Most painful part of birth?

[PSL1990]

What was the most painful part of labour and birth for you?

Transition, definitely.

I found the initial days of breastfeeding more painful than contractions.

I guess it was the transition period. I was so frustrated and felt genuine anger, to the point where I refused to push. Me fighting against the contractions made it much worse than it needed to be. Luckily I snapped out of it soon!

Pushing was hard, don't get me wrong, but not painful as such? Like a crazy workout that you NEED to finish!

The stitches afterwards! I don’t really remember being in awful pain in labour. It was intense and hard work but not agony. I’d do it all again tomorrow, I loved it! I was very lucky.

The stitches.

With my First - the stitches and tearing. I was on all the pain Meds for 10 weeks. And was told it's fine when referred to perinatal clinic.

With my second? Was the pelvic pin pre birth! The short labours were horrific but short. I find lingering pain hard to deal with.

The second pain bit for both kids ? The foot and joint pain due to thyroid function collapsing at month 2!

Labour wise- I went 6cm to baby in 6 mins. That hurt.

With 1st- afterwards. Recovery from forceps episiotomy birth.
2nd- possibly being stitched up or the moment when the baby’s head was out and it was turning. Ouch. Waiting for next contraction for body to be born. I do remember that moment feeling a bit panicky, as I felt stretched beyond belief 😳

The next 18 years!!

For me with my second baby getting my cervix checked to see many cms it was while having contractions was terrible

When they kept wiping with the gauze to check for tears, she did it about ten times with me hanging on to the bed everytime. And then told me i needed two stitches for a slight graze. i informed her i have am adversion to local anesthetic and it wont work. She did one, i nearly kicked her in the face and informed her she would not be doing the second one. Crowing sucked pretty bad too

I think just the general aching and soreness with all your muscles for the next few weeks after lol

My pelvic girdle pain in lregnancy and afterwards. I thought once I'd had the baby is be able to walk properly again, but I felt so battered and bruised in my groin I couldn't walk! So frustrating. And the after pains were a million times worse than labour

Crowning was intense, the most uncomfortable part.

Episiotomy was the worst for me. The fingers in "..to see how much stretch there is.." The knife was quick but pushing after was like being splashed with boiling oil.

The stitching after was fine, I was sucking on gas and air.
For my third birth, the after pains were worse than the contractions. I had no idea it would be like that.

For me it was being sore down there after, the having to sit on something really soft and it still being painful. Because that part lasted longer it was worse for me.

More of a burning feeling which shocked me, but I'd say crowning was the worst bit, none of it's a walk in the park though :) although would still rather go through that again than have toothache...

@FoxRedBitch

I was going to say that!
Birth is the least painful part of the following 18 years!!

End of first stage/transition with first. Couldn't get over it enough to ask for pain relief before the next contraction.

Didn't hurt at all second time

The contractions prior to being admitted to hospital. Once I had the gas and air I fell asleep.
I did have 3 days worth of contractions, though.

After pains. At least giving birth is useful, and you can move around. Trying to feed a baby while your uterus feels like it’s in a vice is pretty agonising, and serves no useful purpose.

It doesn't have to be painful. Insist on an epidural.

First one was when his head turned as it crowned out causing me to need umpteen stitches inside and out. It was agony
Second was when I tried to pee after the birth of my daughter and the grazing she’d caused made my lady parts sting like hell and I was crying in pain.
Third one was the five to ten cm dilation in under five minutes with my second son and I genuinely thought I was going to die. All too fast for any pain relief.

#I can laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible

The contractions before I had an epidural.

DC1 - stitches afterwards when the local ran out 😳😡

Breastfeeding was far more painful than labour & birth though.

DD2 - crowning

PGP during and after pregnancy was far more painful than labour & birth though.

I would be happy to labour & birth again. I cannot imagine enduring another PGP pregnancy.