How much did your contractions hurt?

[fitforflight]

With my first I was booked for a C-section but ended up going into labour before that date, so the result was an emergency section. I only got to 2cm dilated before the section and although I was having contractions (according to the monitor) I could barely feel them. My friend was in agony from 2cm all the way to the end.

Did you find there was a point where they became very painful? I appreciate it's different for everyone! Did you find the same sort of pain levels at those points with subsequent babies?

I'm hoping to have a vaginal birth this time and although I'm confident in myself after birth when looking after a baby I feel like a first time parent when thinking about labour as it's not something I've experienced.

From about 6-7 cm the contractions are really strong and they do hurt. Just learn the breathing exercises and possibly get a tens machine.

If Pethidine is offered take it.

1st child ages 19 induced 3 days of pure agony no breaks exhausted had gas and air pethadine and epidural which didnt work(twisted spine) second child natural labour bearable jus felt like a really bad belly ache until i got the hosp for them to check if i was in labour and found out i was 10cm! No pain relief
I think everyone's different!

Utter, utter torture. I was induced and on the drip and DD was back to back. It felt like my spine was being ripped out.

I was the same as this ☝️ I was begging to be put out of my misery. The excruciating bit lasted about 10 hours before they realised he was back to back and just wouldn't come out. Once I got the epidural for a possible csection (got him out with forceps first) the total relief was amazing.. I look traumatised in the picture ls holding the baby and absolutely was. Will never put myself through that again 😖

On a scale of 1-10 contractions are a 30. The actual birth is a 40, unless you get an epidural. It's not just the pain but the unrelentingness of it. I've had 4 and my take is that dealing with the pain is very much a test of mental strength. When you're hours or even days into it, it starts to feel like you've always existed in that hospital room and always will. Last time I remember feeling scared I'd never give birth, like I was in a labor purgatory. Take whatever meds you can :) That being said, everyone has a different experience. Just one of my births was all natural, no meds at all, quick, painful but forgotten after awhile.

My contractions never got unbearable. I took my eldest to playgroup and chilled out with her all day then put to her bed at 6.30pm before giving birth at 9.30pm (planned home birth) I did have a pool and gas and air the second time round which was lovely! First time round was on a bed at the hospital with no pain relief but was also fine!

Congratulations and good luck with the birth!

I'd say they started to properly hurt around 6-7 cm as opposed to being just painful and then they ramp right up at the end, they really lengthen and are a lot quicker together and are harder to manage

Not really if I'm honest, more a dull ache than acute pain. Getting dry socket after my wisdom tooth extraction during lockdown, that was painful!

But to be honest I've never had period pains either so I do wonder if I lack pain receptors in that part of my body ???

More annoying/exhausting than agony. I felt them all.
Recommend a tens machine

I thought active labour was from 3 or 4cm.. similar to others I had the drip induction, and contractions came strong and off the scale on the monitor my notes say 3-4 contractions in 10 mins so very little break and very slow progression. I was exhausted and the pushing stage was a huge relief, no pain just pressure I couldn't believe and involuntarily pushing and mooing away

Everyone I know who was induced explains having been in complete agony. This was my experience too.

I was having strong twinges for a couple of hours, my now exH insisted he took me to hospital. I was 8 cm dilated when they examined me when I arrived on the labour ward 😁 and the baby was born about an hour and a half after I arrived.

First time, it was almost constant contractions for ages, like very bad period pain. Just about manageable with tens then a load of drugs and Cs.

Second time it was much better, tens machine and bouncing, could manage with breathing but lost my shit when waters broke and went into transition, from that bit to birth it was very bad and I'd have done anything to make it stop tbh.

However, it's kind of abstract as you don't have much choice and then it's over. So I know it hurt but it's like it happened in a dream or something. The ending of the pain was euphoric, not being in pain felt amazing, and the feeling of having a baby without Cs was also very nice and a big relief. I got a tidal wave of happy hormones. That was my personal experience, I know it's not that way for everyone.

@fearfuloffluff

Also my experience, the pain was sort of irrelevant, because you're kind of in a parallel universe - it's just happening. And when it stops, it stops.

