Pain in Labor Bring up the subject of pain in childbirth in a
room full of women, and you’ll start a conversation that could
go on for hours. Everyone has something to say on this
topic—even people who never experienced labor themselves have a
story to tell about their sister’s or friend’s experience with
pain. Women are given very mixed messages about pain in
childbirth. They are told it will be tremendously painful and
that you need to use drugs to control the pain. They are also
told that pain is all in the mind, and that they should be able
to control the amount of pain they feel. Here’s the truth: labor
is usually painful. Studies have shown that pain is registered
the same by everyone. If you subject a wide variety of people to
a pinprick, they will all physiologically feel the same amount
of pain. What varies is how each person decides, consciously and
unconsciously, to respond to it. The ability to respond less
intensely to painful stimuli makes it feel like less pain. The
level of perceived pain is a