Childbirth is an Act of Survival, Not a 'Wellness Experience'
Apr 25, 2026
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I am a mother of four. I have experienced motherhood through both single and multiple births, including triplets. I have gone through labour, and with it, the physical, emotional, and social pressure that comes with it. And I say this not for sympathy, but because it matters to what I am about to write.
When Akhil Marar suggested that childbirth has been "complicated" by hospitals, and that women once "enjoyed" it, I felt something that went beyond anger. I felt the deep exhaustion of having to explain, yet again, what it actually means to bring a life into this world.
Childbirth is not a wellness experience. It is not something a woman endures quietly and moves on from. It is the single most physically demanding thing a human body can go through, and for generations, women did it without anaesthesia, without monitoring, without any safety net at all. Many of them did not survive it. Many babies did not either. That is not a romanticised past we should be longing for.
As someone who works in healthcare, I understand what obstetric care actually does. It catches the haemorrhage before it becomes fatal. It monitors the foetal heartbeat when things start going wrong. It steps in during the three minutes that can mean the difference between life and death. Calling that "complication" is not just ignorant, it is dangerous.
What concerns me most is not one man's opinion. It is that such statements, made casually by people with large platforms, quietly reshape how society thinks about women's pain. They make it easier to dismiss, easier to minimise, easier to frame as something women are simply too weak to handle gracefully.
Childbirth is not a moment to enjoy or endure in silence. It is an act of survival. Every mother who has come out the other side deserves acknowledgement, not a lecture from someone who has never once been in that room.
We do not need our pain rebranded. We need it respected.