Honest opinions on pain...

[nerofire63]

I know childbirth is different for every woman but one thing that has been in my head since my teens was PAIN! I am worried about it and it scares me. I am not even pregnant yet, only trying and I am worried.

I want honest opinions... On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the pain?

Like wunweg, I had a traumatic and excruciating (failed) induction. It ended in a c section. I had another, after long contemplation, by elective c section. (Fine)

I would tell anyone who asks to avoid induction at all costs.

Nowhere near as bad as expected. Dc was back to back and had him using tens, pool and then nothing for the actual delivery.

I don't know if I'm lucky or not, I normally have a low pain threshold and cry if I knock my toe. I'm very cross with the multiple women who rolled their eyes at me when I said I was having a home birth who said I'd be screaming for an epidural before I hit 5cm.

Depends a lot on your body shape, position of baby etc. I thought it was horrendous! For me, it built up slowly though and only the final couple of hours were really bad. You also get a break between contractions.

Ask for as much pain relief as you want and keep asking if you don't get it straight away. You get no rewards for doing it without!

My labour pains with dc1 and dc3 weren't too bad, about a 6. Dc2 was back to back and dc5 was induced so they were more painful, about an 8. Post c-section pain was about a 7.

Hideous, 11/10. Far worse than I ever expected. I felt like someone was wrenching my legs off at my hip sockets, except it went on for hours and there was no break for contractions.

Because of the way my dc was turning the MW said he was pressing on the sciatic nerve. I'm dreading my next delivery but hoping the same won't happen again and I'll find it much easier.

It's going to be different for every person and every birth. For both of mine honestly the pain was 10, it's was an incredible pain I can't even explain but the circumstances each time were different which made the experiences totally different. First baby was back to back, Labour was 27 hours, if they'd been more clear with me about how long it could take with the position he was in, I would have got an epidural sooner, but I got one after 18 hours, I was in the birthing pool for nearly 12 hours in all, I was exhausted, contractions were one on top of another with no break. Second baby painful labour started about 1.5 hours before I left for the hospital and baby was born within 5 mins of being there, it was still incredibly painful but I felt in control and when it was over I didn't feel exhausted and like I'd been 10 rounds with mike Tyson!! He's only a few months old but I just want to do it all again, it was incredible!!!! The pain is temporary, there's a plethora of pain relief if you feel you need it, such a cliche but it's so worth it!

It's immense pain and nothing compares to it for me. I watch One born and get shivers because I know in 5 months I'll be doing it again! It's all worth it in the end but I really can't sugar coat it, for me it's agony.

OP, you’ve probably gathered by now that birth is very variable, from “hardly a twinge” to “excruciating agony and wanting to die”!
So much depends on the baby’s size and position, the roominess of your pelvis, whether or not you need induction or augmentation, your own pain threshold, etc .
I think you should be realistic but flexible. It’s probably going to hurt, and it might hurt a lot, but you can choose as much or as little pain relief as you want. And you can change your mind during labour - many women start out with whale song and chanting, progress through TENS and gas and air, and end up choosing an epidural. And it doesn’t matter! Nobody will give you a bloody medal for suffering unnecessary pain!
Go to antenatal classes and discuss all the analgesia options available. Bear in mind that epidurals are only available in hospital labour suites with anaesthetists, as this might influence your choice of delivery site. Stand alone midwife units also cannot do emergency Caesareans or forcep deliveries, and would have to transfer you to hospital during labour if anything went wrong, another factor you should consider.
The important thing is you are lucky to live in a country with free safe obstetric care, and childbirth is safer here than in much of the rest of the world. How much pain you want is up to you.

I've got endometriosis, I've had periods that were a 10 on the pain scale. Labour was an 8 . I had no pain relief during childbirth but 10 days a month I'm on codeine/ tramadol

You’ll be fine. It is painful, but manageable. You can get an epidural if you are really anxious about the pain. You do really forget how painful it is pretty much as soon as it’s done. I struggled more with tiredness, pushing for 3 hours, baby got stuck and dr said I was just too tired so had forceps. Don’t let it worry you, it’s such a small amount of time.

I had all of mine on just gas and air. I found it extremely effective, although I literally sucked on it constantly. I know some women who say this made them feel really sick but luckily it doesn't have that effect on me In my experience the worst pain was the few weeks after... the having a wee after stitches, the (gasp) having a poo after birth and also the afterpains. It's worth it though (most of the time)

Horrendous, and it's a lie that you forget!
I went into my first labour having read Ina May and all set to breathe the baby out in a pool.
One labour I really genuinely wanted to die.
However, my babies were poorly positioned.

Mine wasn't great but that was a lot due to the crap midwife I had. It was really busy she didn't bother examining me and to cut a long story short had baby at home unplanned. I have precipitous labour though so it means labour is really fast but really intense. It felt to me like someone twisting my insides. Transition is hard but just make sure you have good support from your partner and feel comfortable with you surroundings and you will get through it x

Mine was manageable. With hindsight I never got above a 7 or 8. But it went on for a very long time, so I was absolutely knackered and asked for an epidural more for that than for the pain level.

Honestly, on a scale of 1-10... 20,000.

When labour was over I felt angry that nobody had properly prepared me for how it would feel. Obviously the women I had spoken to beforehand had very different birth experiences to me, so I was probably being unreasonable to be so angry at them, but I'm going to be honest with you as there are already lots of less unpleasant accounts on this thread (people saying it's 'bearable', for example - that was not my experience, unless by 'bearable' you mean 'well, I didn't die from the pain').

