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Subject:
From:
"J. Rachael Hamlet & Duncan L. Cooper" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 28 Jan 1996 19:33:29 -0500
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Having had a home birth that was quite painful, I think I can contribute
something to this subject.  I stayed out of the hospital for a number of
reasons, but one of them was certainly the feeling that I would not be in any
frame of mind to resist even a gentle reminder of the availability of pain
relief while I was in the throes of labor.  I know myself well enough to know
that I am *not* an athlete.  The prospect of a long hill and a bicycle evokes
in me nothing more strongly than the desire to find a van to carry me and the
bike up the hill!  At the same time, I was determined not to have a medicalized
childbirth.

Hannah was posterior, I had four days of prodromal labor before the real thing
started, and it was the most intense pain I have ever felt in my life.  As
valiently as my doulas and midwife and husband tried to give me comfort, I was
-- almost without interruption, for 14 hours -- in excruciating pain.  When
Hannah was born, I was not elated.  I was exhausted and emotionally
traumatized.  Yet despite the difficulties I had, I firmly believe that home
birth was the best choice for me.  I believe that a hospital birth would have
lead to such a complete loss of control over my body and my birthing experience
that the pain relief would have been small consolation.

I would like to propose that it *is* reasonable for birthing women to want
pain relief.  Not all of us are athletes who have experienced the elation of
overcoming physical hardship.   It is just a shame that medical science hasn't
come up with pain relief that doesn't involve either narcotics or total
numbing, each with attendant medical hazards.  If there were something that
could just take the edge off of the pain while leaving us conscious and with
the use of our legs, and was safe enough to use at home, I would certainly have
welcomed it on June 13-14, 1992 (a day that will live in  ... my memory at
least).

J. Rachael Hamlet
Owner, Lactivist Mailing List
Author, The Breastfeeding Advocacy Page
http://www.clark.net/pub/activist/bfpage/bfpage.html

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