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

I found it really painful but I also had an abnormal labour and no “slow build up” it was full throttle.

what i would say is I was quite dismissive of the advice of paracetamol and bath in the early stages (although again my labour kinda skipped a huge part).

However I was quite surprised at the difference the paracetamol and getting in the bath at home made and it wasn’t until I got out and like I said - it was full throttle at that point - that I realised how much pain I was in.

if you can have a water birth I think I’d suggest that. It wasn’t possible for me due to medical reasons but if I could have had one the second time I would have.

if your using gas and air make sure they show you how to use it properly 🙄

if they offer you drugs and you are in pain - take them. You don’t get a medal and a round of applause for going au natural.

It depends.

I've given birth twice and the second time was off the scale painful as baby was back to back.

So you probably won't know until the day?

Keep your options open for all the pain relief if needed. Xx

10- I found it extremely painful- but only for quite a short time. The actual pushing was ok, it was the contractions just before the baby arrives (so the last half hour or so before the pushing).

I felt like the bones in my pelvis and back were breaking and I thought I was going to die (or I wanted to die, not sure which). But I did it twice with just paracetamol and a tens machine for the first one; a birthing pool was my pain relief for the second one. As soon as the baby was out I wanted to do it all again- it’s a very strange experience- like nothing else. It was excruciating but I’d rather give birth to lots more babies than repeat the tooth infection I had last year.

Some women want all the drugs under the sun, some don’t. Some elect for a C-section if they feel the experience of labour is not for them. There’s no right or wrong and if you want to have a baby, you will manage to get that baby out one way or another.

Great that your Mum is being so supportive 🙄 😡

Having my second one was worse than my first. It was an extremely long ( 36 hours) induced labour with no pain relief beyond paracetamol (all I was offered despite constantly contracting) or sleep until I finally got an epidural about two hours before he was born. Even then he was a big baby at 10lb 1oz and 60cm long and it felt like I was having a heart attack on every contraction because each time I bore down to push his feet would push right up into my rib area, above the epidural line.

My labour was painful but managable. I did a hypnobirthing course before and found the breathing techniques helpful in early labour. Tens machine and comb were perfect for the drive to the hospital. I then had gas and air and used a birthing pool. Both of these were amazing, although it did take a few contractions to get the timing right. You really need to get a few good lungfuls befpre the contraction ramps up. I felt like I couldn't cope right at the end, apparently this is completely normal. And then 10 mins later I had the most perfect baby in my arms.

Look into all of your options and keep an open mind. I wanted to try a water birth with only gas and air but if it any point it had been unmanagable I would have tried any other pain relief.

9 out of 10, I had two births with no pain relief (it was that or emergency c-section 20+ years ago in Italy). I’ve had toothache at 10/10.

I’d describe contractions pain as similar but worse than severe constipation, as you feel the obstruction move through your organs, then being ripped open to let this 3kg human out of your body. Active pushing at 9/10 pain was only 30 minutes, 20 for the second. I was also trembling uncontrollably and teeth chattering afterwards as a reaction to the pain.

I did NOT forget about the pain and it was one of the reasons we didn’t try for a second child for a good few years. It felt like a conspiracy- nobody told me how painful childbirth was!

There are so many types of pain relief in childbirth nowadays, including patient-led dosing, that anyone going in cold must be a glutton for punishment!

Honestly? Toothache is far worse. I had no medication, but my story isn’t interesting so you won’t hear people discussing average length, no complicated, not painful births.

If you have ever had constipation and tried to pooh them the pain is like that but it's worse and it can be for 24/36 hours . So for me the pain is off the scale forget about 10 it's more like a thousand .

I don’t know how anyone could say that is less than 10 (10 being the highest/most painful on the scale). I love my child very much but would not have had a baby had I known how bad the pain was going to be (and I ended up with an epidural)

Extremely painful. Literally the worst pain ever. But it’s over pretty quickly and then you have the most precious bundle of joy!! 100% worth it. I would just be open to different options regarding pain relief, you don’t need to decide now.

