ANSWERS: 81
  • My mother told me that.
  • My experience, and that of most of my friends, is that over time you do forget the pain. You remember how much discomfort you were in but you ultimately realize it was worth it. Today they have epidurals which allow you to labor without any pain at all! I had that with my second daughter and it was a piece of cake!
  • Let's see....have someone stomp on your right foot. Then have them stomp on your left foot. Just because you have something else distracting you, doesn't mean the pain isn't still there. I forgot no pain. No matter the beauty of having a child to hold, the unbearable agony still held my mind.
  • We had our first three in a private clinic and I asked the doctor about this. (Our conversation helped distract my wife and she really appreciated it.) He said that he'd delivered over 2,000 babies and as far as he could remember every woman's first question was "How is my baby?" Even when the labor had lasted 72 hours.
  • After I had my son of course the first thing I wanted to do was hold him..he was beautiful. But then I wanted DRUGS and LOTS of them.
  • I remember that it hurt but I can't describe the pain. I mean there are no words because I don't think there is another pain like it in the world so you have nothing to compare it to. But as far as being so elated about your newborn I don't think so because you are in some level of pain so awhile.
  • I experienced pain during my first l & d, and I didn't forget it - that's why I chose to have a completely different experience when I had my second child. The birth of my second was intense, but not painful. I still remember the sensations and what it felt like.
  • You don't forget while you are going through it. But afterwards when everything is healed and you are as back to normal as you will ever be you do forget. Don't get me wrong, you don't forget that labor was painful. But it isn't something that really ever occupies your mind unless someone else brings it up. At least that is true for me.
  • I've seen that in some of the births I've attended. I've also seen births where there was no pain to forget. I had two painless births myself, but I'm so glad that I didn't forget the hard work and effort of labor and birthing.
  • i don't have children,but the women have to forget because some women birth 4-7 children,My stuff hurts thinking about that.
  • i hope so!
  • I doubt that labour is fun for any woman - I have three kids - but if you vividly remembered the first birth, there would never be siblings for that child! Over time, you do forget how bad it was.
  • This is very true. I have 3 kids, and was very excited about all of them coming. When I had my first baby, I said I would never have another baby again, because of the pain. The real pain that I experienced was the "Rim Of Fire", when the babies head comes out. My labor pains were quite painful due to having a induction. I was only in labor for maybe about 7 hrs. I can't even barely remember. With my second, I was only in labor for maybe about the same amount of hrs. or less. I screamed her out in about 12min. My 3rd, almost a piece of cake. This time I got an epederal, and I tell you it took my labor pains completely away. Then my baby decided he was going to come, and I only felt a little bit of pressure, but know Pain. It was nice. I was able to just enjoy him, and did not feel to tired. But just to hold that little baby in your arms is a true delight. Their so fragile, and innocent. You actually do forget the pain right afterwards. I would'nt mind doing it again, but I decided 3 kids was enough, so I got my tubes tied.
  • I have 7 children and I remember each and every minute of each and every labour. Some were worse than others...but I remember..and with each and every birth, when they laid that tiny new life in my arms...it was SSSOOO worth it.
  • I don't think I will ever forget it. It has fadded but it will never be forgotten. It was a horrible experience.
  • I think you forget the pain because you're so freaking exhausted from giving birth.
  • It is the most rewarding pain you will ever experience!
  • I remember that I was in agony. But I don't actually remember the pain.
  • No i will always remember the pain but it is worth it.
  • What a beautilful Lie! My Little one just turned one and thinking about labour pains makes me sick.
  • i serioulsy would go thru labour cause i had no drugs an no pain an my labour lasted 25 mins start to finish i didnt scream or anything cause it doesnt hurt i said to the midwife that my mom had told my sister 16 year ago that most women panic when they go into labour an thats why it hurts an she said yes when i had my child i didnt panic and it was a quick painless labour by the time i went to hospital i was 8 cm dialated
  • The pain only lasts for the contractions, so when there are no contractions there is no pain. My mum had 7 kids and I have had 3.
  • I had one of my kids 100% natural without any pain meds. That wasn't by choice, it just happened that way. I've often thought that God intended it that way so we wouldn't give up before the agony of the teen years.
  • Well, you dont forget the pain right away. You do wonder about the baby and you feel a little releived that all the pushing is over and you can relax alittle. But I have had 3 children and to me the worst part of the whole deal is the recovery.
  • You don't forget your pain and I had two c-sections, but your body is designed that once that baby comes out you forget about yourself and become more concerned for that baby. If it didn't happen that way the mother would be consumed with the pain of being praticly ripped in half between her legs and wouldn't care for the baby. But once you know the baby's fine it all comes rushing back. Oh, joy.
