Why are we not allowed to accept pain in our lives? Hurt from another person, a headache, the pain of childbirth – if you want to accept grief from a broken relationship, try natural cures to your headache and especially if you want to work through labor pains on your own, you’re often considered by some to be a bit odd.
We need other words for pain. Pain is used to describe a hang nail and a broken neck, yet those are two totally different types of pain. Where are our 50 words for pain? There is certainly enough of it to warrant a richer language.
In a previous post about the differences between the midwifery model of care and the medical model: (http://fullmoonsdaughter.com/blog/2009/03/the-differences-between-technocratic-and-holistic-models-of-care) Robbie Davis-Floyd mentioned that in midwifery care pain is acceptable. Pain is not acceptable in the medical model.
It’s okay to be in pain. We learn a lot from our darkest hours. And birth is a time when a woman becomes a mother and learns that she could do anything. She learns to get out of her own way, speak her truth, open up and surrender to her own power. She feels her strength and is in awe of her will.
Labor is hard work and most women interpret the sensations of labor as pain. It is a joining force between women around the world to connect together and hold the power of creation and the Universe in their bodies.
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Pain is the body’s way of guiding us to comfort.
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There are native cultures in the world that don’t associate pain with childbirth and therefore these women don’t feel pain during childbirth. What amount and degree of pain is our society responsible for?
Does birth have to hurt? Sometimes women need to experience that deep and unique connection to their bodies in order to give birth. Would women feel short changed somehow if they didn’t experience the deepening of their bodies during labor?
I know that when I ran my first marathon I was expecting lots of pain. Through that pain I wanted to discover a new part of myself and grow from it. When the 26.2 miles was finished and it was easy for me, it took me weeks to recover from my disappointment of not having felt that edge. Are some women looking for that during birth?
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I have a theory about dealing with pain during dis-ease.
The only time people are allowed to scream, moan, move through and create ritual around pain is during childbirth. At all other times we are expected to still remain within the boundaries of acceptable, normal behavior.
What if we were encouraged to moan and audibly breathe through a migraine or pace and hang onto a partner during cramps? And to help us find our place of instinct and rhythm we would all attend workshops on how to do this?
It seems this type of behavior could be an additional healing technique if we were told it was okay to try.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences on this?
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