how to explain to dh how painful labour is

[Nelle]

I think crowning could be like chinese burning their member?

Maybe contractions are like your head being shoved underwater, and knowing you need to hold your breath for however long before you can breathe again. You can see it coming, and prepare for it, but there's no avoiding it, you just focus and ride it out, again and again.
That could help explain any potential temptation to panic near transition, when you feel the breaks in-between aren't long enough and it's just very intense.

Pushing is definitely like pooping.

[little_mrs]

Havnt had the experience yet but DH had to have a catheter not long ago, he was whinging about how much that hurt and realised he was complaining to the wrong person when i just sat there looking from him to my growing belly with an eyebrow raised!!!

[human bean]

Like pooping a rockmelon

[angelaartsstudent]

Crowning = having a gash in your penis with a dirty blade (or 100 dirty needles) then rubbing it in salt and lemon juice.

I was constipated for 4.5 weeks when preg with Palmer and the result of that was pretty painful, so I reckon the pooping/constipation is probably a good explanation!

Back to back labour = someone hitting you in the back with a baseball bat full of nails. Endlessly. For 30-something hours.

:-P

[sweetgloss]

I said it was like someone was giving me a chinese burn to my body and spine. A bit dramatic really but I cant think of another way of explaining it, it burned.

[Antheia]

I said this the other day to DH that contractions felt like diarrhea pains. DH thinks this is the worst pain so it was a good explaination. However my last labour didn't really hurt all that much to be honest. I didn't make a sound and i never needed to.

Having a posterier labour though is entirely different. The back pain in indescribable. I've never felt anything like it and i can't compare it to anything.

[Jaycee]

Oh dear, I don't think I should have read this thread!

*toddles off to find a "labour doesn't hurt at all" thread!!

[Traveller]

My labours didn't really hurt, but if I had to describe contractions I would say it was like being squeezed in a vice whilst trying to run a marathon. Very exhausting!

[human bean]

Oh dear, I don't think I should have read this thread!

*toddles off to find a "labour doesn't hurt at all" thread!!

I think it just goes to show that labour and childbirth is different for everyone! Some find it quite extreme, while others don't. Besides the rockmelon part I didn't find it too bad really

[Mum2SweetCs]

LOL I dont remember much of it because i was so drugged out but the only thing that shocked me was that i was expecting the labour pains coming from my belly but it was my back that was in sooo much pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kinda like someone pulling my spine apart?!?!

I like hte chinese burn idea too!!!

[angelaartsstudent]

Argh, yes the back pain of posterior (sp) labour was WAY worse than the actual contractions.

[AwesomeFoursome]

Oh dear, I don't think I should have read this thread!

*toddles off to find a "labour doesn't hurt at all" thread!!

I think I should join you. I can't remember the pain now. I think being about 9 weeks off giving birth my mind has blocked it out.

[trishalishous]

For me I think its closest to describing the same pain you get with cramps when you are constipated. Obviously a lot worse but my DH has bowel issues so this was something he could relate too.

thats how I describe it - like eating crap food for a week (to be constipated), then getting gastro.

[YoYo]

I didn't have pain as such, just the pressure, and the burn SO.... my explanation is this....

LIke having really bad cramps like when you're constipated with the pressure and power it would take to pressurise an air-craft cabin at 34000 feet, then pushing out a big warm bowling ball, which burns like putting a hot iron on the end of your man bits and holding it there.

[sasha]

Like when you have really bad diarrhea. It's like the cramps you get with that except about 50 x more painful, comes in waves and lasts for hours. That's how I described it to DF anyway.

:yeahthat:

Actually, M said that after seeing my in labour the first time. And said it reminded him of having gastro, especially towards the end (when the contractions are coming thick and fast) when you finish one and think, 'oh, thank god that's over with', but you know it's going to happen again soon...

We were talking today about marathon running and I said I'd like to do a marathon at some point, because people often compare them with childbirth and he said, "There's no comparison! At any point during a marathon, you can stop!"

He's a clever guy

[delphmoon]

Like when you have really bad diarrhea. It's like the cramps you get with that except about 50 x more painful, comes in waves and lasts for hours. That's how I described it to DF anyway.

I describe it similiarily to my DH. I say its like poo cramps times 100. I even go as far as to tell him to imagine he really really really needs to poo but has a cork in his bottom and it won't come out but the cramps stay there He agrees that would hurt...ALOT

[~MummaBear~]

i cant explain it but these other replies are funny lol