Snooki: Labour was agony!

Los Angeles - Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi claims she was "literally dying" in labour.

The former Jersey Shore star and fiance Jionni LaValle welcomed second child Giovanna into the world last week and was relieved to arrive at hospital in time for a pain-numbing epidural.

She said: "Thank God I got to the doctors at that time because it was the perfect time for me to get the epidural so I won't feel her come out. Everything worked out, but the fact that I felt the contractions up to almost seven centimetres - holy crap!"

Referring to women who give birth without pain relief, she added: "You are my heroes. You are amazing. You are freakin' awesome."

Snooki tweeted:

Shoutout to mommies out there that give birth without drugs. I cannot take that pain. I was literally dying... http://t.co/rCcprjNhwr ??????

— Nicole Polizzi (@snooki) October 1, 2014

The 26-year-old star - who also has a two-year-old son, Lorenzo, with Jionni - is breastfeeding Giovanna but is finding the process incredibly painful.

She said on her Podcast One show: "With Lorenzo, I didn't actually latch on. I just did the pump, so it didn't hurt that bad. But with Giovanna, I tired to latch on at the hospital and she latched on right away. So I said, 'You know what? Let me just do this until I get my milk in and then I'll just go straight to pumping.

"Giovanna has been on my boob every single hour for the past four days, and my nipple is going to fall off. I can't feel it! It's so painful, but I gotta do what I gotta do because I feel like my breast milk is the best milk for my baby.

"No matter how much pain I'm in, I've just gotta bite my tongue and give her my milk."