Leg Cramps and Contractions

[AntarcticEther]

I'm 40+6 today and have been having more frequent painful leg cramps .

How much more painful are contractions ? If they are far worse then I guess ill be scrapping my no epidural idea !

It feels different. I feared the same as you as I had terrible leg cramps when pg with DD1 and thought if they made me sob and shout there's no way I would cope with labour. Anyway DD1 came via ELCS as it turned out, but I had a VBAC with DD2 and can happily report that although the contractions were painful and, tbh, excruciating at times, it's a different sort of pain and one that I found I could cope with, albeit with a lot of moaning and shouting. The contractions follow a pattern, you know it will come and then subside again, and you know it's doing something useful. Whereas severe leg cramp is just bloody painful and pointless.

I would rather give birth again than suffer the leg cramps I had while pregnant!
You know a contraction will end (just as you're wondering if you can bear it any longer) but with leg cramps you just have to suffer the agony and writhe around trying to stretch the muscle for ages! (in my experience, anyway)

Ok thanks for the responses . So in labour , you just kind of cope , and the build up in a contraction helps .

Was thinking if I'm writhing around in agony on my bed , clutching my leg , swearing my head off and wanting to scream , then I had a ridiculously low pain threshold and labour was going to be to much !

If I stretch my legs in the morning I get them , and was thinking of doing this each morning for pain training !

I got cramp in my calf during labour, during the pushing stage. I was much more concerned about the leg cramps than the contractions. In fact I remember that pain being worse than labour!

Leg cramps were a bitch and I felt like I was in the Ministry of funny walks towards the end and make you feel like a right tool when you make funny noises etc

Contractions are odd as they build to a certain intensity and then go away. FYI I was able to help DH put up the birthing pool in between as there was only some discomfort
Positive attitude for no epidural, if thats what you want. Some women need it , some don't , best to have an open mind and don't beeat yourself up if you change your mind.

Also, hopefully you will have your baby very soon - if not already - so it won't be relevant, but taking a magnesium supplement or eating bananas (potassium) helps to prevent leg cramps.