  • Its true. If you were to try and describe the pain after giving birth, you cant. And then guess what, a couple years later you start to go into labour with your second baby. THATS when you remember the pain! Its like 'holy crap, now i remember!'
  • It is true, for me, the pain went away instantly! I was inhorrible pain and right when the baby came out the pain was gone!
  • up until i had my second child 8weeks ago i was trying to remember what the pain was like during my first labour but i couldnt. all i could think of was being overwhelmed with happiness. once going into labour with my second child the memory of the pain soon came screaming back to me!!
  • Yep, it's true!
  • No, you don't forget it. But also if you had an epideral it probably wasn't anything overwhelming in the pain dept. Besides Just like a heartbreak time heals all wonds and you will never feel the pain you were going through before as fully as if you go throug it again.
  • No that is NOT true! Ha ha ha!! Pain is "relative" meaning you can only remember that you were EXPERIENCING pain and that it was at a level you don't wish to experience ever again. You can NOT ever, ever, ever, reenact the pain. You can't think about it and feel it all over again. Once it's gone, it's gone. And even if you have the same thing happen to you again (i.e., pregnancy and childbirth) the pain will not be the same as the last time. It's bizarre how the human body works. I know when I had mine, it hurt like I had never hurt before, but for me to sit here and conjur up the "feeling"...no, I can't do it. But do I remember it hurt very badly? YES!! But not bad enough that I wouldn't have done it again if I could have. (which I did!)
  • I actually remember the pain I had while pregnant more than the pain of labor and delivery. I had an epidural though. My mom swears she still remembers how much pain she was in when she had me.
  • Not unless you're already on some powerful pain killers. The baby does distract you, but does not completely numb the pain. Time makes you forget how bad it hurt, I think....
  • YOU NEVER FORGET IT! I have two, and they were both NATURAL as they get....and nope I will never forget it! By best advice, if you think you have the guts try it....but if you arent ready TAKE DRUGS!!!!
  • You are still aware of the pain but are distracted by your Baby & wanting to hold him or her. For the weeks after, the healing process can drag you down a bit because it's constant soreness but once you're back to normal (as close as you can be anyway) you do forget how bad it was - if you didn't, you wouldn't go on to get pregnant again would you?! I'm having my second in the next few days & have been getting "mini" contractions for the past 2 weeks which are a small taster of what's to come.. that kinda brings it all back! xXx
  • Well I Hope Everything Goes Well For Me Because, Im Due In 4 months... But Its Just A Very Tense Thought... That Im About To Push Out A Baby Almost The Size Of A Watermelon Out Of Something The Size Of A Grape So Just Imagin That.... Damn But Like We All Say(Mothers) Its All Worth It Once We Have Our Babies In Our Arms... Its A Wonderful Thing, And Feeling Too Know That Through Out It All We Went Through The Pain To Bring Someone Else Into it... Oh And This Is My First Child...
  • The pain goes as soon as the baby is out. Obviously you are left sore bruised and if very unlucky cut but contraction pain stops as soon as the baby is out. Although with second third and fourth babies you suffer after pains but they are usually nothing in comparision to actual labour.
  • Forget the pain.. LMAO. NO it Hurt...The pain you feel at the birth of a child never leaves your mind BUT, the pain that you feel for them after they are here overwhelms any other emotion. IE: fevers, sickness, colic, broken bones Ect.. I would give birth a thousand times over to not have a lethargic fevered child in my arms. Phisical pain goes away, your heart always remembers. P.S. I'm a Mom of 4, no anesthesia.
  • You should have a hormone called oxytocin which floods your system causing quite dramatic changes after birth...but I can't tell you about the pain.
  • Well, birth hurts, because you have something the size of a watermelon passing through a tube the size of a toilet paper roll. So when the baby is OUT, you don't have that pain anymore. You will still be sore - but it's more like "tender" rather than horrific pain. I equate it to when you work out way too hard a few days in a row, and you can't lift your arms, and don't want to move because you just CAN'T, you know ? Immediately after birth, you have such a dramitic change in pain levels (from a 10 out of 10 to say a 2 out of 10) that you suddenly feel pain free for awhile. Add to that the relief at finally seeing a healthy baby and holding it - and you get the impression that you are no longer in pain. In an hour or two, you'll feel beat up, and the next day the same, but maybe a little more so. But really, you don't "remember" pain - your brain is designed to forget it, or you'd only ever have one child.
