I'd like to add one more point to Kathy's excellent list of the things done
to labouring women that significantly increase their pain: women in
hospitals are frequently not allowed to do the things that help them cope
with labour or get yelled at or simply feel too self-conscious with an
audience of strangers (ie nurses) to do what they need to do. I've been with
women giving birth at home who liked to sit on the toilet through much of
their labour (women in hospital that I've been with get told off for doing
that - "you don't want your baby born in the toilet do you" - and nurses
complain they can't use the monitor there). I remember one mother who coped
with labour by stomping or marching around - also objected to by hospital
staff. I've been with mothers who moaned or sang or even yelled through
every contraction - quite acceptable at home, but the nurses in the hospital
keep telling the mothers to "be quiet." (I remember one mother being told
"be quiet - it doesn't hurt that much.") Lots of women do much better with a
darkened and quiet room (just as Michel Odent has told us) but in hospital
the nurses keep coming in and turning the lights back on so they do their
routine checks. When you take away all the other "tools" that women use to
cope with pain and stress, all that's left is drugs.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario
(Who remembers labouring naked on a hospital bed on my hands and knees and
being told by the nurse to please put my hospital gown back on and lie down
properly in the bed because it was nearly time for the cleaners to come
in...)

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