Brie Bella on 9 Hours of Giving Birth: 'I Couldn't Handle the Pain'

Brie Bella and husband Daniel Bryan welcomed daughter Birdie Joe Danielson in May, and the first-time mom recently opened up about her birth experience during an interview with Mini Magazine.

The Total Divas star had wanted to give birth naturally, but she eventually had to be induced after she was ten days late. She thought she would have an "easy" labor because she was an athlete, but little Birdie had other plans.

"It was the complete opposite of what I expected," Bella said. "I thought I could labor naturally, but after nine hours, I couldn't handle the pain."

She then decided to have an epidural, but her plans later changed once again.

"I pushed for three hours straight and couldn't get Birdie out," the 34-year-old continued. "After 21 hours of labor, it ended in an emergency C-section. Birdie had a 14-inch head! Even though it wasn't the birth experience I had in mind, I'm so happy Birdie came into this world safely."

The former WWE star also discussed her daughter's unique name, explaining that she and Bryan (real name Bryan Danielson) wanted to keep the family tradition going.

"My husband's only request was that we name all of our children with B names," she said. "His whole family are B's and I'm a B, so he really wanted our kids to be B's. From there, we wanted a nature-inspired name and that's how we decided on Birdie. Her middle name is Joe after my grandfather who meant the world to me."

While Bella misses the wrestling ring after retiring from WWE to become a mom, she noted that this new chapter in her life has allowed her to have a different kind of experience.

"There's a lot of value to being a mother," she said. "It allowed me to grow closer to my mom fans and let them join me on my journey to motherhood via Total Bellas. Most importantly, I now understand the meaning of 'When one door closes, another one opens.' "

Photo Credit: Instagram / @thebriebella