Honestly - tell me how painful childbirth is!

Sarahsaver

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think positively about this experience. Yes it is painful but it can be empowering and deeply moving experience. There is so much negativity about anything that women do naturally - giving birth, breastfeeding and so on. Also many people expect life to always be a doddle and then get down about it when it is not! dont listen to the negative stuff, imagine you are going to climb a mountain and there is going to be a fantastic view. You would expect a few aches and pains right? i have given birth 4 times 3 of which with nothing but a bit of gas. the last one came in 1 hr 40 mins and to start with my pain relief was swearing and shouting because they had put an empty gas cannister in!
Believe in yourself!

tori.k

for everyone who will tell you how horrid childbirth is another will tell you its no problem,tho i say if its that bad no one would have more than one child,i have two,hard on the first,easy on the second...its painful yes.... but its more painful now living with teenager's..lol

Magpie.

Of course I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt but it is also the most empowering feeling ever. After my daughter was born I could've roared with pride.

jakejenson

I listened to as many scary child birth stories as I could to prepare myself for the worse, and it turned out it wasn't that bad!

Baby no1 I had with gas & air, baby no2 totally naturally.

With baby2 I didn't think I was as far gone as I was. DH had to drag me out the door to the hospital, lucky he did as we arrived at 9.30am, I remember having a bad contraction on arrival then walking to the delivery suite and saying to the midwife 'I feel much better now, I just needed to have a walk.' I went to the toilet to get a urine sample then I felt the babies head between my legs. I started freaking out at this point as I thought the baby would fall into the toilet! The midwifes came running in and helped me back to the bed with her hands between my legs. Baby was born at 9.40am (ten mins after arriving)

IMO - my best tips is

For first baby try and stay at home for as long as possible

Watch funny films/go for a walk (not on your own though!) to take you mind off early labour

Read up as much as possible on labour/pain relief

Forget what you've seen on tv. It's much much better NOT to be lying there with your legs up in the air. You want gravity to help you

Good Luck

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

i remember a friend of mine asking how painful child birth was when she was 8 months gone at her baby shower and the best reply i ever heard was "well its too late to be worrying about that now dear" - coming from her 80 year old granny lol i thougt it was a great response - my friend didnt look too imjpressed though lol

LittleTinker

fattyc wrote: »

For those replies. True, it cant be that bad if women keep doing it more than once. Its more the humiliation factor, the midwife, doc etc, not to mention my other half seeing me lying there with my legs in the air, not very pleasant! It takes me months to gear up to go for a smear test!!!

Am I being pathetic!!

This does not happen as you think it does.

Childbirth is not humiliating in any way at all.

If you have your child in the hospital, the midwife will check you over when you go in and might do a quick internal to see what stage you are at.....but quite often they dont even do this now.

For the most part the midwife will want you to do what you feel comfortable with....whether that is walking around, being in the bath, water birth or just lying down....you wont be naked :-))

When it comes to pushing, well yes, you do need to open your legs to some degree to allow baby to pass but they arent always high above your head up in the air!! lol....you may be lying on your side or on your back with your legs flat. It really is what is comfortable for you. And you can keep the top half all covered up.

By the pushing stage you really arent aware of too much going on around you anyway.

Honestly...it is not a humiliating experience.

As for pain....well yes, it hurts and it hurts in differing degrees for different ladies and different pregnancies.

My 2nd and 4th babies were the worst by a million miles. Whereas numbers 1 and 3 were not too bad at all.

But there are plenty of pain killing things to help you. Even epidurals which are mostly pain free.

Youll be fine though.

covlass

My 1st childs birth wasn't a great birth, long labour then forceps but all was forgotten as soon as I had her in my arms.
2nd was natural no pain relief at all and was not as bad as the first ! After I could have leapted straight off the bed !! lol
Everyone is different, yes it hurts but the pain is quickly forgotten

My advice is concentrate on your breathing excersies,they worked fantastic for me Oh and a rubber ring for after if you end up having stitches makes sitting much more comfy !!!

Dont get to worked up about it you will be fine it the most amazing thing any woman can experience

izzzzythedog

i felt a crush sensation to the hand for a time , i also felt a mild headache every few minutes thanks to the noise but other than this its dead easy , seeing as everyone recons `we` had a baby i figure i desire half the praise , i had to rub that hand to get some feeling back into it i can tell yah , it wasnt easy

at a rough guess based on what the moaning one said imagine a hedgehog attached to a rack being slowly pulled out over 18 hrs or so , sounds fun

keelykat

jakejenson wrote: »

I listened to as many scary child birth stories as I could to prepare myself for the worse, and it turned out it wasn't that bad!

Baby no1 I had with gas & air, baby no2 totally naturally.

With baby2 I didn't think I was as far gone as I was. DH had to drag me out the door to the hospital, lucky he did as we arrived at 9.30am, I remember having a bad contraction on arrival then walking to the delivery suite and saying to the midwife 'I feel much better now, I just needed to have a walk.' I went to the toilet to get a urine sample then I felt the babies head between my legs. I started freaking out at this point as I thought the baby would fall into the toilet! The midwifes came running in and helped me back to the bed with her hands between my legs. Baby was born at 9.40am (ten mins after arriving)

IMO - my best tips is

For first baby try and stay at home for as long as possible

Watch funny films/go for a walk (not on your own though!) to take you mind off early labour

Read up as much as possible on labour/pain relief

Forget what you've seen on tv. It's much much better NOT to be lying there with your legs up in the air. You want gravity to help you

Good Luck

good job i didnt hang around too long, my labour (1st too) was only 4 1/2 hours and was told to go in asap as things were happening very quickly! we didnt have time for the snacks, magazines etc we'd prepared in the labour bag he came a few days early too (so much for being induced, i didnt get that far!).

smarties84

I spent 9 months scared stiff of the pain and i really really was panicky about it. Partner thought i was goin to be a right wuss and shout and scream. I was in labour for 23 hours and i stayed at home for a long time before going to the hospital. I didn't have any pain relief at all, not even gas and air - 100% natural. It did hurt and the head crowning was the most awful burning sensation imaginable but as soon as baby was born the pain was gone and i opened my eyes for the first time in hours. I didn't say anything during labour, i was completely silent. It was painful but it was the most amazing time in my life and i am glad to be able to remember every second of it.