Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you screamed or stayed silent in labour?

625 replies

WibbleWobbleWibble · 05/03/2022 18:14

The other night I was watching an old episode of call the midwife with my mum and dad. Both of the women giving birth were screaming the place down and it got us chatting.........my brother was born at home and my dad said he never heard a sound from my mum even though he was in the next room (1971 dads were not welcome in the delivery room).
My mum said that she couldn't identify with the screaming woman as she went quiet when she was in labour, I was the same, I went quiet and didn't say a word during both my deliveries.
Judging by TV and movie representations of women giving birth everyone screams! I think just as many women stay quiet as scream, it's whatever works for you ..........

YANBU I didn't scream
YABU I screamed the place down

OP posts:
feellikeanalien · 05/03/2022 20:05

I didn't think I was screaming until the doctor in charge of delivery told me to stop screaming and push like I was having a poo.

Admittedly once I did this DD came out fairly quickly. But that might have been something to do with the episiotomy!

FunnyTalks · 05/03/2022 20:06

Hypnobirthed as well and was quiet for the first. But noisy for the second although not exactly screams. Lower, involuntary animal noises I didn't know I had in me.

FeloniusGru · 05/03/2022 20:06

I was quite calm for most of it, focusing on my breathing so fairly quiet. Then I had gas and air and thought I was a comedian cracking jokes with the midwife Hmm then I knew baby was coming out when I was making involuntary mooing noises. I remember apologising for sounding like Dory speaking whale. There was some screaming on the final couple of pushes I think Grin

Namechanged654 · 05/03/2022 20:06

God, I screamed and shrieked the place down with my second (he was badly positioned and enormous) - I was absolutely terrified and convinced I was going to die, it was horrendous. I'm still so embarrassed at how loud I was, and the bloody windows were open.

I think I was pretty quiet with my first baby but got a bit mooey towards the end. I cried a lot both times.

Anyway, the caution to my tale is that it isn't true that second babies are easier to deliver Blush

Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese · 05/03/2022 20:06

My labor was quite fast, I cried out once and that was because ds was tearing me. If it hadn't been for that, he would have been born in the sack, as it happens they had to pop it to stop me tearing.

OhFGSwhatTFnow · 05/03/2022 20:07

I didn't scream but tbf they whipped me off for an EMCS at the pushing stage and DD was facing the wrong way and looking where she was going.

I do remember then H trying to prise the entonox tube from my hands telling me I shouldn't have it in between contractions.

I snarled back 'there is no fucking inbetween'...probably loud enough to be heard in the other delivery rooms (drip induction).

HemanOrSheRa · 05/03/2022 20:07

@Lanascz

Gutteral moos here. I found it was like an extension of my breathing through contractions. I didn't want anything other than a short burst of gas and air, and the pool water.

I was really lucky each time - I enjoyed giving birth. I did, however, have the most fantastic, intuitive, kind and amazing midwives (for two of my births at least). Made the world of difference and gave me the confidence to labour and birth in the way I wanted to (at home, in water).

I had the most amazing midwives too. DS is 17 but I can still remember their names. First one was Karen then her shift ended and Freya took over. The lovely HCA who helped me bathe and generally sort us all out afterwards was Helen Smile.
Nat6999 · 05/03/2022 20:07

I told my husband to f@@k off & make sure he had packed his bags before he got home, my mum told him I didn't mean it, actually I did, I knew I didn't love him then.

SockFluffInTheBath · 05/03/2022 20:07

I did that low guttural growl that your body only seems to emit during labour

Same for DC1, on my knees on the pillows and pulling on the NHS metal bed headboard so hard I bent it 🙄 DH bent it back to the mw’s amusement.

Nat6999 · 05/03/2022 20:08

Before I got home

CoastalWave · 05/03/2022 20:08

Well given that I actually thought I was dying (and would, if I had been offered, have willingly taken a lethal injection) I was definitely screaming.

Only a 6lb baby too. Got stuck half way down and had to be finally yanked out with forceps.

Pretty sure I have PTSD from it if I'm honest.

