By: TaniaLindsey

TaniaLindsey
Thu, 27 Jul 2023 08:26:51 +0000

I think there’s a balance to be struck here. I personally gave birth twice at home with no adverse medical issues and no artificial pain relief – after having a late pregancy scan to ensure that the baby was in the right position with no evidence of likely complications. I don’t believe in glorifying any particular route but I do believe in choice with much better coaching in natural pain relieving techniques.

During my first labour I learned that changes to my own body position and movement (I didn’t lie on a bed and just endure it) during contractions could significantly mitigate the discomfort, combined with external physical sensation such as rubbing my tummy or running the shower over myself which was pretty effective pain relief. Timing each contraction with a watch with a second hand quickly told me how long each one lasted and how soon it would end which was a great coping mechanism. I was never told these things, I worked them out for myself during my first labour. The hospitalisation of birthing mothers can, I believe, be inflexible and not have scope for some of these self-help pain relief techniques during an uncomplicated labour. No one ever told me these things would work when in fact they worked extremely well both as pain relief and feeling that I had control of my own level of discomfort.

All medicalised pain relief is some kind of drug, some women do have very severe pain when things are not working as they should and they need and deserve proper pain relief, I believe that there is an increase in the average size of a new born as well which brings its own difficulties for some mothers. However drugs do harm as well as good and I have known someone who had long term damage from an epidural – this is rare I’m sure, but it’s possible.

There should be choice, but it should be properly informed choice with better information about how to deal with the pain of child birth with natural techniques – all they ever taught me at anti-natal classes was to breath deeply, a singularly useless and ineffective technique in my experience.

As for longer stays in hospital, the NHS is not a hotel or a baby care service and it does not have the resources for this unless there is a medical need. Community midwives, father’s and families need to be on hand to help a new mother in her own home wherever possible, as they are in some of our communities, and once again better information about what to expect from our own body after child birth and what difficulties you may encounter in the first few days and weeks with a new baby were very much lacking when I had my children. We were shown how to put on a nappy and bath a baby but little if anything of what our own body would need, the information about what to expect from our body immediately post-birth was minimal and superficial.

Anti-natal services should be an integral part of the process and help prepare expectant mothers to mitigate the discomfort of child birth and control their own pain and to be fully informed about what to expect immediately post birth.