My OB told me a cautionary tale about a patient who started trying to push as soon as her contractions started, and the more it hurt, the harder she pushed, just trying to get it over with as soon as possible. Ultimately, it caused her cervix to swell to the point that she couldn’t fully dilate and they had to do a C-section.
No screaming here. Plenty of bitchin’ and moanin’ though. They say you forget the pain. They lie.
My wife did, you bet. Until the epidural went in. Second time through, she got the epidural first.
But not necessarily much time. I know of a woman who thought she had time… took a shower… gave birth on the bathroom floor. And my nephew was born in the elevator lobby at the hospital, less than an hour after his mom woke up with labor pains.
Oh, and the only time I screamed was when the incompetent jackass botched the epidural. It is not supposed to cause the patient to shriek in agony.
I was actually looking forward to screaming my way through the delivery, I figured if I was in pain I could share it with my dear husband a bit. I kept gleefully reminding him through the pregnancy that screaming releases endorphins and warning him I wasn’t planning on holding anything back.
When the actual party in my uterus started I had no energy/concentration/whatever left in me to scream. I was just utterly focused inward on what was happening, Groucho Marx coulda walked in and I wouldn’t have even noticed. Some pathetic whimpering occured whenever the nurses came to check my progress, there was a minor discrepancy in what the belly monitors were reading and what was truly occuring so they didn’t realize how serious things were getting. When they finally came in for a manual cervical check instead of just checking the monitor, assuring me I was nowhere near ready, they were shocked to discover I was fully dilated and ready to deliver.
They grabbed Doogie Howser or someone from the hallway and rushed him in to catch, while running around preparing things and yelling for me to just hold on. The thoughtful discussion my regular OB and I had previously had about episiotomy decisions obviously didn’t matter since the doc wasn’t there, and Doogie had his head buried in my chart as I realized the opportunity window for that particular procedure was quickly elapsing. So I calmly said “Pardon me Doctor, but I believe you need to evaluate my perineum and decide if an episiotomy is necessary please” except what actually came out was a screamed “CUUUT MEEEE!”
Which everyone in the room, and hallway, misheard as “Fuck me!” so instead of an episiotomy I got a lot of strange embarrassed glances and extra stitches afterward.
I did a lot of moaning and some loud "AAAHHHHH!"s when they made me move. No screams… for whatever reason I’m pretty sure that screaming would have made the pain worse.
I sure screamed with my second birth.
It started with back labor and since I went through that with my first I was prepared for it, but then he turned, but only partway. Then he wanted out sideways. That hurt like bloody hell, and you bet I screamed. I tried everything I could to make him turn but he was just not having it. So in went the epidural. As soon as my muscles relaxed he turned right away. No screaming after that.
I was sure that I was scaring the hell out of everyone on the maternity ward and well as the floors above and below, but I didn’t care.
With the first it was mostly groans. No epidural needed, she turned on her own.
I don’t remember screaming, per se, but I was extremely loud to the point the nurses bitched about it a bit, the bitches.
This was WITH an epidural, BTW.
From the other side of the guerney (to borrow a CBC phrase), a lot of women do scream, but we try to discourage it once things are actively going, because if with every push you scream 3/4 of the energy away, it’s going to be a long delivery. I remember one amazing husband who finally, calmly and very sweetly, said “Honey, I know it hurts, but turn that hurt inside out and push instead of screaming.” Suddenly what looked like a 5-hour labour became 20 minutes.
I had 4 totally unmedicated labor and I think I only scream once. That was when the first baby was crowning, and it was the most horrendous feeling. It makes me nauseated just remembering, and it was over 15 years ago! But the rest of the time moans and grunts and wimpers.
With my son - back labor, nearly flat on back in bed thanks to an internal monitor - I don’t recall much screaming, but there was some whimpering, some crying and some, "I think I’ve changed my mind about having this baby,"ing 
With my daughter, no physical pain at all, but I’m afraid I let out a wail worthy of a lost soul when they told me I had to have a c-section and that all other births would be c-sections and my baby had maybe a 50/50 chance of surviving the birth. (She’s fine now, thanks. I’m not having more babies.)
Births I’ve attended, we’ve OM’ed. Ina May says that keeping the top sphincters open helps the bottom ones open. If nothing else, it helps connect the mama to her attendants and keep her present to the process. I wouldn’t do it with someone who found it annoying, but my girlfriends are just into that stuff, so it’s wonderful.
I thought you almost always got an epidural with pitocin. Was it unsuccessful? The thought of extra strong contractions with no painkiller makes me feel so bad for you.
I myself did not, but there was a woman in the next room who did. Perhaps it was Rhiannon8404’s friend. In any situation where many people might scream I think I am more likely to get very quiet.
For my first baby I had the highest dose of pitocin my doula had ever seen and I was epidural free. The contractions hurt, but nowhere near the pain of the episiotomy. A scalpel to the hooha is not something I want to experience again.
Yeah - they don’t advertise this, but epidurals don’t always work. I had pitocin (water broke - personally I think it was because of an extremely rough internal exam by the Nazi Doctor From Hell a day or two earlier) and they had to induce. There was one spot on the upper part of my abdomen that was in agony, and that’s where the epidural didn’t work. In my case the administration was botched.
I’ve mentioned this before, but epidurals apparently don’t work all that well with me - I had a “gotta get baby out today” emergency c-section with my second child and the epidural didn’t numb everything for that either. It was unpleasant, but nowhere NEAR as painful as the vaginal delivery with the botched epi.
My epidural made my blood pressure crash and stopped my contractions… so I got the pitocin turned ON just as they turned the epidural OFF.
The pitocin contractions were less painful than my natural ones had been, though. Swift back labor with a stuck baby.
And then they told me I was getting a c-section under general anesthesia. I was so happy.
Screaming? I didn’t feel shit for my daughter’s birth. Well except the urge to do so…as is normal, I later found out XD But my doctor was so CONVINCED I was going to need a C-Section (she thought my daughter was going to be like 11 lbs), that I got my epi before I even started contracting. So yeah, no screaming.
No screaming, but I never had to do the delivery part naturally. I had an epidural with number one, and a cesarean with number two.
I did order a nurse out of the room and forbid her to come back to the obvious amusement of the other nurses.
My due date is Monday so reading this thread with equal parts interest and horror.
Yes, when I delivered the shoulder. I couldn’t help it.