AS woman's childbirth labor - Pain or No Pain?

Post Reply New Topic

Labor wasn't so bad for me. Yeah, it hurt, but it lasted so long that I got the drugs halfway through. I was in labor for 18 1/2 hours, but the last four hours were pushing. Not fun.
Kid had a big head. Literally. I had to go to a specialist to make sure there was nothing wrong with him.
The next day, however, I was shaking like a leaf because I hadn't done my "relaxation techniques" correctly. I had just been telling myself that I was relaxing, when in fact, I was completely tensed up for those last four hours.

The shaking is caused by hormonal surges. It can also be caused by an epidural if you got one of those.

I have given birth twice, and both times were extremely painful. My first daughter was born 6 weeks prematurely...but my doctor said it was actually a blessing given the size of her head! I too had to go to a specialist for the first year of her life to keep a check on her head size and make sure she didn't have any disease process causing it, like hydrocephaly.

I will say that I was in the hospital for both births, and TRIED to be medicated for both....but each time the epidural didn't work. The first time I was given one "shot" in the epidural and it wore off ALOT quicker than the doctor anticipated it would...and he was so busy he never came back to give me another one. The second time, the epidural only worked on the right side of my body...and the (very young) doctor was actually too embarassed to admit she had done it improperly and so wouldn't come back and fix it for me.

As far as pushing goes....I had to physically push my first baby out. The second time around it went VERY FAST and the baby's head was actually emerging and no one could find my doctor...they actually told me to hold it in for 15 minutes! I was at the point of my body "heaving" the baby out and so all it took was for me to sit up a bit and she popped right out....

Well, I've had four kids, three without drugs, but had to have an epidural with my last one because my boy was in distress, and they induced; unfortunately, my usual breathing and vocalization methods were useless due to my having pneumonia (I was coughing nonstop) and not sleeping 48 hours beforehand -- omg, talk about horrible! With my other three, I sort of slipped into a meditative state, and the births were pretty easy (the episiotomies freaked me out, though, because I'm practically immune to whatever the hell it is they shoot you up with down there, and I felt every stitch). The epidural didn't completely numb the labor pains either, but at least it was bearable. The anesthesiologist couldn't believe how much he had to keep pumping into me, kept saying, "Are you numb NOW?!"

All four times in the hospital, I never slept. The sleeping aides they tried on me didn't work, and so I resorted to beer at night just to get an hour or so of rest. I always got a kick out of seeing the nurses' faces when they'd walk into my room and see me chugging a beer. With my boy, however, I'd gone so long without sleep, and was so ill, I didn't need beer -- I passed out on the floor after using the bathroom. As it was told to me, my husband caught me as I lost consciousness, nurses and doctors rushed in, and it was pure chaos. Best rest I've ever had, though.

From all I've been able to tell with my three birthing experiences, and all that I've heard, it's all defined by things science has yet to reckon out. All we can do is drug or not drug, practice relaxation (which when done right absolutely helps but will not necessarily fix all) and other soothing stuff. I am sure that being Aspie by itself has nothing to do with it.

I delivered a 10 lb baby naturally (I'm a small person - 5'3", 115 lbs), no drugs, except I was induced with pitocin.

I can honestly say that the labor pains were not that painful for the first 12 hrs. It hurt the most when he actually came out at the very end, the last few pushes.

Knowing what I know now about hyper/hypo sensitivity, I realize that it does have something to do with the way the nervous system is wired. My son is hypo-sensitive to pain and has a lot of physical delays. (PDD-NOS dx) His muscles and ligaments are as loose as wet noodles. When he broke his leg in two places, he hardly shed a tear. His brain really does not process a lot of tactile information.

btw, he is hypo-sensitive to tactile info, but hyper-sensitive to sound and visual info.

I have had 3 babies, all without meds, the last two at home. I must admit I did not feel very much pain and actually found it to be a quite enjoyable experience; I too was laughing and joking during and afterwards. The pushing (active) labor stage each time was 10 minutes or less. And my babies were as follows 9.5, 9.8, and 11.6
For me I've always scoffed at doctors who induce because the babies were "too big" (um, in the majority of cases, your body will not grow something too big for you to handle), or "too late" (the standard 40 week model is just that, a model, and each induvidual woman has her own gestation cycle variations. For instance, I was 2 weeks "late" with all 3 of my kiddos).
But yes I do believe this is related to me being an Aspie. As far as sensetivites go, you are either hypo or hyper, which means that some of us are extra sensetive to pain, whereas some of us don't hardly feel anything. I know I'm the sort of person who is always wondering where bruises come from because I don't feel "ouch" when I bump into things all day.

I can deal with physical pain much easier than emotional pain, and if the physical pain has a point to it (like labor) it's easier to deal with than pointless pain (like a migraine).

Labor did hurt, but it wasn't that bad. I got a shot of Nubane both times, but if it hadn't been an option, I could have dealt. The first time I was in labor for 6 hours, the second time just 3. Both were born at a birth center connected with a hospital. I liked it there better than home- it was like a hotel room compared with a crappy little apartment, the room was huge and there was a jacuzzi in the bathroom. If it had been a traditional hospital room, my feelings might have been different.

Oh, and since other people have posted pictures, here are my babies:

Three of mine:



There are 2 others, a boy and a girl.

This is myself (top of course) - 33 yrs old, Dylan - 6 yrs old (middle) and Brendon - 4 yrs old on May 21st (bottom):

I'm not female, I just felt like noting that Atheism generally doesn't have anything to do with faith, it has to do with lack of faith in a God, although some Atheists have actually have faith that there is no God. I would also like to note that some Atheists are actually Religious, for example you can get Bhuddhist Atheists, Christian Atheists, ect. Lack of Religion (Or Religious association) is known as being Secular not Atheist.

Hi, everybody! I'm new here at WP.

I didn't feel any pain. In fact, I was halfway thru the birth without having the slightest clue. I was outdoor playing soccer with my dog, and I went to the hospital only because I was starting to bleed a bit.
But giving birth in a hospital... it was an awful experience! All the nagging and all the strangers, the noise, smell... Awful... I was "disconnected" most of the time, and the midwife started to tease me because she thought I was falling asleep.
Nonetheless, I gave birth to a wonderful son. Love him very much, and I wouldn't be whitout him!

I've had six children. Three of them were born at home, the first and last were Csections, and one was a nightmare hospital birth, VBAC.

In my opinion, childbirth is THE most painful thing, next to a severely broken heart, that I have ever experienced. I did everything natural, exercised a lot, and I was and am pretty tough. I've broken my arm and not gone to the doctor for it, kept working on the farm....

My first vaginal birth (the VBAC at hospital) was so incredibly painful that I just fell completely apart and screamed at the top of my lungs for hours one end and finally gave up and decided that I'd just die. They had to remove him with vacuum extraction.

The others were easier than that, but they were still.....like having a bowling ball make of fire stuck in your pelvis for hours, and the only way to get rid of it was to force it out and make it hurt even worse. The recoveries were bad, too....I bleed a lot and it took me over a month to feel semi-normal again.