“The birth happened to her [the Virgin Mary] exactly as to other women, consciously with her mind functioning normally and with the parts of her body helping along, as is proper at the time of birth, in order that she should be his normal natural mother and he her natural normal son. For this reason her body did not abandon its natural functions which belong to childbirth, except that shes gave birth without sin, without shame, without pain, and without injury, just as she had conceived without sin. The curse of Eve, which reads: ‘In pain you shall bear your children’, did not apply to her. In other respects things happened to her exactly as they happen to any woman giving birth. For grace does not destroy or impede nature and nature’s works; indeed grace improves and promotes them.”
Martin Luther. ‘The Gospel for Christmas Eve’ from the Christmas Postil. Luther’s Works, American Edition, vol. 52. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), p. 11-12.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 
Except that the normal functioning of a woman’s body naturally includes some injury and pain…contractions that stretch and open the cervix, while not always painful are often so, pain as a baby makes its way down the few inches of birth canal, the “ring of fire” as a baby crowns just before being pushed out into the world, injury and bruising to our perineum as we stretch to allow something the size of a baby’s head to emerge. I don’t believe that one can ascribe to the natural functioning of a woman’s body and deny the sacrifice of our pain at the same time. And of course she birthed without sin and without shame. We all do.
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