On Tue, 11 May 2004 12:05:33 -0700, "Circe" wrote:

By my definition, unbearable is the point at which you feel that you are
feeling fear and stress as well as pain during contractions and cannot relax
between contractions because you are already fearing the next. When that
happens for any individual is impossible to pointpoint. But especially when
you lose the ability to relax between contractions, you're in trouble, IMO.

Another component of the bearability index is also exhaustion. I think many
women who opt for pain medication after planning not to have it give in
because they have been laboring for a long, long time and are so tired that
they're no longer able to muster the mental and physical resources required
to cope with the contractions.

You've keyed in on my experience with my first labor. I was so
exhausted and so stressed about the *next* contraction hitting me that
I couldn't relax.
I got a shot of Demerol in my IV and that enabled me to relax enough
to doze off between cx and my son was born less than 2 hours later.

Nan