This is where I think hypnobirthing can be really useful because you can send yourself to another planet with it 😂

I had an induction. Due to DC1 being in back to back position (although we didn't realise until she was born) it was agony from the second it started until I had the spinal for an EMCS. I had an epidural and gas and air but they barely took the edge off.

I was induced. Early contractions didn’t hurt at all. I was walking around the hospital trying to get labour started getting regular contractions, thinking they couldn’t be real because they weren’t that painful. When I got checked because they were getting painful I was 7 centimetres dilated so had clearly been in labour a while. They did get very painful after that.

Mine were like really bad period pains, accompanied by a squeezing feeling round my lower back.

I got an epidural approved when I was 4cm but by the time I actually had it was quite a while later so I'm sure I was probably more than by then.

It's also the exhaustion that gets you though too, my waters had broken about 12hrs before the pain became really intense so it was a long day.

First baby - waters went and strong contractions from the start. Never felt unmanageable though - more like very bad toe cramp type pain. Used gas and air. Baby arrived after six hours.
Second baby - induced, but uterus was overstimulated so had 6 in ten contractions. That was intense as no pain relief for four hours until they could break my waters at 3cm. Not unmanageable though, I wasn't screaming or anything. But couldn't have walked. Once waters were broken at 3cm they got stronger and baby arrived 40 mins later. Even then though they weren't that bad - the midwife wasn't even in the room when her head came out! And no pain once at pushing, that just felt productive!

At the end, with a normal birth.

I had a very quick labour at home. I went from 4cm to fully dilated within 40 minutes, with 5 minutes of pushing. Didn’t have time to get in the pool. Few puffs of gas and air, but couldn’t even concentrate on that due to the pain. It was VERY painful for the last hour, and even worse when starting to crown and pushing out the head. Not as bad for the head and placenta. Whatever happens, your body will take over, it’s like vomiting and you have no control whatsoever in managing it autonomously. You can manage your breathing through the pain before it gets to the end though.

I had continuous contractions from
the start, absolutely fecking excruciating- none if that time in between nonsense to look serene and breathe, oh no. They were literally seconds apart and long. It turned out DD was mostly back to back so it was all in my spine-nothing like what I expected. Felt like my spine was being ripped out.

I went 2-6cm in the time it took midwife to run a bath (the lying bugger told me it would help). The whole sorry saga was 6 hours start to finish.

I laughed hysterically at the tens machine - mains electric fencing wouldn’t have touched the sides. And the best bit was “progressing too fast” to have the much wanted epidural.

Absolutely horrific, but blissfully short and I didn’t need so much as a paracetamol afterwards, no damage at all. But by god I thought I was dying, literally dying at the time. I had a bleed which didn’t help that - I was hollering that I was bleeding to
death and no-one cared apparently 😂

I wanted all the drugs, only got the bloody gas which doesn’t help me much at all (have had it for many kneecap dislocations too so am a dab hand).

It did however have an extraordinarily positive impact on me - I felt like superwoman for so long afterwards and I am much less scared of anything. In fact I draw on labour to get me through all sorts of difficult stuff now. I’m having regular smears and colposcopy for abnormal cells (nothing serious yet) but that would have made me super anxious before, physically sick. Now I’m just fine with all of it. It’s like nothing can touch me after surviving that.

I'm afraid mine were 10/10 from the get go. I've never known pain like it. Like a pick axe to the spine. I thought it would kill me.

Epidural totally took the pain away. I even slept.

Still ended in a c section, by that point I was exhausted and relieved someone was going to do something!

It's hard to talk about because you don't want to scare other women. But I really wished more people had asked and let me talk about it, and I wish I'd done more to listen to other women share too.

I was induced on the drip, mine were extremely painful. At one point I asked the midwife is it possible for the drip to cause my rectum to explode because the pain was so intense I thought that was going to happen.

For me (natural birth just gas) they were like period pain that got a bit more ouch and then even more ouch. They were really uncomfortable in a pressure kind of way. But then the pain felt familiar too, as I'd been having mini versions of them all my life.

I think the worst contractions felt like the kind of pain level when you've stubbed your toe and you are f-ing and blinding for a minute. But continuously so every couple of minutes. It's the frequency that wore me down rather than it being necessarily an extraordinary amount of pain to experience.