I’m over at Politics Daily today blogging about epidurals during childbirth.
Just as Americans have been busy this week deconstructing Sonia Sotomayor’s every word, gesture and reference to “settled law,” citizens on this side of the pond have been expressing their views on a very different topic: childbirth. Earlier this week, a prominent doctor and midwife here (and not incidentally, a man) published a paper arguing that pain in childbirth is a good thing and exhorted women to have fewer epidurals during labor.
Read the rest of the article here. And feel free to weigh in here, there or in between…
Image: Rayyan_1wk_9 by Amin Ashaari via Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
July 17, 2009, 1:01 am
Let me say something deceptively wise here.
It depends.
Yes, that’s all I have to say, two children and zero epidurals later, memory of pain later, daughter turning 22 kind of later.
July 17, 2009, 9:42 am
yes it is deceptively wise…thanks for sharing!
July 17, 2009, 5:55 pm
Wow. As a man, and as a not-a-doctor, I think I’d defer any judgement to a doctor who can go through childbirth. (Necessarily, a female one.)
I think that’s a personal choice of the woman, and until someone proves it’s damaging healthwise, then I see no reason to recommend it one way or another. Give the lady the facts, not the opinion column.
July 17, 2009, 9:16 pm
“Pain in labour is a purposeful, useful thing, which has quite a number of benefits, such as preparing a mother for the responsibility of nurturing a newborn baby.”
OK, good, I’m glad to know that pain has benefits, so now I won’t feel bad about inflicting pain on this doctor if I ever meet him by punching him in the face.
July 18, 2009, 12:53 pm
I’m with Madeleine. There’s enough pain in life that can’t be avoided – who is he to announce that we ought to seek out pain that can be? – Rachel
July 21, 2009, 9:44 pm
On a lighter note, perhaps the doctor’s right about something:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/47470?utm_source=most_pop_faxed
July 22, 2009, 10:23 am
Love it!!!