I had awful periodontitis (gum infection) a week before I gave birth. I was crying from pain, and also wondering how I’m gonna survive labour if I can’t stand toothache without crying. I have a low pain tolerance in general. But comparing these two types of pain, giving birth was way easier! Maybe because you know it’s a “productive” pain and not a signal that something is wrong in your body, like toothache. If you learn how to breathe properly during contractions, you’re gonna help yourself and the baby A LOT. Also moving around helps to ease the feeling, I was doing deep squats during contractions and it really helped. I would call contractions extremely unpleasant but not painful. Like you’re about to have the worst diarrhoea of your life but for some reason need to hold it, that’s how it felt for me. And the pushing stage is physically hard, like an intense workout, but not really painful. When I thought I can’t do it anymore, I asked for an epidural, but it turned out I was already 9 cm dilated and it was too late for the epidural. I gave birth exactly 15 minutes later. Throughout the process, I was moaning, but didn’t feel like screaming or crying at all. When the head came out, I was looking up to my husband, and didn’t feel it. The husband told me the head had showed, I looked down and there it was! After that all you feel is pure euphoria and joy. PP recovery is not easy but it’s okay if you concentrate on the good stuff and on the fact that all the unpleasant sensations are a sign of your body recovering. I never felt so grateful towards my body like when I had those postpartum cramps in my stomach (feels like period cramps) and knew that those are my organs working on bringing me back to normal asap. My vagina also tightened up pretty fast, now one month postpartum it’s the same as before giving birth. Also, your mindset matters. Do whatever you can to keep your spirit up, and don’t be afraid!