What was the worst part of labor for you?

KristinB!

Me?  The contractions!  Despite only getting to 5 cm, then being rushed into an emergency C-section, I'd still say the pain of the contractions (before the epidural) was the worst. 

I always wonder how bad they could have gotten... yikes.

majors31

the aftermath.

my labor was pretty easy thanks to my newly acquired best friend the anesthesiologist.  it was the tear, the allergic reaction to the stitches, and the resulting re-tear that i remember.

 

aajfoster

Pushing for 2 1/2 hours

staycee

17 hours of a foley bulb that no one seemed to know what to do with.

31 hours total of induced labor, only to get to 5cm 50% and be taken for c-section

sgrl

The IV. I hated that.

fairychick77

The horrible pain I had in my side as they were stitching me up after my C/S. They had to give me something to knock me out.

SFAug07

Contractions - DD was coming so fast I was up to 9 cm before they even had checked me. They were pretty intense at 9 cm. I got an epidural then and it was bliss.

EMTX

At about 4-5 cm, my water broke on its own and the contractions became insane. I was also vomiting constantly at the same time; it was awful. I would puke during a contraction... I can't even explain how uncomfortable it was.

ruthie oct3

Back Labor and then the pain afterwards. The Hemmies were so bad from the pushing. That was prob the worst for me. I cried for over a week after - everytime I had to use the bathroom.

jcsntms06

The high blood pressure, the mag. drip, the blood pressure cup. I could name a few more too.

MrsPatterson

It's a close call between the contractions and the pushing.  I really can't decide, since the contractions were a b!tch before my epi, and the epi was wearing off when I started pushing.  Both sucked royally.

reannegummer

Back Labor and 3 hours of pushing because DD was sunny side up.  She should've been c-sectioned.

 

Tomkat8403

19 hours of unmedicated labor with contractions 2 minutes apart, during which time I only dilated to 4 cm.

And I wasn't induced. I just progressed REALLY slowly. Until I finally caved in and got the epidural. Then it was only another 5 hours.

mechanicsgirl

The epidural.  I HATED feeling trapped.  I was panicking the whole time that I had it (I had it turned down twice and shut off before pushing).  I couldn't stand not being able to move.

OCMom2be

The bp cuff and the IV in my hand..GAAAAAH!! Contractions weren't a big deal to me, I was able to handle them WAY better than I thought..considering I have no pain tolerance what-so-ever! The stitches afterwards bothered me with my tear tho.

bim38106

The 20 mins when they kicked up the pitocin which sent me into having contraction after contraction w/ NO break and they were horribly strong! During those 20 minutes, DD also dropped and I dilated from 2 to 8 cm (yes, in 20 mins)!! It was HELL! OMG.

With DD1, it wasn't nearly that bad.. the worst part w/ her was probably my emotions/moodiness after

jessicaclare

With my first, pushing. I just remember being so tired and not feeling like I could do it.

With my second, going through transition with no epidural. Then being told an epi wouldn't work and FREAKING out. I did get an epi and it did end up working in time, but man, I was not in a good state of mind at that point. 

coconutbug

Back labor before I had the epidural. 

starkbaby22

Erm..I'm gonna say my labor was EASY.  The worst parts though, would be..wanting to vomit when they gave me a pain med shot BEFORE I opted for the epi.  (head was spinning)  annnnd the IV, I didn't like that much, either.  I thank God my labor was so uneventful.

Manderlin923

Back labor was excruciating.

The pushing was really painful, not a relief like people always say.

And the aftermath was a major disappointment- having to transfer to a hospital, DS was in NICU for 5 days. I had to be put to sleep to get stitched up (2 second degree tears) and stop my bleeding. Yeah, not fun. 

I'm hoping next time things will be A LOT smoother! 

 

Mabzie

Laboring down for half hour and pushing for 3.5 hours. 

Ivana_Stolichnaya

I can't decide between

1) Back Labor

2) The fear of DD's health when her heart rate dropped to 60 bpm...twice.  They had me sign some sort of form in case I had to go in for an emergency c/s.  I also had to wear an oxygen mask for 9 hours because of that.

3) Having a douche on-call Dr.

4) Tearing up and down (and feeling it happen) thanks to Dr. Douche vacuuming her out

5) The IV, the nurse made a poor 1st attempt and my arm was killing me.

6) Pushing for 3 hours

7) The stitches, I felt those going in.

 

The whole event plus caring for a newborn and healing caused me to lose my appetite for a month. My whole body hurt for days afterwords.  It's enough to make me hold off on wanting to TTC for awhile.

DanielsWife

UGH.

Being induced for pre-e, the magnesium drip with the accessories: blood pressure cuff that inflated every 15 minutes, the catheter (actually, that was not that bad - I was glad to not have to worry about getting up to pee!), the internal and external contraction monitors, the pitocin. 28 hours of labor with no epidural (my choice in case of a C-Section - I'd rather have a spinal than to be topped off with an epidural).

Getting to 100% effaced - but only to 5 cm and STUCK there.

The C-Section was the best part. I got the spinal and felt tons better already. 

MommaD2Be

The couple of hours that we thought baby's heartbeat was dangerously low (never determined if that was the case or if the monitor was not picking it up well) and we kept thinking c-section at any moment.

And the contractions before the epidural were pretty rough - but I only made it to 3 cm before the epi so I can't IMAGINE how bad they would be during transition for med-free folks!!

CariannelovesTim

Either the episiotomy, being away from DS and DH two hrs after. ( I had to have something similar to a D &C as the placenta didn't dettach) or the aftermath. It's a three way tie.

