Why did god make childbirth painful?

Answer 1

Genesis: 3:11-20:

11: And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12: And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13: And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16: 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.

17: And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20: And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Answer 2

The uterus is a very large and powerful muscle needed to push the baby out. Despite TV and movies implying that a woman needs a doctor between her legs telling her to "PUSH!!!!", the uterus and baby will do most of the work themselves, this is called contractions. A contraction is the uterus tightening down against the baby, pushing it lower and lower in the pelvis to finally push the baby out. Considering the strength required with this action there is pain. Think of tightening any muscle in your body over and over again.

After hours of slow movement of the baby and the uterus has become stronger and effective at moving the baby, the woman feels an urge to push (this is when the baby's head is starting to move past where the cervix was and is now pressing on the rectum).

It helps if the mother is squatting, standing or in some position to take advantage of gravity helping her and with some effort on the mums part the final few contractions can push the baby through the birth canal. It is important that the mum not hold her breath while pushing but breathe through it because if mum isn't breathing, neither is baby.

The other type of pain is when the baby's head is making it's first appearance to "the outside" because it is a massive stretch to the mums parineum (that is the skin around the outside of the vagina and anus) and this is often described as a burning sensation. If squatting or comfortably in water there should be a small chance of this skin tearing but when mums are birthing on their backs there is a good chance of that skin tearing which could be painful.

If the baby is in an akward position inside the uterus that can sometimes cause increased pain to the mum while labouring.