Screamed so loud and so long that the midwives asked me to be quiet as I was scaring the other women on the ward, and that I’d almost lost my voice the next day.
18 hour labor, induced with pitocin and an eventual failed epidural that they wouldn’t repeat until the emergency c-section. The pains (less than a minute apart for 18 hours) were nothing like period pains. It felt how I imagine the electric chair would feel - like lightning ripping me apart from the inside out. There is not enough money in the world to persuade me to ever go through that again.
I never had children, so I don’t know if I’d scream.
But my mother, who NEVER curses, even mildly, said that when she was in labor with me(a first baby, and a fast labor) one of the young nursing students present tried to cheer my mom up by saying, “You know, tonight is my birthday too!”
To which my mother replied "I don’t give a damn whose birthday it is! "
Second time I was pretty loud. I arrived at the hospital, checked in triage I was 9 cm dilated, during the exam my water broke and I was whisked away writhing in pain to a delivery room. No time for ice chips, barely enough time for one shot of demerol, actually it was past time but my doc, she said give it to her.
Then it was time to push, Dr Darla didnlt like what she saw on the heart monitor and called for forceps just in case and touched me down below and said bear down here… I mustered up a big breath and grunted like Xena, pushing a boulder uphill. Didn’t stop until the head was out, the nurse was amazed at my control, but those wide shoulders ow now that hurt. 10lb3oz baby girl, no forceps needed and no broken bones. I immediately apologized for all the noise, they brushed it off said you did good. she was the biggest baby in the nursery kept getting nurses checking in on me in wonder.:o
I was in a labor room with my wife while she was in labor with our first kid. There was a lady in the next room screaming bloody murder and banging on the walls. We asked our nurse what was wrong, and she said, “Oh, that woman is 1 cm dilated.”
Similar experience here. 14 hours labor, and my son was born, natural childbirth. It hurt like hell, and at the end I was really tired of the whole thing, but then he was born and had all his fingers and toes, so it was cool.
The nurses laughed when I asked them at what point was I supposed to scream.
I used hypnobirthing (well, sort of half-assed hypnobirthing) as my only pain-management technique, but I also had a really short labor (started out 5cm dilated 3 days before I had my first contraction, and it was just over 5 hours from first contraction to baby’s arrival) and I think I’m just one of those lucky women for whom labor is relatively easy.
I don’t believe I screamed, but I did a lot of “vocalizing” and moaning and stuff.
:o