When I was pregnant with Miss I read lots of things about preparing for childbirth. I remember in several instances it being suggested that moms think of labor as like running a marathon. At the time I had run two marathons, and I mostly just thought the suggestion seemed cliché. So I didn’t pay much attention to it.
Since then, I have given birth without pain medication twice. I’m not preparing at the moment to either run a marathon or give birth. But for some reason the comparison between the two experiences was on my mind the other day, and I realized that there actually are some ways in which natural childbirth is like running a marathon.
And then there are ways in which it is not.
Here are my thoughts on how they’re similar:
1. They can both be long and painful.
2. You have to remain focused on your end goal during both.
^Even in June, Lake Superior is like an ice bath.
3. They both require serious mental and physical endurance.
4. They can both involve lots of sweating and make you very tired.
5. They both sometimes involve throwing up (though I did not throw up during either of my marathons).
Here’s how they’re different:
1. You can practice for a marathon. Not so much for a natural childbirth. Not really anyway.
When you’re training to run a marathon, you run. You practice the act that you’re going to actually be doing, in increasing increments until your body is ready. Usually the longest training run for a marathon is 22-ish miles (if I remember correctly), so on the big day, you just add on 4 more and you’re all set. Now admittedly, that’s a very long 4 miles by the time you get to the end of a marathon, but you still trained for it.
You can’t practice childbirth. You can’t simulate contractions, no matter what they tell you about holding ice in your hands and breathing through the “pain.” Whatever. It’s not the same. And you sure as hell can’t practice the final push. No increasing increments. No.
Sure, breathing exercises, reading books, doing yoga and meditation, all that is great, but it is not true practice for the real deal. You just can’t practice that.
2. Giving birth is a completely natural process for your body to go through. Running 26.2 miles at once is not.
I guess this is reassuring, given #1.
3. When you’re running a marathon, you can stop running for a bit and walk if you need to. Heck, I suppose you could even sit down and take a break if you had to. You can get a drink of water, eat a banana, stop and go to the bathroom if needed. You get the picture.
You cannot do this during labor. It just keeps going. Walking is not an option.
4. After you finish a marathon, you can sleep for 12 hours if you feel like it. Not so much with a sweet newborn.
5. At least in my experiences, there is very little screaming and crying during a marathon. In fact, I didn’t observe any. I cannot say the same for my experiences with natural childbirth.
^This picture just makes me want to laugh. Somehow I had never seen it before going through to select photos for this post. I look so pitiful.
Can you think of any other ways these two insanely difficult and wonderful experiences are similar? Different?