Mrs.21

Getting it started! I had to be induced at 41 weeks and the cervadil did not work the first time. It ended up taking close to 24 hours just to get labor kick started, which meant I had to lay in the uncomfortable hospital bed from Wednesday night until Friday afternoon when DS was finally born.

I hated the just laying there, it made my back go numb and I became a huge diva about having my pillows adjusted! LOL

The labor itself was awesome, once it freaking started! I got an epi though so that might have had something to do with it...

Christina79

The contractions were bad, but I think after labor and dealing with the tears was the worst pain. Laying/sitting in the hard hospital bed hurt like no other.

electricdoctor83

I had an amazing labor and birth but if I had to pick the worst part I guess would be the back labor when he was positioned wrong. 

Michelle&Mark

Pushing for 3 hours while the epidural wore off just to have a C-section. UGH!

hilanic

For me it was the internal checks they did to see how far along I was! I could handle the contractions but I could not stand the pain of the internal checks! So I got an epidural. After the epidural the midwife wanted to check me and I said no because I was still too scared that it would hurt.

Then the pushing was pretty miserable. My nurse was not helpful and hindered my pushing ablities. I was too exhausted to tell anyone what I wanted to do.

Ending in a c-section since baby was stuck.

rebus82

Everything. My water broke hours before contractions started, so when they did they went from nothing to incredibly unbearable immediately. Then the doctors told me I needed Pit because I wasn't progressing, so those contractions were even worse. The epis that I was told would make me wonderfully oblivious failed, twice. B's head was stuck so it felt like I had a bowling ball was lodged in my pelvis. At one point I had 10 contractions back-to-back and B's heart rate plummeted (it was like an episode of ER with nurses rushing the room) so they took me off the Pit just to turn it back on again after he was stable. My IV burned like a motherfvcker and the catheter made my crotch feel like it was on fire. 

Oh, and the fact that it took the SOB's 28 hours to decide to do a c-section. I was promised at my final OB appt. that if I wasn't showing progress they would do surgery, and absolutely no more than one round of Pit. Let's just say, they were lucky I was so exhausted by the time it was over because I probably would have ripped someone a new assshole otherwise. 

Superchicy

Being stuck at 9 cm for 10 hrs, drug free and having back labor.  Worst pain ever.  Then to end it all having to have a c-section b/c she was stuck.

Uiowachick01

After my c-section, the nurse removed the gauze, tape etc and ripped the skin off around my incision.  It hurt like HeLL for weeks because it was so big and it got infected in the hospital.  

Brooke208

With DS, the worst pain was contractions and that wasn't even that bad.  The hardest part was pushing.  All in all, though, it wasn't bad at all.

With DD... don't even get me started.  The entire thing was the worst.  The Pitocin, the 36 hours of hardcore labor with no pain meds, the pushing, the scary aftermath, and even the healing.  BAD.  The absolute worst pain about all of it was the 7-8 hours before I started pushing, and the back labor.  I still have back problems and it's been over 8 months.

mrs_sherod

The 'stockings' to keep the blood circulating in my legs along with the oxygen on my face and the blood pressure cuff squeeze periodically.  I felt like a prisoner!  The back labor was pretty intense as well.

LilMissSunshine

My water broke but I didn't progress so I had to be induced.  I had contractions two minutes apart for 18 hours.  Some contractions lasted 3 minutes or longer.  5 hours in I got an epidural and that wore off so I got another big epidural.  The pain in my back and ass and the 3-4 minute long contractions were the worst for me.

FlaCourtney

KristinB!:

Me?  The contractions!  Despite only getting to 5 cm, then being rushed into an emergency C-section, I'd still say the pain of the contractions (before the epidural) was the worst. 

I always wonder how bad they could have gotten... yikes.

I had almost the same experience and would say the same thing. The drive to the hospital was pretty bad, and as soon as I got into a room to be admitted, I threw up in the sink. Love my epidural.

RoxyKD

Well...at 39 weeks I was 0 cm dialated.  And babys head was really really far down, so it was extremely painful for OB to check my cervix.  So I was induced, and first they administered the cervidil...and I don't know if I had a bad reaction to it, or if they were just really rough getting it in there...but I was soo irritated the whole time it was in, and the whole next day when they took it out, even BEFORE I felt contractions.  I really thought...things cant possibly get any more painful...

 Well..I was wrong...cause once my water broke (after 5 hours of pitocin) the contractions were vicious!!!  And the epidural only helped one side of my body!  So I eventually got additional relief. 

 The pushing didn't bother me at all cause I was pretty well medicated at that point, except after pushing for 90 minutes...your "lower" muscles don't know how to stop pushing/contracting for a good half hour...and yeah, thats pretty painful. 

 

CalinsBride

Getting the IV was definitely the worst part. The incompetent nurse had to stick it in five times and blood spurted everywhere. They wound up having to put it in the back of my hand, which sucked because that meant I couldn't make a fist the entire time I was in labour.

hurricaneb-2-b

Back labor!

DanielsWife

dkassebaum13:

The end right before my emergency c-section. I was on pitocin and my contractions were on top of each other and it got so bad that I couldn't catch my breath. What really pissed me off is when they were getting my ready for my c-section my nurse came in and said "whoops I forgot to shut off the pitocin!" I was having HORRIBLE contractions that I didn't have to have.

OMG, I would have KILLED the nurse.

I had a 10 minute long contraction - followed by another - and another - and then I told my nurse that I quit. She immediately turned it off (it was doubled to see if that would help before the inevitable C).