Shannon says:

When people say that the pain becomes unbearable, what do they mean
exactly? At what point do you know the pain is unbearable?

My second labor was back labor. For me, the pain became unbearable during
pushing. There was no relief between contractions, just constant, terrible
pain. I was writhing, unable to find any halfway tolerable position on my
back or side or hands-and-knees, and unable to rest up for the next
contraction and more pushing. I did have an epidural at that point, but we
had let it fade for pushing. The baby was posterior and wasn't turning. I
had more unbearable pain when the midwife put her hand inside and tried to
help the baby turn. I remember shrieking and begging, "Please stop, I
can't take any more." In 3+ hours of pushing the baby hadn't progressed
very far at all, was still too high for vacuum extraction, and this being a
VBAC attempt, they didn't want to let me push on and on and on. It ended
in c-section.

During my first labor, there was no point where I would say the pain became
unbearable. I got the epidural at 7cm, but that was because I was afraid
the pain would become unbearable. When we let the epidural wear off for
pushing, I realized that I probably could have done without the epidural.

-- Alpha
mom to Eamon and Quinn