Love this chat.
I actually think that calling contractions "intense" etc is setting pregnant women up to fail. I went into my first labour thinking it would be mildly painful. 'Intense' to me is grit your teeth and get through it kind of pain. I had no idea I would literally feel like I was dying and BEGGING for pain relief. Next 2 births were even harder. You can't describe the pain. They need to be realistic to first timers - not scare tactics no, but they do need to say how painful it really is and not just breathe and you'll be fine 🥲
I actually think that calling contractions "intense" etc is setting pregnant women up to fail. I went into my first labour thinking it would be mildly painful. 'Intense' to me is grit your teeth and get through it kind of pain. I had no idea I would literally feel like I was dying and BEGGING for pain relief. Next 2 births were even harder. You can't describe the pain. They need to be realistic to first timers - not scare tactics no, but they do need to say how painful it really is and not just breathe and you'll be fine 🥲