Labor analogies

We've all heard of Bill Cosby's analogy of pulling your lower lip over
your head, and my mother was fond of saying it felt like (excuse the
language) "****ting a football" (American-style, that is).

I personally have one that's different - not so much about the pain,
but about the experience as a whole.

For me, it felt like being on a speeding train that I couldn't slow
down, or get off.

I had a relatively fast labor - 8 hours (it was my first, and was
pretty much intervention-free - I had antibiotics for GBS+, and they
monitored the heartbeat every so often). One of the surprises for me,
was that when it was time to push, it took me by surprise. One
contraction ealier, I told them ... "I think I might need to push
soon." Then on the next contraction, I said "OhMyGodI'mpushing!!"
There was no holding back; it was completely involuntary. I couldn't
*not* push.

Anyway, I was curious if others had any analogies of their own?

Cathy Weeks
Mommy to Kivi Alexis 12/01

"Cathy Weeks" wrote in message
om...
For me, it felt like being on a speeding train that I couldn't slow
down, or get off.

LOL, my recent labor was more like being stuck in a traffic jam on my way to
somewhere I really wanted to be, like a birthday party or DisneyLand.

Nancy

Cathy Weeks wrote:
Anyway, I was curious if others had any analogies of their own?

Being in labour was like stepping into my own personal universe. Nobody
existed for those 8 hours. It was just me, my body and my baby.
Everything went so beautifully as I just followed everything my body
told me to do. I worked through it all by saying "ooooooooh" gently as
the contractions pulled. I never felt I was out of control. More that my
body knew exactly what it was doing.
And I emerged from it feeling like super woman.
I'm looking forward to this next labour and hope it'll be just as great.

~Daednu

I read somewhere of one that seemed pretty bang on for me as an analogy
of a contraction. That was of an oven door opening, you get this wave of
ow ow ow heat then you close the door.

Andrea

"Cathy Weeks" wrote in message
We've all heard of Bill Cosby's analogy of pulling your lower lip over
your head, and my mother was fond of saying it felt like (excuse the
language) "****ting a football" (American-style, that is).

I personally have one that's different - not so much about the pain,
but about the experience as a whole.

For me, it felt like being on a speeding train that I couldn't slow
down, or get off.

Mine was the most "present" experience of my life. I spend a lot of my
life thinking about the future or about the past and while I was in
labor I just WAS. My sense of time felt different--more fluid. I was
simply present and existing.

I had a relatively fast labor - 8 hours (it was my first, and was
pretty much intervention-free - I had antibiotics for GBS+, and they
monitored the heartbeat every so often). One of the surprises for me,
was that when it was time to push, it took me by surprise. One
contraction ealier, I told them ... "I think I might need to push
soon." Then on the next contraction, I said "OhMyGodI'mpushing!!"
There was no holding back; it was completely involuntary. I couldn't
*not* push.

I don't remember expriencing the pushing sensation as feeling
involuntary or out of control. I was surprised by that, actually. When I
had my only VE of my labor and was told I was fully dilated and could
push when I felt the urge, it was a shock to me. I did start feeling
more "pushy" and had lots of pressure, but it never just took over for
me like I expected it too.

During the pushing stage I did kind of enter "labor land" though and
felt very unreal--I kept saying things like, "Am I really doing this?"
"Am I dreaming?" "Is this really me?"

Anyway, I was curious if others had any analogies of their own?

I'm fascinated by how different women's experiences are of labor/birth.
I hope more people respond to this thread.

--
Em
mama to L-baby, almost 8 months old!

"Cathy Weeks" wrote in message
om...
We've all heard of Bill Cosby's analogy of pulling your lower lip over
your head, and my mother was fond of saying it felt like (excuse the
language) "****ting a football" (American-style, that is).

I personally have one that's different - not so much about the pain,
but about the experience as a whole.

For me, it felt like being on a speeding train that I couldn't slow
down, or get off.

I had a relatively fast labor - 8 hours (it was my first, and was
pretty much intervention-free - I had antibiotics for GBS+, and they
monitored the heartbeat every so often). One of the surprises for me,
was that when it was time to push, it took me by surprise. One
contraction ealier, I told them ... "I think I might need to push
soon." Then on the next contraction, I said "OhMyGodI'mpushing!!"
There was no holding back; it was completely involuntary. I couldn't
*not* push.

Heh. I thought it was like being on a wild roller coaster (I hate real
roller coasters, incidentally), except for the detached voice in the back of
my head making commentary as things went along. You know, the little inner
voice that observed that I was involuntarily holding my breath and grunting
during contractions, and that I needed to report to the nurses that I was
feeling an urge to push. And later on, that I was very noisy, and that I had
been distressed with hearing another woman down the hall vocalizing like
that, and now I was doing it, and hoped nobody had to listen to me.

But yeah, about the pushing - when I first started to have the urge to push
I was only at 5cm, and so of course they told me to try not to push, and
there I was, apologising to them because I couldn't help myself, panting
desperately, trying to keep focused enough on my husband and the nurse so I
didn't hyperventilate and so I didn't push deliberately....that was hard,
hard work. And wild.

--angela