Responsa sobre Shabbat 2:9

6. However, there are many questions on this topic, and in order to clarify the topic of comforting the mind of the birthing woman, there is a need to elaborate. First, look closely at that beraita- "Our Sages taught- if she needs a candle, her friend lights a candle for her, and if she needs oil, her friend brings her oil by hand, and if this is not enough, she brings it in her hair, and if this is not enough, she brings it in a container." In the Gemara, they challenge this, "Take out this part, because it is forbidden to bring it in her hair, because it requires squeezing," and they responded, "Rava and Rav Yosef both said- The action of forbidden squeezing cannot be done on hair. Rav Ashi said- Even if you think hair is squeezable, she can still bring it in a container using her hair, because as much as it is possible to deviate from the normal way of carrying, we deviate." From here, we learn that we need to do things for the woman who is giving birth on Shabbat using abnormal methods. Furthermore, the beraita mentioned this deviation in the context of bringing oil, and did not mention deviation in lighting the candle, which makes it seem that only bringing oil requires deviation, and Rav Ashi too, speaks about bringing the oil. Except, the Tur writes in ch. 330 "We light a candle for her, and in any case, as much as it is possible to deviate from the normal way, we deviate." In his words, the "deviating" is also referring back to lighting the candle, and not just bringing the oil. Similarly the Meiri writes in accordance with the Tur's phrasing, and it seems that they pick up on specificity in what Rav Ashi said, "as much it is possible to deviate from the normal way, we deviate," in the plural form, indicating that it is speaking not just about the one friend bringing the oil, but about everyone. But necessarily the Rambam's opinion differs, as he wrote in Laws of Shabbat 2:11, "And if she needs oil or other similar things, we bring it to her, but as much as it is possible to deviate from the normal way, we deviate while bringing it, for example, her friend brings it in a container hanging from her hair. But if this is not possible, she brings it in the normal way." Here he has added words "while bringing it," which proves that only in that case would we deviate. The SM"aG wrote similarly, using the same words in Laws of Shabbat, Negative Rules 65, and it appears that the SMa"K, KolBo, and Eshkol agree as well. In the SMa"K Mitzvah 221 is written, "If she needs a candle, we light it for her, even if she is blind, and if she needs oil, her friend brings it, but as much as it is possible for her to deviate from the normal way, she does." He specifically teaches this in the phrasing of Rav Ashi, changing from plural to singular female, referring to the one who brings the oil, in contrast to the phrasing of "we light the candle." This is not to say that there is never a deviation to be made in lighting a candle, because it is certainly possible for two friends to light it at once, as the Rambam wrote in Laws of Shabbat 1:15, or it is possible to light it with the back of the hand, or other kinds of deviations. Given this, we need to understand the opinion of the Rambam and his group, which follows the simplest read of the beraita- why is bringing (oil), which is done with a deviation, different from lighting (the candle) or other forbidden labors which are done for a birthing mother?

19. However, the woman herself during labor has not yet entered life-threatening danger, and it is possible that this is what the Maggid Mishneh meant when he wrote "that the pain of the birthing mother and her contractions are like a natural thing for her," speaking about the time of her contractions, when, truly, "fewer than one in a thousand die," as he wrote later, except, his phrasing is not quite correct, as he wrote, "during birth," and earlier used the term "birthing mother," see there. Therefore, we break Shabbat for her in an abnormal way in a place where that is possible, since she is not like an ill person who is already in danger. Further, for any other ill person, we would violate Shabbat for his physical needs, but for a birthing mother, we violate it also to settle her mind. If you contend that perhaps requiring things do be done in an abnormal way will lead to them being not done at all- this is not something that is urgent. And if you contend that it would not provide her with a settled mind- when she knows that they will get her whatever she needs, that will settle her mind. And if you contend that people might come to confuse her case with that of another kind of ill person in life-threatening danger, and do things for him too through abnormal ways- these cases are not similar, since she is not in danger, since that begins only when her womb opens, which happens later. Additionally, according to the Rambam's position in Laws of Shabbat 2:3, "regarding other types of ill people, we do not violate Shabbat using women as intermediaries, so that they will not view Shabbat lightly." In that case, for birthing mothers, since we would in an ideal case want the Shabbat violations to be done by women, since all the needs of birthing mothers were done by women in Talmudic times, it would be appropriate for them to do them in an abnormal way, to indicate not to learn from this case to other ill people.