I often wonder if the trend toward epidurals and other labor interventions
has something to do with our *instant* society. For example, people gripe
when a web page takes too long to load (what waste a couple of seconds?).
Remember when Lactnet started we were mostly using 14.4 modems? Things seem
to be instant, fast acting etc..

It is almost like people are saying OK I'll take this for a while but not too
long. I find people pity the laboring woman which only adds to her fear of
what lies ahead.

With my medical condition and chronic severe pain with *no useful purpose*
there was no pity from the medical community. I was expected to do without
anything more then Vicodin and endure it with a smile [as far as the docs
were concerned]. No one seemed concerned that it was going on for months. Or
that the pain was affecting every facet of my physiology. I had to fight to
get the medication I needed for some relief (and if you know me you know it
was a horrific fight). We knew what worked -- Morphine. But no one wanted to
give it to me; God forbid I would become addicted then sue them for the
addiction.  Obviously doctors and people in general don't know how morphine
addiction works [but that is another story]. I now take morphine 3 times a
day and have for the last 8 months without an increase in my need for it.
However, they tell me I am now suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome
because of pain that was allowed to go on unrelieved for all those months and
months.

But take a mom in labor for at the most a day or so and we cannot allow her
to suffer. Pain is subjective. It cannot be measured by a second party but
everyone *knows* that labor is horribly painful. So epidurals have become
preventative. We have convinced women that epidurals are OK because they do
not effect the baby. We reinforce this over and over again just as much as
the portrayal of pain and screaming is labor is standard fare in any
theatrical birthing scene.  One star complained that her labor went so fast
that she didn't even "get my epidural." The epidural is touted as the
Cadillac of anesthesia. Culturally, at least in the Western world, immediate
pain relief in labor is now a right.
An anesthelogist writes me a nasty e-mail about my web site informing women
about possible infant hazards from epidurals calling my site "largely biased
and inaccurate." Telling me that it "weakens the usefulness of the Internet."
He then said "I really pity the poor uneducated sole that comes across your
website and takes what you have written as fact." I have a feeling that he
isn't alone in his beliefs.
But what about that poor passenger in the labor?
"Bless the beasts and the children
For in this world they have no voice
They have no choice"
FWIW
Marie Davis, RN, IBCLC
PS
<< over the years have come to believe that childbirth education is part of
the problem, not the solution.>> I couldn't agree more. One woman with
horrible nipple wounds said that her childbirth educator lied to her about
labor pain, so she figured we lied to her about nipple soreness.

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html