how painful is giving birth?
I get asked a lot of questions about the pain of childbirth. It’s the main thing that the people I support through my Hypnobirthing classes are worried about.
I recently posted about an experience that I had that was more painful than giving birth to both of my babies. You can read it here.
I had tonsillitis and it was SO painful!
The thing is, people often want to compare labour pain to something else. It gives us something to imagine, something more tangible.
Is giving birth more painful than having a tooth out?
How does labour pain compare to the pain of breaking your leg?
What does a contraction feel like?
The thing is, we can’t compare the pain of giving birth to other pain.
Take having a tooth out.. you’d probably want to say yes to all pain relief offered. Having a tooth taken out isn’t meant to happen. It’s the result of an issue. When you’re having a tooth out, you don’t have the hormone Oxytocin stimulating your parasympathetic nervous system (opposite of the fight and flight response) as you do in labour. You don’t have endorphins actually reducing the pain sensations (as you do in labour), because the pain of having a tooth is not physiological. You’d want to take the feeling of pain away. It’s not productive and purposeful pain.
When I had tonsillitis - this was a warning sign. Something was wrong. It wasn’t meant to happen.
When we give birth, it’s meant to be happening. We have an amazing cocktail of hormones that create the contractions and actually help make it feel more comfortable, providing the person is birthing in the way they need and with the support they need.
We need to feel safe, ideally with as much privacy as possible to allow all of these hormones to release in the quantities needed. We need to feel comfortable with anyone in our birth space… ideally minimal questions…no disruptions, just someone there, ‘holding space’ to allow the person to ‘let go’.
If the environment is right, the hormones are happy!
Oxytocin causes the muscles of the uterus to contract. They contract over a period of time and gradually get shorter, pulling up the cervix over the babies head - ie. resulting in cervical dilation. The pain of this will be experienced differently by each person, but is most similar to strong period cramps that get stronger, last longer and become closer together.
Oxytocin is produced in the brain and when it releases down into the rest of the body it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. So as well as this causing productive contractions, it helps all bodily functions to work more effectively (like being able to go for a wee easily which is super important in labour as a full bladder gets in the way of a baby's head descending. Or keeping your temperature down which is also important. If the birthing person is stressed and this causes a high temperature, they could be advised to have IV antibiotics).
Endorphins is our body's own pain killer! More Oxytocin, results in more Endorphins. When everything is working as it should, childbirth will feel more manageable. It’s not to say it won’t be painful, but it’s a powerful sensation / feeling / pain that we can work through and cope with.
So rather than trying to imagine how we will cope with the labour pain.
Let’s reframe PAIN.
Productive and Purposeful
Anticipated
Intermittent
Normal
Replace ‘I have a low pain threshold, I will find labour painful’ with “my body is powerful and was made for this” or “I welcome each contraction. They bring me closer to meeting my baby.”
You might be wondering…
But does preparing with Hypnobirthing help labour feel less painful? Yes, because Hypnobirthing helps physiology happen - check out my social media post “How does Hypnosis help with the physiology of birth”.
Does preparing with Hypnobirthing result in a pain - free birth? No, I can’t guarantee that. Yes some people will say they didn’t find it painful, some will find it orgasmic, but I don’t make claims about painfree birth. I help people understand what the pain is and what they can do to feel more comfortable. When I train people to teach Hypnobirthing (find out about my practitioner training here), I ensure practitioners are prepared to help people navigate all types of birth and all scenarios that arise, not just physiological birth.
If you are expecting a baby and want to feel a whole lot calmer about pain and giving birth, I work with parents to be online and in Penryn, near Falmouth, Cornwall. See all of my course options here.
If you’re interested in training to teach Hypnobirthing, I deliver the Mama Serene Independent Hypnobirthing Practitioner Training (founded by Dani Diosi) and run courses online and in-person. Find out more.
