Oct 1, 2026 · 3 min · 3 segments
**Making Friends With Pain** Pain in labour isn't the enemy, it's a messenger. In this episode, we explore why understanding pain's purpose changes how you experience it, how your brain and emotions…
Making friends with pain.
So this is really about giving yourself permission to build a relationship with pain that will allow you to understand how to manage uncomfortable sensations in your body.
This is really important when it comes to labor because when we don't understand what's going on, we are frightened and we feel things more intensely.
But even if we don't, even if we do understand, we can still see something as unmanageable or that pain may be the enemy.
And whilst it is definitely something that is there to signal a problem, when it comes to labor, it is not inherently dangerous.
It is there as a messenger.
So pain is purpose when it comes to labor.
During labor, it is not the enemy.
It is a beautiful messenger and it's guiding your body's responses through a beautiful, intricate dance of birth.
Now, this pain is purposeful and it is full of power.
It communicates vital cues to your brain.
It's nudging you to release endorphins, and it even acts as a protective shield, just letting you know if you need to ease off pushing or switch positions to help prevent tearing or to help baby descend.
Everything that it is telling you, everything that is happening, everything you're feeling is all a message to and from.
Making friends with pain.
So this is really about giving yourself permission to build a relationship with pain that will allow you to understand how to manage uncomfortable sensations in your body.
This is really important when it comes to labor because when we don't understand what's going on, we are frightened and we feel things more intensely.
But even if we don't, even if we do understand, we can still see something as unmanageable or that pain may be the enemy.
And whilst it is definitely something that is there to signal a problem, when it comes to labor, it is not inherently dangerous.
It is there as a messenger.
So pain is purpose when it comes to labor.
During labor, it is not the enemy.
It is a beautiful messenger and it's guiding your body's responses through a beautiful, intricate dance of birth.
Now, this pain is purposeful and it is full of power.
It communicates vital cues to your brain.
It's nudging you to release endorphins, and it even acts as a protective shield, just letting you know if you need to ease off pushing or switch positions to help prevent tearing or to help baby descend.
Everything that it is telling you, everything that is happening, everything you're feeling is all a message to and from.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.