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May 2011 Moms
NJMom050911
member
Mommies with outside babies, talk to me about pain.
NJMom050911
member
How bad is it exactly? Can you compare kidney stone pain to a contraction? What part of labor hurts the most?
Logan Alexander born May 9th 2011. He has stolen my heart forever.
BFP #2 05/24/12 EDD 01/31/13 D&C 06/26/12 Missing you.
Diagnosed with Ashermans 11/06/12 Surgery 01/18/13, Cleared for TTC 03/01/13 BFP 03/26/13 IT'S A BOY!
Please Be Our Rainbow!
BFP #2 05/24/12 EDD 01/31/13 D&C 06/26/12 Missing you.
Diagnosed with Ashermans 11/06/12 Surgery 01/18/13, Cleared for TTC 03/01/13 BFP 03/26/13 IT'S A BOY!
Please Be Our Rainbow!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Mommies with outside babies, talk to me about pain.
Kathy,
I so dont want to see the answers to this right now...lol I'm having BH as I type...grrrrr....lol
Like nothing you've ever felt before. There really is no comparing, sorry!
IMO contractions are worse than actually pushing. I had an epi for most of my contractions, but felt they at the end because my epi wore off. So, in a sense, I gave birth naturally in the end. The pushing is a great relief and it's so much better because you are actually doing something!
I am a huge wuss and practically cry over every little paper cut, and I did it and am doing it again! I was up and walking around no problem just a few minutes after having DD, I was very uncomfortable, but it's doable!
I've never had kidney stones, but I had an unmedicated L&D. The only part that was truly awful for me was transition (about 7-10 cm). It lasted about an hour and a half (my entire labor was 36 hours) and all I can remember is thinking that it felt like my spine was going to snap and that I couldn't do it (not meaning I wanted drugs, just that I somehow thought that I wasn't going to be able to give birth because my spine was going to break).
Pushing actually felt good after transition. I did feel the ring of fire when DS was crowning and I remember saying something along the lines of "it burns!" but it was definitely not horrible pain. I had a 2nd degree tear and didn't feel it at all until after DS was out.
I plan to have another natural L&D.
ETA: I'm also a huge baby when it comes to pain, crying over everything. Except for transition and pushing, I was walking around, joking and laughing between contractions. During contractions I had to breathe and focus by the time we got to the hospital.
Are you taking a class? I'm a firm believer that everyone's body has the ability to do it without drugs (barring medical complications of course), but most just choose not to or aren't prepared for how labor will be.
We took Bradley classes and found them to be very helpful. I was actually really excited about L&D instead of scared of it and I think that really helped me to relax which really helps lessen pain and discomfort.
I do want to add though that if I'd had to be induced I doubt I would have had the same experience. I have a theory that getting pitocin is kind of like going straight to transition for the entirety of your labor.
I was on pitocen for my entire labor because my contractions stopped completely! So, while I went into labor on my own, it stopped. So, I dealt with super contractions and still managed to do it in the end! It's just a necessary pain and it makes it easier to deal with.
I was on pitocin too so my experience is different.
My water broke at home but when I went to the hospital I was only 1 cm dilated. I did not have any contractions. I was given cervidil overnight and then potocin in the morning. DS was sunny side up so all of my contractions were in my back. I did have an epidural and it was heaven. Unfortunatly, I never dilated past 4 cm after 22 hours and ended up having a c-section.
You cannot worry about the pain. The baby has to come out somehow! You will forget it all soon enough.
My water broke around 7pm on the 25th, and I went a few hours without any pain meds, and then got my epi around 12am. About an hour after getting my epi my contractions stopped completely and were not helping me progress. Since my water was broken, they needed to keep things moving! So, around 10 am on the 26th they started pitocen, which was about the time my epi wore off. I was only 3 cm at that point. So, with almost being in labor a full 24 hours at that point, they want the baby to be out within 24 hours of your water breaking.
I was complete by 1 with the help of pitocen, it was quite an experience, and like I said, the worst part of the whole ordeal. When I got to ten they stopped my pitocen, and my contractions stopped again! So, I was only able to push every 15 minutes or so until they got the pitocen back up and working again. After 4 hours of pushing dd was finally born.
