Popa — to make it clear, childbirth typically HURTS. A LOT. Labor is not only laborious, it HURTS. Think about a vise squishing your kishkes in from all sides, slowly at first, and then a crescendo of squeezing from inside out, with your entire midsection hard as a rock. It VERY slowly subsides after around a minute of this intense squeezing. Thumbscrews as torture devices were probably developed based on men observing the pain of women in childbirth.
So yes, it is excruciating. The epidurals (and I never had any in my five natural childbirths), can only be administered in the latter stage of labor, by which time the mother to be has been suffering a long time. And make no mistake, epidurals can potentially cause a sudden lowering of the mother’s blood pressure, they are not totally without consequence. It was for that reason that I persoanlly never opted to have them.
That said, the pain is totally worth it, to have that baby, and I would have gone through it a aixth time, if Hashem had given me the chance.
If men had to have the babies, our specie would be kaput.