Birth was NOT as bad as I thought it would be

[Jane101]

I've just got the Mumsnet news roundup e.mail which says that "Women are "terrified" of giving birth, and find it "more painful than they ever imagined", according to a survey by Mother and Baby magazine. I'd just like to say that, although I know everyone's different and I have heard some horror stories (and please don't anyone add any to this thread, I want it to be reassuring to people) I found that giving birth was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. There were things I wished I'd done differently, like deciding beforehand whether to agree to have my waters broken, and discussing birth positions before the contractions got too close together for talking. But I can honestly say that, although of course it hurt, it wasn't the unbearable agony that I thought it might be. I'm a complete coward and planned to have an epidural if I felt I needed it, but it never got to the point where I couldn't cope. I hope this is reassuring to anyone who's really worried.

Just had my third daughter, now 11 weeks old. First 2 labours were killers with really long second stages - 2 hours with first, over an hour with second. I'm no martyr to pain and was begging the midwife to give me an epidural at 3cm dilated this time round dreading what was to come. The midwife said to wait until I was in established labour. 2 seconds later my waters broke and I was ready to push. I got on all fours, panted and she shot out. It happened so fast, there was not even enough time to get a second midwife in the room. Loads better than I could ever have imagined. Good position for delivering in - it required hardly any effort on my part.