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

First time giving birth naturally was fine. Second time was more painful but it was for a short duration and forgotten the moment baby was born.

Keeping calm and deep breathing is more beneficial than histrionics and screaming.

I think this is what happened to me with my second, I was having contractions but I never pushed as such - I just though ‘I can feel the baby coming now’ and thirty seconds later they were out.

I don’t remember any pain at all beyond the contractions, very strange! Even in the immediate moments after I knew it hadn’t hurt, so I’m not just blocking it out.

I thought i was going to die giving birth to a stuck back to back baby, so 10.

An unbelievable level of pain with my first one. Like being tortured for hours and 10 doesn't come close. Didn't care about anything except for wanting the pain to stop. Gas and air had run out and they didn't have an anaesathist available for an epidural. Second one was painful but bearable and a totally different experience. I just had gas and air for that one. Keep an open mind about pain relief as you don't know what it will be like for you.

8/10 for me.
A 9 or 10 would be fear that I was going to die, and I was never scared, it just bloody hurt. And I had a long natural labour (24+hours of consistent contractions). If it had been shorter then that would’ve helped.

My over riding thought was ‘fuck this for a day out’ rather than fear or unbearable pain.

Deep breathing FFS! Clearly not all births are the same.

It is possible to give birth without pain relief. I had two paracetamol about what before birth. No gas and air. I was scheduled to have an epidural but DC was too quick and not enough time. I have a low pain threshold so my birth plan said give me everything, but let me try without.
I don't think I did any screaming, maybe some ooohing when contractions hit.

I have no recollection of the pain , although I know I had some.

I'd never heard of the Ferguson Reflex, but that is exactly what labour felt like.

You birth plan needs to be flexible and there are no prizes for not having pain relief.

Is your mother going to be with you,? If she is maybe have a rethink as her somewhat negative energy isn't what you want or need during the birth.

I think it totally depends, everyone says it’s manageable etc but it really varies I think. Everyone said to me you’ll have chance to breathe and recover between contractions but mine were one minute apart from the get go. I went for an epidural after eight hours, I can’t even imagine having carried on without. I met someone who said contractions were the same for her and she went for epidural. Don’t be afraid to get it if you want it. You have to demand. People talk about birth plan no one gave two hoots about that, it was a different nurse every time I looked up. If I were to do it again I would do elective Caesarian. Not saying that’s the right choice but it’s what I would do. Your mum is maybe trying to prepare you and get you to look into all the options you will have when it happens because like I said you have to demand. But it really does depend, my baby was on his side and wouldn’t turn which probably didn’t help!

Because all pain relief impacts the baby and the style of birth to some extent. The more pain relief you have the more intervention tends to be needed and babies are born drowsy, or with latching reflexes muted. Things like epidurals and pethadine mean you’re more likely to have an assisted delivery and if forceps or ventouse was involved baby often will have bruising on their heads or faces. Anything that disrupts natural labour has a knock on effect. Read ‘Childbirth without Fear’ by Grantly Dick-Read and anything by Ina May Gaskin, if you understand and trust your body to do its job there’s significantly less pain.

I found it a 10 but I've always had really painful,heavy periods so that might have something to do with it. My sister who's never had period pain or heavy bleeding said about a 7. So everyone is different.

I had pethidine and gas and air, lots of it and my daughters were born very alert and suckled well just after.

It’s 100.

I managed it with gas and air both times, but only because I went from 0 to fully dilated in about 10 minutes and there was no time to get an epidural. Transition was the most excruciating pain it is possible to experience but I think DS1 was back to back. Second time was a lot less painful (water birth).

I think it really varies, and is so different in everyone. And all things make a difference- size of baby, etc.
I found giving birth about a 7 out of 10. I did most of the labour without any pain relief. Nobody realised I was fully dilated and ready to push (me included, until my body told me to push and i couldn't stop!), because I was coping fine. We had only just turned up to hospital after my waters broke 3 hours earlier, and nobody had seen me yet - we were just ushered into a room. When I thought I needed to poo, it was my son coming! My husband had to run and find someone. They finally examined me and realised how ready I was. My son was 8 days early and a petite 6lb 7oz, so I always think this must have helped. I just had gas and air for pushing, no other pain relief. They did tell me I must have a high pain threshold, but I never realised I did.
As soon as he was out and I was still being stitched, I kept thinking was that it!? I could do that again!