  • I knew it would hurt when I was in labor and I knew it would hurt when I tried to squeeze a human out of there. But I also knew what I was getting out of it: my precious little princess. I remember every bit of pain but never once complained (except for being tired and watching my husband sleep...jerk) during the 24 hours of labor. I ripped badly, partially because she was actually wiggling herself out in between contractions and pushes...she's been a very self-sufficient baby from the beginning!) and had to have surgery to fix how I healed a few months later, but I would do it all over again to get another Julie!!
  • There is no pain in childbirth. That is a myth started by just a few whiners. Trust me baby.
  • Drugs can ease the pain when it's happening. I would assume you're sore (I'm a man, ex had 3 kids - 2 ours, and current wife had 3 by c-section with her ex), but I think hormones kick in and ease that quickly. Apparently, it depends on you. It seems SOME women remember the pain. For some it DOES matter and they don't want to have another. For others, it doesn't matter, they want more children. And for some, it seems they forget the pain. I, persoanlly, am of the opinion that while the memory of the pain may be there, it eases so much after birth that it's all but forgotten (or pushed to the back of the mind). Otherwise, I would think FEW women would have more than one! ;-)
  • F-ing NO! once you get off the epedural its hell,until they give you more pain medication.
  • Actually, it can be a number of things. The happiness of having a baby. The elation of the labors being over. The drugs (if any). But also, the trauma that if it is so severe your body will reject the memory. It's a defensive mechanism that helps your body cope with traumatic events. It'll be like, those parts never happened--except, they did.
  • bollocks
  • I have two children. Once both of them were born i immediatly felt no pain. Your so overwelmed and full of joy with your newborn that you don't even worry about it.
  • yes that is true and evey one is verry difrunt to them all and i have given birth 4 time and would do it a gaing
  • yes unless it is an induced labour.
  • The newborn baby could have partial reasoning for why you would have another child, however we as humans cannot remember pain at all. That's what my science teacher told me :)
  • I could liken my 2 natural births somewhat to running a very very hard, intense race. While you are actually doing so, you are feeling very intense sensations that don't feel good, but if you are relaxing through breathing slowly, deeply etc. you can get through it, knowing that it's "pain with a purpose"; not pain that is because of an injury or something wrong. Like running a hard, intense race, when the race is over and you've stopped, the pain stops. And of course you've got a precious reward for having run that race. Now afterward, like after running a real race, your body is exhausted, sore, and not up to its full strength for several days. That's normal. Give it time to recover. And in months to come, you remember how it felt but it's not scary. Those were my second and third babies. My first was a c section, and that was not fun at all. Way way worse than the natural kind!!
  • As a childbirth educator, I try to help people reframe the way they think about pain when it comes to labor. Unlike the pain of injury, labor pain . . . P - has a purpose (you get a prize at the end!) A - is anticipated (you know it's coming) I - is intermittent. (contractions come and go) N - is normal! It means everything is right! Many women find they have a kind of "amnesia" about labor pain, but I think it is just time and feeling recovered that eventually makes them feel ready and willing to try it again. It depends on how the birth went. They are all different.
  • yes you do forget about the pain.
  • No the pain sort of hangs on, I had to use a pillow for almost 2 weeks because of the tearing. It's been 39 years and I remember it all.
  • With my first, I forgot right away. I even said to my husband about 30 minutes later, "Oh, that wasn't too bad, I could do that over tomorrow." That was with pain meds. With our second, I didn't forget for about 2 years. It was a total natural and very fast delivery. I swear I had post-traumatic stress disorder and even had nightmares reliving it. With our third, I had hardly no pain with a total natural childbirth and found it a breeze...as easy as going for a bowel movement. No kidding. Fourth child is on the way....don't want to think about it especially since the doctor said the baby will be over 9 lbs. like our others.
  • As these responses demonstrate, the experience of pain in childbirth and the memory of it is individual. The more you prepare, the better. But it also takes luck!
  • I dont remember the pain but then again I did have drugs.
  • When I was handed my son right after birth, I couldn't feel a thing! I was just so happy that I finally got to meet the little guy who had been kicking me for months!
  • It depends on what people mean by "forget the pain." When I think of the birth of my kids, I can recall it quite clearly. I remember quite a bit of pain and extreme discomfort with both deliveries, and I was elated for the pain and discomfort to STOP. My second baby's shoulder came through really fast and ripped my vagina, and when they asked if I wanted to hold him, I said no. I was in too much pain at that moment. (It's not that big of a deal, though. The doctor injected the area with a local anesthesia and sewed me up.) I can think about the pain, and remember that it was, indeed, something that I would want to avoid at all costs, but I don't *feel* the pain again. It's not a sense memory like that. But it's not like, "Pain? What pain? I don't remember any pain?" Of course, I've only had two kids, and both experiences where like night and day, they were that different. Maybe some people do truly forget.
