birth pangs

plural noun

1. pains associated with the process of childbirth.
2. Informal. the hardships and difficulties accompanying a major innovation, change, or new venture.

Word History and Origins

Origin of birth pangs¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

It is decreed of mothers that their birth pangs shall not cease until they die.

From Project Gutenberg

In anguish, fear, and humiliation had his love been born, but the birth-pangs had been as brief as they were intense.

From Project Gutenberg

They are striving earnestly and successfully to adjust conditions created in the birth pangs of a social revolution.

From Project Gutenberg

The birth-pangs of Democracy, wherewith convulsed Europe was groaning in cries that reached Heaven, could not escape me.

From Project Gutenberg

The curtains of the dark are already shaken by the birth-pangs of the morning.

From Project Gutenberg