Did anybody else catch the Gannett News Service story subtitled "Moms having
babies in Great Falls, Mont., are angry with anesthesiologists who won't give
epidurals to ease the pain"?

Apparently in this town there are 12 anesthesiologists, all working for the same
group, who don't want to give epidurals to moms in labor because it means they
have to stay with the moms afterwards (as per insistance by insurance companies)
rather than moving on to the next patient. It is written from the standpoint of
the irate moms who have been denied pain relief:

"'I'd like to see a man go through prostate surgery and be told that an
anesthesiologist doesn't want to sit through the operation,' fumed Robin
Sullivan, a transplanted New Yorker who has tried twice in vain to get an
epidural in Great Falls.
"Peggy Tremper agrees.
"'The universal reaction is disbelief,' said Tremper, a former Californian.
'It's gruesome. The joke is, in Montana they give you a bullet and tell you to
bite on it.''"

The article lists some side effects of epidurals:
"Though initially praising epidurals, anesthesiologist Comer now vigorously
calls them dangerous procedures to be avoided if possible. Pregnancy guidebooks
do warn of complications. Epidurals can cause low blood pressure in the mother.
They can stifle the urge to pus, requiring forceps or vacuum extraction to
deliver the baby."

Guess what possible side effect was conveniently left out of this discussion??

I was amazed, amused, and angered at the underlying theme that childbirth is
unbearable without an epidural and that in this particular location, the
epidural was not eliminated because of side effects but because of money, and
that apparently no corresponding effort to help moms deliver more comfortably.

In a way, this reminds me of the Wall Street Journal Article (has it been a year
already?)--where the media presents a story that gets women up in arms but the
anger is misplaced....

Climbing down from the soap box.....

Melissa Vickers, IBCLC (who delivered one 8 pound 12 ounce baby and one 9 pound
10 1/2 ounce baby with not so much as a tylenol!! I was far more afraid of
someone sticking a needle in my back than the temporary discomfort of
contractions.)
[log in to unmask]

PS. Has anyone tried the bullet remedy for sore nipples at latchon?????