Is there a specifically Jewish view on childbirth? I’ve had several people ask me this. I’ve sometimes jokingly replied, “Well, given the fact G-d commands the Earth’s creatures in Genesis to “Be fruitful and multiply, I guess childbirth would be considered a good thing.”
But when people ask, it is often to an allusion to the curse to Chava (in English: Eve) “In pain shall you bear children.” A few interpret that line to mean, unfortunately, that a woman should be made to suffer in childbirth and not benefit from any type of pain relief. I do not know many people these days who have this interpretation of the verse: that it is somehow forbidden to use pain relief, but it the verse has been misconstrued by many throughout history.
I learned in college that the Salem Witch Trials began as a way of persecuting midwives, who used herb and other techniques to lessen the pain of childbirth. It was believed that since the Bible said women should endure suffering in labor, that these herbs and the women who dispensed them were somehow evil.
Rebbetzin Tzipporah Heller rejects the idea that pain relief is forbidden. She cites the example that G-d punished Adam for eating the fruit by saying “by the sweat of his brow” he should earn a living. But does that mean that someone who has qualifications to work as a lawyer, for instance, or any other white-collar profession he enjoys should throw away his education and work as a farmer without machinery because the Bible says someone should earn a livelihood literally “by the sweat” of their brow? Similarly, the verse does not prescribe undue suffering for women, including labor without any pain relief.
Rabbi Manis Friedman has explained the curse and the significance of the verse. G-d told Chava she would experience pain in childbirth as a curse, and all curses, explains Rabbi Friedman, are contrary to nature. Therefore, it is not natural for a woman to be in pain during childbirth. The existence of pain relief and natural methods of coping with pain during labor are also given by G-d and are a sign that the era of Redemption is arriving, when there will be no more pain or suffering.