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A workhop in Tehran?

Last week I received an invitation to visit Iran, to present a workshop on childbirth education for the Ministry of Health. This came about through email conversations I have been engaged in with a midwife/educator who is researching parent education for a PhD. Her specific interest is on “training women in ways of managing labour pain” and we have had a lively discussion about the issue of “training” women for anything to do with managing labour. I have also flagged the broader issue of the influence that the care giver exercises over birth outcome and pointed out that there is no evidence that any “training method”, no matter how well rehearsed by women prenatally, will be used in labour unless there is good support from the midwives and doctors involved in the birth itself. Several studies have shown that women usually abandon their chosen method of managing labour as soon as they reach the hospital - it is the attitude of the first midwife they meet in the hospital that makes the difference.

I have tried to explain this to my Iranian friend, to alert her to other approaches rather than the breathing techniques she has been pursuing. “The breathing” is still encouraged by many despite any evidence of its effectiveness and its potential to cause chemical imbalances in the woman’s blood stream that may be detrimental to her and her baby’s health.

Funding is being made available for a training workshop for parent educators in Iran, hence the invitation to me to speak, but I have suggested that they wait until they see what I have written in my books (I have sent them a set of my publications) before they decide if this is what they want. I have explained that I know nothing about the Lamaze or Bradley methods, that these are American ideas rarely used outside the US and that women in the rest of the worked have developed other ways of handling pain, based on their own physiological needs rather than a learned response.

It will be interesting to see whether they come back to me to discuss a workshop further. I will quite understand if they decide to invite someone else. Whether I decide to travel to Tehran is also something that I will have to consider.....

Posted by andrea at August 08, 2005 05:53 PM