Pain-Free Birth

“Pain-free birth” might sound like an oxymoron. In this study, roughly half of my interview participants reported experiences of birth that were pain-free in whole or in part (and for the most part without any pain-alleviating medications). This chapter goes into depth about these experiences, about how they were fostered and what they meant to those who experienced them. Some pain-free births were unexpected but often these experiences were the result of intentional and even intensive preparation and training, such as for those who practiced hypnobirthing or meditative techniques. For some, aspects of birth that they were expecting to be painful simply weren’t. Finally, I analyze the pain-free experience of one participant’s labor induction without an epidural or analgesia for almost her entire labor, but then had an epidural placed in preparation for an emergency cesarean before discovering she was fully dilated and pushing. The intention of this chapter is not to establish some new ideal birth to which birthing people must aspire. Rather, my goal is to simply document and articulate these pain-free birth experiences as valid, which is somewhat akin to documenting the impossible, to challenge and expand what is socioculturally known and believed about birth.