I don' wan' a new one. You like a old one.

[ailbhe]

The plumber is here dismantling the bathroom. He's being very industrious. Today the tiles are all coming down and the bath is being replaced, then tomorrow the sink and loo, I think. Emer thinks it's interesting but would prefer everything to stay unchanged, possibly everywhere, for ever. Linnea is less interested.

This morning there was a but on BBC Radio 4 about the ever-increasing use of epidurals and the presenter tried to change it from two people who basically agreed with each other to an argument about a man telling women the pain is necessary and they shouldn't be allowed etc. I ended up crying so now have an SF movies soundtrack playing instead, which is much less stressful.

Epidurals: women wouldn't choose them nearly as much if they were getting adequate midwifery care, and anyone trying to reduce access to epidurals without first fixing the actual problem needs to be poked firmly in the snoot. Both experts on the radio today agreed with me, in spite of the presenter trying to get them to argue.

You must, as Doctor Latchford says, expect some discomfort after childbirth. However, as Mister Smith The Antipodean Gynaecologist says, If it hurts that much we must fix it. That goes for during childbirth too.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Had epidurals with both my kids. Didn't intend to, was aware of the reasons not to if one could reasonably avoid it -- I just had specific situations which meant that it turned out I couldn't reasonably avoid it. While I regret that that's the way it turned out, I don't regret the choices I made; I felt I went into childbirth well-informed about other pain relief tactics, and I honestly tried what else I could try first.