On a scale of 1-10, how painful is giving birth?

[rogantano]

I want to give birth to a baby naturally but my pain threshold is non-existent… my mum is worried about the day I give birth because she said all I’ll be doing is screaming

Depends on your labour. It was way shorter than that for me.

It depends a lot on baby’s position and how well supported you are in my experience. I had 1 I actively enjoyed and 2 others which were harder. Try it. There’s gas and air to help if you need it.

A 6/7 for me. It maybe got to an 8 when my daughter was crowning but that bit was like a 2 with my son.

The only time I’ve had 10 pain is when I dropped the butt end of a dinner knife on my big toe 🤮

Every birth is different though and you won’t know how it’s going to be for you until you get there.

As other PP have said, the length of the labour can actually be worse / make it harder than the pain of it. First labour - 19hrs, used gas and air and needed every breath of it. Second labour - 2hrs, unintentionally unmedicated as progressed rapidly and didn’t make it to hospital, but WAY easier than my first labour. Pain that stopped me in my tracks, but over so quickly that I never felt I couldn’t cope at any point.

There were definitely times in my first where I felt I couldn’t do it any more / needed an epidural / wanted the whole thing to stop, and that’s harder to deal with that the physical pain - you need the mental strength to keep going

Yes, of course. I didn't find it massively hard work though tbh.

Depends entirely on the type of birth you had - if like me you have a difficult one, head not pressing on cervix, no progress and 36hrs of labour followed by EMCS then yeah, pretty agonising.

I’d like my friend they pop out like shelling peas, you’ll be fine.

First birth 10/10

Second birth (only 15 months later) 2/10 and then 8/10 for around a minute whilst I pushed so quick and tolerable.

All births and women's pain tolerances are different and no two births are the same.

Yes very painful. I only had gas/air and managed a water birth. The pain relief from water was immense for me. I didn’t want chemical pain relief as felt this would slow the birth down and also meant I couldn’t have a water birth (labour drugs were administered on a ward by doctors). Additionally you could have a private room in the midwife led water birth centre, which also suited me perfectly.

I have six children and have never once screamed or felt the slightest urge to! It’s always felt a very inefficient use of my energy lol. There may have been some ‘mooing’ right at the end but who cares, that’s definitely a sign baby is nearly here. Have also never had any stitches, or ‘pushed’. I’ve only ever had gas and air, including for inductions. I do like something to bite down on, either a gas and air mouthpiece or a kitchen wooden spoon are both good and I’ve had one of those in every hospital bag.
I don’t see how your mother’s comment was in any way helpful, I really would put it to one side (it may have been said in worry for you and came out wrong maybe)…every birth is unique.
I’ve had to have crash life-saving surgery, and also had gallstones, both were far, far, far more painful than childbirth.

Look up The Ferguson Reflex

Mine were the same in terms of not being particularly difficult

Why on earth not take pain relief? You don’t get a little medal or gold star for not having it 🙄

Its not 10/10 the whole way, most of it is tolerable. But there were 10/10 moments. But it ends and then you have your baby. 🥰

Your body takes over somehow.
I had a c section for my first and a natural for my second with just gas and air - I’d have a natural normal birth any day over a c section.

Less recovery time, you can drive, exercise much quicker.

It’s painful but your body is doing what it should!

I had a natural birth, except gas & air.

I was surprised at the low level of pain, I would rate it at 5 or 6, I would say the pushing is the hard work, not the pain.

Ignore your mother.

It varies massively from person to person...but I don't have a high pain threshold and coped with 3 labours with little pain relief. Just as you think you you can't do anymore, that is when it is over. My husband jokes that when I say the words 'I can't do this anymore' is when he knows baby is about to arrive.

Yeah I don't get it either!

You don't get a medal or a gold star for being snarky about women who don't have pain relief either.

10 for me. I had a short, fast back to back labour with continuous contractions from the start after failed induction (I had a bad reaction to the pessary). It felt as though I was dying. There was no space in between to breathe.

But I had no damage, the second she was out I felt fantastic and needed no recovery time. It was an amazing experience. But I’m glad it was only 6hrs as it was really bad.

I wanted an epidural but progressed too
quickly. I am still pissed off about that 😂

The level of pain varies from person to person - it’s not the same experience! Some people experience literally pain free births. Personally, I was traumatised by how painful natural birth was. There’s no way of knowing where you will fall on the scale. What you can do is have a birth plan setting out your preferences for pain relief.

I had 2 of my kids with no pain relief at at all and they were over 9lbs. I had an epidural and gas and air for another and something for the last one but I can’t remember what. It was definitely 10 out of 10 pain for each but they were quick so it was ok. I screamed which didn’t go down well with the midwife but screaming is a form of pain relief I think 😅 ( that’s probably rubbish but it felt right). I screamed during the contraction but was fine in between. I don’t see any merit at all in not using painkillers. I would not use an epidural as I don’t like the risk to injuring your back but gas and air or something else sounds good. I only didn’t use painkillers as it was too rushed.

I think giving birth is a weird one, I've definitely felt much more sorry for myself when ill or with a UTI. Because you are not just laid there in pain, you are busy doing a physical job if that makes sense?

There are no medals at the end of it for enduring pain you know, so why would you. If you need something to help you with the pain during labour, then use it/take it.

It was like strong period pain for me. I kept waiting for it to get worse but it didn’t. I was fine with only gas and air.

But I would have taken pain relief if I needed it. Just go with the flow and don’t worry too much.

I’ve never had period pain in my life and was concerned that Fitbit’s would be hell. It wasn’t.

A friend has horrific period pain every month and was worried that giving birth would be so much worse. She said it wasn’t.

It’s different for everyone and every birth is different.

My mother would have said something similar to yours. She would have sniggered and said that I’m an attention seeker and would make a big fuss and want will want all the drugs. I had a 10lb baby at home with paracetamol!

Go into it with an open mind, get educated on the process but be prepared to take the drugs if you need them. There are no medals for giving birth without pain relief. I do actually have a high pain threshold. This doesn’t mean I’m brave or hardy, it’s not a badge of honour. It simply means I don’t feel it. It’s nothing more than luck!

I had the syntocin drip for DS which is obviously painful but not half as bad as when I had dry sockets from my wisdom tooth removal for TWO WEEKS, birth was a doddle compared to that.

I was scared of the unknown but when you come to it you power through. (Also epidural was magic, it took the pain away immediately)