  • Hell no. I will never forget the pain of childbirth. Its a bitch. And you think about the pain when you are pregnant with the secound.
  • It was true for me. When I had my first son I wanted to go home then and there and I felt well enough to do so, but they wouldn't let me. With me second son I had to have stitches. I couldn't even feel that I had torn. When my doctor was trying to stitch I was rally squirmish. It wasn't the fact that I was sore it just, how do I explain it, it just felt really weird. I wasn't is any pain afterwards though. Your adrenelin kicks into high gear and your more interested, not the word, ummm...all you want to do is stare gazingly into the eyes of your baby that you carried around for 9 months.
  • Yes, it was true for me with both my kids.
  • Its actually a curse as I would call it, its in the Bible is you believe in it, God was so mad at EVE for eating the fruit that his punishment to here was to have painful labor and as soon as she gave birth she would furget her pain and want her husband..... or something like that, I remember reading.
  • I first answered this question 4 weeks ago before I gave birth to our fourth child. She is now 3 weeks old... I was definitely elated by having our last, but I didn't forget the pain til about this week. All I know is that right after I had my baby and was holding our daughter for the first 4 hours that every woman who walked by in labor, I prayed for her because the pain I had just gone through was so livid....but then again, I had no drugs or intervention or anything because she came so quickly. I do remember them telling me not to scream and I also know I have a strong pain threshold. Yikes!! I now have PTSD!! LOL
  • yes i was in labour 4 days until emergency c-section, and as soon as i saw my daughter the pain vanished
  • I had 4 kids, 3 by cesearian section. If the pain were memorable I would have stopped at 1. You remember that giving birth was painful, but the reward is so great it really doesn't matter. So, yes you forget the intensity of the pain, at least I did. By the way, my mother in law had 10.
  • Ummmm....no. I love my son with all my heart, but I will not forget how hard I worked to get him here. Owww!
  • YES, ITS TRUE...FOR EVERYONE...I MEAN, YOU KNOW YOU WHERE IN UNBARABLE PAIN, BUT YOU FORGET EXACTLY WHAT IT FELT LIKE...IN FACT, I HAVE AN 8 1/2 YR OLD AND JUST HAD MY SON IN JUNE AND I KEPT ASKING EVERYONE, WHAT IF I DONT KNOW IM IN LABOR, OR HOW WILL I KNOW(CAUSE YOU FORGET WHAT IT FEELS LIKE) BUT LET ME TELL YOU, THE FIRST CONTRACTION I GOT, IT ALL CAME FLOODING BACK!!! THATS WHY PEOPLE HAVE MORE THAN ONE CHILD....
  • most definitly....as soon as you here your babys cry all the pains is gone...well except when the pull out the after birth lol:) sorry!!!!
  • I still remember the pain of giving birth. I have had 4 children naturally with no pain meds. Yes it hurts, and yes it's probably the worst pain I will ever feel, But once I saw my babies born my mind completely switched to "is she ok?, is she breathing?" So yeah I forgot the pain at that moment. But still I remember how much it hurt and how much I was relieved it was over.
  • Oh honey i never for get..LOL!!!
  • You do forget although i think it took my husband alot longer to forget the pain that he suffered!! I just wanted a brew and toast while he opted for pain relief for a squeezed hand.
  • The real reason you forget the pain is because during birth, the blood is rushing to your uterus and leaving your brain a tad lacking on the oxygen. Add any kind of drugs to that and your complete memory of the event is gonna be missing a few pieces. Plus your body releases endorphines directly after you deliver. I can remember that it hurt like hell, but every time I do it again I think that time is worse than the last and its not, I just don't recall how bad it really hurt.
  • its actually neurologically impossible to remember pain. the brain doesnt store it as a memory. so basically, you only remember that something hurt, not how the pain felt.
  • YES IT IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH THE PAIN IS STRONG THE HAPPINESS AND PROUDNESS TO BE A MUM IS MUCH BIGGER...AND THE MINUTE YOU HOLD YOU CHILD IS SO PRECIOUS THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER ALL YOUR LIFE
  • thats what my mother told me!
  • yes its true!! The pain you get is nowhere near as painful as the labour pain anyway so u should b ok :)
  • Yes!! Once you have your baby in your arms you completely forget the pain!!!
  • yes the pain goes straight away like its so odd it just stops and the love you get is unreal also the pain goes anyways
  • No,you dont forget that kind of pain.

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