Can you please describe what a contraction feels like?

[marthamay]

Hi there,

There must be some other first time mums out there like me who have no idea what a real contraction feels like! I am close to my due date and really curious now.

I would be really interested if those with more childbirth experience could describe what they feel like...

?????

Thanks!

sorry for "contracting quickly" read "dilating quickly"

My experience was pretty horrible. I had a show and within an hour of that my waters broke and i had my first contraction which did feel like bad period cramps. within an hour they were strong and regular at 10 mins and we were told to get to hospital 30 minutes away. By the time I got there I could barely walk and was immediately put into a room and my cervix was 6cm dilated.

the pain was all in my back as my daughter was back to back. it was unbelievably intense, there was nothing I could do except make strange noises and my body sort of contorted itself so that I was on my tiptoes almost bend over double. I had gas and air and was sick several times.

I got in the birthing pool and it was a disaster. I was no where near hot enough for any kind of comfort and it wasn't very deep so every time I had a contraction I would rear up into a cold room doubled over in agony. After about 7-8 hours I couldn't go and asked for an epidural.

The epidural didn't work down one side....hideous, took hours (literally) of faffing around with top ups until some bright spark noticed the cannula had come out so had to have it re-sited.

After that I had total pain relief which was great...until the pushing stage. I pushed for a couple of hours giving every single ounce of engergy I had left. Finally I had a ventouse, terrible episiotomy which is still a mess after 6 months and I was left with haemorroids which made me cry with pain every time I 'went' until my daughter was about 4 months old.

anyway....to get back to the subject...the pain was so strong and intense there was no way on earth I wouldn't have known I was in labour.

Anyone else feel really, really hungry at the very start of each contraction? This happened right through delivery with a spinal too!

Or was it just me?

It felt like how I imagine being stabbed would feel like. Great waves of deep pain, over and over again. Sounds grim, I know, but I've done it twice and I'm a total wuss. I even have to be knocked out to go to the dentist!

Have whatever pain relief you need. The important thing is that you and your baby are OK at the end of it.

Good luck!

someone has just punched you in the stomach and then twisted their hand. making the muscles in your abdomen contract and then twist all at the same time.

they hurt, but not as much as crowning does.

that feels like someone has just kicked you in the fanjo and then set fire to your pubes!

gaelicsheep "the worst pain known to humankind (without dying)"

Not for this human. Birth (both of them, even though they were quite different from each other) were a doddle compared to ripping the ligaments in my knee right off the bone.

I hate the feel of water on my skin when in labour. During my first one I tried it and almost threw up.

It isn't a lack of realism to have had different experiences.

At first just like my own period pains but more intense and involved muscles tightening uncontrollably in my tummy. Not that bad to be honest. I managed just on paracetomol for the first two days but it began to wear me down!(was induced and had stop/start contractions)
After my waters broke though, the pain ramped up considerably. It was fine in between the contractions but once one had started I was on the gas and air and firing up the tens machine simultaneously and that made them tolerable. They became painful in my back and it was a twisting sensation which slowly got worse and worse... and then tailed off. I went on to have an emcs so don't know how painful they would have got further on but am inclined to think that I experienced the painful end of the spectrum due to all the inductions I had.

To be honest. I found the internal examinations far more uncomfortable and unpleasant than the contractions!

I had what felt like intense period pains continually (no let up) then a wave of contraction that was x100 what I was already experiencing every few minutes - but my first labour was "hard and fast" as one MW described it!! I had TENS turned up max (thought it wasn't working then it fell off - OMFingG!!) and GandA to help me not care.

I echo what others say though - I would ( and am!) doing it all over again though, so despite it being hard to truely give you an idea, its worth it!

They are nothing like period pain IME and they are bloody painful. My contractions didn't start off building up and back down again, they went straight into high pain then faded away. I dreaded the time before the next and found it an awful experience but I was in labour for days as I had a long latent phase. I then needed the drip to make them more painful efficient and to speed them up but ended with a c-sect at 9 cms as baby was OP and things just weren't progressing, but I digress, contractions feel like a very painful squeezy pain and thankfully I chickened out and had the epi before I lost control completely, although I was left with a 'window' of excrutiating pain in my back the whole time. Next time I will stick to the G+A as it really worked and jump into the birthing pool. No epi's for me.

Mine started just like period pains. Mind you, I used to have awful periods, with vomiting/faiting etc. I remember being quite disappointed thinking somehow contractions would be more exotic or romantic or something.

