My labour pain started like a period pain, not particularly bad period pain. They got more intense and began to feel like a chinese burn deep and low in my belly, from my cervix basically.

The burning got longer and more intense with each contraction but i wouldn't say it hurt more, just that the longet the cx were the more intensity there was, kwim? It felt like i was a pop bottle being shaken and the pressure was more and more and then less and none.

I never had any pain anywhere but low down (one reason my midwives doubted i was in proper labour right up until she crowned, in fact i didn't even KNOW you could get pain all over your bump, i always assumed only your cervix hurt during labour so maybe that's why i only got pain there?). I was told not to push (they didn't think i could possibly be dilated, true labour was <4 hours) and i used the gas to help stave off the desperate urge to do so. Even without pushing DD crowned, your uterus can do all the work if need be.

Crowning felt like my pelvis was cracking open (not in terms of pain, in terms of sensation) and her head made a fiery stinging on my perineum which worsened until she was fully crowned and then died away a little during the gap between contractions. The next contraction i gave a little push to see what would happen and she shot out.

I found it the most intense sensation ever. Once when i was a teenager working on a farm one of the boys, mucking about, drove the van too close to the trailer i was stood by and pinned my thigh between the wheel arch and the metal trailer frame. The squeezing was so intense, i couldn't move at all, but it wasn't all that painful. Nothing broke and i didn't even bruise but the intensity stayed with me. Birth was NOT the most painful thing ever for me. I once tore the ligaments in my ankle that hurt WAY more.

Bx