Does Labor Hurt?

http://www.mothering.com/does-it-hurt

Of course labor hurts, but are there ways to keep it from hurting?  Most people when thinking about giving birth and the pain that is normally associated with it know that when they get to the hospital they can just get an epidural or pain meds and then it'll make it all better.  Unfortunately epidurals do not always numb people the way they expect, and they still feel pain, or it works and then their labor stalls and they have to get pitocin, and then the baby goes into distress and they end up with a c-section that wasn't needed.  I have experience with pain meds.  I received nubain and trust me when I say it doesn't help the pain.  It didn't even take the "edge" off like the nurse promised me it would.  Contractions go in a wave, and the narcotic took of the beginning and end of that wave but the middle was still felt.  Instead of having the warning that intense pressure (pain) was coming I was bombarded by pain.  While that pain didn't last long, it did take my breath away and leave me throbbing in pain afterwards.  There was no time to prepare no time to breath through it and make the pain lessen.


It is a fact that if you are in pain, deep relaxed breathing will make the pain lessen.  There's not doubting this fact, it's well established so why do so many women feel the need to take medicines that take your ability to breathe through and relax through contractions away?  What are women afraid of?  I think that women have lost confidence in their bodies abilities to give birth without medicine or doctors telling them what to do.  This is not true.  Pregnancy, labor and birth are all NATURAL parts of life.  Even if you were knocked out your body would eventually give birth on it's own because it KNOWS what to do!!  God made women capable of giving birth and what we need to do is go back to the thinking that He created our bodies to do what needs to be done and trust in His ultimate wisdom!  


This is why I'm not afraid of having a homebirth.  I'm not sick, there's nothing wrong with me, I'm a healthy young woman.  Pregnancy is natural and normal and a gift from God and I will treat it that way.  I trust my midwife to know if something is wrong and not natural and if she finds something abnormal and I will trust in the wisdom God gave the doctors if need be, but until then I will say home with my family and share this moment in my life as if nothing abnormal was happening because it's not.  I love the idea of being surrounded by my family while we welcome our new addition into it fills me with joy  I also know that I will not be risking my child or me with infections we have never been exposed to in a hospital setting.  All our germs in our home we have already been exposed to, are immune to.  I have no worry of infections or sickness in my own home, I would be worrying about it in the hospital.  


As for pain, I'm approaching the labor with the mindset that yes, this will be painful in some parts.  Of course it will, I'll be moving a child out of my body but I will also be able to breathe and relax through the contractions I will have support from my midwife, my husband, my Mom, my sister.  Labor is hard work but I know my body can do what needs to be done and I will work with my body rather than against it.  I will help my body move my daughter down and out the way she's supposed to.  I'm looking forward to the pain, knowing that once I get through the pain I'll be able to hold my little girl.  The pain is worth it.  This is the mindset I will keep as I begin having contractions.  Each contraction, each pressure, I'll know is opening me up, moving her down, bringing me just one step closer to meeting my little girl.


My Willow Rose.