If your pain is answered with the word "pressure"
What to say, in order, when you are not being believed.
The most commonly reported version of this is simple. A woman says she can feel it. She is told she is feeling pressure. She says it again. The operation continues.
Pressure and tugging are expected. Sharp, burning, cutting or stinging is not. If you are answered with "that is pressure" and it is not pressure, escalate in plain words:
- "This is not pressure. This is sharp pain. I need you to treat it."
- "Please stop as soon as it is safe to stop."
- "I want more medication or I want to be asleep."
- To your support person: "Tell them I am in pain."
- "Please write in the chart that I reported pain and what time I said it."
That last sentence is not confrontational. It matches what the anesthesia society's own statement asks for under documentation, and it changes the conversation in the room immediately.
What should not happenYou should not be asked to wait until the baby is out. You should not be told it is anxiety without your pain being assessed. You should not have to say it three times.
Where this comes from:
358. American Society of Anesthesiologists, Committee on Obstetric Anesthesia. Statement on pain during cesarean delivery. Approved October 18, 2023.
359. Plaat F, Stanford SER, Lucas DN, Andrade J, Careless J, Russell R, et al. Prevention and management of intra-operative pain during caesarean section under neuraxial anaesthesia: a technical and interpersonal approach. Anaesthesia. 2022;77(5):588-597.
370. Somerstein R. I feel pain, not pressure: a personal and methodological reflection on pain during cesarean delivery. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2026;233(6S):S129-S134.
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This page is educational. It supports the conversation with your own clinicians. It is not consent to any treatment, and it cannot assess you. If you are worried about a symptom now, see urgent warning signs.