This is what it feels like to get an epidural after 32 hours of labor

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Pregnancy is exciting. And babies are wonderful! But rarely do new moms open up to discuss the truly unimaginable pain of giving birth once they're sitting comfortably with their little bundle of joy. Meaghan O'Connell at New York magazine, however, bravely gives us a play-by-play of the horrifying pain that comes with being in labor for 32 hours before finally demanding an epidural. That epidural isn't the most pleasant thing, either:

There is something viscerally disturbing about all of this, isn't there? Can you feel the twinge in your spine? Are you about to pass out? Yeah, me too.

So they stick a big needle into your back and you jump and are sure you have just paralyzed yourself. The first needle is a shot to numb your skin and then a bigger, hollow needle goes in with a tiny tube that gets threaded into your spine. It seems like you shouldn't feel it but you still totally feel it. Or I did. [...] It felt like someone was stapling my back, but deep inside me.

Stay still, though, or else you'll be paralyzed!

I bore my eyes into Dustin, who sat on a stool in front of me, and broke a sweat, I think, from fear. I felt like I was in some kind of war. I felt like this was my moment, my big test, and I was rising to the occasion. I would save the world!

Except, in reality, I was doing the most banal thing in the world. I was giving f--king birth. [New York]

Read the rest of the story over at New York magazine.

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Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.