Q. Reading and listening to everyone's answer to "how did labor / contractions feel for you?", everybody really is unique and completely different! I used to think it was just people's memory....maybe Jane remembers the back pain more while Patty remembers the menstral-like cramps, but both women experienced both symptoms. But that really doesn't seem to be the case.
Why aren't women more similar in their labor experiences?
I know everybody is different, but the symptoms of a cold are the same for the majority of people, and the symptoms of a broken leg, chicken pox, and most other diseases and illnesses...why is pregnancy and labor so different for everyone?
Why aren't women more similar in their labor experiences?
I know everybody is different, but the symptoms of a cold are the same for the majority of people, and the symptoms of a broken leg, chicken pox, and most other diseases and illnesses...why is pregnancy and labor so different for everyone?
A. I don't think you're going to find any "scientific" answer to that. Every woman is different, every pregnancy and labor is different. Even among women that have had multiple pregnancies/births they will find differences in each. Each woman's state of mind, physical health, threshold for pain, the size of their baby, the positioning of their baby, the length of labor, the ease/difficulty of labor, etc., are all going to be different.
I've had two children, and though both were born via c-section, both of my pregnancies and deliveries were different. With my firstborn, my son, my pregnacy was great until the last couple of months. I never experienced any morning sickness, no excessive weight gain (at least at first) and if it wasn't for the missed periods and the increasing stomach girth, I wouldn't have known I was pregnant. My son was breech, so I elected to have a c-section. Towards the end I started gaining a ton of weight and swelling excessively, and my doctor diagnosed me with mild preeclampsia. This ended up developing into severe preecclampsia shortly before I went in for delivery, and I was put on bedrest. My c-section was scheduled for November 20, 2000; I went into labor the morning of November 19. This might be TMI, but I sat on the toilet for 45 minutes before I realized that my water had broke and I called my mother. When I made it to the hospital and was hooked up to a fetal monitor and a uterine contraction monitor, the nurse kept asking me repeatedly if I could feel my contractions. I couldn't. She showed me the chart, indictating that they were often enough and intense enough to be true labor pains, but I felt nothing but a dull ache in my legs and lower back, as though I had been standing on my feet all day. I delivered a healthy 8 lbs, 9 oz little boy, but I remember very little of the delivery and the first 3 days afterward. My preeclampsia, which is usually cured with childbirth, developed into postpartum preeclampsia and then full-blown eclampsia. Between my blood pressure being so high and the medications, I remember very little. My doctor admitted to me on the third day that they thought they could have lost me. Until that point, the only thing I remembered was the nurses coming into my room every five minutes, and one of them telling my husband that my bed had straps to hold me down, and if I started having seizures he needed to hit the emergency button on my bed. After I returned home from my hospital stay, it seemed like it took weeks before I was able to walk fully erect without pain.
With my daughter, I had all-day sickness almost from the start. The smell of almost anything nauseated me. Then about four months in I started having physical problems. I'd wake up some mornings and just the simple act of trying to sit up in bed was excruciating--much less trying to do anything else. This from a person with an EXTREMELY high tolerance for pain. I did some research into the matter and found this condition called symphysis pubis dysfunction with all the symptoms I had. My doctor had never heard of it--in fact, wanted to deny any such condition existed, telling me that it was "all in my head". After a couple of months of arguing with him, almost losing my job, and bringing in 81 pages of documentation on the condition, I was diagnosed with SPD. My c-section went great, no complications, and I delivered a healthy 8 lbs, 12 oz little girl. Shortly after delivery, however, while sitting in post-op recovery, my blood pressure and body temperature dropped. At first they thought it was the result of the anesthesia, then I was tested and treated for septicemia. After I was recovered and moved to a regular room, I began walking right away. I think that first day was the only day I touched any of my pain medications other than ibuprofen.
So every pregnancy and delivery is definitely different. Why? There is no exact answer.
I've had two children, and though both were born via c-section, both of my pregnancies and deliveries were different. With my firstborn, my son, my pregnacy was great until the last couple of months. I never experienced any morning sickness, no excessive weight gain (at least at first) and if it wasn't for the missed periods and the increasing stomach girth, I wouldn't have known I was pregnant. My son was breech, so I elected to have a c-section. Towards the end I started gaining a ton of weight and swelling excessively, and my doctor diagnosed me with mild preeclampsia. This ended up developing into severe preecclampsia shortly before I went in for delivery, and I was put on bedrest. My c-section was scheduled for November 20, 2000; I went into labor the morning of November 19. This might be TMI, but I sat on the toilet for 45 minutes before I realized that my water had broke and I called my mother. When I made it to the hospital and was hooked up to a fetal monitor and a uterine contraction monitor, the nurse kept asking me repeatedly if I could feel my contractions. I couldn't. She showed me the chart, indictating that they were often enough and intense enough to be true labor pains, but I felt nothing but a dull ache in my legs and lower back, as though I had been standing on my feet all day. I delivered a healthy 8 lbs, 9 oz little boy, but I remember very little of the delivery and the first 3 days afterward. My preeclampsia, which is usually cured with childbirth, developed into postpartum preeclampsia and then full-blown eclampsia. Between my blood pressure being so high and the medications, I remember very little. My doctor admitted to me on the third day that they thought they could have lost me. Until that point, the only thing I remembered was the nurses coming into my room every five minutes, and one of them telling my husband that my bed had straps to hold me down, and if I started having seizures he needed to hit the emergency button on my bed. After I returned home from my hospital stay, it seemed like it took weeks before I was able to walk fully erect without pain.
With my daughter, I had all-day sickness almost from the start. The smell of almost anything nauseated me. Then about four months in I started having physical problems. I'd wake up some mornings and just the simple act of trying to sit up in bed was excruciating--much less trying to do anything else. This from a person with an EXTREMELY high tolerance for pain. I did some research into the matter and found this condition called symphysis pubis dysfunction with all the symptoms I had. My doctor had never heard of it--in fact, wanted to deny any such condition existed, telling me that it was "all in my head". After a couple of months of arguing with him, almost losing my job, and bringing in 81 pages of documentation on the condition, I was diagnosed with SPD. My c-section went great, no complications, and I delivered a healthy 8 lbs, 12 oz little girl. Shortly after delivery, however, while sitting in post-op recovery, my blood pressure and body temperature dropped. At first they thought it was the result of the anesthesia, then I was tested and treated for septicemia. After I was recovered and moved to a regular room, I began walking right away. I think that first day was the only day I touched any of my pain medications other than ibuprofen.
So every pregnancy and delivery is definitely different. Why? There is no exact answer.
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Title Post: Scientifically, why does labor feel so different for everyone?
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Thanks For Coming To My Blog
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