Giving birth.
After being regaled with horror birth stories throughout my pregnancy, when the day finally came for the birth of my first child I was looking forward to days of pain and suffering which would be all "worth it in the end" - highly disappointed when it was all over in 6 hours - didn't even have the time for any pain relief. The second was even worse! 2 hours! Totally impossible now for me to tell my own horror stories to expectant mothers, I feel cheated.

Made an effort to suck on a bit of gas and air the second time, however, after being told how fantastic this stuff was - made me feel sick, so I gave it up after one puff.

*sigh*
(Freakmandu, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 19:53, 2 replies)

i sort of know what you mean.
Mrs Boris was given a book by her grandmother, who was a midwife for years and years, from the 1930s called Childbirth Without Fear. The book died on publication as it was written by a man, but it's slowly becoming accepted. Mrs Boris read it and when the time came for Mk. 1 infant to arrive, she got through it grinning wihtout any pain relief. No mystical 'earth mother' crap, no self-hypnotism, no feminist wank, just some fairly decent science.
Worked just as well the second time around (much to the surprise and small displeasure of the midwife who didn't believe any of it or Mrs Boris' tales of the last birth) and now that midwife's passing the book around, as are the midwives from the first time.
It now means that Mrs Boris doesn't join in with the birth stories as people either call her a liar or get really upset with her for letting the side down.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Mon 30 Jun 2008, 21:41, closed)

^
I never got that mentality; "you've let the side down because you can do it quicker, more efficiently and safer/less painfully than we can" just seems daft.
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 0:14, closed)