# What does labour actually feel like?



## SummerStars

Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question. I might regret asking it!

You hear people talking about the pain of birth and contractions, and I don't doubt it hurts... but what does labour _actually_ feel like? 

Someone told me contractions are like stabbing pains. Is this true? Feel free to be really honest, I want to be prepared! Well, as prepared as you can be. :blush:


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## MUMOF5

Well it does hurt, it starts with bad period type cramps and gets worse, when the baby is crowning (head is coming out), it is an intense burning sensation, but as soon as the baby is out the relief is immense. Its not that bad or I wouldnt be doing it for the 6th time :winkwink:. xx


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## deej23

I must admit that describing them so that someone that has not had them will understand is really hard, But I would say they are like period pains with waves of tightening. This sounds really wierd but your stomach tightens and it just feels like waves of tightening pains rolling through your stomach. Try not to worry too much about them the more relaxed you can be the better you will cope with them.


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## dali

-in very early labour it was like a severe period pain that lasted about 30 secs at a time
-in mid but still pre hospital labour i told OH that it felt like all my insides were being squeezed until they fit into a tennis ball... well not so much squeezed mor like there was a magnet in the middle puling them all into it. lol. 
-the contractions carried on like that but got stronger i went to hospital and was 5 cm when i got there, and i remember not being able to sit during contractions ( even in the car) i had to stand and lean or sit only on one bum cheek ( if that makes sense) not because it hurt to sit but i think it was just the pressure down there with head moving down.
-in the second his head hit the widest point coming out i felt a sudden but very quick stab down there ( this was probably the point where i grazed) took me by suprise but by the time i had said "OUCH!" it had stopped again :)
straight after his head came out the rest of him came spilling out like a massive slug , lol. mw said there was no way she could have slowed him if she tried.
- placenta came within a few mins of birth ( before she even managed to give me the shot to help it come away easier , felt just like his body did but a little smaller - if you wanted to know that too...

i actually feel i had a great labour, i did have pethadine but tbh wouldnt again it didnt do anything for the pain but made me feel a bit distant. it took 5 hours from arriving at the hospital for him to be born , ( i was in labour for 19 hours altogether- so i had managed 14 hours at home before going in :) )
so many people asked would you do it again , my answer is that i would do it a thousand times over for just 1 of my son no question :)


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## LogansMama

I never pushed - I had a c-sec, so I can't tell you how that feels. 

BUT - I had lots of contractions, and they HURT. They felt like REALLLY BAD period cramps. Actually - at first they weren't too bad. Just felt like strong period cramps. I was fine until they came back to back with no break inbetween them. Thats when I freaked out and asked for the epidural.


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## xTaylorsMummy

with DD they started at the top of bump moving down and to the bottom of my back. Felt like i was being squeezed inside.. HURT lol.

Reading this thread has made me think "what the hell.. why do i want no pain relief?! give me the epidural asap like i had with DD" lol


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## MummyToAmberx

It is very hard to describe to someone who hasnt been through it. 
Heres my try lol.
Days before labour started, just irregular BH, which were 10x more painful than 4 weeks before. More noticable. Bump werent just going hard for 10secs at a time feeling uncomfortable, it was going even harder for 20secs and feeling painful. 

Early labour, ^ just the same only belly getting harder again, lasting 30secs, even more painful. (Getting nearer to the point i have to stop and breathe through them) 

Active labour, ^ again just the same, lasting 60-90secs and in pure agnoy lol. coming every 2mins to not even having a break near the end. 

Head coming out, well just put it this way i wondered why women would moaned and screamed i can now understand it lol. It personally hurt more with the body than the head. 


Id honestly forgot it all within few days....


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## Linzi

Period pain is the best way to describe it, quite severe. I usually get quite bad back & leg period pain and had exactly the same in labour. It wasn't my stomach that was giving me the most pain it was my legs and back if that makes sense.

