Pain in childbirth

I believe many women have more trouble with pain in childbirth than is necessary because they really do believe that childbirth is supposed to be extremely painful. Maybe even that God wants them to suffer and be in intolerable pain.

Has anyone done a thorough study on Genesis 3:16? Does sorrow mean pain specifically? It seems it matters what translation you read.

We read from the KJV which says, "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

John 16:21 reads, "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world."

I looked up the word travail and it doesn't necessarily mean pain.
1. Labor in childbirth; as a severe travail; an easy travail.

Anguish can mean panic of the mind, I think.


2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

I was very fearful with my first birth at the hospital. Although the pain was great, when I was given the epidural and could not feel the contractions anymore, I was still in anguish. The epidural had stopped my labor and so they gave me Pitocin and I just lay there like a lump, waiting for this nightmare to end. At that point, I really would've preferred feeling the pain of the contractions.

The next 5 births were really not that painful. The contractions were pretty intense but I never felt that same kind of fearful gripping pain as with my first hospital birth. The intensity, or pain if you must, of the contractions didn't bother me that much because I knew it was for good! It was good for my body to be allowed to do its work, to labor, unhindered.

Perhaps it's only the fighting against what God has ordained that causes us more grief than we need experience. Giving birth is a momentous event that needs to involve surrender. Surrendering our right to be pain free, surrendering our every emotion to God and embracing motherhood, even labor. I believe when that happens, the pain can be greatly diminished and become not something we're fighting against or even a focal point.