As labour progressed the contractions became more like they are on telly - waves of pain, requiring a dh nearby to have his hand crushed. He tells me that his hands have recovered now - ten years on!

Best of luck with yours. You are beginning a wonderful adventure.

To me they were just like period pains or bad constipation

They were so unremarkable I didn't realise I was in labour, luckily I started to bleed or I would have had a breech baby on our bathroom floor. By the time we got to hospital I was 6cm dilated and they were still just bad period pains

You can have absolutely no idea in advance how intense yours will be. Good luck.

Start like period pain/stomach cramps, get worse and worse until you are kind of writhing in agony!!! It reminds me a bit of having a really bad sickness bug, where whatever position you are in just seems to make you feel worse, and you kind of can't stand to be in your body IYSWIM!

It hasn't left me mentally scarred though. It was painful and hard, but nowhere near as hard as either the last few weeks of pregnancy or the first few weeks looking after a newborn!!! It's just a day (hopefully) in your life - a pretty painful day, but well worth it!

(tbh the worst bit for me was delivering the placenta ).

Mine gave me really bad diarrhoea!

They were awful but manageable. I would say that if you feel like you can't cope and want an epidural, for goodness sake have one! They were invented for our benefit!

I didn't but only because I was v lucky and had a quick labour and found I could cope with the pain. But I wanted an epidural all the way through my pregnancy!

You also have to push just like you're doing a poo. You may well do one, but don't be embarrassed by it! "Don't be embarrassed" was my mantra throughout the contractions. I didn't actually do a poo as had had such bad squits during early labour, so was totally empty!!! But I wouldn't have cared if I had!

Not sure if anyone's said this yet but the best- and most succinct- advice I had when I asked was if you WONDER if you're having contractions, you probably aren't, you're having braxton hicks. You won't wonder if you're having contractions when you are actually having contractions, you'll know!

Hmm, then again EffieB, there are women who've got to 8cm or more without realising that the sensations they've been having are actually genuine contractions. It's relatively common if you are doing hypnobirthing as well (though don't get your hopes too high on that one!). There have been women who've given birth in their sleep. Okay, probably not first-timers though .

With my dd my water broke before I felt anything but by time I got to the hospital I was having what felt like light menstral cramps. I remember foolishly thinking that I didn't know what all the fuss was about. By the end of it it was just incrediable. Just awful waves of pain.

My first few contactions with ds felt like he was pressing on my cervix. They quickly turned into painful contractions and I had him 4 hours later.

Yes, the advice I got was given to me, as a first timer to be, by a mum friend in response to my queries from 36 weeks onwards of 'ooo i've got a funny sensation is it contractions starting'?

Just read all these comments with interest - am due to give birth to my first in July.

I'm reading up on hypnobirthing and will listen to the CD, and am hoping for a waterbirth in the home-from-home unit at my hospital. BUT as I've had SPD for the past 5 weeks, I'm going to play it by ear. Even if hypnobirth won't make labour painless, I figure it can only help to be relaxed and breathing well...

I had pleurisy a couple of months ago (the joys of pregnancy!) and I remember thinking that it must be more painful than labour. Was crying with the agony of trying to breathe when it felt like I was being stabbed in the lungs. And that lasted about a week, without the positive outcome of a baby at the end of it!

Hi ilyj, gosh what a lovely pregnancy you're having!

I had awful Spd first time round and labouring in the water made a world of difference, it is so soothing. Hope it clears up quickly and good luck.

It felt like my whole body was being squeezed through a hosepipe

The thing is, when it starts, you're body knows what it's doing - even if YOU don't. That's one of the amazing things about this whole shooting match. I've had three, and all were very different and there is no point in freaking yourself out with everyone's versions of pain as it is such a hard thing to quantify - and not really that pertinant to you as you will have your own pain threshold. Just know that YOU will know when they start (usually!) and you will ride with it and at the end of the day, whatever it takes, you will have an amzing baby at the end of it. Keep focused on that. A lot of labour can also be extrememly boring. And not many mention that! Good luck!

My midwife's answer to this with my first child was 'you'll know when it wipes the smile off your face.' I can confirm she wasn't wrong.

I remember it as excruciating pain in the bottom of my back, not necessarily sharp, but like stomach cramps.

Is it true that once they start they hurt as much at the beginning as they do in the end?