The Honest Truth About Having Babies

“Help me! I’m being stabbed!” That’s what I shouted in the middle of labor fully convinced something sharp had impaled my spine. My husband, looking panicked, turned to the nurses for guidance. They gave him a knowing glance and quietly whispered, “She’s just in labor.”

Just.

Anyone who has gone through pregnancy and childbirth knows there is no “just” about it. It’s not simply discomfort. It’s full-body agony. It’s fear wrapped in physical pain. Even in the modern age with epidurals, medical teams, and climate-controlled delivery rooms childbirth is still risky. Still terrifying. Still painful.

Why? Because the difficulty of bringing life into the world is not merely biological. It’s theological.

The Curse We Carry

Scripture tells us why childbirth is so painful. In Genesis 3:16, God speaks to Eve after humanity’s rebellion in the garden: “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” When Eve, and then Adam, chose disobedience over devotion, the consequence wasn’t only personal it was generational. Pain would now accompany life, even from its very beginning.

And the Bible doesn’t downplay this agony. In fact, it uses the pain of childbirth to describe some of the most harrowing experiences in the human condition. Micah speaks of groaning like a woman in labor (Micah 4:10). Paul uses labor as a metaphor for spiritual anguish (Galatians 4:19). Jesus speaks of it as a picture of sorrow giving way to joy (John 16:21). Even creation, we’re told, is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22).

Labor is hard because sin broke the world. And nothing in creation, not even the miracle of birth, was left untouched by that fall.

But Grace Came First

Still, there’s something we often miss in the story of Genesis: grace actually came before the curse.

Back in Genesis 2, before the fall, God warned Adam that if he ate from the tree of knowledge, he would die (Genesis 2:17). If God had responded immediately and absolutely to that rebellion, there would be no children. No families. No future. But the very fact that Eve would still bring forth life was a mercy.

On the basis of justice alone, no babies should ever have been born. And yet today, there are over 8 billion people on the planet. Last year alone, 134 million babies were born across the globe. That’s not just biology that’s grace. God did not destroy Adam and Eve. He allowed them to live, to love, and to multiply. And in doing so, He continued to paint His story across human history.

The existence of your baby in your womb, in your arms, in your plans is not just a miracle. It’s a message: God has not given up on us.

Why Labor Isn’t in Vain

But that truth alone isn’t always enough when you’re on hour twelve of contractions, or battling through a high-risk pregnancy, or recovering from a traumatic delivery. When your body is breaking, your heart is fearful, and your soul feels stretched, what sustains you?

The cross.

In the very moment God pronounced the curse over Eve, He also made a promise. A child would come a descendent of hers who would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). That child would grow into the Savior. He, too, would be born of a woman. He, too, would experience agony. And He, too, would bring life through suffering.

Jesus took on a body so He could walk through pain and death. So He could rescue us from the curse. So He could turn our groaning into glory. Every contraction now carries a deeper meaning: not just the pain of sin, but the hope of redemption.

That’s why having babies is hard and still worth it.

A New Perspective on Pain

If you’re expecting right now, or recovering postpartum, or considering whether to welcome more children into your family, know this: God is at work in your body and in your story.

That spine-stabbing pain? That exhaustion? That fear? He sees all of it. He doesn’t dismiss it. He entered into it through Christ. And He’s redeeming it even now.

Your pregnancy is not random. Your delivery is not forgotten. Your fatigue is not wasted. The God who counts your baby’s heartbeats also counts your tears. And He promises: “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

So no matter how brutal your labor or how uncertain your delivery, there is glory on the other side. And not just the glory of holding your baby though that is a wonder in itself but the glory of being conformed to Christ through every ache and every hour.

Labor That Shines

Philippians 2:14–15 says, “Do all things without grumbling... that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish... among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

Childbirth is hard. God never said it wouldn’t be. But He calls us to labor spiritually and physically with gratitude, not grumbling. To groan, yes. But to groan in hope. To trust that the same God who ordains every due date is shaping us for eternity through every moment of discomfort.

In a world that sees childbirth only as suffering or inconvenience, Christian mothers can shine. We shine not because we’re stronger or braver or quieter but because we know there’s more to the story. More than pain. More than risk. More than fatigue.

There’s redemption. There’s resurrection. There’s life.

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