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

If you have gas and air then is that a natural birth? I thought that natural meant no forceps or similar and no drugs.

I had two natural births and did not enjoy them at all! I found gas and air really effective at reducing pain and can’t understand why people wouldn’t use it.

I thought natural meant "exited via vagina"

The gas and air made me really sick, so if it's a long labour I think epidural is better

Different for everyone. Mine was short but fairly hellish with continuous contractions plus what you might call a spontaneous enema that went on for about half an hour. I’m going to say 9.5. Felt very out of control. TENS and water both did do something for me, I don’t think the gas and air valve was working, I would happily have had other things but there was no time.

Like others though, short at least meant the whole thing ended like a door slamming and once I’d been stitched up (he came out like a rocket) I was pretty chirpy.

I don't think it works the same for everyone. My mum said it just make her really nauseous.

Maybe a 4? If moving my broken elbow was a 7. It never felt out of control or unbearable. I had gas and air with mine but never felt like I needed anything else. I'd say it feels like a combination of a bad toe cramp (but obviously in the base of your belly) coupled with diarrhoea cramps. As soon as you're pushing it's brilliant because you have something to do!

It's like period pain which builds and builds at the beginning. I found it worst in my upper legs. As a contraction comes, it builds like a wave for 30-40 seconds then subsides. At it's worst it made me sick. You get relief in between contractions. Once you're at the pushing stage, it hurts pretty much solidly, but by then you're just so glad that the end is in sight that you stop noticing. It's not as if you have no pain, then someone stabs you in the vagina - more like waves of increasing and decreasing pain which make it easier to sort of ride the waves.

For both of mine it was fine and then when the pain was unbearable each time, it was because the head was coming out! I had no drugs with either and a home birth with my second.

Absolutely agree with this.
Terrible, frightening, longest and most hideous pain ever. And that was with Pethedine and TENS. Has an epidural eventually. Fucking awful and never repeated!

Oh yes, I did scream a lot.

'pain threshold' is not relevant for birthing. It simply is that some people's labours will be more/less painful than others.

People like to say "oh I managed so well because I have a high pain threshold" because it's nice to think you achieved something and had control but ultimately they managed so well because their baby was just positioned in a less painful way. And of course we can't compare individual experiences. What someone says is 12/10 in pain, someone else would say 2/10 not because they don't feel the same pain but the just verbalise it differently or have different comparators.

On the pain scale a 1 for discomfort - had an early epidural and a good sleep. Throughly enjoyed it.

The point you think you can’t take it anymore is the moment before having your baby in your arms.
Take the gas and air though at the very least! Be kind to yourself 💖

Why put yourself through pain when you don’t need to? There are plenty of pain options.

I went a bit very nuts in the last 10 minutes or so of each of my labours but up until that point it was pretty bearable. Just had gas and air each time.

4/10. I’ve had backaches that were worse.

I would say don't overplan. By all means, if you would like to go with a water birth / tens machine then do so but if it gets too much ask for pain relief. Giving birth is not something you can decide how you are going to do before it happens. DC1 I didn't have pain relief (10 hour labour) as I was in a birthing pool at home until he got stuck and I was blue lighted in to hospital where I had a spinal and a forceps delivery. DC2 I had planned to have pain relief but they came too quickly: I was in labour for 45 minutes and the babe literally shot out. In both cases the pain, as others have said, was very different from any other kind of pain I have ever experienced like intense period pain but in waves and manageable. I screamed. but so so what?

Oh I did use a TENS machine as well, forgot that. It really helped with the earlier stages.

A scale of 1 to 10 = 5000

But it comes in waves gets worse then fades away.

I

I found I almost disassociated from the pain. I kind of knew it was there but I wasn’t overly concerned about it as such. I get migraines and they are way worse, period pain also was worse. However the aftermath was very painful (stitches and the placenta)

Depends on so much - baby position and amount of support you have etc.

I had terrible period pains -- always fobbed off - wasn't till last bit of pushing and when I was tearing that it felt anything worse TBH- only had gas and air and got nothing with other two all over 9lb. They were relatively quick to really quick with last labours.

I don't think I screamed - and I don't think your Mum making you worry about it is at all helpful - is she pushing for a c-section or something in particular to happen?

Dmun say induction was not as bad as natural - but her natural one was early labour after a loss and they were panicking getting to hospital - most other peopel say inductions often worse.

Its,painful but manageable.
I've done it 6 times, 4 with no pain relief, 2 other times I used gas and air.

Do you know what? It doesn't matter how you give birth or what pain relief you use. Just as long as your both okay.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but it was also much quicker than I thought it would be. I did have back labour which apparently makes it more painful but I have nothing to compare it with.

I didn't feel like it was unbearable until crowning and then he was out seconds later anyway.

I didn't have an epidural or gas and air but as I said, it was quick. 3 hours from start to finish.

I suffer from intense periods that cripple me every month. My labours were a slightly more intense period to me. My first labour went very bad (terrible midwives who didn't believe me that I was in labour - even though I was induced). No one checked my cervix from putting the pessary in until the head was there 🫠.

I only had paracetamol for that labour, was very painful but not completely unbearable. I was just more scared about me or him dying, thankfully we both are / were okay. Just make sure to advocate for yourself.

Second labour, got to hospital at 8pm and was around 8cm. Got straight into the birthing pool, only had some gas and air from 9cm and she was born at half 10. Your body genuinely just does it, it's amazing. It hurts obviously, the crowning bit is very sore. But overall it's definitely manageable. The first poo afterwards hurts though especially with stitches omg.

I agree with pps. It’s not so much pain as an overwhelming feeling that takes over your whole body. It’s a big deal but insignificant considering you’re actually releasing a human from your body.

I mean I had to do it without pain relief for various reasons (not through choice). I’ve never - for example - had to have my leg sawn off - so difficult to say where it sits on the scale. I would say probably less bad than having your leg sawn off but still pretty fucking awful.