Mariah Carey has likened her painful shoulder injury to giving birth.

The "#Beautiful" hitmaker has been confined to a sling since July after taking a severe fall and dislocating her shoulder on the set of a music video, and she says the traumatic experience was not too dissimilar to the pain she felt giving birth to two-year-old twins, Moroccan and Monroe.

"I feel like I have suffered the toughest experience of my life about several things; one was having twins and anybody who's ever had multiples will know it is one of the most difficult experiences ever but the reward is just beyond - I can't even explain how rewarding having these babies is for me. But yeah, breaking my rib was not festive. Dislocating my shoulder was not a good thing, either."

Earlier this month, the 43-year-old songbird lamented on her tough road to recovery, telling fans her dislocated shoulder has been the "toughest experience" of her life in an emotional open letter posted on her Facebook page. "When people expected me to go, 'Here I am, I'm back and everything's great,' it didn't happen because my hand was still in tremendous pain and it took this long for it to heal," she wrote.

However, Mariah - who is married to America's Got Talent host Nick Cannon - has had a fairly quick recovery period, exceeding the expectations of her doctors. "It's a huge deal, it should have taken eight months and even my doctors can't believe it. It's been a long journey, the physical therapists have been incredible and I am very grateful to all of them for helping me," she added.