Cursed with Pain During Childbirth?
- mydoulahannah
- Apr 14, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: May 21, 2023
Remember in Genesis where Eve took and ate the fruit and then told Adam he should eat it too? Well, Genesis 3:16 says “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain, you shall bring forth children”.
So are women cursed? There was a curse over childbirth for us, and birth is painful. So the obvious answer would be, yes… but this answer is complex. I want to dive deep into this question with you.
Is pain in childbirth a curse from God because Eve partook of the fruit?
I would like to point out that in that verse I referenced earlier, it doesn’t say that Eve was cursed in childbirth. Genesis 3 does talk about the pain being multiplied in childbearing, God did curse the ground and that Adam would have to work on the land. So, yeah there might be added pain to birth, and the original word in the Hebrew language suggests this.
But what about the pain that every mom goes through, not childbirth?
The pain of watching your baby, the one that you have cared for inside your womb and outside your womb in pain. I know when I watch my baby go through teething, get sick or hurt, and have fears of his own are all things that affect me in ways that I never thought were possible. Those are all things that we experience because we live in a fallen world because Eve ate the fruit. So maybe it’s not actual childbirth pain that the Bible is talking about, maybe it’s just the pain of watching your baby grow up in a fallen world.
I want to shift now to what “pain” in childbirth actually does. To start let’s define pain. What is pain without all of the emotions attached to it? Pain is a message from the body to the brain to let the brain know that something is going on. Usually, in our day-to-day lives, pain happens because we are sick or hurt. In childbirth, you're not sick, and you're not hurt.
So why do women and why do you prepare to feel pain in childbirth?
Because it is transformational pain. As a woman, you might do this every cycle with cramping/hormones that are ever-changing as you go through your cycle. You probably don’t remember, but you teethed as a baby and that’s transformational pain as well. Pain comes with change, whether it is good or bad. Which is why you can learn to work WITH the transforming pain that comes with childbirth.
God uses childbirth and becoming a mother as a way to transform you, you become someone new when you give birth. Your brain literally changes when you give birth. You are strengthened through birth. You are magnified through birth. God is with you and designed you to become pregnant, give birth and become a mother. You are “fearfully and wonderfully made” to be a mother. Pain is just a part of that journey so that you can walk with God.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
RESOURCES
biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20139%3A14&version=NIV
Comments