Now the low down on contractions please!

[cryingatthediscoteque]

We've had the details of what the urge to push feels like, now can someone describe what contractions feel like? I had an elective c-section for #1, but would love to have a successful VBAC for #2 due in 7 weeks and I am practising my visualisation!! Having difficulty imagining what the pain is like; toothache? stubbing your toe? breaking a leg?

Much worse!! The best thing to do is to try not to tense up when you get a contraction as it will make it worse.

crying - I don't remember much about labour with dd1 and dd2 (long time ago!) - but with ds, the contractions were mainly an immense feeling of pressure in my lower back. I found that concentrating on the sensation it created, rather than the way it made the rest of my body feel, made it easier to handle. As labour progressed, with each contraction I imagined the pain being attached to a thread which was slowly being drawn out of me. Worked for me!!

for me, mild period pain to start with, gaining force at @ 6cm to strong cramping pains. not as bad as appendicitis and more copeable with as you get a break.

good luck with your VBAC. i wish i could say i'd love one, but i just can't make up my mind.....

have you read teh thread about pushing..there are some great descriptions on there about the urge and the pushing itself

i had a VBAC ,,it was great ! LOL !

the pain is incomparable to any other pain.....it is so different..but in a positive way as you get a baby at the end

Ina May Gaskin refers to it as ' an interesting sensation that requires all of your attention' read some of her stuff if you haven;t already..esp. spiritual midwifery and guide to childbirth

what visualisation you doing ? if you want to discuss it..i found it very helpful preparing for my VBAC..,..

I had none of the back pain that lots of people mention.
I went to an antenatal class with ds when he was 2 weeks old and I couldn't even remember it enough then to describe to the pg ladies! I'm trying to but can't. I think it was very similar to a peroid pain in that it's probably the same muscles (ie so you may then know where to expect it) but the similarity ends there.
What visualisation do you have already?

For me contractions felt like a pain that grew steadily worse, and continued to get worse until you reached the point where you felt like you couldnt take any more. Then the pain slowly eased off until it had gone completley. You then get a rest then the pain starts to build up again until it reaches a plataux again and then it tails off again, and on it goes until you have a beautiful baby in your arms. Sorry not a very good description.

I think if you ask a 100 different women what a contraction feels like you'll get 100 different answers. It's a bit like trying to describe what it feels like to have an orgasm. Or to sneeze. In my experience, a contraction felt a lot like a wave in the sense of gradually building, reaching a peak and then tailing off. I felt them like a huge squeezing, tightening sensation all across my tummy that sort of takes your breath away as well as a huge amount of pressure in my lower back and in my bottom - but I had two babies who both went posterior in labour, not everyone gets the back thing. It's definitely not the sort of urgent, sharp, negative pain you would get if you say, stubbed your toe. What I would say both from personal experience and from my experience of supporting women through labour is that a lot of it IS in the mind - if you fear contractions, and fight them by tensing all your muscles, they will feel worse. Having a positive mindset and taking them just one contraction at a time really does help. Focusing on keeping all your muscles limp and relaxed - that and remembering to breathe. And somehow remembering to breathe out is harder than remembering to breathe in - after each contraction is over it can really help to let out a big blowy sigh and let all the tension go in your shoulders and arms - sometimes someone else (husband, doula, midwife) can spot any areas of tension in your body better than you can yourself IKYWIM and just apply gentle pressure to remind you to relax. The thing with contractions is you won't know what they feel like until you feel them - but when you do, you will know!

I was really worried about what contractions felt like when I was pregnant and too embarassed to ask. The only description I could find in a book was that they were like 'waves washing over you' not very helpful.

Mostly mine felt kinda similar to period pains in so much as (as someone already said) they were in kinda the same place. YOu could also feel that they were muscles contracting (IYSWIM). And it was you felt the pain, it got stronger and then subsided, even if at first it was in a short space of time.

HTH

when i started havin contractions it felt like period pains but also like the sensation you get when your dying for a wee like a pressure on you lower stomach. as it got further in it was like a creeping feeling from the bottom af your bump all the way to the top i started to tense up at this stage and it really did make the pain feel worse. i found that by concentrating on my breathing after i was advised by the mw's to do this it made the pain seem less well.. painful! it all depends on the individual as to what it feels like but i agree with others that there really is no other feeling like it! i had had a few braxton hicks and thought that it would feel just like that but even bh's feel different or did to me anyway!! you will deffo know when its 'proper' contractions!! hth xx ei xx

And they don't always gradually build up to a peak & subside. All my contractions started at the top of the peak & then tailed off.

For me contractions were unbearably(!) intense pressure pressing down below. I had no feeling of tightening across my belly....it was strange and so painful! Nobody can prepare you for it....then again everybody has different experiences, just remember that the end result is SO worth it!

For me, they started off as an annoying period pain type ache in the pit of my stomach and down my right leg.

Think it's impossible to describe them once they really get going - I needed gas and air at about 6cm and it was unlike any pain I've ever had before It's true about it being a positive pain though.

Message withdrawn

My mw was telling me to lean on my dh for support whilst i was standing having a contraction, also for him to rub and put presure on my lower back.
If there was one thing I hated most, it was being touched and leaning into him for support. I didn't mean it in a nasty way, but whilst contracting - just leave me the hell alone! I was much better standing or sitting breathing through them on my own, with the odd squeeze of his hand. This was the case too when it came to pushing. I was the same in both pregnancies

strong rhythmic period cramps, gaining in intensity and length.

Not the same as any other pain - I've had ruptured ectopic with internal bleeding, appendicitis and it nothing as bad as those.
it's more of an enveloping squeezing pain.

I'm v jealous of people who experienced contractions feeling like period pains at first - from the very first one my contractions were WAY above the level of period pains, and they weren't in my back or tummy like period pains but literally felt as if someone was trying to force my cervix apart...it was quite a sharp pain.

I had a long long labour and I feel my exhaustion made me less able to cope with the pains as the days went on...so rest rest rest is my advice!

I don't want to lie though - by the last day of labour my contractions felt brutal and unmanageable. Certainly never felt a pain on a level anywhere near them before or since.

If I were to do it again I would do huge amounts of work on relaxing. I did find this hard partly because the pains were intense from the beginning, but I definitely agree that being tense and anxious makes them worse.

some people get pretty bad period pains though. Mine are so awful at times that I can't do anything apart from cry in the bath until the double dose of co-codamol kicks in.

For me it was cramps in my lower back (focussed on the left hand side). It probably ached elsewhere too but that was the worst bit. It felt like my pelvis was shifting about (which I suppose it probably was a bit) and pressure, as though if I stood with my legs apart the baby would just drop out (I wish). What's bizarre is how in between I felt absolutely fine. I only got to about 4 or 5 cm before the epidural (19 hours, so long enough IMO) so can't tell you nif it would have changed as labour progressed.

My mother swears by visualising a pile of contractions. At the end of each one, take a cleansing breath and imagine one being gone off the pile. It's a way of remembering that the pain is constructive, I suppose, although I wasn't really able to do it well enough and tensed up - Nab3 is right about that being a bad move!

Sunnyside - I had the cervix stabbing thing too, but mine only happened when I was sitting on the bus the week before the birth! I wondered what it was...