Period pain, labour pain... back pain??

Hello wise women,

Have any of you had baaaaad cramps, and how did this affect your management of labour? If you ahve awful cramps, are you more lilely to have a shocking labour?

I get awful pain when not on pill. If I don't very, very quickly take some form of heavy-duty painkiller (generally of the sort you can't take when pregnant, which is going to make each and every 2WW absolutely revolting) at the first sign of a twinge I get the most incredible cramping, tearing, burning, waves of lower back and abdo pain, start to vomit and get diahorrhoea uncontrollably (bringing up the pain relief if I haven't taken it quickly enough) and almost start to make moaning cow-like noises. It is so intense I nearly lose consciousness. I don't know if I had sufficiently express how bad it is; I'm careful where I am and what I do each 28 days or so, so I don't end up a spewin' pooin' mooin' wreck in public... (No, I do not have cysts or endo.)

How much worse can labour be? I'm scared that if if one hour of seriously period pain is enough to flip me out, how the hell am I going to cope with labour??

Thanx:help:

PS: what is this dreaded "back labour"?

Easy pain releif!LOL! Sounds like my gallbladder pain. I end up a mess and can honestly say that the pain is worse than labour. Labour pains come in waves so you have a chance to compose yourself in between. Back labour is when you get really bad contractions through your back as well as your tummy. I had them cause Gemma was posterior(wrong way round) so I laboured quite painfully in my back. Its hard to describe but it comes in waves as well. Remember everyone is different and your labour might not be quite as bad as you think!

Thanks Kirsty - gallbladder eh? you poor thing... Thanks for replying!

A few other girls mentioned in another thread recently that the pain of labour was like 'intense period pain'. This is what I am worried about as, given recent period experience, I find myself asking just how much more bloody intense can it get??

Kelly, if you're reading this - any thoughts? I can't PM you.

I had horrible braxton hicks when pregnant with DD but my labour pains weren't all that bad really. They were quite managable. This time my braxton hicks are even worse, so wondering how i will go this time in labour.

Hi Queenie, I too am familiar with the grade of period pain you refer too. I gave up on conventional period pain treatments and prescription pain killers and ended up using a product called Dong Quai 1000, (comes in a box not a bottle: Natural Nutrition?), it was the only thing that ever even touched it. I'd start taking it the day before AF was due and then it was just like normal low grade period pain (much more manageable). Which is probably not helpful information right now, but might be useful later on...

(Good news: after my pregnancy I never suffered the same level of period pain again: don't know why, but being pregnant seemed to 'fix' it somehow).

I'm sorry to say that I've often wondered if the reason I suffered from period pain so terribly is the same reason I had such a hellish labour. My B/Hs were horribly painful but obviously not effective since I ended being induced at 42+ weeks (long labour, lots of intervention, poor pain management, bit touch and go at the end). So maybe it was the induction and not the other that made it so painful. Who knows?

If it's something you're worried about, be very well informed about your pain relief options and be prepared to do whatever is necessary in order to cope with the level of pain that you are worried about. And have this discussion with your health providers.

But you can never guess how it will go and like Kirsty said, every woman and every labour is different and maybe your existing experience with coping with chronic pain might put you in a better place to cope with labour pain...?

Regards

I've been fortunate enough to never suffer a single menstrual cramp in my life....so labour was one BIG RUDE shock to me!
You never know, if you're used to coping with the sort of pain you describe you might find it easier than you think ;)

I'm not entirely sure, but I thought that really bad period pain was due to either having high level of hormones (prostoglandins) or being unusually sensitive to them. (I also heard that thinks like stress, diet, exercise etc can effect it, but nothing ever made mine any better. I felt angry when it was suggested that my pain was more or less due to a bad attitude, and that I wouldn't feel so crap if I were more joyous about the whole thing).

What a horrible PMS experience! I have never heard of anyone having it that bad! :eek:
What you are decribing sounds like transistion labour to me, and that was the worst that my labour ever got. I really hope that you have it easy in labour. On the bright side, you can get an epidural for labour, but they won't give you one for PMS. :rolleyes:

I haven't had back labour, but my mum, and MIL both did, with entirely different experiences.

Mum had back labour pain becuase my brother was posterior, and said it was quite painful, and in addition to normal labout pain etc.

MIL was reading a book that described back-ache labour, when she figured out that the dull period pain she'd been having was probably BIL coming into the world so got to the hospital quick smart & had him. she said it felt like dull period pain for the whole labour - uncomfortable but not painful, and this was the only pain she experienced. Apparently it was the same with DH.

Ouch. How long does transition last?

I'd always imagined first stage would be like the pain I get, with transition being completely-beyond-the-realm-of-human-experience pain (irony). The thought of transition bloody scares me (no pun intended), BUT if that's as bad as it gets... Annoyingly I won't know till I get there, I suppose! Problem is I can't imagine it getting any ahrder than it is already and frankly, there ain't a watermelon-sized child trying to force its way out of the relevant parts. :eek:

Ladies, you've got me thinking: maybe I should visualise each period now as being training for labour and try to work through it? (a bit hard if it happens in the public domain, though!!) Perhaps a good opportunity to see if I can do this, bearing in mind the post about natural labour Kelly posted the other day. I suppose I've always thought of period pain as 'bad' pain, not 'good' pain, but maybe it is just my own body's way of ending a cycle and I should embrace this?? Hmmm.

Will look out for that herb Marydean - can you take it if suspecting pregnancy though? Not a prob at the moment but important to know for later.:rolleyes: Have mentioned the prob to relevant parties and guess I will need to I suppose I know what level of pain I can survive - it's also a matter of how long the pain is there for. In waves it's easier becuase you can focus on the relief at the end (like someone else pointed out in another thread, can't remember who, but it was an excellent point). But after several hours of it I reckon I'd be pretty darn peeved.

I have a friend who gets excrutiating pains like you around period time. Bad enough she also takes heavy duty pain killers and need time off work. When she went into labour we all thought it would be bad for her but she got through the whole thing by just using gas.