Was labor worse or better than you expected?

Arwen78

When you went into labor what's it more or less painfull than you thought it would be? Did it last longer or shorter than you expected it to? Plus, where there any unexpected things that happened?

Abenedict2011

Better!

I had originally planned to go as med free as possible but once labor started I decided a less stressful labor was likely a better plan so I got the epi--best decision ever once the PIT started.

Water broke at 10AM.
Labored at home until 4PM.
PIT started at 430 since it had been 6 hours of my water breaking.
Dilated quickly from a 2 to a 10 within 3-4 hours of starting Pit.
Pushed for 25 minutes and she was here.

The whole process was better than I had expected, from laboring at home to a speedy delivery!

whimsy515

Birth was the easy part for me, afterwards was the worst. I had an epidural (don't remember how many hours into labor though) and didn't feel a thing. But once DS came out, I began to bleed a lot, so for 2 hours the doctor and nurses had to do that horrid abdominal massage. I was crying cause I was in so much pain from that. Then I began vomiting, had a very high fever due to infection, you name it! So birth=easy. postpartum=hard.

Peanutz21

worse. i think people are so enamored by their new baby they quickly forget how painful labor plus recovery can be.

nobody told me how painful labor would be; but it was really the recovery that was roughest.

the contractions are awful. thank goodness for epidurals!!!  once the epidural kicked in i was good to go. 

the ginormous hemorrhoid pains i experienced were the worst of all; much worse than contractions and the episotomy.  this is what i did not anticipate. contractions only hurt when they're happening. i had huge pains in my butt for 2 weeks constantly- it made attempting to nurse while sitting difficult. i could barely sit....had to put all my weight on rotating cheeks.  but now i am 6 weeks out and i feel MUCH better!

good luck!

Mizoo

Labor was a lot worse than I was expecting, I had wanted to go med-free but ended up needing an induction (cytotec + pitocin probably made labor hurt worse than if I had been able to go on my own) so after 16 hours of what I can only describe as pure hell I was exhausted and took the epidural.  It was ah-mazing and I was fully dilated within 3 or 4 hours of getting it (I had been stalled at 5 cm for 7+ hours at that point.)  The birth itself I didn't even feel a thing for since I had the epidural. 

Next time I would like to try again to go med-free, hoping that I don't need an induction.  I'm pretty confident that had I not stalled at 5 cm for so long I could have done it med-free.  The helpless feeling of being in terrible pain hour after hour and every time they check you, you hear "Still at a 5, we'll check you again in an hour or two." was just too much for me at that point though.  But there is always next time! :-)

aleher15

Mine was better. When into labor on my own labored at home from 7pm to 11pm had my daughter @ 5:15 am after pushing for 5 minutes and 3 pushes.

spartybride3

Since it was my first time I didn't have expectations. Water broke at 1230am, hospital at 4am, into delivery room and pitocin at 10am, epidural at 4pm, epidural wore off around 10 & was redone around midnight, pushed for 25 min & she was born shortly after 4am. It was about 28 hours total. I thought the worst (besides contractions) was pushing and delivering the placenta.

I got a fever sometime in the evening and had an infection, so I was put on antibiotics. was also on oxygen for a little bit but I don't remember when or why.

QT3.14

The birthing class prepared me for what to expect. Before taking the class I had no idea how long labor typically lasted. The movies make it seem so short. I was in labor 17 hours start to finish. After the epidural it was not too bad though.

H&H2014

Better!

Labored at home for eleven hours. Laid in bed on my side with a heat pad and breathed through the contractions. Timed them on my iPhone with Ibirth. They were 3-5 minutes apart with some really intense ones lasting a minute and a half. I visualized the baby coming and visualized a flower opening. I was glad I had read Mindful Birthing, I think it really helped.

Went to the hospital and was already 7 centimeters. One more hour of intense contractions and DD started moving down and I couldn't not push... Four pushes and she was out. Pushing was the worst part for me.

I was able to go med free which I wanted and took Tylenol after for the pain (I had a superficial tear).

Breastfeeding however...way more painful than expected but getting better (13 days in).

jenn43

Both better and worse. I had 8 hrs of very manageable contractions at home. These stopped, and my water broke (gushed!) 3 hrs later. Discussed with my midwife, and finally had to be induced the next morning when labor hadn't started. I went med free, and early labor was fine. Transition was MUCH more painful than I expected- my hypnobirthing course really glossed over that part! And it lasted for THREE HOURS. But then I only pushed for 30 minutes. Total labor was 6 hrs, and I'm a FTM. Recovery was awesome- well-worth 3hrs of intense pain. I had no tears, was out of bed an hour later, and went for a run 4 weeks after LO was born. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

NoodleM

Worse. With my first I had back labour and nothing could prepare me for that pain. Like the poster who said above that they never felt it in their stomach, it was intense. Just like being stabbed in the back every two minutes. The plus side was it was only 8 hours and I pushed for a half hour. I only had nitrous oxide for that one.

