Following are Letters to the Editor printed by the Boston Globe responding to the article "The Mother Lode of Pain" by Dr. Darshak Sanghavi.
 
Letters
August 13, 2006
Hundreds of angry, passionate women - and men - rushed to defend natural childbirth after Dr. Darshak Sanghavi's July 23 story suggested it was "primitive."
A PAINFUL CHOICE
Do we ever ask the runners in the Boston Marathon why they choose to undergo the pain of Heartbreak Hill ("The Mother Lode of Pain," July 23)? The answers would be the same as for these laboring women: The challenge of the unique experience and the joy of successful completion.
ELIZABETH DARR, M.D.
Worcester
Why is it that some feminists seem to be so invested in the idea of childbirth as a heroic act that somehow proves our worth as women? I find it shameful that young women have been brainwashed into believing they are failing if they avail themselves of modern medicine to alleviate their pain during labor and delivery.
MAUREEN DOWNS
South Boston
So Darshak Sanghavi thinks women who choose natural childbirth are like suicide bombers? It's impossible to take the rest of the essay seriously after that.
LEANNE SOYLEMEZ
Arlington
Pain is not what empowers women during birth. Pain is what they must endure to avoid being disempowered and to be able to feel the pleasurable sensations of their baby's birth. Pain can be managed in ways that don't involve drugs, and, anyway, labor pain is transient and easily forgotten. Being disempowered during your child's birth lasts a lifetime.
JENNIFER F. ZIMMERMAN
Big Lake, Minnesota
I find it odd for a man - doctor or not - to cast his judgment about an experience that is and always has been exclusively within the realm of women.
TIMOTHY J. ALLIK
Natick
It's not surprising that the author is a physician. We are increasingly treating birth as a medical intervention. Pain is not a "primitive thing"; life is full of it.
AMY LISCHKO
Topsfield
Dr. Sanghavi fails to point out that an alert, drug-free mother, as opposed to a drowsy mom on painkillers, may more fully appreciate the tender first moments of this most natural event of life.
JEFFREY RUBIN
Beverly
What we don't talk about, and what most medical professionals don't readily acknowledge, is the fact that women were designed to give birth. Our bodies and our babies know what to do. If we can relax and let that happen naturally, it need not be painful, but indeed powerful.
LEIGH-ANN LICKLY
Framingham
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