By Lovetti Lafua

Nurse • Midwife • Biologist • Human Optimization Researcher

Birth is not a moment.
It is a process.
A biological transformation.
A neurological reprogramming.
A cellular event.
A spiritual initiation.
A metabolic marathon.

The first stage of labor is where the real work begins—not the pushing, not the crowning, but the opening. This is where the body prepares the gateway of life. This is where the uterus takes command and the nervous system must learn one sacred skill:

Relax everything—except the womb.

The uterus is designed to contract.
The rest of the body is designed to surrender.

When other muscles tense, they compete with the uterus for oxygen, blood flow, and energy. When the body relaxes, the uterus works more efficiently, contractions become productive, and labor becomes more physiologically intelligent.

This is not poetry.
This is biology.

Labor Is High-Performance Physiology

An average labor burns over 7,000 calories.

That means labor is not passive.
It is not “just happening.”
It is not something being done to a woman.

It is something a woman is doing.

Labor is:

• muscular work
• metabolic work
• hormonal work
• neurological work
• emotional work
• psychological work
• cellular work

Birth is one of the highest-energy physiological processes the human body can perform.

This is why fear disrupts labor.
This is why tension slows labor.
This is why relaxation accelerates labor.

The body cannot be in fight-or-flight and birth mode at the same time.

In Part II of this series, we will explore the three distinct biological states of the first stage of labor: Latent Labor, Active Labor, and Transition, beginning with the crucial phase of initiation.