How painful will labor be without an epidural?

My daughter did 3 births with no epidural and is pregnant with her 4th. She was the same way about getting numb. Each time she had a panic moment (of course, after it was to late for an epidural) that lasted through the first half of pushing. In the end she was happy she didn’t have it.

Very painful.

The good thing is you’ll forget about it and eventually want another child. ;)

It really depends on the birth and on you. Each of my three experiences were totally different. If you can manage without an epidural, I would. My experience was I recovered so much faster without one. First child I had one, next two I didn’t. You have to be guided by your own pain threshold though. With the second two, I was up the same night and walking around. The first, I had an episiotomy and was uncomfortable for a few weeks. I also felt I had less control the first time too.

Very painful. I have never birthed a baby, but many of my friends have, and of course my mom.

I know a few women who had one or more of their children with epidural, and one or more without, and all of them said they preferred without.

My two closest friends said there was a point where they panicked that they might not be able to handle the pain, but then they got passed it and were ready to push and it was fine.

I know a couple women who said they started pushing when the doctor told them they were ready, but then on a subsequent pregnancy they “needed” to push. They realized they had pushed for a really long time, when they probably just were not ready yet. When they waited for the urge to push it went much better.

Have the drugs there if you want them. Make sure your doctor is willing to decide during the labor, and she is not trying to sway you one way or the other.

Definitely take one of those classes that teaches you what to do during labor and what to expect.

This is second hand. I’m one an who ahs never given birth. But I was there the entire time my wife went through labor and delivery. It’s absolutely true it’s dependent on your body, the baby’s body size and position at delivery, and your tolerance for pain.

My wife was determined to feel it as it really is. But she was in labor for 36 hours. She’s a tiny woman and our son has a very large head even today. He had a phenomenally large head for a baby. Her pelvic bones couldn’t open up enough to allow his head to pass through. Her Ob-Gyn begged her to take something but she steadfastly refused. So she put in forceps and instead of using them to pull our son through, she applied them in reverse to pry the bones far enough apart that he could make it out. My wife’s scream was the most blood-curdling thing I have ever heard.

My wife wanted to experience it with its full force. She toughed it out. She did it. She’s that type of person. When she decides to do something, she sets her face like flint and nothing can derail her. But never again.

Granted this is about s bad as it gets. Many women are able to deliver without pain medication and with relatively little real pain. But certainly not all. Discuss it with your doctor. Have your baby’s size versus the maximum opening of your birth canal evaluated. I was really concerned whether my wife was going to survive the birth. If conditions speak against natural birth, let the doctor do what they think is best.

@ETpro That to me sounds like it should have been a c-section. Does she have any lasting injury from the birth?

I’ve had three vaginal births, and no epidurals. I’m not gonna’ lie… it’s incredibly painful. BUT, you know the pain is coming, you can prepare for it, and the worst of the pain is very temporary. For everyday kinds of pain, like burning yourself on a pan, I am a total wimp. For pain I am prepared for, I’m a freaking warrior. Also, they can give you a shot of Demerol if you need it. It didn’t lessen the pain at all, but it certainly made me care less about it. ;)

My wife has never had an epidural (4 births, 2 of mine & 2 from a previous marriage.)
She’s always relied solely on gas & air, says she wants to experience childbirth in all it’s “glory.”
Speaking as a willing spectator at both of my kids births, I can safely say that she was in a degree of pain, but soldiered on like a trooper. Although she almost stopped the circulation as she grasped my hand ever tighter….like owwww!!

I had two births with no epidural. I had both as home births – an epidural wasn’t an option therefore but I had said in my birth plan that if I had to go into hospital then I would consider an epidural. I did not want any painkillers that were morphine based.

Both babies were water births – I had a birthing pool at home. This helped a lot. The first one I also had a TENS machine for early stages which was actually somewhat effective – can’t remember why I didn’t get one for the second time. Gas and air (nitrous oxide) also helped for both in the later stages but I just read that it is rarely used in USA. I tried Hypnobirthing techniques which helped early on in the labour.

It is painful, guarenteed, but if you can positively prepare yourself for it as @augustlan says, it makes it easier to cope with. I tried to think that each pain makes the baby one step nearer and that helped me. I also found that although I had no experience of giving birth, my body knew what to do and I tried to let go and stop conciously trying to do something about it and let things happen. This is scary and not easy to do.

Don’t forget to think about what happens once the baby is here and start preparing yourself for that….

Man here, so I probably won’t be giving birth anytime soon. My wife, however, has had our kids at home without medication. Without getting into the whole medicalization of birth, I’ll just say that your should make sure you read up on the side-effects to you and baby about epidurals, and the effect that may have on your birth plans.
My wife is a badass.

It hurts a lot. The only pain I’ve had that came close was kidney stones.

Out of three babies, I had one with no medication, one with a pain med called staidol, and one with an epidural. The staidol (for my second baby) was by far the worse. I didn’t react well to it and it didn’t help much at all. My son was huge AND labor was induced with pitocin. Those factors combined to make that particular delivery something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

My first child was born without any meds simply because labor progressed too quickly. While it wasn’t a walk in the park, I can say I planned on not having meds the second time around because it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Pitocin made the next labor much more intense. I was only at the hospital for a few hours before our daughter was born, so I can’t say I’d feel the same if I’d had to be in labor for 12 hours. Also, she was a nice 7 pounds. Much easier than 9+ pounds. :)

My third time around, I was a huge wimp. Once again, labor was induced with pitocin. Even though my due date was still almost two weeks away, we knew the baby was bigger than average. I did not want a repeat of the last labor and the epidural certainly did the job. It was by far the most relaxed of the three deliveries. Our son weighed 8 pounds and neither of us had any complications.

My advice to you is to learn all you can about your options during labor and delivery. Talk to your doctor and communicate your plans to him or her as well as the hospital staff when you actually go into labor. If you have someone with you at the hospital, enlist that person to be your advocate to help make your decisions clear to the nurses and doctors at the hospital. Also, keep an open mind. You can always change your mind (up to a point) during labor and delivery if you need to.

@JLeslie You are probably right. Fortunately, she recovered just fine. The kid’s 25 now, and she’s never had any problems from the delivery.

@ETpro I’m glad to hear that.

I forgot to add that all three of my labors were induced early, too, but I only needed pitocin for the last one. It was definitely the worst, both time- and pain- wise, probably because it was the earliest induction, too.

I gave birth to one child, four years ago. I am pretty laid back, so I had no birth plan – just figured I’d go with the flow. I was in labor almost 48 hours from the time the water broke (at home) to when the baby came out (45 hours to be exact). They gave me Pitocin and I had an epidural. What you may not know is the level of the epidural can be turned down or up. Mine was turned down, so I could feel pain and was successful at pushing (the doctor said “if you can’t feel it, you can’t push). I heard that with PItocin, the pain is so much more excruciating. I did not want to get where I was in terrible pain from the “Pit” and it be too late for an epidural . I am glad I did it the way I did – I could feel pain, maybe 50%, baby was fine, I was fine.