Pain in labour
Anne Cifuentes, a midwife/childbirth educator from Queensland mailed me today. She had been contacted by one of the women from her classes, seeking another copy of an article she had been given at her prenatal classes. This is what she said:
“I must tell you a story that I know will delight you. The other day at work, I received message to ring a woman who had given birth to her first baby at Allamanda 2 years ago. Susan had attended the prenatal classes with her first baby and was now pregnant again and due in 2 weeks.
When I rang her back, she was so pleased to here from me and we had a lovely chat. The reason she wanted to speak to me was to ask for a copy of your article “The pain of labour a time for growth”. Several years ago I sought your permission to hand this article out at the classes and I remember you saying, “Gosh, I wrote that years ago Anne”. Well, it may be a few years old now Andrea, but the message it carries is still as true and as valid as the day it was written. Susan told me that your article helped her immensely as she prepared to have her first baby and that she had passed it on to many of her girlfriends. Like many things you lend to people, she didn’t get it back and wanted to read it through again before she had her next baby.
I posted the article to her the next day and expect to see her arrive in the unit any day now. Those are the little inspirational moments we all need from time to time and I am sure you are smiling now.”
I was smiling and it made my day. I am always impressed by the Dutch midwives mantra “if you want to keep birth normal, you have to have the pain” but also know that women will need more than this to really feel confident that they can bear the pain of labour and even benefit from it.
The article that Anne mentioned is very similar to this one, which is an expanded version that I wrote a bit later. If anyone wants to copy this and hand it out in their classes - please go ahead. You can print it off from our web site.
October 25th, 2002 at 3:28 am
Andrea, the article is absolutely excellent. I found it this morning before going to work and printed it off. It’s got me all excited and fired up, again! I have given a copy to our student midwife as essential reading, and I have given a copy to Belinda. She is really interested in your ideas. She was telling me that less than 6% of women give birth without pain relief, and of that 6% very few chose not to have pain relief but didn’t have it because they laboured so well and circumstances overtook them, as it were. She is utterly delighted with her own experience, and is planning to write about the wonder of it.
I’m planning to offer a copy of the article to all the women in my care. Do you think that would be okay?