Labor and delivery curiosity!

[anyakitty.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have always been SO curious about the nitty gritty details of labor and delivery. I am fascinated by those shows that come on TLC sometimes depicting natural and home births. I don't ever plan on having children but I just simply must know:

1. Is it really as bad as it is in the movies? Do people really scream/go crazy from the pain? Can you compare contractions to menstrual cramps to give me an idea of how much worse they are?

2. This is the big one... do a lot of women tear? How does THAT feel? Do they stitch you up or do you have to just let it heal or does it just simply depend?

3. After you give birth vaginally, is your vagina really never the same ever again? Is this only a physical, inside thing but also a visual, outside thing?

Please, don't spare me any details, I want it all no matter how questionable. It's either this or asking my boyfriend's sister who is pregnant for the second time and I'd rather not, haha. Thanks in advance!

Comments

[loonylupinlover.livejournal.com]

1. My mom didn't scream at all. She said the nurses were surprised at how 'stoic' she was. She never had any pain medication for any of her 3 births and while long, they weren't incredibly painful or anything. She just kept up with her breathing.

2. I know for her last birth my mom's doctor was an asshole and gave her an episiotomy without her consent. It really pissed her off because she had had no problem recovering from her other two births, but the episiotomy left a permanent scar and was, she felt, wholly unnecessary.

3. Can't answer this one for her, heh.