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by Anon on November 8th, 2005

Anon

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How painful is it to give birth?

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  • by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on November 9th, 2005

    Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog

    This is a question with no good answer. There is no way to quantify pain in the way in which the question is asked.

    Each birth is different even for the same mother, and the amount of pain depends on many factors.

    If I had to actually compare pains, I would say that giving birth is less painful than an attack of acute pancreatitis, if only because , when giving birth, you get relief between contractions and you know that within a few hours it will be over.

    Perhaps someone else who has experienced other major pain, say, broken bones or other trauma, could write and give their personal comparison.

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  • by jalex137 on November 10th, 2005

    jalex137

    This answer from a MALE, not a physician, but a father of 9 who has assisted in the birth of every one.

    It is often more painful than it has to be. It's not possible for me to quantify it, of course, but there is much which can be done to help, and I'm not meaning with drugs. Our first two were born using the more traditional hospital method with epidural anesthetic. The last 7, including one twin birth, were done at a hospital, but using a drug free natural childbirth called the Bradley Method, or Husband Coached Childbirth. http://www.bradleybirth.com

    Dr. Bradley taught women that childbirth is a natural process for which their bodies were designed, and that knowledge reduces the fear which creates tension which contributes much to pain. Husbands were taught to assist in seeing to it that the mother was relaxed and felt protected during the childbirth. During Bradley training, the expectant mother is taught to be aware of what her body is doing during birth, and to relax and go with it. An important part of this is (maybe a psychological trick, but so what?) delaying the application of the word "pain" as long as possible, in favor of the word "contraction". You can indeed help keep your mind from interpreting a sensation as pain, by just not calling it that. The women are taught to relax everything in reponse to the contraction, rather than tense against it, and this both lessens or eliminates genuine pain, and makes each contraction more effective, thus shortening labor.

    My wife evaluated that the natural method was no worse than the epiduaral; the worst was over by the time they gave you the anesthetic anyway, and you didn't have the after effects. Our first two labors went about twelve hours. The natural ones were six or less.

    Individuals vary a lot. Some women consider it quite painful, some not at all. A few experience it as a mega-orgasm.

    So, the question of how much pain is on the one hand very subjective, and on the other hand greatly under the control of the woman herself.

    Anonymous: if I had a nickel for every time I've been asked that question...Not Catholic. I HAVE been called a passionate Baptist. Our family planning decisions have been faith-based, though not dictated nor even necessarily encouraged by my church (don't get the wrong idea; they were wonderfully supportive).

    http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/birthjoy.html

    Here's one web page with many accounts of pleasant birth experiences and links to others. There is a section on the sexual experience aspect. And why not? Isn't it the true completion of the sex act? The ultimate "going all the way"? Or to put it Biblically, isn't the creation of a new life the fullest sense of "two becoming one"?

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  • by teknimage on November 29th, 2006

    teknimage

    No! Of course not! How silly! If giving birth hurt, don't you think women would say that it hurt? Don't you think there would be jokes about just HOW MUCH it hurt? About the pain temporarily making a woman go insane and shout out profanities and cry? Don't you think that anesthesiologists would have come up with something that would help BLOCK the pain, if there was any? I mean really!

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  • by Anonymous on November 10th, 2005

    Anonymous

    The equivalent of a guy getting kicked in the balls? (Bad ratings here I come...)

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  • by bagless77 on January 27th, 2007

    bagless77

    It hurts so much worse than you could have ever imagined and so much less than you thought it would. Does that make any sense? No? But it is so true. Stories will terrify you into thinking you will want to die on the table, but when you get there it is never that bad. But it is more pain than you could comprehend on your own without having experieced it. Here, try this...

    Pinch your lower lip as HARD as you can. Next, with your other hand, pinch your upper lip as hard as you can. Now, just pull them over your head.

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  • by Jessicax23 on December 20th, 2006

    Jessicax23

    I had two painless natural births. It's different for everyone, and there are sooo many factors involved. There are things you can do to greatly reduce your chances of unnecessary pain, but it does seem that pretty much everyone who follows the default path does experience quite a bit of pain.

