wrote in message
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On 7 Sep, 00:02, "The Medway Handyman"

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And its 'trendy'. You have endless material to bore the arse off people at
dinner parties when you talk about your 'birthing experience'.

You couldn't be more wrong about that. Maybe elsewhere in the
country.. where I live it's not popular or 'trendy' at all (about one
home birth a month in the county),

....

It used to be fashionable but isn't these days. It's a bit inconvenient
after all. New methods are developed and promoted but most of them don't
last long. I remember a sort of decompression device which the mother wore
during labour and which was said to relieve the pain of contractions. It
didn't last. What happened to 'birthing chairs'?

I once heard a male obstetrician saying that stirrups must be comfortable
for a woman in labour because she was in the same position as she would be
if squatting. What he didn't understand is that gravity makes a lot of
difference to the organs inside the body. I wish I'd been able to suggest
that he were tied to stirrups while he defecated.

There's little agreement among obstetricians and among midwives. Once, in
agony, I asked if I could turn on my side. The Sister said no, the nurse
said yes. Luckily the Sister went off duty soon afterwards and her
replacement preferred to deliver the mother while she was lying on her side.

I was appalled by a friend's son, a very senior obstetrician at a famous
hospital, who said that he wanted women to do what he wanted because he
wanted to be in control. He had no concept of the woman being in control!
After all, what part did she play in the process?

He got short shrift from

Mary