To think it's impossible to explain how painful labour is?

[Mamabear1475]

Sil is trying for a baby. She asked how painful it is. I told her there is no way to describe it. She said it must feel like something. I can't think of anything that explains the feeling

[MoodyTwo]

It felt like the biggest poo I've ever had ... and a very odd sensation when I tore

[Bigspottyape]

Shack up fanny on fire I agree with. It's like a smarting that pushing relieves slightly. The lovely midwife poured cold water on my bits and my God that helped. My labour was quick as my placenta abrupted so I think my body was in eject mode.

[HeedMove]

If you put your fingers in either side of your mouth and stretch as wide as you can that pain is similar to what crowning feels like when birthing the baby and contractions are just like serious period pains building in intensity.

For me personally, it was nowhere near as painful as I imagined and I have experience worse pain.

[RiddleyW]

Mine was ok. Not nearly as bad as gallstones.

It was more like a really really intense pressure.

[ShackUp]

I wonder if it does differ, though, depending on how you experience pain? Can pain be rationalised/minimised?

I've got no idea whether or not I've got a high pain threshold (never broken a bone, for example) but I did manage two labours with just some gas and air during pushing.

[Dancingleopard]

Some times it’s not so bad other times its so bad you wish for death to take you

[Noqonterfy]

Its clearly different for everyone. Mine came in waves, and there was a break in between. When it got to pushing it felt like having a huge poo.

[Mamabear1475]

Oh god I remember the trapped wind. Like constantly needing a shit but a huge ginormous shit the size of the moon

[MollyCule]

I find it very hard to explain too. For Harry Potter fans, I've likened it to how I imagined the cruciatus curse. I felt that the pain I was in was totally dismissed. I did feel quite pissed off that no one had told me how bad it would be. One friend told me it was just like bad period pain (lucky her!). However I guess I would have just been scared shitless if I had really known. Probably why I'm much more scared of a possible second birth!

[Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies]

I've given birth four times. All times hurt like hell. However, three out of four births left me on the most massive high I've ever experienced. I've never taken Class A drugs, but I can only imagine that they'd feel like that . I'm aware that I'm very lucky, and I tend not to say this to people in real life because it sounds smug.

[ilovesprouts]

My daughters has two children and gaulstones she said she'd rather give birth with no pain relief 😳.

[ImTakingTheEssence]

I think its a cross between bad period pain and the cramps you get when you have the shits. They take your breath away. The birthing part just felt like burning when you pee times 1000% for me the head coming out was the worst of it.

[RomeoBunny]

"Not as bad, but quite close to gallstones" is about where I'd put it.

It's just because it lasts so fucking long too. And FUCK HYPNO BIRTHING.

[Mybabystolemysanity]

Just immense pressure constantly. I had an ARM followed by a six hour labour. No pushing. All I could do was lie there mooing on the gas and air and let it happen. The diamorphine worked a treat and once I'd had that it was fine, but I had no control over it and I was shitfaced until well after they'd finished stitching me up

Felt like I'd found something I could do really well by the end of it (must've been the drugs...) Now I tell people the only thing you need in your birth plan is to not get constipated at any cost.

Oddly looking forward to doing it again in July.

[Eatmycheese]

I love some of these definitions.

All three of mine were just agony. Like all the pain - physical and emotional - I’ve ever had throughout my life combined then multiplied by a trillion. Each delivery got faster and faster and I did actually just wanted someone to club me to death with the third: except there wasn’t time

[Terramirabilis]

This thread is going to really fuck up some first-timers isn't it! [Resisting urge to insert malicious grin face]

My midwife was very firm that it's just pointless trying to tell someone else what labour is like because the amount of pain/duration/pattern of when pain comes varies so wildly. She was adamant that it wasn't just different pain thresholds/mindset, some people's labour really is much more painful than others'.

I remember how it felt like I was in a cave during the transition because there was only me and the pain in the cave and the people around me were barely audible/noticeable like they were a long way away. I also couldn't really see by that stage, like everything nonessential was being shut down to focus on surviving the pain.

[Soubriquet]

Oh god it's definitely indescribable

From the crushing abdominal pains, to the ring of Fire when the baby is crowning.

Unless you've experienced it, you just can't imagine how painful it is.

You know deep down it will hurt but you don't understand how much it hurts

[xoguineas]

I had back labour and I honestly swear (& have told everyone who asked) that it felt like a cheese grater against my back bones. No one ever asked me again!

[RomeoBunny]

@ilovesprouts I'd rather have my leg sawn off while I'm wide awake than ever have my gallbladder back.

[Mamabear1475]

I didn't feel a thing when I was crowning. I was so knackered and determind to get her out I only stopped for about two seconds between each push. If I stopped to have a breathe and felt the pain I probably wouldn't have pushed again
Btw I told my Sil it was easy to give birth. I don't want to scare her

[800msprint]

I likened it to that horrible feeling before vomiting and the the relief once it's over, only to feel sick again and vomit again and again and again

[Ironfloor]

Like a chainsaw that's being wedged all the way up your vagina to your womb and that's 'on' and the blade is turning 360 degrees. And it gets turned off after about a minute but just before it's over, another one is pushed inside you and that goes 'on'. And so on.

I was on the highest dose of the drip in induced labour and just on gas and air. My contraction were coming in waves, each worse than the previous.

[BuntyII]

I had a section after a couple of days of contractions so never got to the really bad bit. But contractions at the start are like those bad cramps in your calf that wake you up at night. Except all over your stomach and back and every few minutes. Not even deep in your pelvis like period pain but literally all around your torso.

[Twounder1]

Intense tightenings that feel like you're being squeezed to death

[RiddleyW]

I do think it’s very different for different women. The most actual pain I had was weird shooting pain down the front of my thighs.

When I told the midwife she said “oh good they’re a fast type”.