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  • by yo_mama on September 18th, 2007

    yo_mama

    Try imagining this - You have to poop and when you do, it is the size of watermelon. How good do you think that feels?

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  • by Mushen on July 24th, 2007

    Mushen

    Put it this way - it is as much pain as the human body can stand but comes in short enough bursts so that the woman does not pass out. That is the bad news. The good news however, is that modern pain relief is the bees-knees. It is fantastic and is tried and tested and it works! So make sure, that the medical team are aware that you may request as many drugs as often as is allowed at any given point along the way. If you ask, you will get pain relief straight away. Do not listen to any old wives tales from years gone by about drugs used during birth, if you want accurate information, ask you doctor nobody else. Leave all options open and even if you have gone on and on about having a drug free birth until you are blue in the face, never ever be too proud to back-track when the time comes and say "Get me some pain relief".

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  • by Anonymous on November 29th, 2006

    Anonymous

    I'll assume you really don't know the answer to this, and have never seen on TV or in the movies the woman SCREAMING in pain when they are delivering a baby.

    The answer, unless it is down under some kind of anesthesia (very rare --they even keep women awake when they do Caesarian birth's --) is YES it hurts.

    For some women, the pain is less, due to a smaller baby, breathing techniques and other things. But for ALL women, I am sure if they were polled, they would all say it hurt moderately to ALOT.

    Imagine tring to get into your mouth something 2-3 times or more larger than your mouth when it is as wide open as you can get it. It would tear your mouth and hurt like hell don't you think? Same idea with giving birth, only other end of the body.

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  • by david askari on November 14th, 2005

    david askari

    I am a male, but I will bet it is the worst pain, pushing out something that big. As it seems to get stuck, the muscles push more and thats more pain. The muscles of the uterus are stronger than any guys.That means some serious pushing of a very big thing that needs to come out now but with respect. I have been constipated and pushed and it hurt but it was halfway out. I would not want to try something bigger with more pushing power with a mind of its own. It hurts, and it hurts for more than a moment. I can, t handle the thought of knowing when a big pain is coming and its not my call. I don't know how a woman can live with the thought of scheduled pain. I might do it for money though, some pain killer "streetname is greenbacks".

    Some Grammar was edited.

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  • by minor child on March 17th, 2010

    minor child

    probably alot, after all, you are squeezing something the size of a melon, out a hole teh size of a lemon... you do the math

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  • by Zenrean on March 16th, 2010

    Zenrean

    Pains, different for everyone, so this question won't get an exact answer.
    .
    (I'm also sure birthing isn't the most painful thing in the world.)

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  • by momof3 on November 17th, 2008

    momof3

    Yah nothing like something the ranging in size from a bowling ball to freakin volleyball coming out a small hole yep no pain there but as stated you forget the pain when you hold your sweet baby

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  • by Mentalmum is back on November 17th, 2008

    Mentalmum is back

    Hell of course its painful!! BUT it is a pain you completely forget afterwards.. its worth it :)

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  • by Wide Awake @ has closing date woo hoo on November 17th, 2008

    Wide Awake @ has closing date woo hoo

    Not at all. That's why you hear women giving birth screaming at the top of their lungs.

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  • by Jewel on March 3rd, 2008

    Jewel

    They always told me it was the easiest pain on earth to forget. It is true.
    It is different for each woman, and each birth.
    My girlfriend said she had worse menstral cramps than any labor pains.
    My first was painful and long, but I got pregnant the second time on purpose! That should tell you something about it.
    Don't be too afraid. Learn the breathing techniques and think of all the women before you that have done this, and done it multiple times.
    Good luck and enjoy your baby.

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  • by TX Rules is sad about new AB on March 3rd, 2008

    TX Rules is sad about new AB

    Didn't hurt me a bit. :)

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  • by Megank on March 3rd, 2008

    Megank

    Everyones pain tolerance is different. I am a wuss with pain and I was drugged up and it still hurt. But their are lots of people that can do it with out one ounce of drugs.

