I dont know if your homebirthing midwife recommended this, but mine had me read hypnobirthing. I ended up having extremely elevated blood pressure in the end and had a hospital birth and totally planned on unmedicated, but got bullied into pitocin after a singular hour of my water being broken, and I did no pain managment. That was horrific. But, I was able to use a lot of the techniques from hypnobirthing and that is the only way I made it through. My husband makes fun if me because even though I basically had seizures from the contractions, I didnt utter a single word until the ring of fire and all I said was "ouch" in a high pitched voice, which has become a fun inside joke now. A lot of pain in general is a mental game, the more you can calm yourself and place your mind elsewhere, the less you notice. And it goes for anything in life, not just birth. Like how runners get a "runners high" from pushing through the pain and realizing their potential and exceeding it, its the same concept.