CB 2- "Scandalous"

In Rayner's words:

The Sad and Scandalous Connection
between Childbirthing Methods
and Drug Addiction.

    I really think that this may turn out to be the major scandal of the century-- bigger by far than the tobacco or asbestos controversies of the 20th century.

   Unhappily, by any reasonable professional standard, I much conclude that most persons practicing Anaesthesiology and in the birthing medical community are not fit to hold their positions. Neither are most members of the British Home Office. It is a national tragedy of major proportions about which the medical profession and Home Office has had its head in the sands for, by now, many decades.

    Millions of women and their children have suffered needlessly. By ignoring a very few pioneers in birthing and drug addiction they have consigned further millions to a very miserable existence as drug addicts. Earning the scorn and the approbation of the community in which they were born into and for an addiction for which they are innocent.

    There has been ample evidence from The Bedouin and other tribal communities that even a first time mother can, and does give birth quite safely by herself or just accompanied by a woman of the tribe who does not re-stimulate the birthing mother and cause the reaction so common to Westernised women. (From an email sent to me by a Doctor working in the Sinai Desert during the war, who observed a first time mother of about seventeen give birth by herself quite painlessly and without any distress by squatting in the desert, totally unaccompanied by anyone.)

    Nature or God (however you view the human dilemma) would never have expected that a woman in labor would need a highly toxic and dangerous drug that had never been tested to see if it was toxic over the long term to get through the birthing experience.

    Apart from Westernised women out of touch with their primal instincts and indoctrinated by horrific images by the public media other indigenous cultures do not experience trauma when giving birth. Apart from a minority of potential mothers who are suffering from various genetic abnormalities and other conditions, the majority of labouring mothers is entirely fit to be able to give birth by herself or with a labor assistant that they can trust by their side. There are many cultures where women give birth by themselves or just with another woman whom they trust implicitly.

    In the normal birth endorphins are released which give the mother ample help in the feelings and stretching of muscles that ensue in normal un-restimulated birth. It is of course essential that such a birthing assistant’s presence must not arouse the instinctive flight or fight reaction which is invariably aroused when the presence of a relative stranger is perceived, whose stimulation will incur failure to progress. It is a national scandal of major proportions that this earlier evidence and anthropological observations has been ignored or derided.

    The squatting position which until recently was not used in the birthing community because instrumentation was required in hospitals or birthing centres. Mothers have to lie on their backs, a position that impeded the easy gravitational assisted drop of the neonate Squatting is ideal in that position opens up the pelvis and also gravity further aids the neonate in its passage down the birthing canal.

    I do not know if the medical community has been willfully ignoring all of the evidence accumulating in the last 40 years, or they have the belief that they are the only ones who are qualified to pronounce on these matters. Or, I suspect, it could be that midwifes and physicians have unconsciously absorbed the usual panic and anxiety frequently experienced by professional staff because of their own traumatic births.

    They may not be aware of this subterranean anxiety, which may be simmering below and will undoubtedly effect their behaviour, and state of mind in a subtle manner. As far as I have been able to discover there have been absolutely no long term trials or research of any possible danger to the new-born of administering anaesthesia of any kind, to the labouring mother. Short term effects, yes, but long term, no.

    I think that the time has come when research should be undertaken into the possible use of Neuro-stimulation to ease the pain and distress of labour, when undergone with unsuitable companions. This was banned by the Home Office for such purposes in 1966. Since then I have been exploring other non-chemical alternatives in order that birthing mothers in labour can experience some semblance of comfort. One method that I have proposed is that mothers give birth without being exposed to unconsciously perceived potential predators.

    In every labouring mother’s unconscious there is a primal drive for survival which in more primitive days ensured the survival of both mother and neonate. As Professor Michal Odent wrote, "All mammals require a private, safe and quiet place in which to give birth." (In an e-mail message sent to me by him from the Primal Health Centre in response to an article I had had printed in Midwifery Today some years back. Dr. Odent is a pioneer in gentle birthing practices,)

    Dick Grantly-Read, MD first proposed this over 50 years ago in his seminal book, Childbirth Without Pain, and gave a very clear description of the physiology involved. Unfortunately at that time, he did not have any thing to offer to the birthing community to relieve the extreme pain felt by some mothers other than general suggestions for relaxing.