What hurt more than labor for you? - Page 2

[littleteapot]

Originally Posted by nichole

why oh why get dental work done without meds? i'm just gonna assume you are joking.

Didn't do it on purpose, and I'm not joking.

[sevenkids]

Originally Posted by littleteapot

By no means do I intend to imply that birth is painless for everyone.

However, "Until my fifth, when I tried to bash my head against the wall to knock myself out" -
It doesn't seem like you handled it very well. Could it be that you were mentally unprepared for a higher level of pain, having had so many easy labours, and therefore didn't have adequate coping skills?

No, it had to do with a posterior, military presentation, 9 1/2 pound baby with a 15.5" head and a fractured coccyx after 5 1/2 hours of pushing. Nothing to do with the state of my mind and everything to do with the state of my butt.

[littleteapot]

Originally Posted by sevenkids

No, it had to do with a posterior, military presentation, 9 1/2 pound baby with a 15.5" head and a fractured coccyx after 5 1/2 hours of pushing. Nothing to do with the state of my mind and everything to do with the state of my butt.

I see! Special circumstances.

[OnTheBrink]

The early part of labor wasn't bad. It was actually exciting and enjoyable. But on the third day... I was sick of it and it hurt like crazy! Transition is horrid!

I had a cesarean with my first and the recovery from that was much easier than labor, birth, or recovery from my VBAC.

[kyangel80]

I didn't read this entire thread yet. I have always been able to compare labor with other pain that I have had, just not the duration or intensity, if that makes sense. For me the contractions were the worst part. The pushing burned, like rug burn, or intense warm feeling. Indian burn, if you know what that is. I know this is tmi, but I removed a dry tampon the other day and it felt like pushing out my daughter. That same familiar burning sensation. The contractions for me were like menstral cramps that hurt my entire body, meaning the pain started in abdomen and over took my whole body with pain. I hope you are a lucky momma who has very little pain b/c some peopl do have less pain than others. Just be prepared for the sensations when you push, I think most ppl are familiar with the labor pains b/c they have had menstrual cramps, but I find most are not familiar with what it will feel like to push.

[Bartock]

nak
nothing so far in my life has hurt more than labor, but now that i said that something prob will lol

[OnTheBrink]

Originally Posted by kyangel80

I think most ppl are familiar with the labor pains b/c they have had menstrual cramps, but I find most are not familiar with what it will feel like to push.

I think that the labor pains were similar to menstrual cramps, but so much worse! But - I have extremely mild and gentle periods, so maybe that's it. Pushing sucked. The "ring of fire" you hear about, though - not so bad. Kind of felt like really chapped lips.

[hipem]

Originally Posted by sevenkids

No, it had to do with a posterior, military presentation, 9 1/2 pound baby with a 15.5" head and a fractured coccyx after 5 1/2 hours of pushing. Nothing to do with the state of my mind and everything to do with the state of my butt.

I hear that, mama. I guess if you went on to have 2 more your back healed. OP labors and (especially) OP deliveries are intense and I think beyond comparable to normal presentations.

[faeriewisp]

CLimbing Long's Peak in CO hurt more/was harder work than my labor. It wassomething like 17 miles round trip. We had to start at 3am. I was out of shape. DIdn't stop. Got back down at 8pm.

THe contractions during my homebirth hurt far less than the contractions in my first birth, which were pitocin induced.

[mamanurse]

I had hip pain during the third trimester that felt terrible, especially at night. After I gave birth naturally, I BEGGED for narcotics for my hip pain. They hurt even worse after dd was born. Who knew I would want percoset after delivery, but no drugs during?

[georgia]

sevenkids and i both have similar experiences. we've even PMed after i birthed my third posterior babies w/military presentations and large babes. i'm just glad i was at home is all i can say

having my nose pierced didn't hurt me AT ALL. what did hurt is when my three year old ripped out my nose ring yesterday with his binoculars. he pushed them at me to look through, then grabbed them away just as quickly---and took my nose ring with it.

i almost passed out. it hurt so bad.

as far as "normal" labor, having dental work done with 2 raw, exposed tooth nerves and an incorrect (read worthless) anesthetic was far, far, far worse than any labor pains.