I didn't think the actual giving birth bit hurt, but it was a really horrible feeling. This its gross but it feels like you feel if youre having a poo.... thats the feeling, but it obviously lasts a bit longer than that. I didnt feel any burning or pain during that and I didn't have any drugs (pethedine had fully worn off at that point) but its that feeling I cant really describe.

I (personally) didnt think it was as bad as a lot of people say, and I dont remember thinking 'I cant do this'. However I had a very quick easy labour on my dsue date, and even my SPD wasnt a problem on the day so I was lucky :)

Ive forgotten all about it now & cant wait to do it again :)

x


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## LogansMama

Linzi - Good for you! I wish the rest of us could say the same! You must have a high tolerance for pain or something!


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## sobersadie

Its so hard to describe, its like period cramps x 10000 and needing the biggest poo you have ever done in your life!! I had 2 inductions so i didnt get the build up of contractions - i went from feeling perfectly fine to 'oh my god im gonna die' pains so this made the pain harder to cope with but i must say gas and air was my lifesaver. The contractions are like pain building up and washing over your bump (maybe back and legs too) and its like your body has been taken over then they gradually subside and u forget it. but as soon as you feel the next one you remember the pain of the last one! However i found after transition the 'pushing pains' were very purposeful and it actually felt good to push as it helped you control the pain and there was a point to it. The better you push (and you push like you are doing a poo) the better it feels (yes sore but not like u are injured sore ifkwim). The crowning is the worse its like someone has lit a match and is burning your lady bits - with my 2nd though the midwife got me to feel my babies head as i was crowning and this was so amazing it helped take my mind off the pain and concentrate and getting my baby born. I found as soon as they were born the pains stopped immediately (ive never had 'after pains') and i was up and showered within half an hour. Everyones pain tolerance is different so ul just have to wait and see - go into it with a PMA and keep remembering when ur in labour that each pain is one step closer to meeting your wee baby. xx


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## lovedupgirl

I made the mistake of asking family and friends what labour was liked when I was expecting LO#1 and you wouldnt believe the things people tell you, they are always so keen to tell you their horror stories, one of my friends told me ALL about her long and painful 24 hour labour 2 days before I was due(yeah thanks for that mate!)

But do you know what?Its not half as bad as some people make it, yes its painful and of course it hurts but there are ways of making it easier for yourself:

* stay active
* stay as relaxed as possible as tensing up makes contractions 100 times more painful
* use pain relief if you feel you need to!

I have very fast and intense labours(2 hours last time!) and Im still doing it again(due tommorrow).


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## Linzi

LogansMama said:


> Linzi - Good for you! I wish the rest of us could say the same! You must have a high tolerance for pain or something!

I dont particularally, Im just greatful I had such an easy labour and birth because otherwise it would have been a different story. I remember the whole time as well thinking "I dont want to scare anyone" so I laboured in silence lol the pushing was different, a lot of noise, but mostly the strain of pushing rather than the pain.

Your body can put up with a lot more pain than you think, Im amazed how well I (and my OH) put up with it lol

x


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## SummerStars

Thanks girls. :)

It's good to have an idea in my head of what it will be like. 

I just need to get the nerve up to read some birth stories now, and maybe even... *gulp*.. watch some birth videos (but none with too much detail. God, no.)


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## KZD

I should not've read this thread :( OMG!!


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## Seity

So, what if you've never had period pains? I've had a cramp in my foot and in my calf before. Is it like that?


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## JennTheMomma

It really is different for everyone. My labor started off with a sharp pain in my back. It came about every 20 minutes. Sometimes it would go to my stomach which would hurt pretty badly. It was like that for several hours, then when it went to 5 minutes it was a little more extreme. By that point it was annoying. Pushing didn't hurt because now I was working with my body. But birth is sometimes described as the ring of fire, which is when your vagina and preineum burn as the baby is coming out. It wasn't that bad for me. I did tear, but didnt' feel it.


