Said to be one of the most painful experiences a human being can endure, mothers have long kept pretty schtum about just how bad giving birth can be. This is likely for good reason.
Now, a thread on Quora threatens to unveil the pain (and the joy) of childbirth. The question-and-answer site invited women to explain the sensation of bringing a child into the world. And the answers were pretty illuminating.
The top response - by a woman called Jane Chin - has been viewed over 7,000 times. It reads: “I was in so much pain I could not form a thought. I couldn’t stand up. I couldn’t sit down. I couldn’t even breathe.”
She went on to explain just how “strange” it felt to push, despite feeling numb following an epidural. “I would describe it as what it must be like to ‘use the force’ and trust that whatever my mind was willing the muscles that I couldn’t feel to ‘do’.
“Suddenly it was all over and the baby comes out and they plop it on you so you can cry at it while it cries back at you.”
Another wrote: “Your guts hurt. Your hips ache. You may get sick to your stomach.”
Indeed the body is a pretty magical, incredible thing. User Laura Thomson wrote: “The whole experience was very primal, not driven by the usual rational part of my brain that writes code and so on, but by instinct and survival.”
Just like with everything else, the pain is temporary and ultimately, worth it. User Jane Graham wrote: “The pain of contractions burns like wasabi, but also like wasabi, it clears immediately.
“Even though it feels worse than anything you can imagine, the recovery is shockingly quick.”
For more information about what to expect from childbirth, visit the NHS website here.
**What do you think? What were your experiences with childbirth? Let us know over on Twitter and Facebook (@CloserOnline). **