Sorry out of 10, maybe 4 or 5, worse pain includes dry socket (12/10!) dislocated shoulder (8/10) broken elbow (7/10) and impacted wisdom teeth of course.

11 - but I’ve had 3.

@Nopenousername. Mine really weren’t that painful, everyone is different

I would have said 10 but then I got a kidney stone and my god that was a whole new level that I didn’t realise existed. So I’m going with an 8 now!

10

Two births, first long and needed interventions, second really quite fast and easy. They were both very painful but I would still pick birth over a migraine. It was almost like an out of body experience for me, I was in a lot of pain but at the same time I felt I could cope and it was all fine.

500 😂

I have a very high pain threshold and hated it.
Although I was induced (more painful) and had no pain relief.

Some people seem to cope really well with it.
The worst were the contractions for me. They’re like period pain but way worse.

My advice would be to just take pain relief.
My friend is a massive wimp but she found giving birth a breeze as she had an epidural and so didn’t feel a thing.

You will be fine but you need to accept that you may need pain relief and there’s no shame in it.

0 if you get an elective csection. It's fantastic. Recovery can be painful though but it's "predictable" pain similar to what you expect after a medical procedure.

4/10 for me on a zero to 10 scale, 3 kids. Home waterbirth for all, no drugs. Stung a bit at transition but nowhere near the pain of bad toothache or sciatica. As others have said it's only for a while. We're all different. Actually, the afterpains with the third were worse - midwife reckons they do get worse for later births so no need to worry about that yet - I didn't remember them from the other two.

I found it excruciating but as others have said it’s a different type of pain - the pain I had for two years from slipping a disc was worse for much of the time. I wanted to manage labour with just gas and air and my tens machine, but within a very short time I was begging for pethedine. I thought my tens machine wasn’t working at the time, but I picked it up the next day to pack it ready for my husband to return it - it was still switched on and when I touched it, it nearly threw me across the room 😆😆

I think being pregnant and in labour were two of the worst experiences of my life, and it’s bollocks when people say you forget about the pain after the birth - I never forgot any of it, but every second was worth it to have my daughter at the end of it.

12

It’s pretty irresponsible of people telling OP she will be able to deal with it or she will be fine. We don’t know that. Lots of people have been fine, others have been traumatised. I felt like I was dying because the pain was so bad. No one can tell OP what it will be like because it is subjective to her experience.

If you aren’t a fan of pain, OP, take the epidural or whatever drug you want. Be ready for the possibility that you won’t have time to be given it, though.

Yes it's definitely painful and called labour for a reason. I think as women we're designed to endure many things and actually tend to forget how much discomfort we suffer during giving birth otherwise the human race would probably die out completely. My second labour lasted 15 hrs and my husband sat there like a lump eating sandwiches and gawping for the most part. I send him out for a break at one point as he was looking a little traumatised. Poor man.

I’ve had 3 babies and for me the worst bit was if the labour went on for a very long time. That is, the pain is cope-able but what’s tiring is if you have a very long labour.

Not only does the pain vary by person, it also varies by baby. My largest baby by a long way was probably the least painful to give birth to. It depends on how they’re positioned in the uterus and how they’re positioned when they come out.

Before having children, I always imagined that the actual birth was the most painful part of labour, but for me it wasn’t as I found the prolonged wait and contractions to dilate my cervix the most painful - again, because it went on so long.

I’d ignore your mum and focus on gaining knowledge and confidence in yourself. The pain is like bad period pain. It’s worse pain if you’re induced. It’s bearable. I was told to tell myself that there were a set number of contractions I was going to have and each one that passed was one step closer to the end of labour. That helped as I knew that even a particularly painful contraction meant that one had gone and we were counting down to delivery. I also used gas and air, and that helped.

For me, giving birth was the best experience of my life (I appreciate I am very lucky) and the pain was 25/10. You should read a hypnobirthing book and ignore your mum.