My waters broke, contractions started immediately and DS was born seven hours later with the aid of ventouse and episiotomy.

The early stages were fine. Sore, but fine. I joked with my husband and turned down the offer of an epidural because I felt like I was coping really well.

That did not last and within a few hours I was screaming in agony, retching, crying and begging my husband to just DO something, please help me. I have never experienced anything like it and I hope I will never experience anything like it again. I didn't realise it was possible for the human body to feel so much pain.

I turned down an epidural again even though I was in screaming agony because the nurse told me it could slow labour down and baby had already had heart decelerations. It was the most fucking heroic thing I have ever done and I wept as they wheeled the anaesthetic equipment away because I knew it would get worse and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

I had pethidine and gas and air, both of which were fucking useless and to be honest pethidine just made me feel more scared and disorientated.

Contractions just kept getting longer and longer. They were at a stage I could deal with for a while, I think they were forty seconds long and I did a countdown - then suddenly, during one of my countdowns, we got to forty seconds and it just kept going - to over a minute. It got worse from there and eventually I had no time between contractions at all.

I pushed until I thought I would faint but he would not shift. I have never been so scared. I just kept thinking, what the fuck kind of state am I going to be in by the end this?

I'd love to say that it was all forgotten when baby was born but it wasn't. Not at all.

My advice: make sure you trust your midwife/dr and communicate with them; research stages of labour beforehand; get an epidural early; be prepared for pain, in as much as you can be prepared for the pain of childbirth.

I was induced without pain relief and thought I was going to die. Second time round I had pain relief. Moral of the story: it's fine with drugs.

Yep. 11.
I remember asking the midwife not to let me die.
Whole thing felt like dying and have never forgotten it.
I have had chronic earpain and undiagnosed unset broken wrists before but labour and crowning were on a different level. I would have happily taken a bullet.

Out of my three only the first one was a natural birth. I was 31. It was a back to back labour which has a reputation for being long and painful. Long it was (21 hours) but as for pain, I would liken it to a bad period and most of the pain was a dull ache on my back that came in waves. As I was having a home birth I spent a lot of time in a warm bath which helped. The midwife brought gas and air which took the edge off and relaxed me. In the end I had to be transferred to hospital as baby was clearly stuck and distressed by then. It took another 3 hours and I don't remember the pain being that bad. I didn't scream or cry and all I was was overwhelmingly tired.
I can honestly say I have had an impacted wisdom tooth and and ear infection that hurt way more than giving birth. I guess it depends on lots of things but try to relax and take the pain relief and you will be fine xx

Was induced with first and on the drip. From about 4cms dilated pain was unbearable. There was no respite, it was constant. I felt totally out of control. Morphine did absolutely nothing. Hypnibirthing techniques went out the window, as everything I had practised was about pain that came and went not everlasting agony. And then the lovely epidural lady came and made it all better. About 8 hours later, I pushed my daughter out myself.

DD2 also induced. Was about to be put on drip again, but I insisted on epidural up front this time. In the time it took to find an anaesthetist I had gone into established labour. It was painful, but the pain came and went in waves, the hypnobirthing really helped me to keep in control, which inturn helped me deal with the pain. In a really odd way the pain at least felt familiar (unlike pain experienced whilst on drip, which was totally alien), I had no pain relief, apart from a few puffs of G&a right at the very end, and I think this was as much to help me control my breathing. The ouchiest part was crowning. That stung like a bitch but was over vv quickly, like pulling a plaster off.

On a scale of 1 to 10, a gazillion. Nor did I find that it was good or bearable pain because it was pain with a purpose. It's not, really, given that pain relief is a thing.

That said, lots of women find it bearable and their truth isn't any more or less valid than mine. There is a lot of variation to people's experiences. I'd also add that it's not necessarily about your pain threshold in relation to other types of pain you've experienced. As sometimes people feel differently about certain types of pain and in certain areas.

On a scale of 1-10? 80 million billion. In the final stages of my second I remember asking my mum to kill me. Begged for the epidural but it was too late. I shudder when I remember that labour...

With my first I had an epidural just as it was getting bad and remember it setting in mid-contraction and it was fucking delightful

OP everyone is different.

I have had 3 babies, the most recent being twins last month who were induced and DT1 was back to back. I had no pain relief with him or with either of his sisters bar 2 gulps of GnA to distract me when they broke DT2 waters.

It did not hurt. I would say childbirth is really quite uncomfy but not painful. I have had 3 babies crown and actually crowning was quite pleasant, a sort of relieving feeling. I quite enjoyed pushing.

That is not a brag but just to say, pain isn't inevitable and you just don't know what you'll get.

Having my 1st was so painful I wanted to die I had to wait for an epidural, as they had to come from another hospital, then it didn't work. They wanted to take me for a CC but surgeon was busy ( cottage hospital) baby born I went into shock both of us ill, and a 5 day stay in hospital. Baby 2, I panicked all pregnancy wanted an epidural on admission. Baby was born after 2 hours and 2 pushes I was totally in control the only pain was crowning no epidural, home after 2 days, got PND which Dr linked to the 1st birth. Baby 3 longer Labour in control no painkillers hypno birthed, tiny baby but after pains hurt. It's all different the calmer you are the less it hurts.

Depends on so many things, my first birth was fine, the pain was always manageable. I didn't need any pain relief.

Second birth was bad, but she was stuck the wrong way round and I was at home so no option to have any pain relief (except G&A which didn't touch it).

Both times I got through it and I'd do it all again a million times over for my babies.