Yeah, the bit where the actual birth of a child 'generally isn't painful' is clearly written by someone who hasn't done it. Labor is painful, but a contraction is just a really bad stomach cramp and not to be compared with the pain of tearing apart your genitalia to force a baby's head through there. 'Cos it's pretty common for women to get tears and grazes at that point in childbirth, especially with a first baby, and with the amount of nerves in that area it's pretty normal to scream when that happens.
Perhaps a better way to phrase it would be "the actual birth of the child is generally not the most painful part", because from what I've read, many mothers claim the contractions are the worst par (not all, but quite a few), but that doesn't mean the actual birth isn't still painful, it's just a different type of pain. Of course, as always, it depends on the mother.
I'm probably way too into this trope for my own good. Having a somewhat levelheaded character screaming their head off in ways that they never thought they would due to unimaginable pain they could have never imagined, the sympathy you feel when it impacts your favorite characters, the inevitability of it, knowing that no matter how much they've tried to convince themselves it'd be worth it but still succumbing to the idea they can't do it, it's all so much to process, and I think my inability to comprehend it draws me to it. Though while I'm drawn to it in fiction, I don't think I'd handle it well if it happened to someone close to me in real life.
Why is there no Real Life section? I think an example talking about how animals generally do not experience the same such pain as humans do when giving birth (with some exceptions, such as hyenas) and the reason why humans do have such pain (abnormally proportionally large babies with big heads, our narrow pelvis, the former former necessarily for our intelligence and the latter related to walking bipedally), would be interesting and educational to put there. If no one has a problem with it I might put a Real Life section there with that example.
For those looking for the missing real life section here it is
22/Apr/10 at 11:11 PM by ninjacrat 58.175.132.93 Deleted line 137: Truth in Television
- Unless the woman is either unconscious or on very STRONG pain medication (and sometimes not even then - an epidural may not work fast enough), the pain of childbirth is quite real and does result in her at least screaming bloody murder, berating of husband/boyfriend/baby's daddy optional. This troper wonders how Scientologists can possibly expect a mother to give birth with no pain medication without screaming her head off... she suspects it's because it was founded by a man.
- Well, women did manage for thousands of years before the invention of anaesthetics.
- Granted... but they were far from guaranteed to actually survive though. Even now there's always a chance, though expectedly much less in place of sufficient medical technology.
- Nowhere in the medical literature of the time does it say anything about pre-modern mothers giving birth in meditative silence.
- Note that the Book of Genesis explains the painful birth as Eve's punishment for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, making this...
- Differs from person to person. Some are heavy breathers, some are grunters, and some have bloodcurdling screaming fits.
- This troper's mother was, with said troper, an aversion — she spent the birth wanting to go kill the woman down the hall who was doing this trope. (And the woman's husband, who had done lamaze with his first wife and didn't think there was any reason to do it again...)
- This troper was apparently so 'unusually' silent they had to keep coming up to make eye-contact to make sure she was still conscious. One midwife said that silence/quiet sounds are a more efficient use of energy than screaming, but really it was due to being more than a little stoned on the gas'n'air.
- Mum was very lucky. She said she had some cramps in hospital, the personal got her into the room and if she's remembering right it was a 3 hours period. Without much pain. Average is 14! This female troper just prays she inherited whatever crazy genetic mixup her mother has, because that's pretty much fricking awesome.
- People tend to react to pain in three different ways. Silence with controlled breathing, screaming bloody murder, or a Cluster F-Bomb. My mother is door number three, and was so for the birth of me and my older brothers.
- This troper and her Modern Family class went on a field trip to a maternity ward. Naturally, there were women giving birth there, and we could hear one screaming down the hall from where we were. Everyone stood around uncomfortably until one of the guys edged over and shut the door.
- Another unfortunate Truth in Television is that births are all too often performed in the aforementioned "sadistic obstetrician" position, with the woman on her back and sometimes with her legs in stirrups. This is the absolute worst possible way to give birth and guarantees it'll take forever, be dangerous, and be very, very painful to boot. Increases the likelihood of a C-section, among other horrible complications.
- Well, women did manage for thousands of years before the invention of anaesthetics.
- Aversion: Apparently birth can be the complete opposite
- This troper's mom (mother of three, all three births without pain meds) took one look at that and called BS.
Also many women note that the second or third childbirth is a breeze. Probably because if you've done something once doing again becomes easier, but some have outright said they genuinely enjoyed the experience (and not in the retrospective, I just created a tiny life sort of way).
From the main article:
"[The woman lying flat on her back] is the hardest position in which to give birth, although the easiest for the doctor."
From the example regarding the 2009 Star Trek movie
"Oh yes, sitting up makes it much easier. You know, apart from the baby apparently having to come out through the bed. Or the table, or whatever."
Someone needs to make up their mind, but I don't know which section to handle.
I'm about to be Little Miss Controversy here, but...maybe only the tropers who have actually given birth themselves should be contributing to this discussion!
I had absolutely no fear going into my first labor. I had attended many births as a neonatal nurse, read every book, took all the classes. There was no ignorance or fear involved.
That said, my own first birth was a screaming birth of the magnitude that the nurses had to shut my door because I was upsetting the other patients. Well, too bad. I was induced with Pitocin (which they kept increasing the dose), my epidural faded away fast and they refused to give me another, and I was not allowed to assume a comfortable position. Sixteen years later, I feel no regrets and no embarrassment for my screaming. They should have kept me more comfortable.
Baby #2 was easy because my epidural worked great. Baby #3 was so easy I was still walking around fully dilated, and didn't realize the baby was decending until the nurse told me.
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