Was labour as bad as you expected or were you expecting it to be worse?

[bubbles519]

Just that really

Worse, but I had complications and my dd got 'stuck' for quite a while with no pain relief (had emergency c section in the end). I think everyone has very different experiences.

I have also shattered my elbow in an accident which to me was on a similar level pain-wise. Other broken bones less so.

Both were towards the 'extreme' end of what I'd expect to experience pain-wise but that's just because I was unlucky (and clumsy)!

Much, much MUCH worse. And I had fully expected it to be pretty hellish. The contractions were just an indescribable, unimaginable level of pain. The pain left me unable to walk, the pushing wrecked my back, no time for an epidural, gas and air was pointless, episiotomy, ventouse, then ended up haemorrhaging immediately after birth and for two weeks after, almost died twice from blood loss.

I tried to have no expectations about what labour would be like, but we all have preconceived ideas based on our exposure to television, film, social media etc.

I found it like nothing I had ever seen or heard of before. I did not know at the time that my son was back to back. This resulted in a very long and painful latent labour stage - lasting from around 4am on Sunday to Friday lunchtime. The sleep deprivation experienced from on-off contractions day and night and resulting pain wore me down and by the time active labour kicked in I was already exhausted. He was finally born close to 4am on Saturday - 6 days later. I ended up requesting an epidural around 6/7cm to try and get some rest but because he was at that point in distress things had to keep progressing. The pushing stage was ok but it took every ounce of energy to get him out and the crowning was very sore but luckily does not last too long. In the days after I could barely walk my body was so knackered and I experienced some hallucinations. It was a really tough experience that I had no idea was even possible. In the weeks after, we often scoffed at the advice we received to pour a glass of wine, have a bath, watch a film etc whilst waiting for baby to come.

39 weeks pregnant with number 2 now and hoping for a much quicker experience this time around.

Wishing you the very best of luck. Keep an open mind and stay as strong as you can. That baby is coming out one way or another!

Natural labour of back to back baby. It was fine - 10 hours active labour, managed to stay calm, no need for anything other than the pool. I'd do it again tomorrow and I have a REALLY low pain threshold. Did a lot of work on hypnobirthing, stayed active and felt supported which helps I think.

2nd baby also back to back, only 2 hours active labour, even easier.

Much better than I expected, both times. I didn’t find labour too bad at all, I didn’t need pain relief, for me it was manageable.

Worse, far worse! With DS1 I asked for a scalpel so I cut cut him out myself if they wouldn’t do it for me.
With DS3 the midwife mentioned I’d have a baby by lunchtime. It was 8 in the morning and I had been in active labour since midnight (day 3 of induction) I begged to be put out of my misery. Death was far more appealing than an additional four hours of labour!
I must have a really poor pain threshold.

I wasn't expecting the pushing bit to go on so long. I kinda thought once you had to push it was over in about an hour imagine my surprise when 4 hours later I was exhausted and being wheeled into theatre as my baby was stuck and I had run out of steam. I don't think it was worse than I expected, I expected it to be pretty awful but in a sort of unknown capacity. To be honest I'd all but forgotten it the next day, it just seemed like some surreal dream. My partner is more traumatised than me because all he could do was stand and watch and he hadn't had the benefit of all the drugs

I think pain wise it was about what I imagined, what I hadn't really thought of was how relentless it was, I could manage the pain itself, it was the fact it went on and on that got me! I had quite a long labour though...

Plus the midwife told me he would be here by morning shift change (8am) and he didn't come till 1.50pm 😬

Totally manageable. When they said I was fully dilated I actually asked "so I don't need an epidural then??" I was convinced I wasn't going to be able to handle it, and it was veeeeery intense before G&A but I just kept thinking "if this is as bad as it's going to get, then I can handle it".

I was definitely expecting worse (and longer)!

For me it was worse, but I was induced and had my waters broken and dd was back to back, then had a c section in the end. I thought I was going to have to throw myself out of a window. However, a friend of mine who has an incredibly low pain threshold enjoyed it and said she would happily give birth every day.

If I could go back I'd learn way more about c sections and the recovery and not move house 5 days after giving birth.

First baby was spontaneous labour. It was much the same as I had expected, although quicker (first contraction to delivery in under ten hours). What I hadn't expected was that I would vomit all through labour. That was horrid. If my labour had been longer I would have struggled as suspect I would have needed fluids etc.

Second baby I was induced and it was better than I expected in that it was a very similar delivery to baby 1 - I had been expecting induced labour to be worse. Lasted about the same time too - 11 hours from pessary going in. Vomited all through that one too and they gave me fluids intravenously which helped enormously although I dislodged my canula accidentally near the end.

No where near as bad, but I was pretty convinced it would be awful and I wouldn't be able to cope.
I also ended up with forceps and say it wasn't as bad or as painful. The feeling was more intense pressure than pain

Yes very painful surprisingly quick and annoyingly agonising thanks to a manual removal of retained placenta.

I really enjoyed my whole labour experience, lasted about 23 hours, extremely painful for the last 3-4 hours, the rest was bearable

I don't think it's much worse than an uncomfortable poo and the second time I did it with only gas and air (but only because I was so off my tits on Pethadine the first time that I could barely function).

Worse.

Way.

Way.

Way.

Worse.

More active labour was painful than I was expecting, but then I was on a pretty high dose of syntocin. Diamorphine was wonderful.

Pushing phase was surprisingly painless. Uncomfortable, but nothing like what I thought it would be.

Much worse than expected.

It was better than expected. I’d really got into a tizz!

No labour as I chose to have sections. Best decision for me ever, and the nearest I think I could get to a pain free birth. Some mild discomfort putting the cannula and spinal in, but that was it, and recovery was virtually painless.

A million times worse. The pain was out of this world. Just brutal.

I wasn't scared of giving birth and assumed it would be straightforward. It was. I was very fortunate having known people in labour for a long time and sometimes ending up having a C-section. That could have been me.

I had a 48 hour labour with no pain relief and I honestly found it fine. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was obviously painful at times but always manageable. There was the odd moment I started to panic I tried to remind myself to stay calm. I did hynobirthing but the main thing I got from that is to just focus on my breathing and believe my body was capable of birthing my baby and that definitely helped. Good luck 😊