Debunking the myth of pain threshold in labour.

We all know what I talk about when I say a pain threshold. How well you supposedly manage pain, right?

A low threshold is not coping with pain very well, and a high threshold is managing it well.

Pain thresholds are about the safety you feel in your body to express hurt and pain. That’s it. That’s what it is.

Let get this straight, before we go too far. Every single human being experiences pain differently for a variety of reasons including, but limited to:

• Past physical and emotional experiences of pain

• How safe it has been to express pain and big feelings throughout your life, particularly childhood

• Your current emotional state when pain is felt

  
  

After you consider your thoughts on your pain threshold (because I know you already have) I invite you to consider whose story this is. Whatever your pain threshold is it is likely that someone else in your life has planted this idea for you. Maybe when you were five you fell over you were applauded for not crying and moving on quickly, leading you to believe that it’s not okay to express hurt when you are in fact hurt; a high pain threshold. Or maybe when you fell over, even for the tenth time in one day, your parent would cuddle you until you felt better, leading you to believe in the safety of expressing hurt; a low pain threshold.

Wrap you head around that and find your place in it before you read the next part.

When it comes to physiological (not induced) labour and birth the idea of a pain threshold is irrelevant.

Pathological pain is the pain experienced when damage is done to the body. Examples include the breaking of a bone or straining a muscle; an injury originating external to the body. Pathological pain is generally what is considered when thinking about pain thresholds. Whereas, physiological pain, including muscle cramping and the pain of physiological labour occurs in the absence of actual tissue damage and occurs within the body. The sensations of labour cannot be compared to pathological pain, therefore the idea of a high or low pain threshold in labour and birth is not only irrelevant, but also unhelpful.

The painful sensations of labour and birth are mostly caused by the stretching of the cervix, vagina and surrounding tissues. The muscles and ligaments in the pelvis are supplied generously with pressure, stretch and pain receptors, so the stretching produces powerful sensations that causes the feeling of pain.

With this being said, it is valuable to acknowledge that the body holds emotions in every part of it, not just your mind. An anxious, fearful or distracted mind will cause physical tension in the body, including pelvic floor, which may prolong labour and make it more painful.

The main take away I want you to have from this is here. A physiological labour (not induced, this is a whole different topic) is abundant with a hormone called oxytocin, the love hormone. Oxytocin plays many various and beautiful roles in this space, however the main one today is that over the course of labour oxytocin builds and it brings calming and pain relieving effects, reducing the sensations of pain. After birth, oxytocin plays many roles also, one being inducing a sense of amnesia which causes you to forget the true sensations of the pain experienced. After all, our species wouldn’t be thriving the way we are if the majority of families didn’t expand beyond one child.

One last thing before I go. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you for expressing the feeling of pain. There isn't (or at least shouldn’t be) any medals for a high pain threshold when it likely means that you're holding in your feelings instead of expressing them.

Feel the feelings, express the pain. Your body will thank you for it.