I have listed pain in labor as a variation of normal because I do not believe that pain is something that necessarily must be a factor in every birth.  Just as breech birth is a variation that happens in a minority of births, I believe pain is in the same category.  It is a variation of normal and we need to know how to deal with it.

When we talk about pain in labor, people inevitably start lining up on two different sides.  One side is the "Pain is unnecessary, preventable, and signals that the woman needs to change something, not only to eliminate her pain, but to prevent complications" and the other side which says "A certain amount of pain is normal and necessary and cannot be avoided."  Would you believe that it is possible for both of those statements to be true?

No matter which side you are on, I think we can all agree that we WANT IS LESS PAIN DURING LABOR.  Is that not true?  So, whether you believe pain can be avoided or not, wouldn't you be willing to try whatever was necessary if it meant having less pain?

By saying that I don't believe women have to have pain in childbirth, that does not mean that I am in any way trying to diminish those of you who HAVE had pain.  I also believe that a person can take care of their bodies in a way that prevents them from falling prey to colds, flu, and other infectious diseases.  Just because I don't always reach that goal in my own body doesn't mean that what I believe in is false.  It doesn't mean I can't do a better job of taking care of my body.  And it doesn't mean I am in some way deficient as a person if I catch a cold.  It also doesn't mean you are deficient as a person if you felt pain during birth.  But just as I can learn to do the things which prevent colds and flu, I can learn do things which help to prevent pain during birth.

I believe that every experience we have in life is for a reason, so that we can learn something about ourselves.  As I said above, a certain amount of pain is normal and necessary, so that we can learn about ourselves, and learn how our bodies are leading us to give birth.  However, I believe that after that pain has been experienced, and the lesson learned, that pain can be eliminated.   You may eliminate in the same labor where you learned the lesson, or it may be one or two more births down the road before you are able to eliminate it.  But I believe it is possible.

When you experience pain in childbirth, assume your body is trying to communicate something to you.  After all, if you WEREN'T pregnant, and you were walking down the street, and all of a sudden you had a huge pain in your side, you wouldn't just dismiss it and say "Oh, that pain is normal and a necessary part of walking down the street."  You would stop and analyze what might have caused the pain.  You would listen to what your body was saying.  You would change anything you could to get rid of the pain.  And if the pain persisted, you would assume something was wrong.

During labor, if you have pain, stop and analyze it.  What is causing this pain?  Physical unrest is one part of the Language of Birth.  It's one way your body can get your attention so you will change something.  Perhaps the position of the baby in the birth canal is causing you pain as well as impeding passage down the birth canal.  By giving you pain, your body gets your attention so you will change positions and facilitate better movement down the birth canal, possibly avoiding fetal distress or failure to progress.  But you didn't know that was what was happening.  You thought you were just trying to relieve your pain.  The fact is, you were improving your baby's birth experience and possibly avoiding complications.

I have worked with several women who were laboring comfortably as long as they remained standing.  Then, they went to the hospital, were told they had to lie down to be monitored, and immediately began to have severe pain.  The ones who submitted to the monitoring and continued to lie down even though they were in pain ended up with c-sections for fetal distress.  The ones who got up, despite the caregiver's protests, relieved their pain and were able to have normal births.  My personal opinion is that there was cord compression, cutting off oxygen to the baby.  As the cord was pinned, this produced discomfort which was designed to encourage the mother to get back up off the table.  This would have relieved the cord compression.

Do not look at pain in labor as a complication, but as communication from your body.  Change position, get something to eat or drink, get in a warm tub of water, get a massage, use the bathroom, change your surroundings so as to change your emotional outlook, get off your back so as to increase oxygen to the baby, make love with your partner to increase the endorphins in your system, go to your perfect birth fantasy in your mind, go inside yourself and get a sense of your body's ease, or dis-ease.  Ask the baby to let you know what needs to be done.

Above all, when your body talks to you, don't try to shut it up with painkillers.  If you numb yourself, you cannot effectively communicate with your body about what its needs are.  Your senses are of paramount importance in having a good birth.  Turning them off cannot lead to the ideal birth experience.

I personally had a painless childbirth, and I believe it is possible for others to do the same.  However, I believe we must acknowledge that if we apply the same source of pain to two different individuals, one will perceive that stimulus as more painful than the other, because of a number of factors.  The first is our socialization.  Women in this country are socialized to believe that childbirth is painful.  That's all we hear about as we are growing up.  That's all we see on television.  Our friends and relatives tell us horror stories about why they HAD to have an epidural.  It is also true that younger mothers tend to experience the stimuli of birth as more painful because of the simple fact that the longer you live, the more life experience you have to draw on to mediate your experiences, and the younger you are, the fewer painful experiences you have to compare birth to.  If you had experience a compound spiral fracture of your leg, and the surgery and recouperation required to heal that, you probably would not perceive childbirth as all that painful.

Your expectations have a lot to do with what you receive.  It's called the self-fulfilling prophecy.  What your mind expects, your body will manufacture.

Also, most women expect contractions to feel painful like a knife slicing your belly, when actually that is not the kind of sensation it is at all.  It's more like the extreme pressure of having to have a bowel movement, while a freight train is passing within 2 feet of you.  It's like the gradual build-up of pressure you experience while making love, with orgasm like the peak of the contraction, only MUCH more intense than when making love.  When you experience orgasm, you uterus contracts just like you are in labor, only in a much milder way.  When the contractions come, imagine you are making love.  Imagine you are about to reach your climax.  Incorporate any discomfort or intensity into this imagined scenario.  It is easy then, to experience birth as a very intense lovemaking session.  Indeed, many women choose to have sex during labor because the orgasmic experience actually makes birth more pleasurable.

A good way to control or eliminate pain in childbirth is to use The Emotional Freedom Technique

To read more about pleasurable childbirth, see my friend Laura Shanley's site at:

 Bornfree! The Unassisted Childbirth Page
 

Copyright 2001-8  Judie C. Rall and The Center for Unhindered Living
 

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