>>Are we as women expecting other women to experience pain in childbirth
because we had to? Do I believe this? I don't know. Do I want my daughter to
have a great birth experience as I did, and could she have it without pain?
Ugh..Oh... I am not saying women treat women "as scum of the earth" by
allowing
them to labor.. Are physicians to alleviate pain and suffering?<<

I have a question for those interested in childbirth. I recently took a
part-time position coordinating prenatal education for a local hospital where
I have been teaching. Yesterday, I met with all three shifts of L&D, nursery
and pp nurses to solicit their concerns. Each group had their own issues, but
I was really taken aback by the group that expressed concern/outrage that we
were teaching parents natural childbirth. According to them, the parents are
coming in determined to have natural childbirth but "unprepared for the
reality of the pain" to come. They say that, when the moms begin to wilt, the
dads can be very zealous in refusing drugs until it reaches a point of such
misery that even they are begging for c-sections for their wives. (huh?)  The
nurses are upset that the patients balk at their suggestion for "just a
little nubane" or something to help mom relax and finish dilating.

I felt very put on the defensive.  We have wonderful CB instructors who work
hard to equip these parents with all the necessary skills, but who are not
projecting zealots. *They* are concerned because, out of classes of 14
couples, they seldom see even a couple of unmedicated births.  When I tried
to defend the teaching from the standpoint of the other end, including impact
upon bfg, I came across as a bfg zealot (open mouth, insert foot!).  They
view my own experience of 3 out of 4 totally unmedicated births as proof that
I am trying to force parents into my own mold. I was stymied to defend the
teachers other than to say that research defends that the fewest medications
possible is best for mom and baby, and that most all childbirth education
programs approach teaching from this standpoint. I'm new to the political
game, and up to now have had a good rapport with the nurses I've met one on
one.

We don't have telemetry (sp?) monitoring, so mothers in active labor or on
pit inductions are pretty much "tied" to the bed, which everyone seems to
accept as a given while acknowledging that it hinders labors. I'd sure
appreciate some help building my arguments, along with some acceptable
bridges. I've got the feeling that some of the nurses don't believe in
natural childbirth, don't "have time" to sit with the mom, don't believe in a
need for a better way than the meds.  I'm all for informed consent, but when
we have these quote unquote determined parents NEVER succeeding, I don't know
what to think. Where are we falling down?

-Lisa Marasco, LLLL, IBCLC
[log in to unmask]