Permission to Be Pain Free: Understanding Labor Epidurals

In the Beginning was the Word of God: women suffered childbirth because they were daughters of Eve and therefore deserved the pain. With the invention of anesthesia in the mid-19th century, some doctors began surreptitiously giving pain relief to laboring women, and after several more years of fighting objections from men of religion, women finally won the right to pain-free deliveries. Yet by the 1960s, obstetrical high technology was under fire from the natural childbirth movement, which maintained that natural birth was both beautiful and less dangerous. Permission to Be Pain Free provides basic information about today's most popular form of labor pain relief: epidurals, an anesthetic shot delivered to the spine that blocks the sensation of pain from the waist down, but enables the woman to remain awake and actively involved during labor. Patients interviewed here include an anesthesiologist's wife who chose not to have an epidural and was pleased with her natural childbirth choice. Chances are you probably have two or more videos on natural childbirth (Lamaze, Bradley Methods, etc.) in your collection, but little to nothing on pain-free delivery. Here's the perfect chance to balance your collection…and at a relatively painless price, as well. An informed look at an important topic, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Reagan)