You can't talk about birth and God without talking about Genesis 3! This Bible passage is what we often call the fall and the curses that followed. I remember when I was young I always thought Eve (and thus women) got the raw end of the deal. We have to have kids, and it's going to hurt? Adam just had to pull weeds. I think many woman today still think this. We got the raw end of the stick and pain in childbirth is not natural and is part of the fallen world. But there is something I would like to point out to all of us mothers. Genesis 3:16 says that God will increase your pain in childbirth (or multiply depending on your translation). It does not say cause, or creat pain, but increase, thus implying that childbirth probably had some pain associated with it BEFORE the fall. So in a perfect sinless world, childbirth would still hurt? Yes. The question is why? We live in a society that fears pain. We want a pill, a cure, anything to take away pain or discomfort. But God created pain for a very good reason. What would happen if we could not feel pain? We could seriously hurt ourselves, bleed to death, etc, etc, if we could not feel pain. If Adam cut his finger before the fall, would he have felt it? Yes. Pain in chlidbirth has its place as well. Pain gives certain indicators during labor. A woman can sense where in her labor she is by what she is feeling and her body response by doing what is most comforting and thus the most helpful during labor. Even the difference between labor contractions and pushing contractions shows that pain increase or decrease helps a woman's body know what to do. It is also pain in labor that releases endorphines during labor. No pain would mean no endorphines, or adreanaline, all which are essential during labor. God created pain to be a part of childbirth before the fall. We should not view it as unnatural. One more reason I think God created some form of pain during childbirth is that a woman feels like she has accomplished so much more when she has had to work for her child to be born. I believe this sense of accomplishment can help a mother to bond with her new born child. Have you ever had to work, and work at a project? When it was finally done, didn't it feel great to finally finish it. All your hard work, time, and effort finally paid off. I think it is exactly the same with birth. Some comentators think that the word "pain" in Gen. 3:16 has the same root as the word "toil" and it should be understood to mean "burdensome labor" or hard work. God is going to make you have to work harder to have kids now. It may not be about physical pain at all. One other commentator I read said that the pain in childbirth that Eve would experience was more about raising her kids. She will see the affects of her own sin played out in the lives of her own kids, and that will be painful.
This is by no means a full treatment of the passage, but just my own relfections on it. I have come to believe that women did not get the worst of the curse/fall. Having children is hard work (thus why we still call it labor), and there are parts that can be painful. But the pain has its place and it has not made it impossible to give birth. Besides having a baby is one of the biggest blessings I have ever experienced. The work/pain is temporary but the blessing far outways it, and that is how God made it. Through our curse as women we get to experience one of the greatest joys imaginable. Because of Adam, all of creation is now cursed and broken until Jesus returns. So, I don't think we got the raw end of the deal anymore. ;)
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