It's funny how you write something and several days later you get proof for the point you were trying to make. In my recent post about C-section, I mentioned the patriarchal nature of the idea that women should suffer a lot during labor. And almost immediately an article appeared in Daily Mail highlighting the views of precisely this kind of chauvinism: "Dr Walsh, associate professor in midwifery at Nottingham University, criticised the ‘epidural epidemic’ sweeping the NHS, and said maternity units should abandon routine pain relief and embrace a ‘working with pain’ approach."
Why should women engage in this king of masochistic practices? Because without experiencing pain, they wouldn't be able to become good mothers: "Because anaesthetic drugs undermine the mother’s bond with her baby, an expert said yesterday. Dr Denis Walsh said the agony of labour should be considered a ‘rite of passage’ and a ‘purposeful, useful thing’. The pain prepared women for the demands of motherhood, he argued." Once again, there is no discussion of how to prepare men for the demands of fatherhood. Either the suggestion is that men don't need a bond with their children (childrearing being part of the lowly female realm), or Walsh believes that men have a different, pain-free way of establishing such a bond.
8 comments:
I agree with you on that one. That rite of passage argument is barbaric in my view. How about a rite of passage towards death without pain killers?
I have so many friends who followed the advices of Dr. Walsh and the likes, proudly rejecting the idea of epidural anesthetic during their pregnancy. Many of them begged for epidural while giving brith. But too late! No rite of passage there...
And of course, the silence about fatherhood is troubling.
And then I still hear that researchers in humanities and social sciences come up with crazy ideas, vis-à-vis "hard" sciences!
"How about a rite of passage towards death without pain killers?"
-Ha ha ha! Great point!
"I have so many friends who followed the advices of Dr. Walsh and the likes, proudly rejecting the idea of epidural anesthetic during their pregnancy. Many of them begged for epidural while giving brith. But too late! "
- I know! I love observing what people say on the topic before and after giving birth. Often, there is a dramatic shift in their perspective.
It's so cute when men tell women what they SHOULD experience while giving birth. It's easy for this guy to praise pain, since he will never have the experience.
Exactly. It's like abortion. I would never understand why any man would need to have an opinion on abortion if it isn't and can never be part of his experience. That's why I admire Obama's take on the issue. He says that it's not his place nor is it the Congress's place to opine on abortion.
Lets not be over-empirical here. As a man I have the right to express an opinion on abortion, even if I will never experience it. I don't think that I am expressing a paternalistic view if I say that it is the right for women to decide.
Ol.
That's exactly the position I support. When I said "opinion" I meant men analyzing whether it's good, bad, traumatic, irresponsible, evil and so on and so forth. I especially love it when a guy starts going on and on about how it's such a huge trauma that you never recover from. How would any one who never had it knows if it's traumatic? How can any one say whether it is or isn't for everybody? And most importantly, why would one want to?
It pisses me off when people assume that childbirth is agony. It is for some women, especially if the child is in the wrong position. I gave birth twice without an epidural, and the second time with no painkillers at all. What I experienced was far more like the pain of strenuous exercise, say, running a marathon -- it could not in any way be called "agony" or "punishment". That sort of thing is not for everyone, but it was enjoyable in a weird sort of way -- my body was working hard, doing something it was made to do, and I felt so good afterwards; I was up and walking around within half an hour. Don't deny painkillers to women who want them, but don't push them, either.
Alix
It's possible that given his attitude to pain giving birth with this doctor is agony and punishment. :-)
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