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  • by Lauren on July 23rd, 2007

    Lauren

    I dont know... but i would love to know please!!!! Im due to give birth in 4 months and im already packing up a cold sweat, i can not stand pain at all!!!!

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  • by turbowray on January 27th, 2007

    turbowray

    I have a low pain tollerance, when it comes to birthing children, so after my first, I requested to be numb from the stomach down. It did not happen, and from what the nurse said, both the baby and I went into diress, or something like that. She was 9 pounds on top of that, and got stuck, and my body was small, so it was the worst pain ever, I am still unforgiving, on not getting what I requested! It is called a spinal block.

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  • by thickalious on January 22nd, 2007

    thickalious

    i believe child birth can not really be explained,one has to experience it for themselves.

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  • by Anonymous on November 29th, 2006

    Anonymous

    Well, I posted this question, and yes, I have seen the Discovery Health channel and TLC of women giving birth...but there are some people that tell me that the birth went smoothly and didn't hurt much, if at all. So I guess my real question would've been: On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the least painful, how bad does it hurt? I wasn't expecting the smartass answers that I received, because I'm not an idiot, and I was looking for real answers. Thanks.

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  • by Drublic on November 29th, 2006

    Drublic

    I don't know, how much would it hurt to squeeze watermelon out your rear?

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  • by jeaniefirst on November 29th, 2006

    jeaniefirst

    ummm, lets see,, how to put this Hell yes!!

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  • by Olivebranch on October 14th, 2006

    Olivebranch

    It was less painful than when I rolled down our stairway and crashed at the bottom and had to go to the ER....LOL....epidurals can help some women--although mine failed miserably and I was out of luck. I do not remember the last half of labor and am pregnant again due 1 yr after the first. My fav OB nurse said that nature has a way of "erasing" the intensity of the pain so we will continue to procreate. I must have forgotten--I got pregnant again when my daughter was 15 weeks old.

    Hypnobirthing techniques help, as does a supportive coach.

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  • by Squealer on August 15th, 2006

    Squealer

    Wow. What A question. VERY VERY painfull, but beautiful at the same time. You will forget the pain right after you give birth. I have had 4 natural births, with 2 epiduals, if it was up to me I would have had 4.

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  • by andywho on November 16th, 2005

    andywho

    I recently had hernia surgery. It was a week of pain, like someone cut me with a knife. Yes this is what happened. Even though the doctor gave me pills for the pain, I thought what the heck was I thinking. I will never do that again. My mother gave birth to 6 children. She told me the pain the first time with me was bad but your mind forgets. She went and had my 3 sisters and 2 brothers.

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  • by RedJohn on November 14th, 2005

    RedJohn

    As a male, I cannot have experienced this, even if I was present during the birth of my children. My urologist told me that people have likened the pain experienced while passing a kidney stone to that of giving birth. A kidney stone is much smaller than a child's head, but the urethra is smaller than the birth canal and does not respond well to something machete-ing its way through. Having passed four or five kidney stones over the past few years, I can sympathize.

    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Re: "pain was quantifiable"
    Trying to assess those minute differences in relative pain levels is miserable. I will admit there are more painful things than kidney stones: being hit by a car and experiencing a pinched nerve in my spine were both much worse.

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  • by Roger Kovaciny on November 12th, 2005

    Roger Kovaciny

    One thing that makes it worse is the anticipation, and one thing that makes the anticipation bad is that girls are warned all their lives that it's going to be painful. Partly that comes from Genesis 3, where Eve is told that her "sorrow and her conception" would be greatly multiplied. Other translations do it differently, and emphasize pain, but the original language, which I am working with right now for the Ukrainian Bible Society, says that Eve would suffer exactly as Adam did. The word is "itsavon" in the original, which means laborious and sometimes painful toil. Men in the workplace, and especially at war, may suffer exhausting labor, pain, injury, and death; and women may suffer the same thing in childbirth. That being said, seven hours after our own fifth child was born, delivered in just one big contraction from a squatting position by natural childbirth, my wife got up to have breakfast (though I offered to bring it to bed), helped feed the other children (though I offered to do it all), helped get the others ready for church (though I offered...) and when I said "Well, I'm going now," she said "So am I."

