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Historical novelist Sarah Dunant has spoken to PEOPLE about her decision to give birth twice without pain relief to see how women used to suffer decades ago

The author told people the experience was "excruciating"

Dunant used her experience to inform her portrayal of childbirth in her 2003 book The Birth of Venus , along with some of her other works

A British historical novelist is speaking out about deciding to give birth without pain relief in an attempt to understand what women would have gone through hundreds of years ago.

Sarah Dunant, 75, gave birth to her two children in 1987 and 1990, and her experience informed her portrayal of childbirth in her 2003 book The Birth of Venus , which follows an 18-year-old woman who falls pregnant and has her first baby in Re

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