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## hexyewdancer

For me it started as period pains that where really intense. Like 1000x worse than period pains. Once my contractions got into a routine and where quite close together the pain just took over all my body. My whole stomach tightened and the pain was mad. Its painful enough to make you scream. Well mine was anyway. Probably because i had induced labour.


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## SummerStars

hexyewdancer said:


> For me it started as period pains that where really intense. Like 1000x worse than period pains. Once my contractions got into a routine and where quite close together the pain just took over all my body. My whole stomach tightened and the pain was mad. Its painful enough to make you scream. Well mine was anyway. Probably because i had induced labour.

Yeek!

Ah well, we will all get through it. Somehow.


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## Whisper

I was induced and it started fairly quickly like period pains, which got worse and worse. 

At about 7hrs in and 5/6cm dialated it was how i would imagine being run over by a 10ton truck might feel like.......

I imagined laying on the floor and the wheel of it would you just back and forth over my middle. :sick:

I'm hoping my next experience won't be so bad!


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## Whisper

Seity said:


> So, what if you've never had period pains? I've had a cramp in my foot and in my calf before. Is it like that?

ever had back ache? it starts off like a dull ache that can't be ignored. 

like some pains are just there and you can carry on but if you ever had bad tummy ache and sometimes it gets really bad you have to stop what you are doing for a few seconds before you can talk and carry on.....well it sorta starts like that.


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## DizzyMoo

Everyone has different labours, & some obviously get it a little easier than others. So for those who say it wasn't as bad as they thought or as people make out, there is someone who had it several times worse. The pain isn't the same for everyone.

The beginning is defo like period pains round the front & the dull low down back ache, Which gradually gets stronger & stronger. My labour i defo got what felt like severe stabbing pains & tbh it was hell & just as i was wheeled off for an emergency c-sec i needed to push thank god. 

Now i never felt the burning sensation as the head crowned so can't comment on that bit though.


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## nov_mum

I found that I don't remember any pain with pushing/crowning just the contractions. I'm not saying I wasn't in pain while pushing just that the pain seemed to be the same all the way through once I hit established labour and the pushing was jsut so i could put an end to it. Personally, I found the pain before my waters broke just like crampy period pains and once I hit proper labour, it was ridiculously painful. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe they let women do this to themselves and imagined that surgery without anaesthesia would be less painful. I was induced with gels and had PET though so maybe that explains why my contractions lasted three minutes with 20 secs in between. 

In saying all of that I am pregnant with number two and doing it all over again. I don't want epidurals etc but I'm not ruling them out. As no one really knows how they will cope with the pain I reckon it's good to not rule anything out. If someone told me that standing on my head while singing the sesame st theme tune would take the pain away I would have gladly done it at the time.


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## Mum2b_Claire

for me it was just like really bad period pains in my back to start, then progressed to really sharp, intense pains inside of me. pushing didn't hurt at all, neither did delivering my baby. my mw said i was good at following her 'push / don't push' instructions so there was time for everything to stretch well. i had no tears and no pain relief, and i don't have a high pain threshold!


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## nikkiangel83

Can't go into too much detail as have a sleeping bubs on my lap but it felt like my body was trying to turn itself inside out. I had bubs lying back to back for the whole thing.


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## Pyrrhic

Honestly, I didn't find it that bad at all. I broke my back at 18 weeks, and the pain was _much _more severe with that. It was manageable at all stages, and you know it isn't going to last forever. I actually said to the midwife that I wanted to do it all again that night because it felt amazing. 

I had a back to back, induced labour, and had a healing back fracture. I always thought I had a low pain threshold too, but it was fine and I did it naturally with no pain relief. It's not that it didn't hurt, but I could manage.

I think it's scary for people who haven't done it to read threads like this, but you have to remember that if it were that bad, no one would have more than one child.


