What is your opinion on this NY Times article regarding natural childbirth?
Byhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/alice_miles/article1610130.ece
I asked this last night, but the link didn’t work. I am really interested in seeing if people agree or disagree? It’s not long.
I have been planning a natural birth for my 2nd child, and I was pretty surprised that I found this article when I Googled “why to choose natural birth”
Related posts:
- why do so many women prefer to go through natural childbirth instead of getting a medicated one?
- the question is: What can I do to prepare myself for natural childbirth–mentally and physically.?
- A question for anyone who has had a natural childbirth?
- what are the benefits of natural childbirth…?
- Encouraging natural childbirth…?
10 Comments
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:11 pm
the tone of the article seemed very rude, ignorant and biased.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I don’t understand why women would want to experience pain when giving birth, but it is the woman’s choice. I don’t like in the article how they glamorize planned c-sections though. C-sections are major surgery and should never be the first option when delivering a baby.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:06 pm
i agree i had 3 kids natural i mean the real natural with no drugs or pain meds. the only medicine i had was the pain making numb. and my hubby said even after 3 kids im even tighter down there than i used to be. but i am a young mother and i think that has a lot to do with it also. i am not a fan of the drugs, i mean if you can push a human out of you and not do the whole needle in the spine thing then more power to ya. i just feel that a woman is supposed to earn the right to have that baby be into this world. through pain and screaming lol.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Agree with both of the above. These columnists make me laugh when they talk of fitting the birth of their baby “in their diary”! You can just hear her in 5 years time, telephoning the school and demanding that they change the date of the Nativity play to fit in with her diary. I work in Maternity and of course women should have pain relief if they want it. But these are powerful drugs and a caesarian section is a major surgical procedure. I didn’t want any intervention unless it was absolutely necessary for my baby’s safety and I’m sure that most normal, intelligent women feel the same.
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:22 am
Dying during childbirth was a natural way of life for many families for many centuries, I’m glad modern medical practices have reduced the risk of child birth, as I’m glad child birth can be less painful with the use of drugs, I hate the argument that natural is always better, maybe for some with a high threshold for pain, but not for everyone!!!!!!!
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:15 am
Very very biased and rude.
http://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/labor_birth/natural_childbirth/article/natural-birth-pregnancy-pg2
Natural birthing mothers are not freaks– in fact its how nature intended and to compare giving birth to a cancer is so ridiculous. Birth is a beautiful experience that I WANTED to experience not drugged out. I actually DID MY RESEARCH of the affects of the epidural- I did not just wake up one day after hugging a tree and said to myself I want pain!
I wanted this for many reasons my main three being:
1. Studies show that babies born with the epidural are more likely to have trouble latching on the breast
2. You risk paralysis
3. I HATE needles! Especially a foot long one inserted into my spinal cord
This is not to put down mothers who choose to get drugs, this just to clear the air– Natural birth mothers arent quacks and MOST choose this way based on research so its an EDUCATED CHOICE.
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:50 am
I don’t see what the big deal is, if a mother doesn’t want to use the drugs, good for her! But I cannot handle the pain and therefore I got an epidural. Everyone has a different level of pain tolerance.
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:25 am
i agree with the first poster. She seems to have a very one sided biased view. I would expect that is a reporter is going to write an article on something then she should have all views. There are much more complications to go along with a cesarean section than natural child birth, for mother and baby.
And I personally think that if you are having a c-section just to avoid the pain then you are less of a women. If you can’t stand the pain of labor then you shouldn’t have children. And I do say that with have had 3 births and 3 epidurals. Anyone who elects to have major surgery just to avoid pain is an idiot. The pain from the surgery is far more severe than the pain from pushing a baby out of your vagina. And it’s lasts longer.
This women needs a reality check.
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:51 am
Wow, I can totally see this article ruffling a lot of feathers! I think that’s why she wrote it, personally.
I must agree, I personally did not want a natural birth, why go through pain if you don’t have to? I had my epidural at noon and lay in the bed with my husband next to me, watching movies on basic cable, while the sweet nurses fluttered around me. Around 10 PM, I wasn’t dilated enough, so we did a c-section. Not planned and I was shocked that I would have it, but it was such a great experience. I just don’t agree with this part:
“For the rest of their lives they must live with terrible scars from being slashed wildly across the stomach by the cack-handed doctor on call, and remember the first weeks of their child’s life in only a blur of exhausted depression and trauma. Does maternity not “matter” for them, too?”
Terrible scar? I have a slight pinkish line, which is so low you can’t even see it in low underwear. The only person who would see it would be my husband. And I was ultimately happy with the c-section and look forward to my next one because of thoughts that mirror this part of the article:
“Ask a woman who has had a planned Caesarean: awake, calm, pain-free. And no risk of the “down there” issues that Maureen referred to, either.”
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:53 am
I’m sure I’ll get thumbs down, but I agreed with some aspects of this article. I interpreted the author’s main point as being that women, particularly those who have a midwife, should not feel pressured to have a “natural” birth in order to feel like more of a woman. I don’t have any problem with this opinion. However, I do agree that this author sounds as if she wrote this simply to blow off steam without doing much research.
I had planned a drug-free delivery with my daughter, but my body wasn’t progressing as it should and my daughter was inhaling meconium. I was able to deliver vaginally, but just barely avoided a C-section. I did have an epidural because the contractions were off-the-charts painful and happening every two minutes for longer than a minute, and they were actually making my body regress instead of progress. As a result, I made the decision to get the epidural and told the doc to do a c-section if necessary, as I felt it was better for my baby’s well-being. Still, I actually felt guilty for a while afterwards because I didn’t deliver without drugs! How ridiculous is that?! For this reason, I can identify with this article.
That being said, I still plan to have my next delivery drug-free. The epidural was very unpleasant for me and didn’t work right. However, my daughter breastfed quite successfully (in fact, I’m still breastfeeding her 7.5 months later), so all the horror stories about epidurals aren’t quite true.
Finally, I have issues with the term “natural” birth. There was nothing unnatural about the way I gave birth, and I don’t like the implication that there was something wrong with how I delivered my child. No matter how a woman has a child, she’s still doing something wonderful. Therefore, I prefer to use the term “drug-free” instead of natural. And yes, many women generations before us did not have the benefit of painkillers during delivery, but along with that, they didn’t have the benefit of modern technology. That is why for so long childbirth killed so many women!