Explore your options for pain relief during childbirth. Childbirth is a natural event. Because of this, many feel that it should be natural all the way, including no pain relief. To this end, techniques like Lamaze and the Bradley methods have done a lot to help women who choose to get through the experience with that-the experience.
But there are those who really can’t do it without a lot of suffering, and often it makes no sense as to who are the ones who can do it and who are the ones who can’t. At a certain level, no amount of education or childbirth preparation can make everyone tolerate labor and delivery the same. I’ve had college graduates with adequate childbirth training choosing to end what they considered intolerable suffering at the beginning of labor; and I’ve had patients suffering from developmental delays asking me when it was supposed to start hurting near the end. It makes no sense. Why is this?
The easy answer is because every woman is different.
Different Types of Pain
Perhaps everyone’s pain nerves are different in abundance or distribution. Perhaps different people are more sensitive to different types of pain than others: pressure pain of the baby’s head coming down the pelvis, stretching pain of the baby distending soft tissues as descent takes place, bone pain of the baby’s skull rubbing against the expectant mother’s pubic bone, contracting pain of the uterus (womb) itself. There are many ways pain can contribute to the general discomforts of labor and delivery. Each individual woman is unique in the way all of these causes of pain gang up on her. Natural childbirth techniques, generally successful, cannot always eliminate that one type of pain a woman may be most sensitive to. Let’s be fair. Natural childbirth is an ideal for a natural process. But let’s not forget that not too long ago dying in childbirth was a natural part of this also. Now I’m not saying that the pain of labor can cause death. What I’m saying, in fact, is that if we’re willing to eliminate the “natural” mortality rates associated with childbearing, isn’t it fair to eliminate the natural pain in those who feel they can’t tolerate it? Because something’s natural, does that make it off-limits to a more comfortable experience for the woman who chooses some of the modern methods available, like analgesics and epidurals? The woman who feels she needs something will be the first to tell you her relief is not off-limits.
Making a Personal Choice
Natural childbirth techniques, generally successful, cannot always eliminate that one type of pain a woman may be most sensitive to. Let’s be fair. Natural childbirth is an ideal for a natural process. But let’s not forget that not too long ago dying in childbirth was a natural part of this also. Now I’m not saying that the pain of labor can cause death. What I’m saying, in fact, is that if we’re willing to eliminate the “natural” mortality rates associated with childbearing, isn’t it fair to eliminate the natural pain in those who feel they can’t tolerate it? Because something’s natural, does that make it off-limits to a more comfortable experience for the woman who chooses some of the modern methods available, like analgesics and epidurals? The woman who feels she needs something will be the first to tell you her relief is not off-limits.
End Goal: Happy Moms, Healthy Babies
As an obstetrician I can tell you that all I care about is getting a healthy baby and mother out of all this. Everything else should be the expectant parents’ decision-natural or otherwise. There are certain guidelines expected of me to get to my goal, and as far as I’m concerned, the parents are the bosses for everything else. Natural birthing methods are a wonderful idea…for some (or even most) women. For others it may be a terrible idea. Yet many who have put in a good faith effort to try it have a lot of pressure on them to try longer than they should. Political correctness has no place in the labor and delivery suite. Methods of labor relief, natural or otherwise, should be made-like voting-behind the private curtain of a parent’s wishes. The delivery on one’s child should be a memorable event, not an ordeal. Forgive me for saying it again, but it’s not how you have the baby, it’s how you raise the baby.
