Hi, my wife is due to have her baby in a few days (date is this saturday).
With the last delivery she had really bad afterpains which made relaxing with new baby difficult.

A friend mentioned that having the injection to release the placenta quickly (to speed up the third stage of labour) can cause worse afterpains - and that allowing your body to deliver it naturally means less afterpains (her friend has delivered the placenta both with and without the injection and says afterpains were much less when she delivered the placenta naturally).

Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of this? What DW thinks is afterpains could be less after natural delivery of the placenta because the body 'knows' it's finished its job and stops contractions - whereas when the placenta is forced/pulled out, the body is confused and carries on contracting.

Any thoughts?

All i know is that I had the injection and the afterpains were almost unbearable so will refuse it this time. i haven't done any reading about it but what you have said makes sense about the body 'knowing'.

well I had the injection to speed up the placenta and pains were bad for the first week but went less after that... I will be having it again but apparently afterpains are meant to be worse 2nd time around as everything has already been stretched before... hope the pains are better whatever way she chooses.

I had the injection adn didn't worry too much about the pains as they just felt like my normal period pains (they used to be really bad) so I guess I was used to it but also because they were only really around the time I was feeding and not constant I didn't worry. I guess I was lucky too in that my pain threshhold is high but in comparison to my labour pains they were a breeze!! (Rough labour!!)

I deliverd the placenta naturally. I admit I got a bit fed up as I just wanted the whole thing to be over (having done the hard bit) but the midwives encouraged me and got me to lay on the bed breatfeeding and bonding with my baby and hey presto it was out! As for afterpains, I can't make a comparison of natural vs injection as this was my first but what I will say is that I did not experience any of the pain you described - all I had was a bit of discomfort from time to time as my uterus started to return to its normal size, certainly not major pain, not even as bad as period pains, i don't know - maybe I wa lucky ?!

hey i had the injection after a gas n air birth and seriouly i neva really thought bout the after pains.
i had a 15 hour labour and wen i was on the ward nurses come round wiv painkillers every1 was having some but i didnt feel the need to have them as it was jus like my pieriod pains i get! mind u its ment 2 b worse wen u have a second baby and my aunty sed that it feels as tho u have another baby comin lol!
as i had a push n pop out was placenter i dnt no if the injection can prevent havin it have to b taken out by a docter if things dnt progress?? but do wot she feels is best 4 her ask all these questions in anti natal group coz im sure there will b others there who r jus 2 shy 2 ask!
good luck x

Hi, i had the injection with first child and only had very mild period pains, i'm now pregnant with my secound and i will still have the injection even tho have been told by alot of people that after pains get worse with each child you have. Hope this helps

The afterpains with my second birth was much worse than the contractions! I chose to wait for the placenta to come out naturally and it didnt seem to want to come. they thought it had detached and were pulling it, but i swear i could feel them pulling the whole of my insides out!! i will definitely be having the injection this time just to get it all over with as soon as possible. i had no problem the first time round when i had the injection.