by Alexa Payne

Created on: March 14, 2007   Last Updated: April 25, 2007

Why is giving birth painful?

A really powerful muscle is working hard to stretch open the cervix, and press a hard object out a small opening. In the process it grinds that hard object (the back of the baby's head) against tissues and nerves, and stretches the tissues it passes by. How can it reasonably be expected to not be painful in most cases?

No one disputes that some women have severe cramping during menstruation. This cramping is so severe in some cases that women are unable to go to work. But people like to say that everyone could have a painless birth if only they did not fear birth. While it is certainly true (and much research confirms this) that panicking and fighting the contractions increases pain, it is not true that being calm will relieve all pain.

Sometimes that hard occiput hits or even stretches the sciatic nerve, causing pain to radiate to the legs. Many women suffer tears during childbirth. Who could expect the tearing of flesh to be painless? The contractions themselves, while painless to some women, feel like the worst muscle cramp ever to others. Most people have been jolted out of their sleep by the seizing up of a calf muscle at least once in their lives. Enduring that every 3-5 minutes for 30 hours is a marathon of pain that most people who have not birthed a child will never equal in their lives. Some researchers and doctors believe the pain of uterine contractions can be attributed to ischemia, or lack of blood flow, and is therefore like the pain of a heart attack.

My first child was born at a hospital. It was long and painful. I made it worse by laboring at home in a semi-reclined position which probably turned the baby posterior and made her hard head press against my spine. I was afraid and fought the contractions which made them both more painful and less productive.

My second child was born in a hospital without pain medication and afterwards I said to a friend, "Have you ever seen a photograph of someone on fire? Of someone who self-immolated? I saw a photo like that in the paper and now I understand the look in her eye. It is a look of wanting to run away from your own body. That is how I felt." It is true that I only felt that way for the short time when I was in transition and could not keep myself from fighting the contractions. It was terribly painful when I didn't fight them. It was unbearable when I did.

My third child was born at home in a labor tub, very quickly. And yes, painfully. There is no doubt, however, that the calm atmosphere at home, and my experience, the feeling that I had done it before and knew what was coming, allowed me to relax and resist the urge to fight the clenching of the muscle.

Pain in birth is a combination of mind and body. You can diminish the pain by not fighting it and trying to view it as muscles working hard. But there is no getting around the facts. The uterus is getting the no pain, no gain workout of its life. A big head has to get through a small passage and it presses on and stretches sensitive parts on the way.

Learn more about this author, Alexa Payne.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.