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

[poison-mekare.livejournal.com]

I ended up having an emergency C-section so I can't really speak about that aspect of the birth but I had a full unmedicated labour up until that point, I actually made it to the full ten centimeters (of cervical dialation) before they decided to go through with the C-section due to fetal distress (her head was in a bad position and also the cord was wrapped around her neck). I think might have been possible to correct this but at that point it was safer to do the C-section.

I wanted a home birth so I didn't have any pain medication AT ALL. I was transferred to the hospital after being stuck in transition (the worst part of labour itself) for a few hours, the midwives were amazing throughout the whole thing and I really loved having them there to speak up for me at the hospital. They gave me the epidural literally five minutes before they cut me open to take her out, before that it was allll natural. To be honest the pain was excrutiating. But it may have been worse because my baby's head wasn't putting the right pressure on the cervix and while I felt lots of pain it wasn't doing much. The part that hurt the most was when I wasn't allowed to push and yet my body was still pushing of it's own accord. If you have to push and it's safe (no fetal distress), PUSH. It hurts less than trying to stop your body from doing so, truly.

It's like when someone punches you in the arm, the first time it hurts, but if they keep punching you over and over in the same spot eventually the pain is incomparable to the first punch. I was in labour for 21 hours or so. I cried, I moaned, there were no screams, but the moans were a touch on the hysterical side after the first 15 hours or so. I had to turn my head and shove it into a pillow with every contraction to stifle the volume near the end.

I have to say that I would do it all over again and I still would not choose to use the pain meds! I found it almost as an exhilarating challenge, like climbing mount everest. It might be HARD but it was still very empowering to go through it. In fact I CAN'T WAIT to do it again.

So there you have it, maybe labour does make you a little crazy, haha.