Girls, What are the feelings when you give birth to a child?

[AlinaJanowska18]

Is it true that giving birth to a child is the most painful thing in the world? Do you not regret your motherhood?

[MysticAngel5000]

The pain will depend on the mother and her pain tolerance. No, it doesn't exactly feel good. I mean you are birthing a BABY. Your body is stretching in ways it's not used to stretching on a daily basis. You're using muscles you never knew you had.

Today, we have the luxury of having many options to help ease and control pain. If you're really struggling and cannot do it, they can give you pain medications that will numb you from the waist down. Keep in mind that once that wears off, you will still be sore for a bit.

You also have to deliver the placenta AFTER you've given birth to your baby. So, right when you think it's over, it's actually not! The placenta is often less painful and not as long as the baby though. How long it takes to fully deliver your baby (placenta and all) depends widely. Some women may start having pre-labor a day or more before they actually deliver. Some women are in labor for HOURS (there have been many cases of a woman being in labor for 24-48 hours!). If you've had a child before, it is likely you may have a quicker labor than a woman who is having her very first child.

How much pain/discomfort you feel after delivery depends. If you tear pretty badly, you'll have a bit more discomfort and for longer. If you tear little or not at all, it won't be as bad. There are LOTS of postpartum care items now to help keep you comfortable and ease the discomfort. If you were to experience very severe pain that even common treatment won't help, excessively heavy bleeding, sign of infection, etc., then you'd want to contact your doctor ASAP. Some things are normal, some are not. You can definitely expect to have some bleeding for a little while (up to 4 weeks usually), but it should begin to tamper down as the days go by.

C-sections are an entirely different subject. They often are worse than vaginal/natural births. You are actually having a surgical procedure to remove the baby from you. That means you will have an incision to look after. This will lead to a different healing/postpartum experience as well. You will have different/more restrictions than with a vaginal birth. You'll have to be very careful NOT to do anything that may open that incision. You'll want to follow all the proper steps to keep that area clean and be watchful for any signs of infection.

Pregnancy itself can be a bit unpleasant as well. A lot of women end up dealing with morning sickness to some degree. That can be really hard. Some women don't have it as severe as others do. Some have to go on prescription tablets to keep their morning sickness/nausea under control. Some even end up getting hospitalized and require fluid treatments because they've gotten dehydrated. Some women can't even keep water down and that's where you end up hospitalized. Some women don't have it at all. Some only have it for about the first trimester, then it goes away. Others will have it their whole pregnancy.

Then of course you have common things like aches and pains (ligament pain from the stretching/enlarging of different areas, breast aches/enlargement, back pain, etc.), mood swings (some of it is normal due to the hormonal changes but be on the lookout for signs of pregnancy depression or postpartum depression because those are REAL things that many women deal with!), possible acne (some women do not have this issue, but for others, pregnancy causes breakouts), weight gain (even if you are "all baby" and don't gain problematic weight, you'll still gain weight because of the baby, the placenta, the extra blood and the extra fluids you're holding).

It may not be a glamorous picnic all the time, but it IS 110% WORTH IT! When you hold your baby for the first time, when you look into their eyes for the first time, when you hear that first cry. All of the bad fades away and you are overwhelmed with nothing but love and adoration for this precious new life you just delivered. Most mamas would agree, they'd gladly go through ALL of that again for their child.

When you're pregnant, even if you've had a rough pregnancy with a lot of unpleasant symptoms, every time you hear your baby's heartbeat during a checkup or see them on an ultrasound, you are reminded how worth it all of this is. You look forward to meeting your baby finally.

Even parenthood itself is not always a walk in the park. There are plenty of hard times, frustrations, etc. But it all comes with the territory. At the end of the day, being a parent is an amazing journey I wouldn't trade for anything!

[katiesmuff]

With the help of modern medicine that pain has been greatly reduced and only lasts a short time that is soon totally forgotten when you have that new baby in your arms.

[Klandestina]

My mom once told me that the moment the nurses hand the baby to you and you keep him/her on your chest is so emotional. She said that feeling is indescribable and beautiful.

[DishLady]

OUCH. OUCH!!! DEAR GOD... Oh, what a gorgeous baby. Mine, all mine.

[Jennz6]

I haven’t been pregnant yet.