Being prepared for childbirth can make a big difference in the level of pain you experience (assuming a normal birth) and how you cope with it. It is like being forced to run a 20km marathon with no preparation. You would find that agonising but if you had prepared for it for 9 months, your perception of the pain would be different, you would have coping skills and tricks to use to reduce pain. Labour is much the same. Knowing what to expect, practicising different positions and breathing to cope with different stages, having good support people, can make all the difference to how you perceive pain during labour.
I totally agree. I just had my 3rd daughter 8 weeks ago. I prepared for her birth for the last 12 weeks of my pregnancy (about the same length of time of preparation I did when I ran in the Sydney City to Surf a few years ago). It's important to me to prepare because I know it helps me to stay healthy and low-risk for the birth. And it also gives me the stamina I need for my uterus to work efficiently - because labour sure is an athletic event.

I've also read that giving birth is similar to swimming. If we are told that 9 months from now we will be thrown into a pool at the deep end - but we don't know how to swim - then on the day when we are thrown in it would be scarey and we would thrash around and find it quite traumatic. If we had gone to swimming lessons we would have learned how to swim and could make it to the side to get out. We can learn how to give birth just like we can learn how to swim.

We can learn how to avoid unnecessary pain in labour, how to work with our bodies rather than against them, our partners can learn how to work together with us as a team to achieve the kind of birth experience we want, and we can learn how to communicate well with our medical team to make sure we are part of the decision making process during labour and birth - so we are empowered (b*%#@ slap me now, hehe) and responsible for the start of our little precious baby's life.

I was totally committed to having no pain medication during my childrens' births because I didn't want them to start their lives with drugs in their bodies - since the drugs are chemical cousins of cocaine and heroin. If there was a medical complication then the drugs can be life saving. I think we can prepare well, though, so that in the absense of medical complications we are able to have a normal non-medicalised birth and it can be a wonderful, joyous experience.

As well as eating a healthy well-balanced diet, I practised consciously relaxing my whole body for 20 mins every night for the last 12 weeks of my pregnancies. Also practising breathing normally (abdominally) while I was doing it. And I learned about what my body is doing during labour so that I would understand what was going on and not be fearful.

When I was in labour the thought of pain medication didn't cross my mind. I knew I had a job to do and I knew what the job entailed (i.e. what was coming up...the different emotional and physical stages of labour). So I was able to focus my whole self on doing what I needed to do.

And I agree that we can think of it in terms of positive pain. Once we have avoided any unnecessary pain, then any pain that is left is bringing us closer to holding our beautiful baby.

We need to learn how, though, just like we learned how to swim.

I want to encourage you - that you are a strong, intelligent woman and you can take control of your birth experience.