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Hi everyone, I received this email from a lovely woman who
came through my classes last year – did others see this article too? Hug
Julie Hi Julie, I was wondering whether you managed to see the article in this
weekend's Good Weekend magazine in the Sydney Morning Herald. It's
written by Mia Freedman about how (apparently) useless birth plans are, and
basically goes on to ridicule any woman who has the intention of trying to have
minimal intervention in labour. And I quote: "Fastforward to the actual birth and $100 says she'll be
swearing at said husband while screaming for an epidural. $200 says the
CDs and the oil burner won't even make it out of the labour bag." "But while birth plans are relatively harmless, I'm far
less tolerant of the very vocal group of childbirth zealots who rail against
pain relief and 'intervention'. Why aren't these women grateful for
medical help?" "Epidurals don't appear to affect the baby
physically." Whilst I wouldn't say that I'm a person who would get up on
her soap box and push the natural birth method on everyone, I was really
offended reading the article. I understand that it's meant to be a
humorous piece of writing, but I think it actually has the effect of offending those
who desire the most natural birth possible, yet will welcome medical assistance
if required. I feel like writing a letter into the SMH expressing my
disappointment with the article and pointing out a few misconceptions regarding
epidurals, like they're totally risk-free to both mother and baby. If you haven't seen it, the SMH is still on sale, but if you
don't get to see it and would like to see it, just let me know and I'll pop it
around to you. |
