What is back labor like

[AHappierHour]

I've been having a few episodes of false labor and each time my lower back has killed me. The pain starts in my back and I get super sore under under my belly and half way up my belly. This will last maybe an hour or so then stop. It's been happening at least once a day for the last 4 days.

I have never experienced this with my other PG's.

[Deleted]

EFFING PAIN.

[eb777888]

The only way I can describe it is that if feels like my lower back is constipated and needs to take a huge, painful shit. It SUCKED.

[catbus]

Yeah, I was going to just say fucking painful. It made me vomit with each contraction. I held out for eight fucking hours before asking for the epidural. I honestly think I would have been too exhausted to push if I hadn't.

[renna]

It feels like someone is taking a chainsaw to your back and you have no anesthesia. (Sorry to be negative but that's what I felt.)

[Alyssa]

I would sum it up as someone taking a sledgehammer to your spine. The pain would radiate from my back and around to my abdomen. I'm normally a mellow, quiet person but I was screaming my fool head off in L&D.  I lost all color in my face and was about to pass out from the pain.  Katie's heartrate dipped to 60bpm twice and they were talking possible emergency c-section if they couldn't get her to regulate out.  I was pleading for the pen to sign the paperwork just to end the pain at that moment.  I didn't care how she was born, I wanted her out.  Looking back, that was silly, but it made total sense to me during that evening.

[papie]

It hurts like a motherfucker. I had it with both. I wanted to die. All the pain was in my back, it just kind of irradiated to the front. I screamed and screamed and screamed. I also could barely walk for 2-3 weeks after birth because my back was still killing me.

We had planned on doing massage points to the back as a pain relief. DH just touched my back and I screamed "If you do the pressure thing on my back I will kill you". We had to switch to hands, lol.

Fuck I don't want to think about labor.

[mandymay]

Dec 9, 2013 17:26:46 GMT -5 @lazerus24 said:

EFFING PAIN.

yep! I didn't even notice pain in my stomach because my labor was all back labor and it felt like someone was tightening a vise on my spine and back. Or that I had twelve charlie horses converging on my lower back.

ETA: I walked into labor and delivery begging for narcotics or anything that would make the pain go away until I could get my epidural (I'd been having two hours of back labor after my water broke at home by the time I got to the hospital). The epidural was my best friend and I'm pretty sure the anesthesiologist was an angel

[julez]

What everyone else said.

Usually it's due to a malpositioned baby. Get on your hands and knees and arch your back, then rest and repeat (cat/cow pose in yoga). Also stand or lean against a person or chair and rotate your hips in circle. Switch directions. You can also do the hip rotations on an exercise ball if that's more comfortable.
If none of that works, you can try gentle but deep lunges to one side or the other (left or right) during contractions. It will hurt like a bitch, but it can help dislodge a stuck baby.

Good luck!

[aussiecrush]

It felt like a cannonball in my ass, even with the epi. I only had back labor with both boys, so I have no basis for comparison. The pressure in my tailbone was intense.

[julez]

Also... have your h press HARD on the spot that hurts with every contraction. Counter pressure provides a lot of relief.

[ax2]

Ha ha, yep. I was going to say what everyone else did. It's awful.

[Deleted]

I'm going to ditto all of the above. My back labor was so painful it made me vomit. A lot. All through labor. I only had it with kid #1, thank God. I do not wish back labor on anyone.

[livinitup]

I brought my PG book into the hospital with me, 'cause it was recommended during all the 'down time'. When it seemed like it I might be in BACK LABOR and nobody wanted to tell me - I flipped to the pages on it (in between the contractions). Seems like researchers kept trying to do research on pain thresholds with the 'back labor' patients but couldn't get any candidates who didn't actually get the epidural.

Yup, I could relate.

Oh, and my favorite person on earth is still my Anesthesiologist who gave me the epidural.  6 years ago. 

[Deleted]

It fucking hurts like a mofo. I had no idea that I was actually in labor (I was so naive) but it hurt so bad. And then for days/weeks after.

[frankjrjr]

I've only ever had back labor but its just like previous posters said, it is effing painful. I was pretty sure someone was hitting my spine with a bat over and over again. That's is until my epidural got placed & then it was blessed relief.

[fezzik]

All of the above responses are 100% accurate, lol. L was OP, so the back of her head was pressed into my spine the entire time (also the reason why I had to push for 3 hours). Back labor also made me feel like I had to poop the entire time.

H's thumbs were so sore from rubbing and putting pressure on my lower back during each contraction (he was smart enough to just do it and not complain about how his thumbs hurt, haha). The counter pressure and moving to a warm birthing pool helped significantly, but it still wasn't pleasant obviously.

[laurack]

Terrible. Felt like my ass was going to break in two. Never knew such pain could exist. She was sunny side up.

I have nothing to compare it to though being fair. Front labor may be just as bad.

[starlily]

Dec 9, 2013 18:27:45 GMT -5 mandymay said:

Dec 9, 2013 17:26:46 GMT -5 @lazerus24 said:

EFFING PAIN.

yep! I didn't even notice pain in my stomach because my labor was all back labor and it felt like someone was tightening a vise on my spine and back. Or that I had twelve charlie horses converging on my lower back.

Exactly this. I don't remember any pain in my abdomen, but the back pain woke me up out if a dead sleep at 3am. Thank goodness for epidurals.

[underwaterrhymes]

I can't even put it into words, but the women above are doing a pretty fine job.