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## 09babyboy

periodpain reall bad and really bad back pain it like torture sorry to e so blunt when the head was crowining its like a burning feeling and when the midwife oulled hi out it felt like a fish was 9nside me really weired feeling


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## carriecinaz

OMG I am terrified :cry:


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## Rachiebaby24

for me, felt like period pains times a hundred ad your belly goes tight and rock hard wth each contraction. The pain gets so bad to the point when you think you cant take no more then it dies down.....then comes again.....and i had sharp pains in my bum...

The actual pushing stage did not hurt for me.....it felt like having a good poo and was sooooo lovely!!! the head crowning burns but i didnt really notice the body coming out as i was so focused on looking at the head between my legs and knowing its was just about over! then the pain is gone!!! 

I only had gas and air and by no means am i good with pain but you sort of get in a weird mode....cant explain it....kinda like a focused trance on what your doing and why.....

Extremely painful but the most amazng thing i have ever gone through and im actually looking foward to doing it again....


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## Rachiebaby24

Mum2b_Claire said:


> for me it was just like really bad period pains in my back to start, then progressed to really sharp, intense pains inside of me. *pushing didn't hurt at all, neither did delivering my baby. my mw said i was good at following her 'push / don't push' instructions so there was time for everything to stretch well. i had no tears and no pain relief, and i don't have a high pain threshold![/*QUOTE]
> 
> me too........i really recommend listening to the mw because she did wonders for me and i think its down to her that i didnt tear or get cut......although its soooooo hard when they tell you not to push and your whole being is telling you to push......i actually crossed my legs!!


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## Kitten

I had back labour and it was like how I imagine a really bad kidney infection would feel. Like if you've been sat in a seat awkwardly and you get like a stiff aching in your lower back but to an extreme degree. It started to have like a stinging pain with it when things progressed but to be honest you feel a bit kind of out of it. Like, you feel the pain but it's more the weird feelings that come with it that make it worse, like you feel kind of spaced out, well, I did. I think it also depends how long you're in labour for, obviously the longer it goes on the worse it feels because you get so tired, like if you have a really bad hangover that lasts all day, you feel like death by the end of the day because your body is exhausting itself dealing with it. As for the pushing, that was bizarre, it was more frustrating than anything because you feel like when you stop pushing, the baby is going to go back again and all your work will be undone and yet you don't seem to be getting anywhere (and mine only lasted 25mins!). Like has been said, it's like being extremely constipated and trying to get a massive poo out.


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## R8ch

Hi Ladies,
I've found this a really interesting thread. I've not really let myself think too much about the birth side of things (other than it's gotta be done) as I didn't want to jinx myself by thinking that far ahead, but this thread has really settled me. Sooo many people like to give you the horror stories, but it's good to read the reality once in a while. Sorry to hear it has worried a few people, but we all all know it will hurt (minor understatement)!!
Rx


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## bluemoon

MUMOF5 said:


> Well it does hurt, it starts with bad period type cramps and gets worse, when the baby is crowning (head is coming out), it is an intense burning sensation, but as soon as the baby is out the relief is immense. Its not that bad or I wouldnt be doing it for the 6th time :winkwink:. xx

awwh hun! :) thats just how is feels! i would do it again!


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## blueclover

You know i personally think that it depends on the person. What hurts to one person may seem like nothing to the next person if that makes sense.Dont get me wrong, giving birth does hurt but i have personally had worse toothache if i am being honest. I think that it is more tireing than anything.When i first went in to labour i didnt even know that it was happining i started getting small shooting pains across my lower back and when the pain didnt seem to go away i knew i must have been in labour when i went to hospital the midwive had to keep putting her hand on my stomach to see when i was haveing contractions as i couldnt tell her as i wasnt sure it was almost like my stomach was numb that i couldnt tell when i was haveing contractions. anyway a few hours later the pain started to get worse and i was so tired as i hadnt had any sleep the night before so asked for an epidural and it took the pain away in an instant.In the end i had a csection.long story... but what im saying is if the pain gets to much just ask for an epidural and get lots of sleep when it gets close to your due date.


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