From the intense, cramping pull or squeeze of the dilating contractions to the profound stretching sensation as the baby's head moves down the birth canal, labor is characterized by powerful feelings. Some women describe the dilating contractions in terms of a more familiar sensation--a cramp, like a menstrual cramp; a charley horse; a gas pain; or a feeling of rectal pressure. One mother says her contractions were like "strong gas pains, tremendous pressure around the pubic area." Another describes labor as "huge waves, like diarrhea cramps, one after the other." Still another says, "My labor felt like extraordinarily severe menstrual cramps with a lot of pressure on the rectum, like constant pressure to have a bowel movement."
Confronting the intensity of pain before you give birth may motivate you to learn ways of dealing with it more adequately when you're actually in labor. In fact, a study published recently in Birth suggests that women with higher levels of fear before their first childbirth class actually reported less anxiety during labor and delivery. The authors concluded that these women probably had dealt with their concerns before they went into labor.
One woman, for example, coped with the pain by envisioning the purpose of each contraction: "I visualized my uterus rising up and pulling back, opening the cervix more and more with each contraction."
