I still felt extreme fear of labour even though I'm an experienced mum. But it's all worth it when you see your baby for the first time! I've had 5 natural births, all with epidural except the last one didn't work on me. I was induced and gynae did a membrane sweep on my cervix to quicken the labour process. Struggled with pain for 3 hrs before giving birth. I also had 2 premature babies and so had 2 thigh jabs (steroid jabs) which was the most painful jabs ever for me to strengthen their lungs. I only had episiotomy for my first. No vaginal tear for the rest.
Our body works differently and our pain threshold are also different. Listen to your body. If you were to take epidural, take only when you cannot tolerate the pain. You won't feel a thing even when baby is coming out. Because at a certain dilation, the nurse will lower the epidural dosage or probably turn it off so you can feel your baby comes out. This happened to my no. 4 & 5. I can feel my V stretched out when baby came out. Not a comfortable feeling.
And VERY IMPORTANT, don't lift up your butt if you don't want a big tear and don't scream when you're pushing.
But don't be scared. We all will have to go through this like it or not. Your spouse's support is needed during labour.
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