Because I'm curious, ladies. I've heard that it's really, really painful to give birth; but I'd like to know precisely how painful, if possible. Is it as painful as, say, stubbing your toe? (I mean really stubbing the fuck out of it, like when you're walking through the kitchen at night and you kick something.) Does the horror of the pain consist mostly in its intensity, or in its duration, or both? Is it sharp and excruciating, or is it more dull and all-encompassing?

The main reason I'm asking, incidentally, is that in the "preggers" thread, women are talking about how they go through the trouble of carrying/bearing the child, so they should have full say on the question of abortion. And a major part of being pregnant is actually having the kid, so I'd like to know how bad it is.

10/31/2013 6:22:35 PM

These guys might tell you:

10/31/2013 6:26:35 PM

And...stretch marks.

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.144326!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/alg-shape-belly2-jpg.jpg

10/31/2013 6:32:34 PM

It is different for each person, or so Ive read.

10/31/2013 6:34:23 PM

it's like taking a big dump. women shit babies out, right?

10/31/2013 6:35:44 PM

^

10/31/2013 7:17:50 PM

10/31/2013 7:49:06 PM

It's like pulling your bottom lip over your head

10/31/2013 7:49:14 PM

With baby two I threw up for 9 months, spent 3 months with a chronic UTI, my back went out for two weeks (ask elise. It was pull my underwear up for me bad.), and then I went into kidney failure. And that's just the pregnancy.

10/31/2013 8:03:19 PM

^
okay, so pregnancy can be extraordinarily uncomfortable/inconvenient/painful, and that's no joke since it lasts for 9 months.

But what I'm asking, if you don't mind answering, is how much did it hurt to actually push the baby out of your body? If that's too personal a question, or it's like, classified information, I understand. But I am very curious (and I'm not the only one, perhaps.)

10/31/2013 9:15:52 PM

how does one answer that question? rate your pain on a scale of 1-10?

10/31/2013 9:19:48 PM

Just use some metaphors and shit.

10/31/2013 9:20:49 PM

I had scheduled C sections for both kids because they were breech. So I cannot classify labor or actual birth. But I can tell you all about epidurals hitting nerves and post dural punch headaches from leaky spinal fluid, bleeding from my vagina for weeks afterwards, the two months of healing from being cut open, and incontinence.

The actual kids themselves have nothing to do with my husband not wanting a third child and everything to do with the miserable hell beast the baby making turns his wife in to.

[Edited on October 31, 2013 at 9:31 PM. Reason : But some people love it. I don't. I'm all about the result. ]

10/31/2013 9:29:46 PM

Quote :

"epidurals hitting nerves and post dural punch headaches from leaky spinal fluid, bleeding from my vagina for weeks afterwards, the two months of healing from being cut open, and incontinence. "

gah...that sounds straight-up traumatic (and also thoroughly disgusting)...I can't imagine that the act of thru-the-vagina childbirth is much nicer

on the real, thanks for your disclosure, though

also, I like how your husband doesn't desire more kids for the simple reason that they turn his wife into a screaming, raving harpy for 9+ months.

10/31/2013 9:40:18 PM

My water broke before going to the hospital and labor came on fast. Contractions came & were close together, hard, and I honestly can't compare it to anything else that's happened to me. I did end up getting an epidural, but for reasons I won't bore you with I had to continue laboring without for most of it. It was definitely the worst pain I've ever felt, but I've never broken a bone other than a toe.

But aside from 9 months and labor, there's recovery too from either vaginal or c section to take in to account. I was pretty sore for two weeks. Ice packs where my best friend. I was pretty bad off in that regard. Look it up...3rd degree tear.

Maybe it's nature's way of ensuring we continue to procreate, but I think I was more scared of the anticipation of laboring versus the pain I actually felt once it was happening...if that makes any sense.

[Edited on October 31, 2013 at 10:02 PM. Reason : ]

10/31/2013 9:59:31 PM

so if I call you all pussies.....its a legit statement right?

10/31/2013 10:24:20 PM

2 moms of tww with entirely different pregnancies and deliveries does not a claim make

I do remember my whole body shaking from pain while I waited to get my epidural. But my memory can not tell you how bad that pain was. Seriously...I think I blocked it out.

11/1/2013 12:04:42 AM

I really can't comprehend that type of pain. Props to you ladies.

11/1/2013 12:08:14 AM

You can call me a pussy. But moms are tough stuff.

11/1/2013 12:52:14 AM

Quote :

"i wouldn't consider a normal, non-forced pregnancy mentally traumatic. an inconvenience? sure."

what do y'all moms think about this statement?

11/1/2013 10:28:15 AM

Holy shit, y'all gave really good descriptions. I'm never reading them again.

11/1/2013 10:53:05 AM

definitely did not need to know about vagina to rectum tearing

11/1/2013 10:54:15 AM

Quote :

"But my memory can not tell you how bad that pain was. Seriously...I think I blocked it out."

i've read that is a real thing in a lot of cases... http://www.health24.com/Parenting/Pregnancy/Time-dulls-memory-of-labour-pain-20120721

11/1/2013 11:42:52 AM

I still say getting kicked in the nuts hurts worse. Some women want to get pregnant over and over. I've never been asked to get kicked in the nuts

And before anyone jumps my shit. Yes I'm joking

[Edited on November 1, 2013 at 11:53 AM. Reason : .]

11/1/2013 11:52:25 AM

supposedly dudes passing kidney stones is somewhat similar?

[Edited on November 1, 2013 at 12:08 PM. Reason : ]

11/1/2013 12:07:49 PM

Quote :

"definitely did not need to know about vagina to rectum tearing"

I figured everyone knew about that

it's pretty common

as is passing a bowel movement when giving birth

11/1/2013 1:11:53 PM

Yup. Even if you avoid that with a C section, you still end up with a catheter and some nice nurse wiping you and changing bloody pads under you for 24 hrs afterwards. I don't care how you do it, you lose all shame and modesty when you have a baby.

11/1/2013 2:24:22 PM

So for both of my wife's deliveries, the nurses fucked up. The first one, she was 8 cm before the epidural doctor arrived because one nurse got off her shift and forgot to tell the new nurse that she would be getting an epidural.

The second we had to induce and the nurses cranked up the petocin to 10x what it was supposed to be because the bitch was dumbass and misread the dial. It induced the contractions at a much heavier and faster rate than they should causing my wife to dialate so fast that the by the time the epidural doctor made it into the room, she was almost ready to start pushing. These instances happened at different hospitals. Crazy thing is my wife never cried, screamed, etc. She is a fucking trooper.

11/1/2013 4:16:32 PM

trooper badass

11/1/2013 4:45:21 PM

the doc thought out 2nd child would be like 10 lbs or more, so they scheduled a C-section

then they pull the baby out, and its like oh look 7lbs 2 oz,

before I could even get mad and do anything about it, the doc took care of all our copays associated with it (don't really know if that was malpractice anyway, but the doc must have been worried about something.)

11/1/2013 8:44:01 PM

its life. don't take the dick if you dont want to do the time.

like eating at a shady mexican place and not wanting the shits later.

11/1/2013 11:55:25 PM

Regarding the mental trauma: even planned and very routine physically healthy pregnancies can result in depression during the pregnancy and/or post partum depression.

11/2/2013 12:47:17 AM

Best you eat the placenta like good Tom Cruise Minions.

11/2/2013 12:50:31 AM

Quote :

"Holy shit, y'all gave really good descriptions. I'm never reading them again."

lol

11/2/2013 8:58:25 AM