For me, first time was hell- very long induced labour. Second time was great- very fast and it did hurt a lot but I was also very excited and almost enjoyed it (I’d been dreading another induction so really welcomed every contraction as the meant I was going into labour naturally).

I think it varies so much depending on the situation, your baby’s presentation, how you are feeling emotionally. Would recommend trying to keep an open mind about pain relief- if you find you need it, great. If not, also great.

I had my first with pethidine and the other four with no pain relief. They were all fairly short labours too, which helps because you don’t also have to deal with completely running out of energy.

Only the second was unbearably painful. The rest were all bearable (the third was embarrassingly easy).

Birth wasn’t the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. In fact with my second I had a couple of contractions that were totally painless (water birth and gas and air)

TBH my periods and kidney stones were way more painful.

Honestly like 100. Doesn’t help I was tired too after being in labour for 2 days with minimal sleep. Then her shoulders got stuck and the forceps were like 100000, honestly, it’s been 4 years and I can still remember the pain of those forceps, also 2nd degree tear in 2 places which I felt, I did it on only gas and air so my advise…take all the drugs if you need them, I wish I had I was so delirious from the pain I started hallucinating and ended up not even remembering seeing my daughter in those first precious moments- couldn’t hold her until she was 12 hours old.

I wish someone had been honest with me because all I got was ‘it was fine, it’s not that bad, breathe baby out’ etc etc so I went in with a very false sense of childbirth and that’s part of the reason I declined the epidural when I had the chance. Some women breeze by fine but there’s no telling what kind of birth you will have so take someone who can be a strong advocate for you

I did one birth without any drugs and the contractions were a 7 to 8, but easy to walk around in between. Which is why I continued without anything.

The transition was crazy painful so a ten.

@rogantano I would not go into labour with pre conceived ideas. This is leading to problems when intervention is required for safety. Take advice for a safe delivery. If you need an intervention, take it. Yes, I’ve heard women screaming the place down. Excruciating. It’s definitely not for me and I went to sleep during labour after having an epidural. Bliss! No pain and straightforward. Just heard everyone else! So keep options open and don’t get fixed ideas. We know that’s not safe these days and so much evidence is being collected about women being denied intervention by midwives and then there’s problems. Don’t be inflexible.

I think I hypnotised myself as Davina Mccallsuggested...so i was telling myself her mantra.
Gosh it worked!

I don’t think it’s something you can really know or prepare for until you’re doing it. Go into it with the mindset that it’s probably going to hurt a lot but at the end of it you’ll meet your baby and it’s only temporary.

I’ve endured a significant amount of pain in my life and am known among friends and family to tolerate it very well. I’ve had two babies (first with no pain relief, second with gas and air) and both were absolutely fine and bearable until “transition” which blew me out the fucking water both times. Luckily for me, I tend to hang around at 2-3cm dilated for a few hours before shooting up to 10cm and pushing in around 20 minutes.

That very short but very intense period of time is extremely painful for me, more painful than I thought I was capable of experiencing without dying tbh. First baby I didn’t make it to the labour suite and second baby I made it out of triage by about 5 minutes.

The good news is that pretty much as soon as your baby is born the pain goes away. You do get after birth contractions but they feel like a walk in the park after what you’ve just been through.

It's a 10 for me.

I also thought I'd not have pain relief, but I did with my first child. I wanted a water birth, but my labour was to slow.

You need to see how you go and be flexible. You won't really know what your pain threshold is until you are there and it's all a trade off. If you can manage on gas and air the birth is likely to be quicker, if you need drugs then it may be harder in other ways. You may want to go drug free and be advised to take them, you may desperately want the drugs and have told you can't have them. My point is as long as you are supported and have a healthy baby no way is better or worse. You just need. Listen to your body on the day Nd have someone there to advocate for you because it will be different to what you expect.

Both of my labours, contractions were hard and painful, but I breathed through them until I got the epidural!
I thought I would scream and shout, I do if I injure myself! But I was pretty much silent during the whole duration of both labours

As others have said: it’s a different kind of pain. It’s a ‘positive’ pain because you know what’s causing it, so does your body, and you’re excited about seeing your baby (as opposed to the type of pain you have through injury or illness). It can be bloody hard work though! The best thing you can do for yourself is to be as fit as possible to help your body deal with it. It knows what to do and there’s help there if you need it.