Samantha Maiden: Why drugs and forceps aren’t a miracle cure when you’re giving birth

IF you don’t fear childbirth you’re crazy, my esteemed ­colleague Claire Harvey said last week. The business of birth is dangerous, deadly and scary and nasty nurses are denying pain relief.

Samantha Maiden.

IF you don’t fear childbirth you’re crazy, my esteemed ­colleague Claire Harvey warned last Sunday.

The business of birth is dangerous, deadly and scary and nasty nurses are denying pain relief.

It was an apocalyptic vision that argued NSW’s Towards Normal Birth policy would take women back to the ­Middle Ages.

The policy is ­designed to reduce the rising C-section rate.

Claire Harvey is a great lady, a champion for child vaccination rates in Australia with her No, Jab, No Pay campaigns. But she’s wrong on this. Doctors in white coats with pharmaceuticals can save lives but they cannot guarantee you a pain-free or perfect birth.

First, the science actually supports low-intervention, natural birth where possible.

It’s well established, for example, that epidurals can relieve pain. They can also prolong labour, increase foetal distress and hinder women’s ability to push. That increases the likelihood of a forceps-­assisted birth and injuries.

In private hospitals, a majority of births — 50 per cent — are now via caesarean in Australia.

As a result there are fewer doctors who can safely deliver babies breech and have experience in complex cases so it’s self-perpetuating.

However women choose to give birth is fine by me, whether it’s an elective caesarean simply because the other way isn’t their bag or doing it underwater or in a yurt with whale music and a shamanic healer. Go crazy, ladies.

But the science is clear that a C-section is not safer when it’s not necessary. For babies, there’s increased risk of asthma and diabetes.

Policymakers need to consider the long-term impact of these adverse consequences.

The science is also clear on pain relief. It can be wonderful. It can also trigger a cascade of medical events that can lead to significant injuries and it forces women to give birth on their back, which is pretty much the worst position you could choose.

Some historians believe we can thank the Sun King, Louis XIV of France in the 17th century, for the madness of the lithotomy position, because he liked watching his mistresses giving birth and got a better look that way.

Later, the craze prompted royalty to give birth in front of spectators to prove paternity.

Good times for Marie Antoinette, who was almost killed by the crowd who rushed into her bedchamber as she gave birth at Versailles.

Lying on your back is bad for women but great for doctors and forceps.

Before forceps, babies routinely died or midwives cracked the skulls of babies trying to get them out. But, hundreds of years later, the risks to women and babies should also be considered.

Cover your eyes and skip now if you can’t deal with the next sentence.

Personally, I find it really strange that women cling to the idea of having a “pain-free” epidural birth that is scientifically proven to increase the risk doctors will need to deliver the baby with forceps and then need to practise embroidery to repair the perfectly fine vagina that God gave them.

How is that a good deal?

Birth is also a marathon and it’s all about psychology. That’s probably what alarmed me most about the Harvey doctrine.

Stress hormones can increase pain during labour, causing ineffective contractions and longer labour. Scaring women about birth is dangerous.

The truth is there’s no need to scare the crap out of women giving birth. Deaths of mothers are rare.

Sadly, suicide is the leading cause of maternal deaths in developed countries. Not birth. It has never been safer for babies.

If you really want to help women, forget the NSW policy of reducing C-sections and consider the tragedy to our north in Papua New Guinea, which has one of the highest ­maternal mortality rates in the world, on a par with ­Afghanistan.

But we don’t need to scare women at home. History strongly suggests birth has been happening for a while and as long as humans are around it’s likely to continue.

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