Whether you believe the Genesis account or not, the punishments meted out on Adam and Eve were enormous. Yes, they both knew that they would die in the day of their eating from the tree, but why was it necessary for Eve, and every other woman born afterwards, to have a painful pregnancy? Why did there have to be thorns and thistles? Wasn't the knowledge and experience of a slow and painful death enough?
Genesis 2:17 "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
Genesis 3:16 "To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
Genesis 3:17-19 "To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
Additional punishments:
Genesis 3:24 "After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side [e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." Genesis 3:16 "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
To summarise:
Both Adam and Eve were to die within the current thousand year period.
Eve would have very painful pregnancies.
The ground would be cursed with thorns and thistles
They were driven (by wild animals?) out of the Garden of Eden, of which the gateway was protected by a flaming sword Adam would dominate his wife. Eve would feel a craving (anyone explain this?) for her husband.