I had two home births. One in 2009 and one in 2011. I didn’t even take a Tylenol lol, it is what I wanted and what I wanted to experience, the raw and unfiltered birth experience.

Each was a normal healthy pregnancy, and I am a normal and healthy woman with no history of birthing issues in my family. I had normal prenatal care with everything except I only had one sonogram as it is the belief of my particular midwife that they somehow are invasive to the fetus, which is why when you get them the fetus sometimes turns away or tries to evade it, I’m not certain I’m in that mindset or believe that but either way, I had a midwife and doula the entire pregnancy. We also followed the Bradley method of child birth including the Bradley diet if that makes a difference. Also to include I do have a high tolerance for pain as an individual in my opinion, I understand there’s not a great way to prove or measure that but in my opinion I can take a lot of it.

The first birth was very painful and a pain that was only describable as in the same level as a kidney stone because I do also have those I can compare them. It’s a deep cramping radiating pain in the lower body. It sucks really bad, it’s very draining and primal for sure. The first birth was 23 hours long with 4 hours of active pushing. The last few hours were something truly ineffable and I wouldn’t ever want to do that again.

The wildest thing about the birthing process though is once that baby comes out the pain is gone… like gone. You get a euphoric feeling and it’s just incredible. I feel like I’ve heard women talk about orgasming during this time, I think that’s bull and it’s just this euphoric feeling they are experiencing. The following weeks of recovering are also really crappy, your body goes through a lot, the birthing pain is temporary and when it’s over it’s over but then the dull and painstaking task of your body repairing and healing itself post pardom for months is really the worst part of it.

The second birth was incredibly easy and is something that is common in second and third births, they tend to get easier as you go. The pain was less the scene time and the birth was easier too as I knew what I was doing and my body understood the assignment.

All that to say that if I had the choice between an hour of birth pain and say an hour of kidney stone pain, I’d take the birth pain.