For anyone interested, here are the letters to the editor that were
in Friday's Boston Globe in response to last Sunday's article on pain
medications in birth.
Naomi Bar-Yam
> Childbirth, in all its pain and joy -- and choice
> July 28, 2006
>
> IN ``MOTHER lode of pain" (Boston Globe Magazine, July 23) Dr.
> Darshak Sanghavi writes that ``choosing to feel pain during
> childbirth strikes me as odd." What strikes me as odd is taking
> something as personal, magical, and important as childbirth and
> suggesting that every individual should approach it the same way.
>
> Last year when I was pregnant with my first baby, I learned all I
> could about both natural childbirth and medical options such as
> epidurals. As a result, I approached childbirth with confidence,
> excitement, and flexibility, not the fear that is so pervasive in
> our culture.
>
> Because my labor was short, I did not need an epidural. Was there
> pain? Absolutely. But I had learned techniques for how to deal with
> it. Most important, when the pain was at its worst, I knew I was
> just moments from holding my baby, a beautiful, healthy boy.
>
> Every woman, baby, and labor is unique. To suggest that every woman
> should have a natural childbirth is foolish; however, to suggest
> that every woman should automatically ``opt out" of pain during
> childbirth is just as offensive. Every birth that ends with a happy
> mom and a healthy baby is a success, regardless of whether an
> epidural is involved.
> JEANNE BORAWSKI, Boston
>
> SOME MAY view the challenge of overcoming the pain of childbirth as
> empowerment, and their preference to avoid medical pain relief
> should be honored. But for most of us, the empowerment comes in the
> form of having accurate and unbiased information regarding all of
> our pain relief choices, nonmedical and medical, and having a birth
> experience that may involve little, or even no, pain. Most of us
> are willing to tolerate the reasonable risks and side effects that
> may accompany the use of modern medications in exchange for a
> childbirth free of agony. I view a pain-free birth as the ultimate
> form of empowerment for women after centuries endured with no
> control over our birth experiences.
>
> Dr. Sanghavi quotes Ina May Gaskin's statement that no one would
> want a medication that would eliminate the pain of childbirth. The
> 2.5 million women who give birth each year in the United States
> while enjoying the pain-relief benefits of an epidural would imply
> otherwise.
> KATHRYN J. ALEXANDER, Charlotte, N.C.
> The writer is co-author of ``Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to
> Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth."
>
> AS A NEIGHBOR to the north, I would like to reframe Dr. Sanghavi's
> discussion of pain in childbirth in Granite State terms. Here in
> New Hampshire lies the highest peak in the northeastern United
> States. Standing on top of Mount Washington, one feels wonder and
> exhilaration no matter which route or mode of transportation was
> used to get there. Facing labor and facing the mountain are not
> dissimilar. Some people choose to drive to the summit or ride the
> cog railway while others choose to hike to the top. This decision
> can vary from individual to individual and day to day depending on
> weather, fatigue, health, kinship, and goals. Here in my department
> at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, we believe in the hikers,
> the drivers, and the rail riders.
>
> My physician, nurse, and midwife colleagues do not view those who
> desire unmedicated birth as ``odd," having ``constricted
> imagination," ``relying on pain to create a meaningful childbirth,"
> working for acceptance into a ``select sorority," or embracing
> ``extreme sports." We view them as women who, with a formidable
> mountain before them, simply prefer to keep walking.
> BARBARA FILDES Hanover, N.H.
> The writer, a certified nurse-midwife, is an assistant professor of
> obstetrics and gynecology at Dartmouth Medical School.
>
> DR. DARSHAK SANGHAVI'S article misses an important point: The mind
> is a powerful tool -- a belief that childbirth is painful begets a
> painful childbirth experience. The opposite is also true. I have
> delivered two children out of hospital and without any pain relief.
> I did not need it. I do not consider childbirth to be painful, and
> I don't believe it has to be. My mother taught me that childbirth
> could be easy. I set my mind that mine would be too. And it was.
> KATHERINE C. HAVENER, Los Angeles 
------------------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
Mothers' Milk Bank of New England
[log in to unmask]
617-964-6676
------------------------------------------
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