WOW! This is so beautiful. And so are you and your photos. I love it! Yes, it's a strong belief that pain and birth come together, when in reality pain only belongs with our bodies when there is an issue. Pain is an indicator that there is something wrong. But because throughout the ages we were told that with birth, comes pain, we now believe it to be so, we tend to let fear take over (Love is the answer, not fear :) )and we unlearned to listen to our bodies and lots of women (too many) have to listen to others in childbirth, due to fear.
I know like no other that it's all not true. I had my two youngest children unassisted and they were absolutely painless.
Congratulations to you both and I wish you your dream-birth!