    This is not so surprising. I know a woman with 13 children who delivered the last several herself at home, and read one account of a soldier in Burma on a slow train who watched a peasant woman at work who stopped to give birth and then picked up her hoe and went back to work.

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  • by Anonymous on November 10th, 2005

    Anonymous

    My mother had a caesarean section both times she gave birth, and I understand that compared to the other mothers she's swapped stories with, she experienced very little pain. She says it was probably a blessing I was 4 weeks overdue and refusing to budge...

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  • by Anonymous on November 10th, 2005

    Anonymous

    Less than pancreatitis? Yes. I had both.

    More or less very intense cramps. Not so much painful but very, very exhausting. After each contraction I felt as if I had just done 40 hours of physical labor. Pardon the pundt.

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  • by blarneyblonde on April 6th, 2008

    blarneyblonde

    wellllll its kinda sore but kinda nice...think really bad period cramp and times it by 100 u got it!!! BUT good news is its so worth it when you see ur little baby...and hey best contraceptive on planet when he next comes near you its like f**k offfff buddy!!!

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  • by Coheed on November 29th, 2006

    Coheed

    Ever try to move a watermellon through the eye of a needle?

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  • by Anonymous on July 24th, 2007

    Anonymous

    yes but u will be happy with the baby

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  • by teasie on May 26th, 2012

    teasie

    Having had a bilateral ear infection AND burst drums i can tell you childbirth is MUCH MUCH worse....its more pain that u would think a human would have to live through....but it does have an ending...when that bugger is out...but dont be deluded...especially by some of these comments, IT HURTS , but i do think that various factors can make it easier ...ur fitness...size of your pelvis, ability to remain calm...whilst in agony...and determination...i have done it 4 times, and one was a shoulder dystocia delivery weighing in at 10lb 1 oz !!

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  • by skysthelimet on November 13th, 2010

    skysthelimet

    Wow, what COLE AND BRYNNES MAMA said helped me as well as others cuz I'm planning to "feel" this in the next year or so if I get a bf and or husband that is loving and long term and all that jazz with me! Wish me LUCK! ....Please I need it.

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  • by Jasmine_darlinn on March 16th, 2010

    Jasmine_darlinn

    This is a question with no good answer. There is no way to quantify pain in the way in which the question is asked.

    Each birth is different even for the same mother, and the amount of pain depends on many factors.

    If I had to actually compare pains, I would say that giving birth is less painful than an attack of acute pancreatitis, if only because , when giving birth, you get relief between contractions and you know that within a few hours it will be over.

    Perhaps someone else who has experienced other major pain, say, broken bones or other trauma, could write and give their personal comparison.

    It is often more painful than it has to be. It's not possible for me to quantify it, of course, but there is much which can be done to help, and I'm not meaning with drugs. Our first two were born using the more traditional hospital method with epidural anesthetic. The last 7, including one twin birth, were done at a hospital, but using a drug free natural childbirth called the Bradley Method, or Husband Coached Childbirth. http://www.bradleybirth.com

    Dr. Bradley taught women that childbirth is a natural process for which their bodies were designed, and that knowledge reduces the fear which creates tension which contributes much to pain. Husbands were taught to assist in seeing to it that the mother was relaxed and felt protected during the childbirth. During Bradley training, the expectant mother is taught to be aware of what her body is doing during birth, and to relax and go with it. An important part of this is (maybe a psychological trick, but so what?) delaying the application of the word "pain" as long as possible, in favor of the word "contraction". You can indeed help keep your mind from interpreting a sensation as pain, by just not calling it that. The women are taught to relax everything in reponse to the contraction, rather than tense against it, and this both lessens or eliminates genuine pain, and makes each contraction more effective, thus shortening labor.

    My wife evaluated that the natural method was no worse than the epiduaral; the worst was over by the time they gave you the anesthetic anyway, and you didn't have the after effects. Our first two labors went about twelve hours. The natural ones were six or less.

