NATURAL CHILDBIRTH
Sir,-Listening to the discussion by a Christchurch panel, I felt my usual wry amusement at hearing the profes‘sionals: belitfling Read’s contribution to natural childbirth by saying, "This is no new thing-we have known about it for years." If this is so, we women ought to erect a statue to Read as The, Man Who Told. Possibly much of the medical opposition to Read springs from his violation of the sacred principle of medical reticence. Of course, there has always been such a thing as natural childbirth, in so far as there have always been women who had their children comparatively easily. But Réad’s thesis of the interrelation of fear, tension and pain and his ‘discoyery -of: the application. of | relaxation techniques has enabled far more women to have their babies without excessive discomfort. There is all the difference, however, between the grin-and-bear-it form of -natural childbirth, practised perforce by most mothers when painrelieving drugs were only for the Wealthy, and the relax-and-more-or-less-enjoy-it technique indulged in by fol-
jowers. of the Propheti The point is, that relaxation techniques must in most cases be learnt well beforehand, or there is little hope of practising them successfully at moments of crisis, even if you have what passes in our hospitals for co-operation-a nurse who from ner position of complete invulnerability watches your struggles and says testily, "Come on, you're not frying to relax!" I was further amused at the naive belief expressed by the doctor on the panel that attending doctor and clinic supplied all the necessary education for childbirth. Every mother knows that it’s possible to attend doctors and clinics for several pregnancies ‘without being told much more than the date of your hext appointment. And I did laugh at the ex-matron’s assertion that a woman in labour receives continual support and encouragement from the nursing staff. Every mother knows that until you're in extremis the staff is usually much too busy. Even then, encouragement is usually limited ‘to being told you're coming on nicely when you’re convinced the human frame can stand no more.
MOTHER OF SIX
(Wellington).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 739, 11 September 1953, Page 5
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349NATURAL CHILDBIRTH New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 739, 11 September 1953, Page 5
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