So dh often asks me how painful labour is.
Usually I respond with, imagine tying your weights to your balls, thats how painfull it is.
But now im thinking, is there a better way to describe the pain? Lol
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So dh often asks me how painful labour is.
Usually I respond with, imagine tying your weights to your balls, thats how painfull it is.
But now im thinking, is there a better way to describe the pain? Lol
For me what was most painful and overwhelming was the sheer power of it. My body was exerting forces that were far beyond any strength I thought I had within me. Can't think of a great analogy for you, but I guess something like being pounded by a powerful surf or pushed along by a truck...??!!
CAN"T POSSIBLY EXPLAIN IT!!!! Just (insert expletive here) AGONY!! Then show him all the replies in this thread and let him see how many women try to explain it, but just can't :)
Oh i wish there was a way... DP missed DD1's birth but was at DD2's he says to me "it was the easiest 8min of your life" :wall:
If only they knew.
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.
The only issue is cos he thinks I have a low pain tolerance lol so I need a bettwer way of expolaining it to him
It's tough! I didn't have to elaborate too much to DH as he saw how much pain I was in, but I do remember trying to explain the feelings. I think I said contractions for me felt like a vice in reverse, like a vice was inside me but was pushing, pushing, pushing against my skin. Crowning I said felt like someone had just ripped me open!
The biggest hardest No.#2 that you have ever done, that takes xx hours to come out :rofl:
Maybe we should get a balloon, rip a very small hole in it and then get one of those kids sized footballs, try stretching the balloon OVER the football and then as you do it set his balls on fire and say it burns like hell, it hurts like hell and it stretches like this!
tell him to pull his bottom lip out.... and then stretch it over his head all the way to the back of his neck.
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.
I screamed like a primal animal, hubby said I sounded like some sort of dinosaur, he certainly saw how much pain I was in and for how long, but to be honest he could never understand , he's such a suds anyway, he whinges over a headache ;)
Somewhat like pooping out a lump of concrete the size of a 2L softdrink bottle, while a sadist with a baseball bat takes great pleasure in beating the base of your spine for about 7 hours.
Oh, and right at the end, the crowning bit? Like sitting on hot coals with no pants on. Overall - OUCH.
;)
For me it was incredibly bad back pain, like I just ripped muscles in my back, and still had to pick up something. And definately like the worst constipation EVER coming out!
Tbh I find this hard to explain. I don't know if it's because I did calm birth classes but I didn't have much pain. Sure my labour ended in EC but I was fully dilated in 4 hrs (thanks to the drip) and was for nearly 40 min before anyone picked it up but DS was too high to come down. I did have back ache almost like I had done a big workout for a week straight lol
Definitely this but in my experience the bastard hit me with a baseball bat for 18 hours!!!:
Usually when i am in pain i am deadly quiet and DP knows this and so when i was screaming through every contraction he knew i was in ALOT of pain so he never asked what it was like.
I told my DH that contractions are like bad constipation/dihorreah cramps. Then, it is like there is a bowling ball shoved up your butt that you have to somehow push out... and in the end, it would be like him being kicked in between the legs a few times for good measure.
exactly. everytime i get diarrhea it reminds me of labour.. ohh those cramps :(:
I think crowning could be like chinese burning their member? :think:
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. :lol:
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!!! :ROFL:
Like pooping a rockmelon
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
I said it was like someone was giving me a chinese burn to my body and spine. A bit dramatic really :D but I cant think of another way of explaining it, it burned.
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.
Oh dear, I don't think I should have read this thread!
*toddles off to find a "labour doesn't hurt at all" thread!!
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!
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 ;):
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!!!
Argh, yes the back pain of posterior (sp) labour was WAY worse than the actual contractions.
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.:
thats how I describe it - like eating crap food for a week (to be constipated), then getting gastro.:
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.
: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 :lol:
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 :o He agrees that would hurt...ALOT :rofl::
i cant explain it but these other replies are funny lol