging me to push him out. I didnt scream but bellowed like a cow when giving birth to DS2 in a fast water birth scenario. Rather tempted to go for no 3 to find out what noise my body decides it needs to make to cope with that birth.

I'm another one who was quite quiet during labour...because I was in so much pain I could barely breathe never mind scream..In my head I was screaming "please kill me now" but apparently all I said was a whimpered "no..please...no..please"

No medal for me I presume?

I had a very easy labour, hour and a half and not really that painful. But I yelled my way through it. It helped enormously.

lol at exorcist/entonox voice.

YABU. Screaming wasn't a choice for me, I would have much preferred to have been quiet and dignified, but strange wild animal in pain noises were ripped from my throat without my consent. Why does it bother you?

Misspicklebottom - I note that you accepted gas and air. I had a pain free labour with no drugs and no gas and air. I remained silent. Clearly, by your standards this makes me better than you. I am therefore claiming your medal and trophy for my own and handing you a in return.

erm
cos it hurts?

I didn't scream as such but i did alot of groaning and a sort of deep moo-ing noise
it helped!
takes your mind off the pain perhaps?

1. at Blutak

1. OP - perhaps you lack sensation in your vagina generally. Poor old you, eh? I've always been very grateful for the full range of feeling in mine. I do hear that a certain slackness confers less sensation generally. Ah well, we can't all have it all.

Now do fuck off, there's a love.

I had a relatively quick labour with just g&a. didnt scream but did go:

ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow....

I think screaming may have been less irritating for my DH
And also for potential TV viewers who think any labour is up for criticism...

They are being unreasonable for screaming and shouting. Utterly shameless. They should be carted off to prison straight away.

WHAT THE FUCK?????????????

Why not? One of the only times in your life you can shout, swear and curse and get away with it!

Even if it didn't hurt why miss the opportunity to have good old fashioned scream without being taken off to he police station for disorderly behavior.

YABvvvvU i had planned c/s with dd and i thought i was going to scream when later that night and the spinal wore off and i sneezed.

I mooed and grunted so much my husband said, a la The Inbetweeners, "Feisty one, you are".

Could. Have. Killed. Him.

If you're basing it on obem then how the fuck do you know how much it hurt them?

FWIW, induced labour 1 - imagine holding your hand against a boiling kettle. Hold it there. Keep holding. And a bit more. Then repeat. And again. And again. If you'd felt pain like that, you know what? I reckon you'd've screamed. Gas and air? Bit like offering paracetamol for a leg amputation.

Labour 2 - oooh that's pretty painful. Better have a bit of gas and air. Ooh, lovely! Oop, contraction over, phew. Well, let's do that again. By the time I was thinking 'you know, maybe I'm getting to within 10% of how much it hurt last time', I was ready to push.

So here, have my first . Now look up 'empathy' in the dictionary.

This post has made my blood pressure go instantly through the roof! I HATE people who think that labour isn't painful because for some freaky reason they didn't feel any pain!

OP . . . FUCK OFF!

kungfupannda I am claiming the crown!

I didn't make a sound other than chanting to my Buddhism tape whilst at the same time breathing simultaneously with my whale music, all the time gently rocking on my birthing ball

At least that's the way I remember it, or that could have been my G&A induced illusion.

My DP tells another story, he seems to be under the impression that I was making sounds like a wild hippo! and that he thought he was possibly on the set for the exorcist (the bed scene)

I'm sticking to my version!!

I haven't read all of the posts on this thread, but having just watched One Born Every Minute on catchup, I think that if I had had some of the midwives shown on there, I might well have screamed the place down too!

Did anyone else feel for the poor lad when she asked her mum to go into theatre with her, and not him? bless him he was so worried... I must admit I did have a bit of a giggle hearing that lady screaming, (not that I wanted her in pain obviously) it was more everyone elses reactions, I did actually think the baby was gonna pop out any second the sounds she was making, didn't realise she wasn't actually in the delievery suite yet.

I didn't make a sound!!!

But I was under GA