I am 5' tall, with the basic body shape of one of those little east german gymnasts. You know the type: we look like female silverback gorillas. Big shoulders, no hips.
Now, my labor was 36 hours. Regardless of the amount of Pitocin I was pumped full of, I was only dilated 3 centimeters.
Still, every labor nurse or female doctor I encountered was bound and determined that I experience the only TRUE female experience there is--natural child birth. Didn't matter that after 20 frikkin' hours I was screaming to be cut open. No, the ardent feminazis were really pressuring me in this sick, demented estrogen tag-team.
Finally, it took a MALE obgyn to realize that there was no way my daughter was coming out the natural way, so he prepped me for a c-section.
Oh, and as far as the whole pain thing goes. I say a hearty F-U to anyone who says its no big deal. We don't live in the middle ages and we have access to all these wonderful new technologies and drugs.
Two hundred years ago, I would have died and so would my daughter. Who cares how my great-great grandmother did it.