On Death and Birth

I was listening to OPB today, and one statement jumped out at me.  It was a discussion on death and dying, and that wonderful/horrible place in life when one knows he or she is dying.  How it is a blessed time, because of all the normal day-to-day frustrations no longer mattering, but also just hard, as one knows life is coming to an end.  Decisions have to be made that are permanent, and a certain acceptance is inherent in a good death.  The statement that jumped out at me was "Death does not cause suffering; resistance to death causes suffering."  

We can also say this of birth.  Normal pain in childbirth does not cause suffering; resistance to that normal childbirth pain causes suffering.  Yes, pain is pain and I'm not trying to say there is no pain in childbirth.  But pain is not necessarily suffering.  Suffering leaves permanent damage to one's psyche.  But if we can accept the pain as something that will bring good, something that will leave us changed in an amazing way, then we gain something from that pain.  And the process of birth will be hard, of course, but we will also be better people for it.