Childbirth is an important transitional life event, but one in which many women are dissatisfied stemming in part from a sense that labour is something that happens to them rather than with them.
I have two questions about this passage:
1) I couldn't figure out the meaning of "stemming in part from a sense that"
2) As I stated in the title, what's the meaning of "labour is something that happens to them rather than with them."?
Without seeing more of the source, this may refer to the birth process in some hospitals, where the mother is treated as part of a process being controlled by the doctor. Many hospitals currently try to ameliorate the process by providing pleasant conditions, including privacy, as well as letting the father attend. But this is not true of some (many?) hospitals, where the obstetrician may have little communication with the mother, other than to tell her what to do.
Some women may feel discouraged at the thought of children, or an entity growing within them -which is more than reasonable in many circumstances. "Rather than with them" could be referring to the mothers inability to control numerous aspects surrounding childbirth, they can maintain a healthy lifestyle throughout a pregnancy; yet tragically the baby perishes whilst inside them. This is a very dire example, yet it depicts this statement quite well, pregnancy is uncontrollable in so many ways, like an illness its stages and effects are inflicted on all mothers alike; pregnancy passively impacts a mothers body but doesn't interact with them in any way.
