The experience of childbirth is portrayed in Scripture as a complex and multifaceted aspect of human life. In Genesis 3:16, the pain of childbirth is described as a consequence of the fall, while Genesis 1:28 highlights the blessedness of procreation as part of God's original design for humanity. The apostle Paul notes in 1 Timothy 2:15 that women will be saved through childbearing, and John 16:21 compares the joy of a woman in childbirth to the joy of the disciples at Jesus' return. Romans 8:22 also describes the whole creation as groaning in travail, awaiting redemption, illustrating the eschatological significance of childbirth.
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To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD. We were with child; we writhed in pain; but we gave birth to wind. We have given no salvation to the earth, nor brought any life into the world.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation. And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised. The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete. If, however, she gives birth to a daughter, the woman will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstruation. Then she must continue in purification from her bleeding for sixty-six days. When the days of her purification are complete, whether for a son or for a daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. And the priest will present them before the LORD and make atonement for her; and she shall be ceremonially cleansed from her flow of blood. This is the law for a woman giving birth, whether to a male or to a female. But if she cannot afford a lamb, she shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Then the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”