Birth? Pushing or contractions harder?

[Janedoe95]

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I wanted to get peoples opinions as I had epidural at 10cm so have no idea if pushing is harder

I know what you mean about it feeling oddly nice. For me, as the babies came out I remember thinking it felt like a slimy knotted rope being pulled out but there was a physical relief and an immediate feeling of relaxation that washed over me.

Contractions for me. Absolutely bloody awful

No epidural here. Imo birthing the head was 1000x more painful than all contractions put together but it was over quite quickly.

I found contractions much tougher. Obviously pushing is hard work, but it felt good to have something to do with the contractions and my body largely took over, the pushing was quite involuntary. I had gas and air which obviously took the edge off a bit, and I only pushed for about 40 minutes.

I don’t think the two can be separated- my contractions got a lot worse when it got to the pushing stage- the last hour was the worst pain of all of the labour- strong horrendous contractions and the feeling of the baby coming down my “back” was so painful. Then of course- the delight of crowning and being told not to push (which didn’t last long thankfully!)

Contractions were by far the worse for me. I had 3 days of them with my first and 2 days of them with my second. I think it didn't help that I didn't know when the end point of that would be! I felt clear transition into the pushing phases for both births and that's when it gets better as you know the end is in sight! I don't remember pain in the pushing stages either time, just that it felt so intense (but tbf I think I was in an out of body state by that point each time 🤣 its hard to describe but sometimes when I think back its like I'm viewing it from above myself 🤷‍♀️😆). I loved feeling like a bystander and letting my body just take over. I had gas and air only, so could feel/understand what was happening and I felt calm by that stage. Definitely painful and unpleasant delivering the head/face, but only briefly! Then a weird fast heavy slippy relief when the rest of baby emerges, then utter bliss that it is over 🤣 I found it such a high each time!

Pushing was easier, I barely felt the pain of the contractions once I started pushing.