Kathy Dettwyler wrote that

<< I think one cannot separate the specific drug effects of epidurals from:

 (1) a culture that thinks that pain is bad, and that women, especially,
 cannot tolerate pain
 (2) longer labor due to the epidural
 (3) inducted labor (pitocin) due to failure to progress due to the epidural
 (4) a culture that thinks that women can't tolerate pain, are weak, and
 have bodies that don't work very well

 etc. etc. etc.  >>

Hear hear!    Which partly explains why one of the US Baby Friendly hospitals
(Evergreen?  not sure -- someone help me out) wrote up that they saw NO
difference in bf outcomes between epidurals and non-epidurals, even though
the rest of us culture-enmeshed folks do.

And not only that, but mothers are not randomly assigned to the epidural
group -- they get there in part because they themselves buy into the culture
of the scariness of pain and the unreliability of women's bodies.   So at
least on average they are more "at risk" for bf trouble to start with.

[Hold on, flame-throwers -- I am NOT blaming the victims, I'm talking ON
AVERAGE and ALSO a factor!]

Elisheva Urbas
NYC

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