Sorry this is more of a reassurance than an answer based on personal experience, I developed a love for animal crackers, croissant sandwiches, pudding cups, and Recharge that could not be denied the last month of my pregnancy, so any shreds of paleo hope went right out the window. I think having a paleo diet for the 8 months before I conceived, and for part of the 2nd and 3rd trimesters helped though, my midwives commented on the speed of my recovery.
Birth and recovery do seem to be aided by traditional diets. I can't remember the name of the doctor off the top of my head, but he worked for decades in Canada providing medical care for the Inuit population, and when he started he was never able to get to a birth before the baby was born, but over the years as a more Western diet was adopted he noticed that labor times were increasing from hours to days, so if you have it in you, sticking to paleo could certainly help.
Don't be scared, birth hormones do a really good job of taking care of you, there are some damn good opiates we can tap into in the right circumstances, the process just sort of takes over and the rest of the world melts away. Plus, you'll be too tired/relieved/distracted by the new baby to really notice anything that happens in the few days after birth anyway other than an afterpain here and there as the uterus tightens, and developing mondo boobs when your milk comes in.
I didn't find any of birth (other than the Castor Oil induced projectile vomiting, which was self inflicted, and not usually a necessary part of labor) or the following to be gory, the placenta pops out (didn't even notice), the uterus clamps down, and spot where the placenta was heals over the course of a few weeks (just like having a 2-3 week period that is really heavy for the first few days).
I'm a little bummed that the memes about birth are either that it is "horrible" or in response it gets overly romanticized by people trying to respond to the negative images, neither one is totally honest in my opinion. My experience was that it just "is", it all just felt quite matter of fact, and then we had one more family member. I've wept tears of joy and gotten quite emotional at every birth I've been to but my own, I think it is much more emotional to watch than to do (which I think accounts for most of our media images positive and negative of birth, the vast majority are outside accounts). I was like, "Hey there baby, you're outside now, let's get some rest," and then looking around I was wondering why everyone was crying, obviously two very different experiences observing versus doing.
It will be your unique experience, but the act itself is by no means unique, all of our mothers, grandmothers, and the women who came before them have been through the same right of passage, they did it, we can do it, it is totally doable.
I think the main thing to remember with breastfeeding too is that it is an "animal" experience, and modern trappings like clothing, separating baby from mama for more than a few minutes in the early weeks and trying to time feelings can interfere with a hormonally based process. Spend as much time topless and skin to skin with your baby as possible, and put a boob in their mouth the moment they start rooting in those first 3 weeks and you improve your chances for smooth sailing on breastfeeding tremendously.
