Are Women Cursed to Feel Pain in Childbirth?

To start this off, I want to say that this is based upon my personal beliefs as well as The Holy Bible and the way that I have interrupted it. Let’s now dive deep into the Word. Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said, “ I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Believe it or not there is a lot to unpack even in just that one verse. 

Before the fall, (when they ate the fruit from the tree of good and evil) there was peace and harmony between people, animals, etc. When they fell into sin and disobeyed God, the Lord brought them consequences due to their actions. 

There is a difference between a curse and a consequence. A curse is a supernatural power that is supposed to inflict pain and harm. It is the opposite of a blessing. Whereas a consequence is the result of an action. If you read a couple verses above Genesis 3:16, the Lord cursed the serpent. He then goes on to say what will happen to the woman and man due to their actions, but did not curse them unlike He did with the serpent. 

Now in regards to the pain of childbirth. I don’t know if I truly believe childbirth was just never going to be painful. The word pain in Genesis 3:16 goes all the way back and translates into sorrow. Sorrow doesn’t necessarily mean pain. The word sorrow means a feeling of deep distress caused by loss. You know what Adam and Eve which trickled into us losing? We lost a perfect relationship with God. As I said before, our actions have consequences. Therefore when a gap opened up into our relationship with the Lord there was deep sorrow. Sorrow equals pain and pain equals physical, emotional,and spiritual hurt. 

And when God speaks to Eve about her "desire" for her husband, and him "ruling" over her, it's not just about marriage dynamics. It's deeper than that. It reflects the brokenness that entered into human relationships. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were partners, they were equals. But after the fall, things got complicated. Power dynamics shifted, and not for the better.

I don’t believe that before the fall there was no pain and God didn’t design Adam and Eve to feel pain. I believe that they could feel pain, but since they hadn’t sin and experienced suffering due to their actions, pain was different to them. I also wanted to say that I believe that childbirth means not just the labor, but raising the children. If Adam and Eve hadn’t fallen into temptation they would have the pleasure to raise children that would have been perfect, easy going, and obedient. As I said before, there is so much debate in regards to this topic. I don’t know everything, far from it, but by reading and trying to understand Scripture I came to this conclusion. 

The Lord blessed us and called us to be fruitful and multiply. We are God’s children that He loves so deeply. In the New Testament Jesus told us that in this world we would have trials and tribulations, but take heart for He has overcome the world. Through Christ we can do all things. Pain or no pain, cursed to feel that pain or not we are cherished by God. 

To wrap up I just wanted to remind you that birth is beautiful. Mary (Jesus’ mother) gave birth to Him the same way and she gave birth that way to the Messiah. Mary encountered the same contractions, tears, sweat, and sensations just how we get to. We aren’t giving birth to the Messiah, but we can raise up children who love the Messiah!