Babies: 0 - 3 Months
Most painful part of giving birth?
Hi, I'm currently in my 2nd tri, but have a question for you new mommies. I was wondering what was the most painful part of the whole birthing process for you? Just heard from my cousin that it was when they inserted the the IV drip and that was a surprise to me. Trying to be as mentally prepared as possible. Thanks in advance!
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Re: Most painful part of giving birth?
The first contraction after my water broke sucked. Crowning was worse, but his shoulders coming through was the most painful, by far!
For me it was when he was crowning, the last ~5 min before he was born. It was painful but manageable; certainly not the worst pain I've ever felt. (I had an epidural, which I HIGHLY recommend if you're open to that).
Try not to freak yourelf out re: pain. It can be managed quite well and you'll get through just fine!
"You're gonna miss this You're gonna want this back You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast..."
I would say crowning.
The contractions starting at around 5cm until I was ready to push. I was on a LARGE quantity of pitocin, so they DID NOT LET UP - even for a minute in between! I thought I was going to die then, but now that I look back on it - I would do it again in a heartbeat!
I really hated the internal "checking" they did to see how many cm I was. It sucked, but once it was over, it didn't hurt.
Another part that really hurt was after the birth when my dr reached INTO my uterus to make sure everything was out. Not sure if all dr's do that...
Well, I'm sure that it depends on whether or not you opt for the epi, which I did, so I'd say the most painful part was either the Penicillin in my IV because I was GBS + (it BURNED going into my hand, really bad) or the last half hour of contractions when his head was pushing on my pelvis and it hurt so bad it over-rode my epi. I was literally numb from the waist down the entire time, I couldn't feel Anything once they gave me the epi, except for that last half hour. Once his head descend past my pelvic bone I felt nothing again. I didn't feel him crowning, the MW had to tell me when to push because I couldnt feel my contractions. The epi was total bliss, btw.
Oh, also, once I regained feeling in my lower half and they removed the catheter, peeling the adhesive patch that was holding the catheter tubing off my inner thigh hurt like a ***!
They turned down my epi so I could feel pressure which I began feeling my contractions while I pushed which hurt the worst...I pushed for 1.5 hours. Now, I realize 1.5 hours of pain wasnt bad, but while pushing you don't know when its going to end!
I was sure they turned off my epi meds, but I didn't feel my ob give me my episiotomy. My husband said, wow contractions must really hurt if you can feel everyone of them, but didnt feel your episiotomy! (I was on a pretty high dosage of pitocin...due to corio...and infection my uterus developed the day before. My uterus was progressing slower rather than faster...etc.
I had a lot of complications with the catheter. When they gave me the epi they waited awhile to give me the cath, so i had to pee soooooo bad and I physically couldn't. My bladder got irritated and each contraction was total hell. When they finally cath'ed me it felt like someone was stabbing me over and over again in the crotch. They had to take it back out and straight cath me with a smaller tube. They had to wait to get a smaller catheter setup (it took five hours to get it) so I had to pee soooooooo bad and my bladder kept getting irritated over and over again. They said that my bladder being so full was actually pushing the baby back up, which meant that it just kept getting more and more painful. My bladder was still so irritated for a week after I gave birth that it hurt like hell every time I tried to pee (and yes I say try, because it took a LOT of effort...).
Err...hope this doesn't scare you...lol The epi was great until all the cath problems started!
I also had 2 failed epidurals.. so I had no pain medication and was not mentally prepared for a med-free birth. Crowning hurt, DD getting stuck and having to push from 245p to 615p (when she was finally born) REALLY HURT, and my OB having to manually remove retained placenta was the worst (ie, reaching in while pushing on my belly). Unfortunately he didn't get it all and after starting to hemorrhage in my 2nd wk PP, I had to have a D&C to surgically remove the rest of the placenta.
BUT, my situation is certainly not the norm.
The O'Baby Blog
I had an epi, so the most painful part to me was recovery. I wasn't expecting to be so sore the next day!
Oh yeah, the contractions that came after my water breaking were brutal.
And feeling his head being sucked out by the vacuum was painful/really weird feeling.
Looking back though, it doesn't seem so bad.
I'll second this!!!
Inserting the IV
Sharing LO with ILs
Yeah, those breastfeeding contractions were a fun surprise! Nobody told me about THAT before I gave birth and I didn't expect to be having painful contractions for a couple days after birth.
Then I had an allergic reaction to the oxytocin and had a horrible, full-body rash for three weeks, in addition to being sore, sleep-deprived and bleeding. Post-partum was so much worse than anything I experienced in pregnancy or labor.