The pain of childbirth is beneficial. This is stated by Dr. Denish Walsh, professor of midwifery at the University of Nothingam and champion of the fight against the epidemic of unnecessary epidurals. Pain, Walsh explains, is necessary and beneficial, and should not be eliminated protocolally because the mother and child are deprived of very important experiences and hormones.
Walsh, of course, is not opposed to the use of the epidural when necessary, but advocates its responsible use. Today asking for the epidural is considered almost inevitable and the woman is not given other options or informed of the real consequences of the elimination of pain and control over her body. He advocates the expansion of non-pharmacological measures that help to withstand contractions in normal births, such as yoga, massages, dilation balls and water.
It is pain that causes the production of natural endorphins in the mother's body and they reach the child, and it helps to support the process. In addition, it interferes with the natural rhythm of childbirth, being associated with higher rates of instrumental and cesarean deliveries, which cannot be neglected with a source of pain and risks for mothers and children.
He also states that the possibility of having a midwife per patient helps to make the pain much more bearable, as it can help and also provide an adequate relaxed environment. Fear and misinformation increase the sensation of pain, non-invasive techniques of physical and psychological relaxation are a safe option that should be prioritized.
He labor pain it triggers a kind of natural "rite of passage" that emotionally unites the mother and the baby, putting them in a state of dissipated consciousness that then becomes a receptive alert when the child is born.
With the epidural the woman is deprived of those sensations and hormones that are produced during childbirth and that help her to connect emotionally with the baby at the time of birth, when that intense bond is created that we share with mammals and that the young also feel: the recognition of the progeny and the identification of the mother, which are physiological mechanisms as well as mental ones, and of which pain is part of participating in the process that triggers them.
It is also safer for the baby not to use epidural, because the contractions, without epidural, are not modified by anesthesia, nor is the woman's connection with her body to feel the desire to push and have strength for it.
That, of course, does not mean that the use of the epidural is bad when necessary. Like everything, it has its medical reasons and its consequences. That is precisely why it should not be administered without taking everything into account and offering alternative treatments to those who want them.
We will never be wiser than Nature. She compensates pain and happiness, she prepares our bodies with what they need and does not suffer in vain. And pain is part of the natural way of being born not because of a curse, but because it has its reasons for existing, its mental and hormonal strategies to cope with it and its benefits. It is not the pain of a disease, the parturient is not a sick person.
Everything has its motive and its counterpart in natural processes. Does that indicate that we should suffer without resorting to relief? No, but the most radical measures should be reserved for cases of need and help women feel safe and confident, informed, and with the ability to decide themselves between the different options with total freedom. If there are only two options: the unbearable pain of a dehumanized and intervened labor without need or the epidural, this is inevitable.
If there is an adequate environment, true information, shelter, respect for the process, it helps to withstand the contractions by natural means, then the epidural is a free option, for whoever wants it or who needs it for whatever reason.
Than labor pain it is part of its natural process and has benefits Physical and psychological is part of the information that mothers should have. It will certainly help to cope with whoever decides.
