How will you mindfully approach pain in birth?

By Charity Eyre Wright - Childbirth Educator

In our culture, childbirth is often described as “the most painful experience there is.” Birthgivers routinely take this as truth and brace themselves for suffering. 

But is this truth? Is giving birth painful?

Pain is defined as “physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury.” Pain is a warning message our bodies send to our brains when something is wrong - when tissue is injured, chemicals are released that stimulate pain receptors and send signals to the brain to trigger responses to protect the body. 

In the absence of complications, then, is giving birth painful? 

Certainly and absolutely, the physical sensations of labor and delivery are intense. But they are not a signal that something is going wrong in our bodies - in fact, the opposite is true. Experiencing strong uterine contractions and the sensations of stretching tissue required for a baby to come through the birth canal means something is going right! Our bodies are doing the incredible work of birthing a human being! 

How birthgivers mindfully approach the concept of pain can make a huge difference in birth experiences. 
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Some suggestions on how to mentally reframe “pain” in childbirth:

• Recognise that the sensations experiences in childbirth are Purposeful, Anticipated, Intermittent, and Normal. Birthgivers and partners can remember these truths with the acronym PAIN! 
  • The physical intensity our bodies feel in birth has the incredible purpose of getting our babies out of our bellies and into our arms! 
  • We can educate ourselves and anticipate the intense physical sensations of labor and delivery. When these sensations don’t catch us by surprise, we can welcome them instead of trying to fight them. Contractions come in a generally predictable pattern - we can feel them coming and know that they will come again and again over a period of time. 
  • Uterine contractions are intermittent - birthgivers get a break between the strong surges pushing baby down towards the birth canal. The intensity is not continuous!
  • Birth is normal - birthgivers have experienced its strong physical sensations since the dawn of time and the female body was designed to allow the process of birth to happen. 
• Many birthgivers find it helpful to consider or visualise their contractions as waves. Waves come and go, and trying to fight against them or stop them is totally fruitless. We can instead let waves wash over us, or even ride the waves in a way that moves us towards a destination. We can appreciate an ocean wave’s power and beauty, and we can do the same for the physical sensations that can carry us to meeting our babies outside the womb. 
• A mantra I repeated to myself (and had my partner remind me of often) during my own births was: “It’s not pain, it’s power.” I had decided before going into labor that I really did believe that, and the reminders of this encouraged me to lean into the physical sensations rather than fight them. 
• An expansion on embracing the truth of the “pain” of childbirth being intermittent is recognising that uterine contractions not only come and go but also start out and end with much less intensity than at their peak. An average contraction in active labor lasts about sixty seconds, but the peak of that contraction lasts only 10-15 seconds. The build-up can be embraced as helping birthgivers to prepare and the come down can be embraced as an opportunity for birthgivers to recover. And we can do anything for 10-15 seconds! 
• When birthgivers are prepared with a “toolbox” of comfort measures that can be employed throughout the birth experience - everything from mindful breath to counter pressure to aromatherapy and so much more - we feel confidence that we can cope with the intensity of the physical sensations of labor and delivery. This confidence allows us to release the physical tension that leads to the brain receiving messages from pain receptors. ​

To escape the “most painful experience there is,” start by deciding what you believe about “pain” in labor, and then lean into that. Consume content (books, classes, social media posts, meditations, birth stories/videos etc) that confirm your belief. Do the work to rewire the messaging our culture may have instilled deep within you. 

Then: practice, practice, practice. Just like with any skill, the more we practice comfort measures, mindfulness and relaxation, the stronger we will become. Birthgivers can truly use the power of their minds to influence their physical experience in birth - but only to the degree to which they’ve practiced. 

While it is true that the process of each unique physiological birth cannot be controlled, birthgivers do get to control how they conceptualise pain in birth. What will you choose?

About the author:
Charity Wright is a certified advanced doula and a childbirth educator in Utah County. Her class “Your Empowered Hospital Birth” is a course with an eclectic approach to preparing for a low-intervention birth in a hospital setting. Charity teaches couples about labor comfort measures, breathing techniques for unmedicated birth, moving and positioning for labor, the impact of an educated birth partner, and much more. Attendees of Charity’s classes report that her education and support truly help them to feel prepared and also excited to experience physiological birth in the hospital. You can learn more about Charity’s classes here.