The physical changes that take place in a woman’s body during labor are perhaps the most dramatic that occur in humans. They involve more movement, more shape-changing of various organs, more prolonged physical sensation, and considerably more effort than do other physiological functions of the body such as yawning, swallowing, burping, sneezing, coughing, laughing, crying, digesting, breathing, peeing, vomiting, pooping, farting, and coming—the functions we experience on a more regular basis. Birth—as experienced by the mother—is the Mount Everest of physical functions in any mammal.