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  • by kaidensmommy84 on September 5th, 2010

    kaidensmommy84

    Child Birth is the most intense pain out there. It really is indescribable. But we all get through it. And that beautiful baby is worth all the pain. Stay positive, and keep moving around during labor as much as possible. Remember, once you get that epidural, youre stuck in bed. And I dont care what ANYONE SAYS.. GOD BLESS epidurals.

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  • by BillyGEE on March 3rd, 2008

    BillyGEE

    Just like taking a big shit...

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  • by Anonomous on March 3rd, 2008

    Anonomous

    Very painful but not near as painful as the next 20 years or so. But it is all worth it!

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  • by 1gillies1 on November 17th, 2008

    1gillies1

    as a father watching a football come through a zipper opening, hell yes! this is the exact reason men dont give birth

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  • by Anonymous on February 9th, 2009

    Anonymous

    its like being constipated lol. and it depends on how well you take pain, i made it through with no tears and no meds... i cried more when i broke my finger lol

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  • by Katharine on October 21st, 2008

    Katharine

    There is a great deal said and written about how painful it is to give birth, and of course there are a lot of drugs and interventions given to mothers to try to alleviate that pain.

    In the Hypnobirthing movement we have found that a large portion of this pain is caused by the expectation of pain, and the tensions and fears that surround it.

    Rather than taking drugs and other interventions that may have a negative impact on the birth of your child, the option exists to learn how to give birth and manage your own pain - in many cases to manage the pain away.

    If you want to know more about this you can see what people have said about hypnobirthing and their own childbirth experiences at: http://www.thehypnobirthingcentre.co.uk/testimonials/

    One comment from just one hypnobirthing mum that I'll quote is: "it was quite a powerful feeling - but NO pain, amazing". She said she took just over half an hour to "breathe him out".

    So our summary is that Child birth might be painful (I've had four), but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Women have successfully given birth since the dawn of time, and you can choose how you want it to be.

    Regards,
    Katharine

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  • by COLE AND BRYNNES MAMA on October 15th, 2008

    COLE AND BRYNNES MAMA

    YES, ITS EXTREMEMLY PAINFUL. IT DOES VARY FOR EVERYBODY, I SUPPOSE. HOWEVER, I CANT SEE IT BEING NOT PAINFUL FOR ANYONE. UNLESS YOU'RE SUPERWOMAN. I HAD BOTH MY CHILDREN VAGINALLY AND IT DOESNT TICKLE, I CAN TELL YOU THAT MUCH. I WOULDNT WANT ANYONE TO SUGARCOAT THE TRUTH FOR ME. SO IM TELLING YOU FLAT OUT. HOWEVER ITS THE KIND OF PAIN YOU HONESTLY FORGET ABOUT ALMOST IMMEDIATLY. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU SEE YOUR BABY. AND THE HUMAN BODY HEALS SO QUICK...I CANT WAIT TO HAVE MY THIRD!!!

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  • by Capt.Lizzie_pirate king_Swann on March 3rd, 2008

    Capt.Lizzie_pirate king_Swann

    With my first child, I was going to have a natural birth with the hospital midwives, but went into labor 6 weeks early. They put me on bed rest for a month. Then I went into labor again about 4 days after I was let off bed rest. I had to be in the hospital for it, because the baby was 8lbs. 2 oz., and I'm just over 5 foot tall. It was lucky I was there. The baby wouldn't come out, and after about 30 hours of pushing, I had a c-section done. The labor was so painful that I was yelling get this kid out of me, after about 18 hours. It was very much like a bad movie.
    My second baby I was living in a small town where they required me to have another C-section, because I am not close enough to a large enough hospital to have a V-bac.

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  • by bebe03 on March 3rd, 2008

    bebe03

    Labor was painful to me but the actual birth wasn't, thanks to the epidural.

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  • by The Chief on March 17th, 2010

    The Chief

    Not as painful as it is to give birth to a kidney stone.

    Or the pain leading up to a ruptured ear drum by fluid buildup behind the ear drum!

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