Here my flesh is sick nigh to death
As I cramp and bleed from the womb
Might Thou bless me with peaceful breath
That this infant in me might bloom?

If Thou calls me, save this baby
That my suff’ring not be in waste
While Thy Light is still inside me
I give thanks for Thine atoning grace

In memory of all the women who used to die in labor-
This post came as a blessing to me. I thought I could not cry for my daughter who stole from us yesterday and our relationship is severed at this time. I feel like part of me has died. Thank you Segullah

As far as comparing our own personal experiences to the Atonement, I doubt there’s any one of us who would claim that we’d had an experience that matched the Atonement in intensity. But we all have our Gethsemanes. I think God wants us to have some small understanding of what He experienced us, and so He gives us mortal experiences that are “types” of what His was. This happens throughout the scriptures, so why wouldn’t it happen to us too? In my case, the experience of watching my son’s birthmother lay him in my arms and walk away is a “type” for me–to watch someone go through the most unspeakable anguish possible and me be the beneficiary of that pain, well, that brings my thoughts to the Atonement in a very profound way.

While I didn’t respond, I thought to myself “well I know of one non-mother who knows—Jesus Christ”. Furthermore, men, (and women and children who have never gone through child-birth) might also know because the scriptures state that “all things” can be conveyed by the Spirit.

Questions about Sister Okazaki’s authority are needless because this doctrine is based on numerous scriptures (try 2 Nephi 9:21, D&C 88:41).

And for the purpose of ascertaining whether God “knows what it feels like”, the debate between 1)“Christ felt all peoples’ various feelings of mortality during the atonement” and 2)“he knows because he comprehends all things and knows our thoughts” is moot at this point. Either way, he knows.

One of the great questions of mortality is whether God really is omniscient. It seems to me that a God that isn’t omniscient can’t be the author of a religion powerful enough to produce the faith necessary for salvation. Throwing gender in as a possible barrier to God’s omniscience is a tool of Satan, just as he has thrown in the barriers of God’s invisibility, the fact that he is one and we are billions, etc.

About a month ago, early December, our ward joined another for Sunday meetings, as our building was entirely taken up with our annual Christmas Creche display. The gal who taught our combined Relief Society meeting about Christ used this same Cheiko Okazaki quote in her lesson, reading it bookmarked from “Lighten Up!”

I’m still in the process of learning about that, still on that journey, but I believe it is true, he knows exactly how to succor me, no matter what the cause of my pain or discomfort or sorrow.

I did misread your initial question–rather confusing it with the ongoing discussion on T&S. I do believe that Christ understands what women go through, but I’m not sure how much he understands by actual experience.

In some ways I see it like a bad accident. If I was run over by a steam roller and had every bone in my body broken, I think it would be fair to say that I deeply understand severe physical pain. Whether or not I actually had a kidney stone may not be terribly relevant in my being able to empathize with someone who has one.

The scripture Dalene cited comes to my mind. Also, the following verse adds some interesting insight: “Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people . . .”

It sounds like He COULD know all we suffer simply through the Spirit.