Hi,

I think labour pain is very much an individual thing. I ended up having 3 c-sections, but I did get to "enjoy" 12 hours of labour before the first c-section. Let me tell you, it hurts A LOT!!

I kept trying to imagine the pain - would it be like a strong leg cramp, or a bad burn, or really bad period pain? No, it is a really unique pain - hard to describe and easy to forget. To be frank, it felt like I was trying to **** a bowling ball. No really, it did - it felt exactly like this. I hated it. It felt completely "unnatural". I wanted to claw my husband's face off - and I still really love him now.

I don't know if I had a particularly bad labour - my baby's head was "stuck" in the birth canal. I mentioned to my dr that the pain was unbearable and that surely "normal" labour wasn't that bad, but she said to me that what I was experiencing was normal labour pains. I also wasn't allowed to push (as I was waiting for surgery) so perhaps that made the pain seem worse. I don't know. Let's just say that when my doctor recommended a c-section for my next two babies I wasn't too upset!! Oh, and I was able to breast feed all 3 babies for over a year - the c-section didn't seem to affect this function for me, although I wish I was able to spend more time with each baby immediately after surgery.

My only advice to you is to keep an open mind about pain relief - I so desperately wanted a epidural but I had to wait for this pain relief for a period which seemed like eternity. I finally got one and the relief was immediate and profound. I never wanted to suffer like that again (and luckily I didn't).

Good luck, Mary