[lacysmommy]

UTI's hurt more than labor for me (and I had a posterior baby so it was all back labor-- ugh!). Of course the UTI I am thinking of led me to a long recovery which included two seperate surgeries (and one was major abdominal). I also had some very ineffective pain meds so for a while I was recovering from surgery without pain killers. That was awful.

And this is probably TMI but... the other week I had to go poop but I was about to pick up my little girl so I thought holding it for 45 minutes wouldn't be so bad. I was mistaken! I got to the pick up point and I was in so much pain I couldn't walk or talk. I told my mom to take me to the nearest bathroom, and that I couldn't do anything until this stupid poo was out of me! Once it was out I felt better, but it hurt WAY worse than I remember labor being! Of course you have those nice endorphins when you go into labor.

OK, I'm sorry mamas, that was really waaaaay TMI. But it hurt bad!

[crazy_eights]

Broken leg. Then getting it 'reduced' (having people pull your leg in two seperate directions until the ends of the bone approximate again) WITH NO MEDS. Doctor was a sadist. One of my mother's friends told me 'if you survived that without killing someone, you'll have no problem with childbirth'. Thank G-d she was right.

I had a baby that was malpresenting in early labor causing nerve pain in my hip (not contractions) that was way worse than any labor.

[Mama2Xander]

I've had food poisoning that was much worse. To be honest I really didn't find labour all that painful, more like "intense". For me the sensation was very similar to getting trigger points worked on by a massage therapist - that very visceral kind of pain.

Dh and I went on a 5 day long backpacking trip several years ago that was much, much harder work than labour.

[CrazyCatLady]

The one time I had a real leg cramp. That hurt way more than my natural labor did.

[nichole]

Originally Posted by littleteapot

Didn't do it on purpose, and I'm not joking.

omg i am so sorry. that is awful.

[mothragirl]

my labor hurt a lot (baby was OP) but it wasn't too bad. to me labor was like exercising really really hard and not being able to stop. the lack of control was harder to deal with than the pain.

[Belle]

I hurt my knee the summer before we started TTC. That was the worst pain in the world. I had a large wooden box fall on my leg in the storage room at work. I thought for sure that I had broken my leg. Turns out I didn't. I screamed very loudly and involuntarily. No one heard me. About 10 minutes later I limped to our office.

Labor was a breeze compared with that. With labor I got breaks from the pain.

[boscopup]

1) Anesthetic injected into the tip of my big toe for surgery. I can still REMEMBER what that felt like, and my toe hurts just thinking about it (like right now when I type about it!). I can't remember the pain of childbirth like that. I'd much rather go through childbirth again than to have that shot in my big toe. Ouch.

2) Constipation cramping at night during pregnancy. Last preg, I got them alot because of the prenatals I took in the first trimester - the ferrous sulfate in them. Yucky stuff. I'd be in the bathroom near passing out from pain in my abdomen. It hasn't been that bad this preg, but the other night, I got a pain that started at my side, and then ran around to my back. It was very brief, but it was enough that again, I was almost to the point of passing out. It was also due to constipation (although the next morning, I'm usually able to easily "release the load", so to speak )

For me, the labor itself wasn't too bad. It was when I hit transition that I finally started thinking "I can't do this anymore", but then I felt the urge to push, and the contraction pain went away. During pushing, the ring of fire hurt like anything, but I can't remember what it felt like now. I just know that after the birth, when my DH mentioned having more kids (as I'm being wheeled out of the LDR), I was thinking "NEVER AGAIN", but didn't say it. I've obviously changed my mind, since I can't remember what that ring of fire feels like. I also think I probably wouldn't have had that feeling had I been holding my baby, but instead, he was whisked away to the NICU because he was very preterm.

Oh, and actually... I had a 1st degree tear, and getting that stitched up seemed worse at the time than the labor/delivery itself, even though they numbed the area (and I really wasn't feeling it). It took 45 minutes to stitch me, since it was someone learning how to do it. : I guess it was fear that caused that to be worse for me.

[grace's voice]

Originally Posted by OnTheBrink

I think that the labor pains were similar to menstrual cramps, but so much worse! But - I have extremely mild and gentle periods, so maybe that's it. Pushing sucked. The "ring of fire" you hear about, though - not so bad. Kind of felt like really chapped lips.

Oh man... not for me! It was the most intese buring I've ever felt. It really felt like someone had poured gasoline on my crotch and lit it on fire. That was the only part of labor that was more than I could handle, luckily it passes quickly!