Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Original poster

How painful is childbirth on a scale of 1-10?

457 replies

Blackitty · 28/12/2020 01:33

1 being a breeze
and ...
10 being the absolute worst pain imaginable?

I am due in March. First baby and would like to know what I’m in for...

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
amymel2016 · 28/12/2020 02:14

Most of it 7-8 but transition and pushing were a full 10 for me. You’ll get through it though.

Countdowntonothing · 28/12/2020 02:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kolo · 28/12/2020 02:20

Elcs about 2/10 and all the discomfort was afterwards.

Contractions after induction 10/10. I've never experienced pain like that before. But it was strange - sort of like being out of body, you know the feeling when you've got the flu and drifting in and out of sleep? But then I had an epidural and 0/10.

Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou · 28/12/2020 02:20

I was already 8cm when I got to the hospital, and by that point it was far too late for anything other than gas and air. It was really quick and quite intense, she was born an hour later and I’d say the contractions were around 7/10 and pushing the head out with no real pain relief was around 8 or 9 out of 10.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 28/12/2020 02:22
  1. I'm due my third in 4 weeks and honestly have thought about it and wanted to cry every single day of this pregnancy. I'm absolutely dreading it, BUT I know its worth it, I know once its over ill have a precious little baby, so it makes it manageable. Doesnt make my worry about it any easier though.
YukoandHiro · 28/12/2020 02:23

About 8, at the business end of things - but that doesn't last that long and as others have said you get little breaks so you can manage. The drugs make it easier at the time but recovery more difficult (I've had one labour with all the drugs including epidural, and one just gas and air) so see how you get on.

Bikingbear · 28/12/2020 02:26

The most painful thing I've had is a burst appendix which I'll put at 10.

DC1 Natural labour, water birth, gas n air probably about a 7.
DC2 Induced with pessary, backache was about an 8, 2 paracetamol & 2 codeine, a bath, brought it down to a manageable 5, I got out the bath a hairy 15 minutes and a wtf baby was born.

Chill it will be fine. Everyone had me so scared of being induced I thought I was in for a hellish time. It was no where near as bad as expected and a friend has a similar story.

lovelemoncurd · 28/12/2020 02:29

Why do this to yourself? It's been written about for 100s of years how painful it is!

MintChocAddict · 28/12/2020 02:30

Those who are saying the pain isn't constant and you get a break between contractions clearly haven't birthed a back to back baby.
If you're told towards the end of your pregnancy that your baby is in the back to back position OP get yourself leaning over everything you can - chairs/birthing balls etc and get that baby moved! Don't be me and continue to lie around eating crisps Blush Boy did I regret that!

Chubbychops29 · 28/12/2020 02:40

I had my fourth baby in August and for me it was a 10. The pain was all in my back and it was constant. I did have an epidural and a top up but both failed but, you do get through it and when you’re holding you’re baby you realise it was all worth it!

BounceyBumblebee · 28/12/2020 02:45

Dd I had codeine, pethadine and gas and air and it was managable, probably 7.5
Ds I had only gas and air and it was a 10 - I was begging for death at one point.

Guineapigbridge · 28/12/2020 02:48

8 or 9
Kidney infection was worse

KickAssAngel · 28/12/2020 02:50

It varies greatly and you really can't tell. I worked with 2 women who had their first close together - both similar age, job, lifestyle, health etc. One had hair & make-up intact and said that she'd had worse hangovers. The other one had 8 pints of blood and was signed off sick for 6 months because she nearly died. You can be anywhere between those 2 extremes.

stuffedforchristmas · 28/12/2020 02:52

C section...

3 for about half an hour the morning after.

I was in considerably more pain with a tooth infection

Chanel05 · 28/12/2020 02:54

Before my waters broke, a 3/4. Painful, but could breathe through them. After my waters broke, it ramped up to a 10. Contractions that had been every 5 minutes were coming every minute and a half lasting for a minute each time. Got to hospital, only 2cm dilated. Turns out, baby was transverse, hence the obscene pain at that number of cms. In my birth notes, it's written that I was "extremely vocal" in triage! They wanted me to be quiet so as not to scare other mums! It was impossible.

Userzzz · 28/12/2020 02:58

Induction : 15
Natural labor: 12
The high once the baby out is worth it!

Chanel05 · 28/12/2020 02:59

And @Blackitty get an epidural! Bliss. Request it as soon as you can as it depends on availability of the anaesthetist when you can have it. I waited two hours for mine and a friend only waited 15 minutes. I ended up being put on the syntocinon drip to help me progress, so thank God I'd had it already!

Also, I had a cat 1 emcs in the end and the pain after was a solid 8 for the first two days.

Tinacollada · 28/12/2020 03:04

2456785321

didot · 28/12/2020 03:13

I think it depends on a lot of things but for me with DC2 - spontaneous labour, optimal foetal position (not back to back) - it was completely manageable. Early labour was 2 (mild period pain, used hot water bottle), ramped up to from maybe 3 to 5 as contractions got closer (tens machine, pool, gas and air), pushing stage I don't remember being painful as such, then crowning - ow! - but that lasted literally a couple of minutes and then I got the best prize of all, my baby! (Sorry that sounds corny)

DC1 was ELCS and that obviously didn't hurt at the time (spinal block) but required a reasonable amount of pain management afterwards.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and good luck Smile

BritInAus · 28/12/2020 03:16
  1. Early epidural - amazing.
twittwootwittwoo · 28/12/2020 03:19

About a 4, had gas and air and a water birth. Only hurt when she popped through

twittwootwittwoo · 28/12/2020 03:20

Forgot to say good luck

Jenasaurus · 28/12/2020 03:22

My first birth - 7
Second - 10
Third - 2

First one was like mild period pains getting stronger and closer together, but at the pushing stage was pretty painful, I was too late for pain relief except gas and air, but I thought straight afterwards I could have another one.

Second birth was like hell, really painful, but I had a 10.7 baby and needed forceps as he got stuck, loads of stitches too...Thought no more

Then had my third, but was induced as I got pre eclampsia, she was only 3 pounds and came out so easily with very little pain, and she was healthy too.

So 3 different experiences. One of my friends read a magazine while in labour!, another one said she felt she was being bitten in half by a shark, the one thing that helped me was breathing and focussing on it.

womaninatightspot · 28/12/2020 03:22

It depends I'd say a 10 back to back contractions with vomiting inbetween, short labour though my second stage was 10 minutes.

I did have an epidural for my twin birth and that was so much better just felt really calm and in control so that'd be a 2.

Jenasaurus · 28/12/2020 03:26

by the way I found gall stones worse than child birth oh and tooth ache is worse in my opinion too, just remember this is positive pain with a little one at the end of it all :)