posted May 12, 2010 11:00 AM
Childbirth Without Fear was written in i think 1931 by grantly dick-read, an english ob/gyn....who during his first year as an ob received a flash of insight from one of his patients.the woman was on her 8th pregnancy (or so) and lived in a 4th floor walkup in east london not far from his hospital. when he received the summons to her labour, he packed the latest new anesthesia and when he arrived to find her very close to delivery, he reassuringly told her " let me know when the pain gets bad i have something for it!!"
his patient looked at him as though he were daft. "what, is it supposed to hurt having babies??" she asked. a lightbulb went on in his head. this woman had had several and had yet to experience pain. apparently no one had ever told her childbirth WAS painful.
thus he wrote the book, a precursor to lamaze which basically sets forth the theory that relaxed women do not have painful childbirths. there were exercises and pictures to demonstrate, breathing techniques, etc.
i was given this book while pregnant (by my mother)...and found it truly inspiring. when i mentioned it to MY ob/gyn he knew it. smiling in approval, he said "yes it's such a reassuring book isn't it?" and proceeded to ask me, as all mothers are asked by their ob's(presumably while still in their right mind) , what kind of anesthesia i chose in the event that it was needed!!
i pointed out the irony of this conversation and he said "the book is wonderful. but it can be counterproductive to lead people to believe everything is going to go off without a hitch or pain." thereby completely cancelling out the benefit of the book.
as it happened my own delivery was not hitch-free...my daughter was born on a day when LOTS of babies decided to come through. the labour ward was overfull and as a result the doctor was overworked...and we had delivery by cesarean because we were just plain taking too long...but that's another story