With my second it was in my back, my stomach and my right thigh. That was worse than my first since this time I was induced so it was much more painful. The plus side was it was only four hours long and I pushed for 3 contractions and he was out. This one I wanted the epidural but I was shot down because I got to 7 cm so quickly they weren't sure if they would make it in time. I got morphine, nitrous oxide and fentanyl (sp?).

bridetobe9132013

The pain was different than I expected! I always thought it would feel like bad menstrual cramps but for me it was horrible hip pain!

cspencer85

I knew it would be awful. I had really bad back labor. I got stadol and an epidural. I got it around 1am I think and it was great up until probably 7:30 and I started feeling contractions again. The anesthesiologist came in and had to keep turning it up and then it got unbearable. He was gonna reposition it but the nurse checked me and I was 10cm, so he turned it off so I could push. I pushed for two hours (completely numb) and her head got stuck on my pubic bone so my OB used the vacuum and she came flying out.

poohbear033

Labor - Better, I was induced and was stuck at a 1 for hours, then a 2 and I had something to help me sleep. I slept for 2 hours and was still at a 2 and it hurt. My water broke then I got an epidural and woke up 2 hours later at a 9 1/2.

Delivery - Worse, I pushed for 3 hours and no luck. Doctor used forceps and I had a 3rd degree tear.

Postpartum - Worst, Recovery was awful, I ended up with PPD and was sore for a long time.

usernewname

Better in the sense of it was fast and it only lasted 11 hours from the first cramp to birth.

Worse in the sense of the pain. It hurt but I had no idea what it felt like as a FTM

Recovery was here nor there in expectations. Breastfeeding was worse in the sense that I didn't know how hard it was and the extent of the commitment. But I'm used to it now.

DBonfante

The pain of the contractions was way worse than I imagined. I had contractions 2 minutes apart for over 12 hours. I also tried to get an epi and was unable to. I know I have a very low tolerance for pain and was not planning on having to feel the whole process. Luckily baby came out healthy so all in all it could have been worse.

yvanehtnioj

The labor was worse than I thought. I was induced (no pitocin though, only misoprostol). My water broke on its own and the next 5 hours were hell, dilating from 0-10 with back labor in that time. Delivery was better than I thought, probably because the transition was so bad that ANYTHING else felt like an improvement, including the notorious "ring of fire." I had no painkillers, so i felt it all.

railroadRN

Labor was awesome. I'd have a million babies if every delivery would be like the one I had. Induced at 7am. Membranes ruptured at 8:30am. Epidural around 10am. Fully dilated at 11am and baby by 2pm. It wasn't completely pain free but it was far from the horrific labor stories I have been told. Everything progressed so quickly.

Recovery = totally different story... :-S

KariB509

So much better than I expected! I wasn't even sure I was in labor when I went to the hospital, I just went because my OB recommended getting checked out in l&d. Little did I know, my water had broke some time during the night, presumably in the toilet so I didn't notice. They started me on pitocin since I wasn't haven't regular contractions, I got an epidural before it started getting bad, and it was smooth sailing from there.
So different from my first. My contractions where really intense when I was in labor with DS and I was begging for the epi by the time I finally got it!

kmdendy

Better! I was terrified and I worked it up to be soo much worse.  Contractions sucked.. I did that for 2 hours and then got an epidural.  The epidural made delivery amazing... SO not as bad as I pictured.  Yes, it was hard and hurt but not as bad as I worked up in my mind before hand. 

Nekotaru

Everything was worse than I expected. My water broke at 9:30am but I had no idea that's what it was and had no pain whatsoever or could feel any contractions. By the time I figured it out I was only 1cm and admitted to the hospital a full 12 hours later once my mom/aunt/husband suggested I call the doctor. Every said not to call unless you are in all this pain from contractions but I never felt a thing.

Induced once I was there, got fever and infection. Contractions I felt when induced were horrid so I got the epi which made it miles better! They got me to 7cm ~36 hours after water broke and said because it had been broken for so long we had to get her out, but she was also stuck and not going to fit through my pelvis from the induction so they did an emergency c-sec.

The c-sec ended up busting two major blood vessels in my uterus causing tons of lost blood and me going into shock. I ended up having a blood transfusion but I was so happy baby girl was fine and the worst of it landed on me. 

All in all I was upset at how things went, and of course everyone says it won't ever go as planned, but I just did what was best for baby. Recovery has been the worst, still in lots of pain 3w later but now I can bend again at least

gutsysneakers

Like some PPs, I had horrible back labor. I got the epi at 8 cm. Pushing was really hard. I ended up with a 4th degree tear. PP recovery has sucked. I'm still on Motrin every 6 hours. Luckily, BF DD has been the easiest part.

PaperBowl

Worse. I was expecting it to be excruciating but I finally tapped out for an epidural at 35 hours and was screaming for someone to just kill me already. I ended up needing a c section and was relieved to have one!

hordol

Wow in surprised reading all the the responses that it was better! Lol it was DEFINITELY worse for me. Wanted to go med free...but nope. I wasn't prepared enough for that. I went into it thinking it would hurt, but that it would be manageable so I learned some basic coping mechanisms but...it was not manageable for me. At least I know for next time that I either need to prepare much much more or just get the epi from the get go...lol. My epi stopped working though so even with the epi it still sucked.

Eta that my recovery was really easy. I was walking myself to the bathroom within an hour or two. I did not experience the "horrible recovery" that everyone talks about when you get meds. That was actually my motivator for going med free, so the fact that my recovery was actually really easy made me less sad about not making it without meds. I had a second degree tear but no issues with sitting, no issues with pooping...nothing. I felt pretty good.