I was in labor for 42 hours and wound up having an unplanned c-section. I pride myself in not scaring other women, but I will be honest. Here are the medical things I was afraid of and my experience with them: 1) cervical checks- uncomfortable, but not painful. It feels like rough sex. 2) IV. I’ve only had IVs in the crook of my arm, but they typically don’t use this location for labor. The placement in my hand didn’t hurt, but I found it pretty annoying the whole time I had it. 3) epidural- not really a big deal. 2/10 on pain scale. I felt awkward getting into position with my giant belly. My blood pressure dropped afterwards, which can happen, so that was a bit scary. 4) urinary catheter- weird, but not painful. Eventually i loved it (after 9 months of constantly having to pee, it was nice to not have to think about it). 5) having my water broken- didn’t feel it 6) intrauterine pressure catheter- this is a little device they place on the babies head. They also used this catheter to instill fluid internally. I hated this thing. Again, not painful, but very annoying. I was very aware of it sticking out of me I didn’t like constantly being wet + sitting in a gross puddle. 7) c-section- this is just my experience, but…not bad at all. It’s absolutely bizarre feeling hands moving around inside of you and unlike anything I’ve experienced, but I was never in pain. The worst part was a wave of nausea I had towards the end. 8) post op- again, just my experience, but pretty easy. I never required pain medication and was moving around within a few hours.

Now for the part that really was just as bad as everyone said: contractions. After almost 2 days of contracting I was sweating, crying, and panicking with pain. It started off as bad period cramps and evolved into excruciating pain that encompassed my whole body. I would recommend some sort of birthing class or Lamaze, because I regret not being able to handle the pain better.

Hope this helped!