#26 Is Birth the Most Painful Thing?

We've been meaning to record an episode on the topic of pain, sensations, whatever you want to call it in birth for quite a while. That's often one of the first thoughts/fears that someone who has never birthed before has "but what is it going to feel like? How much is it going to hurt? Will I be able to handle it?" We share a bit about our own birth stories and how sensations changed throughout, and talk more generally about what pain is and how we choose to perceive sensations.

***We had some technical difficulties, and the audio quality is not ideal. It's pretty fuzzy for the first 10 minutes, but gets better after that. And I had to cut out the end, but summarized it for you all in an extra clip.***

You’ll hear about:

-Sara's practice at the end of her pregnancy for tapping into the labor space and navigating those sensations

-Our birth experiences and the best description of the sensations we could give. Ranging from early labor, the feeling of easefully surfing through contractions with deep presence, and how subtle it can be to pull a woman out of that space

-How these sensations felt so much bigger and we felt less able to "stay on top of them" when our birth processes were interrupted

-How people in your birth space can have such a huge influence on your experience!

-Pain vs Suffering

-The power of our minds to interpret sensations as pain - or not!

-Our invitation to consider a new channel of curiosity and experience for what these sensations might be like. 

-Previously in our lives, painful sensations are a sign of danger, illness, things out of balance. But birth has intense sensations that means everything is ok. Nothing needs to be done. 

-When we are in a state of hormonal flow, ecstatic hormones going, we might perceive/experience things differently/easier to deal with. 

-If you are deep in it, you now how your body needs to move, which can facilitate labor. 

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Mentioned in the show:

Rachel Reed's article on Cervical Lips

Jerry Walsh's podcast - BodhiSpeak

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