PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1915, Page 9 (Supplement)

PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH.

CUK.AT SCIKNTIKIC DISt-iiVKIiY. N'KW SOt'TH WALKS ADOPTS IT

The discoverv of painless childbirth which Mr. Oeorge lilack. Minister fm Health in New South Wales, mentioned at the Health Societv's meeting the other day. and which 'he intends' introducing into the hospitals ther • after due investigation, was announced in I'aris ten days before tl nlbreak o. : war. Itail it not been for the convulsion of Kurope. it would probablv have been the topic of the year. The French Academv of Medicine has tested and approved it. and details of the Meatmen', culled from an article in -Nash's Magazine, will be of interest to" those who hav t vet read it:

It was Oeorgcs I'anlin. the distinguished French chemist, who found---after years of research-the miraculous drug which has saved womankind from the ancient curse. There is nothing new in the use of anodynes in childbirth: but heretofore the use of morphine and kindred drugs has been dangerous, and often, instead of checking pain, it has served to prolong it. What Monsieur I'aulin set out to find was an anodyne which should be harmless, and which should, do away with all pain without interfering with the orderly and rythmic process of birth. Professor Charles Richct and other scientists have long been studying the action of living ferments. It was along this line that Monsieur Paulin worked. lie look a solution of ehlorhydrate of morphine and treated it with'a living ferment. Olli-i----ally it is known as morphine desi.itoxiquee—that is. the toxic qualities are removed-and is distinguished chiefly by its solubilitv.

It is over two years ago that this medicament was discovered. There followed a long series of experiments on animals, carried on by Monsieur Pan Mil and his collaborator. Dr. Pierre Laurent. Rabbit and cat and hound, the grosser mammals of the farmyard these experiments lasted a year. What all these 'animal experiments showed was that the new drug, while- it suppressed the pains |of birth-giving, conserved wholly the j natural muscular activity. I When the men of the laboratory had [tried their new medicine upon the animal world, they took it confidently to I the greatest gynecologist in Europe Dr. Ribemont Dessaignc, accoucheur of the Beaujon Hospital and of many others in France. AVithotit enthusiasm, without much confidence, Professor Ribemont-DessHigiic. made his first experiment. A woman offered herself, add the result was successful.

The new drug killed the pain or made it merely a tolerable and curious sensation of discomfort. It did not delav or prolong the birth process; and it laid no risk upon the, child.

The drug does not act locally, as its inventors at first fancied; it acts upon the nervous centres and upon the sympathetic nerve, and, above all. Professor Ribemont-Dessaigne discovered that it did not in any way modify the rythmic contractions bv which Nature sends the chilil into the world. That was one ease; it was the first; and then Professor Ribemont-DeHsaigne went down into the hospitals of Paris. F.vcrv bed was tilled ill the great hall of the lieauvou Hospital, and Professor liibemunt-Dcssaignc walked there. With him went amazement. For in the great hall, where life IVttled that it might li\e. there was silence. Not an outcrv, ■not a wail.

''l went from one woman to another.'' said l)r Ribemont-Dessaigne. "and in eaeh and all I observed the birth-process was going on with perfect and rhythmic regularity—without halt or check—and painlessly." And he will tell you that what impressed itself upon him most was the strange silence—and the smiling faces of women, lie had touched the edge of a. miracle.

One hundred and twelve experiments Professor Ribemont-Dessaigne made (with the aid of his colleague,' l)r le ■Lovier). and every ease was successful The discovery has been accepted bv the French Academy of Medicine—the' date was the third Week in July. Surgeons, gynecologists, chemists, doctors of all degrees have examined, tested, approved. Kor once scientific men have been tinanimoii.-.

With regard to its effect upon the children, here are the statistics:

"We are dealing with Mo children-j new-born men and women. Of these , .se\e:,ty--cu-ii roared lustily, attesting their perfect health. Of the others, I twenty-eight came dumb into the , world, hut the regularity of their 'heart- | beats, the rosy tint, the'tonicity of their'} muscles were ample evidence of sound | health. In a little while some of them piped up shrilly and then slept. Others , took an immediate nap- naps not of i long duration, a few seconds, two or three minutes at most—and then howled ■manfully. There were ten others. These ten new-born men and women preserved , a stolid and disquieting silence. So the prufes-or held them up by the heels. Nine of them broke into the veils of indig- j nation. Hut one of tiiein—the stolid-i e.-t. of the hundred and lifty—looked at the -world upside down and made no outcry. Then the omniscient doctor -luriied the sleepy little head up and blew his breath into the gaping nioutb—once, twice, thrice. A satisfying bawl answered this last indignity. 'And the '.'■ andrcd- \ and .fifteenth babe screamed a salutation to his smiling mother, to I'aris, to hum- , unity, to the nlanet.'' I

And here is the case of the new medicament as it is stated by Dr. Albin Ribemont-Dessaigne and accepted by the French Academy of Medicine. The words are weighted and measured with scrupulous exactitude. They represent precisely tin- opinion of ollicial French science: 1. It is possible to-day', without causing the slightest danger to the mother, to produce an analgesia siillieienl to ensure an entirely painless childbirth. •1. This treatment causes neither cheek nor delay: indeed, it seems rather, in the great number of cases, to accelerate the process of childbirth. X The infants bom are. in the proportion of one ill three, voiceless—a condition which is perfectly easy to put an end to, and which is, in fact, often advantageous. -I. The after-effects arc favourably inlllleneed. r>. It is a scientific certitude that hereafter women may bear children without pain.