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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask how your contractions felt?

44 replies

MustardScreams · 18/04/2019 21:36

I have wondered this since I had dd.

I heard that my whole belly would contract.

Mine DID NOT. My contractions were concentrated to just above my pubic bone. I didn’t feel them in my belly or back. It was 4 square inches of the purest pain I’ve ever felt. I’m shivering just remembering!

I had an epidural at 4cm and just wondered if I’d given in? Or if other’s contractions were easier? Totally unscientific straw poll!

OP posts:

lilyboleyn · 18/04/2019 21:38

Like I was being stabbed repeatedly in my stomach. Top and bottom of bump. Excruciating. I remember being in awe that women in the past had to get through the pain by themselves without medical intervention (I had an epidural 20 hours in).

LRL2019 · 18/04/2019 21:41

Apart from the last few (6-10 cm in 10 minutes) I didn't find them that bad, I have had worse period pain. I however had a quick labour of 2.5 hours and don't think I would have maybe felt the same if I was getting tired it that makes sense!

Jimjamjools · 18/04/2019 21:42

Like extreme diahorrea and period cramps at once that came in waves. Horrendous, horrible pain. The same pain also in my lower back, no matter how much I twisted it wouldn't ease until the end of the contraction. They say you forget the pain after - HA!

whowhowh · 18/04/2019 21:42

Mind felt like someone was trying to push my pelvis apart from inside. My pain was all in my back and pelvis, no pain around my tummy at all. DS was back to back though so not sure if that’s anything to do with it?

Catmum26 · 18/04/2019 21:42

my waters broke and instantly had contractions and felt the need to push. i went from nothing to 10cm dilated in about half an hour. i can’t explain the pain i just remember wanting to die. genuinely i wanted someone to kill me. luckily my whole labour was only an hour long and the first thing i said when i pushed him out was thank fuck for that.

pandarific · 18/04/2019 21:43

How was your baby positioned? Back to back, hand up by their face? That can make it much much more painful than if the baby is in an optimal position.

Mine started off like period pains, then quickly progressed to a feeling of 'gathering' or tensing in the muscles of my uterus a few seconds before it started, then that classic hill 'shape' of up - ouch ouch ouch OUCH to a peak, and then down the other side, - ouch ah, ah ahhhhh, gone.

After transition when I was fully dilated and he was coming down the canal it stopped 'hurting' as such, it was more a really overwhelming sensation of power or pressure, again would feel the 'tensing' coming and then sort of 'whoosh, whoosh, whoosh' until it ended. They were quite scary until I got used to them!

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 18/04/2019 21:44

You know when you're being sick, and there's nothing left to come up, and you feel your stomach twist inside you - it's moving and you can't stop it, and you're not doing it, and it's unstoppable?
Like that!

Bambamber · 18/04/2019 21:44

To start with it just felt like when you get the shits and get those horrible cramps to let you know you're about to run the loo.

Have you ever used one of those toning machines that uses like electrical currents to make your muscles contract. When I was a kid I used to attach it to my belly and see how high I could turn it up. That's what it felt like later on

pandarific · 18/04/2019 21:45

Bloody hell @Catmum26, half an hour! was it your first baby?!

Jimjamjools · 18/04/2019 21:46

Oh, and don't worry about all that giving in nonsense. I would have clawed myself to death without an epidural - I dont think I ever even found out how dilated I was before having my epidural I was so desperate. Cant have been more that 4cm. I remember when I got to hospital at 3am screaming at the poor receptionist who did the buzzer for the doors to the maternity ward to kill me or give me an epidural!

Titsywoo · 18/04/2019 21:47

To me it felt like my belly was being squeezed together in a vice - very hard!

Silversun83 · 18/04/2019 21:47

Like a vice clamping my whole entire middle region. Every five minutes for two and a half days They were incredibly intense but incredibly useless.. DD was in a very awkward back to back position and despite nearly three days of contractions, having my waters manually broken and a drip, only ended up at 6cm. The epidural after approximately 75 hours of horrendous pain, no sleep and little good was the best thing ever.

Raines100 · 18/04/2019 21:47

Only remember my last. My early contractions were all in my perineum. But by 9cm dilated, even the ends of my hair were in agony...

Divgirl2 · 18/04/2019 21:48

I had nothing until my waters broke and then suddenly it was the worst pain I've ever experienced. I actually can't remember how it felt, other than absolutely fucking terrible. Quick though - so there's that.

Catmum26 · 18/04/2019 21:49

pandarific yep first baby. everyone tells me how lucky i was that it was so short but i think i would have preferred a bit of a build up so the agonising pain didn’t hit me out of nowhere 😂

GunpowderGelatine · 18/04/2019 21:49

Like a giant with enormous hands was grabbing my torso and squeezing as hard as he could (yes the giant is a man, lady giants wouldn't do that to other women )

mineofuselessinformation · 18/04/2019 21:49

Like the worst period pain I've ever had (I had endometriosis and used to wish I could faint as the pain was so awful). And worst yet, they came every three minutes right from the beginning.
Dc1, back to back - took for ever to deliver.
Dc2, arrived at 7 cm and delivered an hour and forty minutes later.

headinthecloud · 18/04/2019 21:51

Like hitting my 'funny bone'

Silversun83 · 18/04/2019 21:52

And I agree that it very much depends on how the baby is positioned. In particular, I've heard that back to back contractions at 2cm can feel like those at 8cm.

Original poster

MustardScreams · 18/04/2019 21:59

But was it whole belly pain? Or a concentrated pain?

I’m desperate to know!

OP posts:

Original poster

MustardScreams · 18/04/2019 22:00

By concentrated pain I mean the bottom of your belly hurting like nothing g you’ve ever felt.

The whole of your belly/back hurting?

OP posts:

sanityisamyth · 18/04/2019 22:01

Like my kidneys were being wrung our. DS was back to back and I had 80 hours of 5 minute contractions. No pain anywhere else, just in kidney area.

Lolatall · 18/04/2019 22:08

I agree with the pp who said it was like extreme diarrhoea and period pains coming on in waves.

Also, with my first, it felt like I had a giant heavy boulder or rock inside me bearing down on my pelvis, as though someone was trying to push the giant heavy rock out but it wouldn't fit.

My labours were short but those contractions felt unbearable.

Gingernut83 · 18/04/2019 22:09

This is going to sound disgusting so apologies in advance but when my contractions started it felt like someone repeatedly stabbing me up the bum with a carving knife. The back pains & stomach stuff came after but I remember asking people at the time if the baby was actually trying to make an entrance out of my arse 😳

Brightburn · 18/04/2019 22:10

Mine would start in my back before making their way to the front like strong poo pains! I was lucky, I was induced (40+12) and had a 2 hour labour with only gas and air.

Gallbladder pains on the other hand... Ouch!

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