WalkingOnTheCracks · 05/03/2022 20:08

My wife - who even ordinarily is not in the habit of understatement - screamed at two midwives, a gyno doctor and a couple of trainees - representing about eighty years’ labour ward experience, I reckon - “DO SOMETHING! JESUS CHRIST - YOU PEOPLE HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME!”

InTheNightWeWillWish · 05/03/2022 20:09

I had an induction with no pain relief until 8cm, then gas and air after that. I was silent until I started pushing. At the pushing stage gas and air wasn’t working for me, although I wouldn’t relinquish my grip on the mouthpiece despite not wanting it anymore, and found screaming a lot better pain relief in that stage.

Chanel05 · 05/03/2022 20:10

Fairly quiet for 11 hours, screaming once my waters had broken for a good few hours until epidural.

nopuppiesallowed · 05/03/2022 20:10

Back to back labour with all three and I screamed the place down. Now I realise that being made to lie flat on your back when baby presents this way is the worst position. First one induced and epidural topped up twice. The second one wasn't given time to work before a tug of war trainee shoved the forceps up and dragged my baby out. Then he asked me why I was crying. I was crying because he'd torn all my interior muscles.....I.had some surgery to try to rectify it but it's had limited effect and I can't bear the idea of going through it again. The good news is that because of the damage, the last part of labour for my other 2 was exceedingly quick...Grin

Clarefromwork · 05/03/2022 20:11

I didn’t nake a noise either but could hear others screaming next door.

Thinking about it, I don’t really scream/shout when in pain - I remember something really heavy falling on me when I was in a shop (I was about 12) and it hurt so much but I just sort of stood there pretending nothing had happened.

I think it’s because I hate attention!

Nosetickle · 05/03/2022 20:11

I remember making a sound almost like mooing more than screaming. My second was a home birth with my mum in the next room looking after my toddler and she said they just heard a bit of moaning!

MushroomQueen · 05/03/2022 20:11

My pain wasn't from contractions tho, I tore during it which I think it hurt so much , afterwards a week later I looked up in the notes and saw she was 97th percentile for head circumference at 38 weeks. No wonder I tore and hurt like hell

Greengagesnfennel · 05/03/2022 20:12

Completely silent too.

TheDoveFromAboveCooCoo · 05/03/2022 20:12

God no!!

I was silent with DD1 (epidural)

DD2 I made a low moan type noise and the midwife just went "less noise, more pushing" 😂😂

Donson · 05/03/2022 20:13

I was quiet but also kinda aware mooed like a cow towards the end Grin
Was on gas & air and high as a kite from it...

HiKelsey · 05/03/2022 20:13

I didn't scream but I got induced and the lady next door screamed when her waters broke and she wasn't even dilated yet. I panicked I'd scream but I'd had pethidine half an hour before so I just complained I wanted a nap 🤣 jumped a bit when they had to stitch me up though (the numbing injection had wore off)

TheNoodlesIncident · 05/03/2022 20:14

I didn't scream or anything but I wasn't in pain. I'd expect that to make a heck of a difference. I remember saying "Ooh, it BURNS!" at crowning but not much else, although DH says I did talk quite a bit to the midwife.

I got blisters on my fingertips from my grip on the mattress though. I'd had contractions for the entire previous day (waters broke at 6 am and I was admitted in the late evening), through the night, all next day so I was knackered by 8pm when the doctor came to tell me if I didn't have the baby soon we'd be going to theatre for a C-section. Midwife looked at me like "We'll show him!" DS born three hours later. I couldn't feel the contractions so just pushed whenever the midwife told me to.

I don't think anything judgemental about the noise anyone makes in labour, I hope nobody judges me for the little desiccated (they were well squeezed) poos I did on the bed Blush

Camdenish · 05/03/2022 20:15

I screamed all the way through. I screamed so much I lost voice and my face swelled up!

I also thought I was dying. I thought I was being tortured and wanted it to end. I also think I was traumatized by the whole experience.

Yummymummy2020 · 05/03/2022 20:16

The first was agony and I couldn’t cope so was very loud I think, the second got an early epidural and was completely utterly painless from start to finish so was chatting away relaxed as anything till I had to push, even then I was quiet! After my first though I totally see why people are loud in some cases!!!

Swipe left for the next trending thread