Was labor worse or better then you were expecting? And if worse did you have any complications or why?

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Nothing can really prepare you for that pain. With my first I really thought it would just be awful period cramps. It was much more painful than that. The pain radiated down my thighs. The pushing literally felt like my vagina was on fire. But at the end when you hold your baby every once of pain is worth it. Also after the shoulders popped out the contractions & pain instantly stopped.

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I had an epidural but I had heard the epidural needle hurts going in, I heard that even with an epi you still feel the ring of fire, I heard with an epi the labor is longer....

It was the opposite. I was so relaxed, it was all pain free after the epi, my labor was only 5 hours long... I'm hoping and praying that my next labor day is the same way. :)

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Worse than I had hoped for. I went in at 40 weeks 4 days with strong contractions 2-3 minutes apart. They monitored him for an hour and saw his heart rate was dropping when I contracted. They decided to keep me even though I was only at a 2. They started the induction process and with every contraction, baby's heart rate dropped more. They had me on oxygen and had me flip sides every few minutes to keep his heart rate up. They stopped pitocin so his heart rate would try to regulate, so I stayed at a 4 with back to back contractions. Finally they gave me an epidural and tried pitocin again so I could go into active labor. Welllll his heart rate started dropping more and at some points he didn't have a heart beat. At that point the head doctor came in and asked if I still wanted to keep pushing pitocin to try to get me to progress or if I wanted to have a c section. I didn't really have much of a choice since going the vaginal route would lead to baby "deteriorating" as the doctor put it. Ultimately I got a c section and was really close to needing a blood transfusion but they just have me taking iron pills now. It was all a scary and traumatizing series of events. I didn't expect to have a c section, so I did absolutely no research on the process or how recovery is. Baby boy is alive and healthy, but thanks to the process of him getting here, he's gonna be our only baby.

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My first was MUCH better. Contractions were bad at home but I could deal with them, got the epidural soon after I got to the hospital and the rest of the labour was so peaceful and calm. For my second I was so calm abt it coz my memory of labour was so amazing, so when things didn't go the same way I admit I pretty much hated it. I got to the hospital and no one was available to give me the epidural and my pain was beyond unbearable, I literally thought I was going to die and I'm not even sure how my husband survived me banging my head against him and the other abuse he suffered! It was only 2 1/2 hours long but to me it felt like days and it was just plain awful! So def labour was better than I expected, and then because of that expectation it was waaaaay worse than I expected! I am petrified this third time round...I can't even explain!

Was labor worse or better then you were expecting? And if worse did you have any complications or why?

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