So, the pitocen wasn't an immediate fix, they waited a long time to start it. Honestly, I wish they had done it sooner! I was in labor for a total of 26 hours, and had hardly any energy to push by the end!
Pitocin is the reason my mom had a natural birth with my brother. She had pitocin with me and swore she was going to die the entire time.
I had kidney stones while I was pregnant with DD#1, and I can tell you that the pain from kidney stones is NO WHERE comparable to labor pains. At least for me it wasn't.... I think we all have different tolerances to pain. I don't consider my pain tolerance low... but at 6 cm dialated, I wanted that epi so bad!
I've never had kidney stones either, and I also had a med-free labor. For me, I was in zero pain (honestly) until the last three hours. Then, it was by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I had just completed two Ironman triathlons before getting pregnant and thought I could handle pain, but having a baby is by far a bigger feat than finishing an Ironman. It seemed at times unbearable, but then you know what ... it was over! I'm planning to do it again so it couldn't have been THAT bad, right?
The hardest part for me was pushing. I also had back labor that was very painful. This time I'm bringing a doula along to help with the contractions -- massage, different positions, etc. You can do it. I honestly believe the biggest barrier is fear -- it tenses the body and removes blood from the necessary areas. I was really relaxed and fearless (and at home) until 8 cm, which I credit for my absolute lack of pain or discomfort.
I think it all depends if you decide to go natural or not.
I was induced at 36w/6d due to low fluid (caused by a defect in baby's renal system that resulted in dilated bladder and kidneys). My son had dropped and I was already fully effaced (I also had pre-term labor) so for me, they started by breaking my water and hooking me up to the pitocin. That was at 4 p.m. By 7 I was feeling decent pain but nothing intolerable so I asked for the epidural. They checked me and I was 5 cm. Once I got the epi, I felt zero pain and watched a football game with my DH. By 9ish I was complete and pushing was my hard part. It took an hour and a half and there was a lot of pain the last 5 or 10 minutes. But honestly, that was it in my experience. I always try to tell women that it isn't so bad, because for every horror story out there, there is also one like mine where there was less than an hour of pain of any type.
I just want to make a comment about the length of labor -- I think seeing that someone labored for 26 hours can seem really scary, and maybe for that person it was 26 hours of actual, hard labor.
But looking back on my own labor, I would say I was in labor for a good 30 hours. But only three of those were anything really worth noting. The rest just felt like BH only a bit stronger. And my water broke on its own about 13 hours before I delivered. After my water broke I was able to get a massage, get a smoothie, go grocery shopping, watch basketball, and take a nap -- all before going to L&D.
It's really not something I can compare to any other type of pain I've had. I labored consistently strong for 25 hours. I'm not going to lie and say it feels like a Swedish massage, but you kind of turn in on yourself, you focus on something else so it's not as bad as you are probably imagining. Recovery, for me, was the worst because I had a bad tear.
I guess I'd say it's like a constant and nagging pain but not so much that you can't think of anything else. I had lots of long talks with people. We watched a movie. I even bumped for part of it.
I have an outside baby but honestly I barely felt any pain. My water broke at 4:30 pm and I had contractions but they didn't really hurt they just felt like cramps. Once one did hurt around 11:30 pm I asked for the epi. after it came (right away) I did not feel a thing.
Pushing wore me out and I told my husband half way through "our next kid would be born via c-section". His response was "no it won't you are a afraid of a c-section". The final push seriously wore me out and I looked up and told him "I couldn't push anymore". His response was "you don't have to honey she is here". A few minutes later I asked if I could put my legs down and he told me "no that the doctor was busy down there". I apparently needed stitches but I didn't know that the doctor was stitching me up because of the epi.
Well I had my DD and labored really hard, with pitocin, for about 2 hours and then got the epi....it was baaadddd. 3 months after having DD I had horrible kidney stones and begged the ER nurse for an epi, she thought I was joking....i so wasnt! Now everyone is different, but with that being said, I got pregnant again knowing the pain and with my doctor telling me my chances of having kidney stones again after this baby are high, I am absolutely terrified of the stones, not the labor!