IMHO Call, your parallel with a birth is missing a very important aspect and that is the repetitiveness. As far as I remember, it has happened at least 3 times (if not more), that we were reasonably near of the production phase and then, suddenly, something has changed set us well back. So should this be a birth, then it is bit difficult first time birth.  We, on the table, think, that “this is it”, while those “in white” know, that what we experiencing is nothing more but int iitial contractions. It may lead to even bigger pain. On top of that, Mr. Evans (as one of those “men in white”, instead of providing an epidural (in a form of optimistic messages provided in his presentation) is advising gently to breathe deeply to enjoy the pain and eventually will sent us back to the “waiting room” to come back later…

Anyway, it seems to me, that this parallel just does not fit. In my view this is a story about a beetle, rolling its ball uphill. At this stage, we can only debate what is going to be inside the ball and how many times it fails till reaching its nest….