Heather writes:

<< Many women have related to me how hospital staff have been disparaging of
their stated wish to avoid drugs, have pushed drugs on them or even bullied
them into
 accepting them.  >>

Sometimes even a weaker version of this amounts to the same thing.  In my
first delivery, which took place in a hospital that might have been a great
place if I had needed tertiary care, staff were perfectly willing to "let" me
labor in pain, if that was what I prefered; and if not, well, an epidural was
available.

The notion that other kinds of support or pain relief would have been more
helpful never occured to them -- not because they were meanies, but because
the only kind of "pain relief" they had been exposed to was drugs.

I think a lot of women would have folded and taken whatever pain relief WAS
available -- and I wouldn't blame them, given those lousy choices.

Elisheva Urbas
NYC

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