The word for today is…
travail (noun) – 1. Work, especially when arduous or involving painful effort; toil. See Synonyms at work.
2. Tribulation or agony; anguish.
3. The labour of childbirth.
(verb) – 1. To work strenuously; toil.
2. To be in the labour of childbirth.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : Etymologists are pretty certain that travail comes from trepalium, the Late Latin name of an instrument of torture. We don’t know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word’s history gives us an idea. Trepalium is derived from the Latin tripalis, which means “having three stakes” (from tri-, meaning “three,” and palus, meaning “stake”). From trepalium sprang the Anglo-French verb travailler, which originally meant “to torment” but eventually acquired the milder senses “to trouble” and “to journey.” The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, along with another descendant of travailler, travel.