Parenting Newborns & Infants (0-1) Support Group

They call it labor for a reason, its hard painful work. Its not the most painful thing, I had a gallstone attack a couple months after my daughter was born and THAT was the most pain I had ever felt between that and recovering from the surgery to remove it Labor is nothing. Labor is intence, but you make it thru and I guarentee once you have your baby in your arms you forget about the pain. I am a huge advocate of natural birthing and all, but if you can't handle it and you are so hung up on how painful its gonna be get an epidural. Your labor will be far from productive if you tence up and stress about the pain.

LOL, I was the same way before I gave birth. I was induced so my labor was a bit more painful then natural labor. I am not going to lie, the pain was the most pain I have ever felt in my life. On a scale of 1-10 I would rate the pain at about an 11! But here is the big picture, there are so many pain management ideas for women these days, I went with the epidural, my best friend! But I did not get the epidural till the end, my labor was about 18 hours and I did it with pain management for only 4 hours. Once the baby is on your stomach, the whole world stops for a moment, and it is just you and your child. I am crying right now, it was so beautiful. Even though it was painful, I would endure the pain all over again. Nothing is as beautiful as giving birth....so relax and enjoy the experience. It is one you'll never forget!! :o)

Bottom line...the pain doesn't matter. Yes it was one of the most painful things I have gone through. Remember though that there are breaks in between the contractions. You will have your contraction and then it's perfectly normal in between. Do your research about different pain management methods so you have your options. Do you have someone there to support you? Make sure you go over your methods with them and that they know all about them so they can help you to use them during labor, cuz you will forget about them. I went 9 hours without the drugs and my contractions were less than a minute apart and lasting 4 minutes long for the better part of 6-7 of those hours (four minutes apart for the first couple hours.) But the truth is I HONESTLY can not remember what the pain was like now. I know it was bad. I remember every moment of it, but I can't remember the pain. I remember pregnancy, I will remember postpartum recovery, but there is some miracle that happens that makes you forget about the labor pain once it's over. A good friend told me she would give birth every day if she could and that sounded absurd to me at first, but having gone through it now, I wish I could too. It is THE most amazing thing you will ever experience. Just remember when it's over it's over. There's recovery, but that intense labor pain is gone. It's tough work. Get as much rest as you can and don't wear yourself out screaming like I did. But in the end if you want an epidural (I got mine at 7cm) they work in like 5 minutes and it takes all the pain away. I wish I could have made it through mine naturally and I will try again next time knowing full well what labor entails...I still want to go through it without the drugs. You will do fine. I'm jealous that you get to go through it soon.

Wow! I never thought anyone would be jealous of it :p I have an anxiety disorder, and unfortunately it's peaking lol, I fully intend on having the epidural if and when the pain becomes too much. I'm just trying to prepare myself as best i can and learn what exactly to expect. I know it's almost impossible, but it makes me feel like at least I am doing something! I know it'll all be worth it, just so worried because I have a very low pain threshold, and medically I always seem to have really bad luck. But we'll see! Thankyou for your replies, I really appreciate it :)

Honesly I was induced and after I got the epidulal it went fast and when the epidural stopped working I had about two hours of natural labor and it hurt. I began to pray but the pushing went really fast. Dr said that for a first time mom he was really impressed with my pushing.

On a scale of 1-10....how about 99?? I was induced, and it was terrible because my contractions were every 30 seconds, lasting around 45-60 seconds. I got an epidural, and it was HEAVEN!! I would do it all over again though, it is so worth it, no matter the pain.
I was also cut twice and ripped, and that was horrible pain for about 2 weeks, but again, I would do all over!