Most painful part of birth?

[PSL1990]

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

The after pains,, I didn't have them with the first but did on #2 &3. Fuck me they were so painful

Reading through this - does transition hurt in a second birth?!

The first poo afterwards, I didn't go once in the first 5 days after in hospital, the morning after I came home I needed to go, my mum ended up half nursing me while I went, it was pure agony & I was terrified everything was going to drop out, plus I still had stitches from emcs, I'm sure the neighbours heard me screaming.

The contractions before the epidural and the stitches healing after the epidural wore off.

FeeFee832 I didn't notice transition with my second birth, I went from having to breathe through contractions to oh shit my body is pushing here comes the baby!

Worst bit was the after pains with baby 2, holy crap.

Transition and stitches.

With my 2nd it was the post dural headache - kill me now kind of pain.

I remember the midwife giving me pethidine!

She might as well gave me a happy shopper aspirin. Didn't help one bit

Crowning definitely 😩😩

I had a ELCS, the birth itself went well. The recovery was harder than I thought and I stupidly didn't expect to lose that much blood that quickly.

The after pains and the milk coming in after birth.

The contractions built up into the most horrifying all encompassing agony I've ever experienced, I couldn't breathe through them, couldn't move. The crowning and the episiotomy and the stitches were NOTHING in comparison to the contraction pain for me.

Interesting to see such a range of answers! For me:

DC1- Transition. I felt as though my pelvic bones were splitting apart or my back was breaking. Thankfully very short-lived.

DC2- I can’t decide. Possibly the sharp stabbing pains in cervix and rectum during the week leading up to the birth. Or maybe the pushing stage in which he actually kicked and wriggled on his way through the birth canal, which made me shout: ‘GET THIS BEAST OUT OF ME’. Also horrendous were the after pains during the first few feeds. I turned white, got the shakes and thought I was going to pass out with the pain.

I didn’t feel the crowning either time. Don’t know why but I did practise perineal massage fairly religiously so maybe that helped.

At any rate, I look back on both births as overwhelmingly positive experiences.

Definitely the stitches... followed closely by that first poo.

@AlbusSeverusMalfoy in terms of pain with stitches, do you mean the soreness of the stitches afterwards or actually having them put in? Do they not give anaesthetic?

Might be an odd question, do you still get the after pains with subsequent births if you have a c-section and don't breastfeed?

Just before my epidural, after being induced when there wasn't much time between contractions.

I did pass out with early feeds but I don't remember pain just zonk.

After the birth when I was on the ward. I felt as if I’d been booted up the whatzit by a very large boot.

@OneOfManyDays
Yes.
After pains relate to the shrinking of your uterus, not the mode of delivery. and they happen irrespective of feeding, though it's often worse during feeding because it tends to happen quicker, so it's the choice of worse after pains but they last less long (breastfeeding) or milder pains but last longer (formula).

The transition stage, which they say is from 7cm to 10cm which I was in for 12hrs!

I went quite quickly from 3cms-7cms, only 1hr, but these last three cms!

Farting for the 1st time after birth. Still remember the pain

1st birth-the contractions before epidural
2nd-contractions when I had breakthrough pain with an epidural and syntocin.
3rd-birth of shoulders and body.

Had two c-sections, so when the painkillers wore off. Second time I had a massive PPH so had about five people round compressing my womb so hard my body was jumping around in the table. It was weird because I couldn't feel anything except the movement but I knew it was going to hurt a LOT at some point. Unfortunately they then forgot to give me my paracetamol for a few hours and I wasn't allowed diclofenac because of the bleeding so day 2 was very painful. (Till I discovered oramorph. Which then gave me terrible stomach pain and wind, but there we are.)

The broken coccyx for 4 months afterwards 😩

Being rummaged around Inside for an hour while numerous people tried to dig my placenta out while one pushed down on my tummy. Only gas and air until the finally relented and took me to theatre for a spinal - it took another hour!

For me the contractions & crowning, but I didn’t find it too bad, for me it was bearable.