I never get why women put themselves through that. Labor pains, i hear, are a bitch. Yet despite the pain they continue to have more
...masochism?
It only got really bad when they ratcheted up the pitocin on my IV too high. We ordered them to take it down to less than half the level they had it at, and the pain wasn't so bad anymore. It's a good thing Husband and I both watched "The Business of Being Born" because the thing they don't tell you about pitocin is that it can make the contractions too strong and painful. Seriously, it's like the nurses don't even know that pitocin makes labor more painful.
No epidural, but we did three doses of fentanyl. We probably wouldn't have needed the fentanyl if the doctors didn't talk me into pitocin in the first place. Otherwise, we did singing for pain management, and we had a noise complaint from the other end of the labor ward. I have no idea how many labor units they had, but that one room we were in was almost the size of our apartment. It's designed for multiple support people, but with the whole pandemic thing, they only let me bring in one, and that was my husband. We texted my lovers from my husband's phone, though :) My phone is not a smartphone and doesn't get reception at the hospital.
It probably wouldn't have been much worse than a period if they'd let me go into labor naturally, but no! They estimated that my baby was going to be over ten pounds by forty weeks, so I had to have labor induced at 39 weeks or else they weren't going to let me deliver vaginally. I'm still a little pissy over that because:
a) He came out less than nine pounds, so their estimation was off.
b) I have a larger pelvis than most women, so even if he was over ten pounds, I'm sure my pelvis could handle it. I told them this, and they blew me off, saying that they weren't even going to bother measuring my pelvis to find out if it could handle a larger baby.
c) I was almost ten pounds when I was born, my mom has a smaller pelvis than me, and she pushed me out just fine.
d) When I went in for the induction, I was already having mild contractions but barely felt them. If we'd just waited a few more days, I could have had a natural labor.
And yes, there was maybe a little masochism involved. The pain felt kinda like a glow. During early labor, it felt like a crescent moon on my lower abdomen, and then when he was moving through my pelvis, it felt like a disk.
All in all, I could go through that again, but we have a lot of other factors to consider before intentionally having a second child.
. Way better than what I can draw.
