Question for the ladies: Which is more painful...Crohn's or natural childbirth?

Hello everyone,

I am currently 6 months pregnant with my first child. I have Crohn's disease. It is my desire to attempt a natural drug-free delivery. Lately, I seem to be having a flareup of CD. I've had episodes of diarrhea interlaced with episodes of severe constipation.  Sometimes starting several hours before a BM, I get severe gut-wrenching pain. The only way I can describe the pain to people who do not have Crohn's is to imagine the worst gas pains in your life (severe stabbing, ripping pains), multiply them by 100 and then imagine them going through your entire abdomen. The spasms get stronger and closer together, the closer I am to having the bowel movement. They continue throughout the going to to the bathroom process and then gradually subside afterward. The pain is so strong at times that I cannot stand up straight or talk through them. Following an episode, I am completely exhausted and weak and I feel an overwhelming desire to lie down in fetal position. The pain is insane and I have a pretty good tolerance for pain. Typically, I shut my eyes and breathe through them, but I pretty much become non-functional.

Anyway, I was wondering for women who had experienced drug-free childbirth (or labor pains without drugs up to a certain extent)...which did you find more painful?

I haven't really been able to find someone who can answer that question and I am sure it's rather subjective anyway, since pain is...

Gail,

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your opinion. That has given me a bit of comfort. :)

I am not a woman, but I remember thinking, when I had my blockage pains for 3 day straight, that I can not image bigger pain than those... I was begging for pain meds and I have a pretty high pain tollerance (something you get by living with crohns )

I have had 1 birth with epidural after couldn't bear it anymore and I found that cd pain is worse purely because birth has an end in sight and cd you never know.  I also have had kidney stones (while pregnant) and have to say that those were by far the worst and then when my bowel perferated that was top number one ouch.  I will take birth any day over any of those.

Well, I've never had a blockage related to CD or anything else and I had 2 natural child births one with an epidural and one without an epidural and the one without hurt like HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL so I'd say it was pretty bad, mind you I've had pretty hellish anus pain with my perianal crohn's skin tags, so bottom line, both CD pains and natural child birth hurt, just different from one another is all.

I wouldn't choose one over the other, I'm very glad to be done having babies though, that's for sure (they hurt the wallet too).


:)

When I had my total blockage and the ER idiots couldn't figure out what was going on and let me vomit and cry in pain for 20 hours was comparable to natural child birth. 

Elizabeth

I would say the CD pain is worse. I had drug free child birth, but mostly because she was born very quickly - doc said no time for drugs :)

But I also know that the body/brain is very smart and the reason women have more than one child is because somewhere in there we forget exactly what it took to have a child. It is a great thing for the brain to forget the pain of child birth.

The comment above about not have a natural child birth because of CD I do not understand. I do not understand because I had my resection prior to being pregnant and my OB had a fit. It was not taken into consideration I wanted to be a mom and if anything had gone wrong with my labor my doc would have had to come up with a completly new way to do a C-section. My scar is above my bellybutton and way below my hair line and that would not allow for either of the current traditional cuts for delivery. So it was never mentioned not to have my child naturally.

Ha! I've been thinking of asking this question for weeks! Every time I've had a really painful BM for the past few months, I've wondered if it even approaches child birth. White knuckles, breaking towel rods, intense nausea, sweats, poo feeling like hot coals, etc. But I always figured child birth was way worse, mostly because babies are so much bigger! Kind of comforting to hear that CD pain isn't considered a trivial thing.

Besides bowel pain, I've experienced excruciating neck pain (really felt like somebody was grabbing my spinal cord and squeezing, HARD), and my ankle got so inflamed and sore that merely bumping it (which happened a lot) would make me cry. I am extremely thankful I have never experienced the pleasures of abcesses, strictures, blockages, etc.

Well, two natural child births and 10 years of CD, the childbirth was only really awfully painful for the last 30 minutes during transition and pushing. The contractions were, of course, unpleasant, but they are short and come and go. My labors were pretty typical - about 12 hours of light labor, 6 hours of hard labor for the first. 12 hours of light labor and 3 hours of hard labor for the 2nd.

I find bowel pain, like menstrual cramps, to be similar to uterine contractions but not quite the same. The thing about childbirth is that you know when the baby is out the pain will disappear. That is not true of our bowel pain.

Angelcockatoo, I think you should talk to your GI and your OB/Gyn about the problems you're having. I'm concerned that pelvic pain could trigger early labor, or mask early labor. If your CD is not controlled you should consider changing your meds to get it back under control. I took pred during both of my pregnancies, as have many others I'm sure.

Hah. Yeah, Crohn's may last forever, but kids can talk. Toss-up, I'd say.

but in all seriousness, I get that same pain sometimes. I don't think mine is as severe as yours, but its still rough. I haven't found any way to cope other than to try reading or doing something else to keep my mind busy and away from my guts, but it doesnt do much.

I'm pretty sure I've had labour-like pains with my CD. At times all I could do was get down on all fours and breathe through the pain.

Hi, sorry congrats on your pregnancy and sorry you are not feeling well...

I have to say, neither my Crohn´s nor my two stomach surgeries were as painful as childbirth (no medication), but neither pain has gone as quickly as when I gave birth-the moment the baby popped out, I felt absolutely fine. Also, birth only took approx.15 hours...

I hope you´ll manage to get your Crohn´s under control soon-I don´t know if you are on some medication, but if you are not, do not hesitate to start taking meds please, I was flaring afret I gave birth to my son and it was hard even without the flare, first baby etc., but with the flare, having to go to the toilet 3 times while I tried to breastfeed him and the joint pains plus insomnia was not nice.

Hope you have a nice rest of pregnancy, easy birth and a lovely baby at the end of it, good luck!