“It wasn’t painful. Not even a little bit.”
This is how Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen described her recent labor with son, Benjamin (Daddy is Footballer Tom Brady). Having birthed two children, this is something that I can’t even conceive of. I do believe that labor is different for every woman and even within the same woman. With my first baby, the labor was intense. It felt like a jackhammer was pounding on my pelvis from the inside. Literally. It was the most pain I have ever been in. The nurse said the contractions were off the monitor and they were one right after another. I got the epidural at 8 cm dilation. I felt much better after that. The labor with my second baby was much easier. Granted, I got the epidural at 3 cm after hours of pitocin and walking around wasn’t doing much. The doctor wanted to crank the pitocin way up so she suggested an epidural as she felt it would relax me and help me progress faster (I was on a time crunch due to my water breaking and I was terrified I would end up with a c-section if it went to 24 hours). Point is, that pitocin is supposed to make contractions really painful but in my experience the labor with my son was way worse. So, I think every labor is different even within the same woman. My contractions even felt very different with each of my children: my son was jackhammer-like pain in my pelvis and in my bones and my daughter was strong period cramps and pain across my belly and down my thighs and back. Very different.
So, why am I writing about this? Well, her comments kind of annoyed me, so I felt compelled. I’m happy for her and all but I have a really hard time believing her. Sure, maybe she was lucky and it wasn’t intensely painful but I highly doubt it wasn’t painful AT ALL! Maybe she has a permanently numb vagina. All that waxing maybe?
[...] and also, her 8-hour natural birth didn’t hurt at all, “not even a little bit.” Share [...]