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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 739, 11 September 1953, Page 5

.Sir,-I fear that the Christchutch pane! discussion on natural childbirth (2YA, August 26), instead of reducing muddled thinking on the subject, will only serve to increase it. The various members of the panel seemed to have different ideas about the definition of the subject. Natural childbirth, as now understood, is a programme of training in refaxation, and breathing and other exercises (with, of course, some instruction in anatomy) during » pregnancy, which enables a. woman fo have her baby with the minimum of discomfort and the maximum amount of co-opera-tion swith her doctor and nurse. "Preparation" is the big point of natural birth. Women have to learn to relax, which cannot be accomplished on the spur of the moment, but must be practised for many weeks. This relaxing, along .with special abdominal] breathing, eatly reduces the pain of the contractions in the first stage of labour, and actually" quicken'’s ‘the prdcéss. A birth under these conditions "decreases | the need for sedatives, but, of course, drugs are available. if required. And a birth such as this can be ga most wonderful and satisfying experience, as I have discovered, . > = paw Miss E. M. -Sparks stated in the broadcast that, in her experience, a

nurse is with the patient from the minute she begins labour. That does not appear to be so in the majority of New Zealand hospitals. The patient is often left alone for long periods, which can be rather terrifying when a mother is expecting her first baby. She also suggested that it would be sufficient help to the mother to have an attendant who would explain and help her in each stage of labour as it occurred. But this is not enough. The mother should have behind her the confidence of weeks of practising relaxation and the use of the relevant muscles — rather like an athlete training for a big-event. After all, having a baby is largely a muscular feat. Dr. H. T. Knight’s remark that natural childbirth is a craze that will be replaced by something different in a year or two seems rather extraordinary, considering that this method is in normal «practice in many places over-

seas:

J. C.

B.

(Wellington).

( Abridged.-Ed. )