The Suprising Truth about Pain of Childbirth

Ok, if you are pregnant, or looking at having kids chances are you’ve heard someone’s story about the birthing process.  And chances are even higher that if you’ve heard a birth storey that you’ve heard about how painful it was. 

I’ll be honest, I struggle with anxiety and I had people around me during my pregnancy that seemed hell bent on scaring the crap out of me when the topic of childbirth came up.  

Some talked like the huge amounts of pain were badges of honor, others like you HAD to use the epidural to survive it, and the whole general theme was “lets freak out the pregnant lady while pretending we are helping”

So lets get one thing straight right now! 

Having a baby can hurt, but it doesn’t have to!

The reason most people talk about the pain is because that is what they experienced.  But birth is also emotional, life changing, amazing, and awesomely messy.  Sometime more so then painful.  And I wish that our stories would focus more on those parts more then the pain.

The people I talked to about what to expect when I went into labor had me convinced that I would know I was in labor by the amount of pain I was in.  Yet when I actually had those first exciting contractions I had to be convinced it was actually labor.  And it took my husband, and doula hours to convince me.  You can read My Painless Birth Story Here

It’s not happy because at the end it was all worth it (even though it most certianly was), but it’s happy because I acctually had a little bit of fun and spunk in my first labor. 

We had an uncomplicated pregnancy, and our labor and delivery ended up being uncomplicated too.  After the experience I’ve had, I’m a firm believer that pain doesn’t have to be part of an uncomplicated delivery.