A British male obstetrician once said that women should endure the pain of childbirth because anesthesia affects the mother-infant relationship. Dennis Walsh says the pain of childbirth should be seen as a \”special experience\” and a \”meaningful and useful experience\”.
He analyzed that the pain of childbirth prepares women for motherhood.
Walsh, associate professor of obstetrics at the University of Nottingham, criticized the practice of \”universal anesthesia\” in the UK healthcare system. He believes that maternity hospitals should abandon the use of anesthesia and accept the approach of \”living with pain\”. But some experts criticized his claims, saying he exaggerated the risks of anesthesia and mocked women who need it.
The proportion of women who give birth with an epidural or spinal anesthesia has doubled in the past 20 years to about 37%. In the article, published in Evidence-Based Midwifery, the journal of the Royal College of Midwives, Walsh said the UK healthcare system had quickly succumbed to the use of anesthesia. He said: There are many women who want to avoid pain, but many more should be prepared to endure pain. Labor pain is meaningful, useful, and has many benefits, such as preparing you for the responsibilities of raising a newborn.
Celebrity births and the portrayal of women in labor on television and on television have created a culture of painlessness, but labor pain is natural, healthy and temporary, Walsh said. Risk-averse doctors have also contributed to increased demand for epidurals. He said: “It is never safe for a woman to give birth, but women don’t seem to see any more concerns.
Walsh warned that epidurals carry several medical risks, including prolonging the first and second stages of labor, increasing the likelihood of the baby\’s head being in the wrong position, and reducing the chance of breastfeeding. \”There is growing evidence that natural birth, compared with caesarean section or anesthesia, has benefits for the parts of the mother\’s brain most closely associated with her child,\” he said.
Walsh called on the UK healthcare system to move away from anesthesia and encouraged women to use yoga, hypnosis, massage, lover support, hydrotherapy and birth pools as common methods of pain relief. He said labor pain will always be part of what makes up a woman\’s motherhood, however, he warned: \”Without the rites of passage that are important to childbirth, pain and stress can be viewed negatively.
In his article, he writes that 20% of epidurals are administered to women without the need for them.
Mary Newburn of the National Childbirth Trust supports Walsh\’s views. She denounced the current popular culture of improper prenatal care for women, the lack of midwives in maternity centers, and the fact that 93% of women give birth in hospitals. Kathy Warwick, of the Royal College of Midwives, said one-to-one midwifery care would reduce the epidemic because mothers would feel less anxious.