Less Fear, Less Pain

As a British obstetrician reasoned it out, childbirth is a natural process, and should not be painful. He decided that the pain that does come with normal birth is caused by fear. Fear causes tension, he explained, and tension causes the muscles of the uterus to work against one another, which causes pain.

Dr. Grantly Dick, Read (TIME, July 22, 1946) began campaigning for "natural" childbirth some 30 years ago. His prescription for the delivery room: banish fear, use as few drugs as possible. Two years ago Dr. Read came to the U.S. and found interested listeners in Dr. Herbert Thorns and Dr. Frederick W. Goodrich Jr.

of the Yale University School of Medicine. Adopting the Read idea, they made improvements as they went along. Last week Dr. Goodrich reported to Manhattan's Maternity Center Association the favorable results in 400 cases, the first wholesale trial of the Read treatment in the U.S.

Natural childbirth, said Dr. Goodrich, is not completely painless; only about 2% of the 400 patients reported no pain at all. The majority felt some pain, which they were "quite willing to tolerate in view of the exaltation accompanying conscious delivery." Some drugs were used, too. Only 35% had their babies without any anesthesia or painkilling drugs ; about half the rest had small doses of Demerol or whiffs of nitrous oxide (dentistry's "laughing gas"). The mothers were told to ask for drugs if they felt they needed them. Only 12% were not fully conscious.

Soon after they found they were pregnant, the mothers-to-be were given a lecture on the physiology and hygiene of pregnancy and two classes in how to relax by exercise. Another lecture on labor and delivery and two more exercise classes were given the last month. The last class ended with a tour of the obstetrical di vision, labor and delivery rooms, so the women would know what to expect. Doctors and nurses avoided the words "labor pains," and spoke of "contractions." During delivery, the mother may, if she likes, watch the process in a mirror; she is always told just what is going on, just what will happen next, and is assured that it is all normal. One patient, who later had a baby while unconscious, wrote regretfully: "When I regained conscious ness and was told that I had a son, I remember feeling cheated, having to be informed just as if I hadn't been present ... I couldn't help looking at my son for a week or so afterward and feeling as if I'd won a Packard in a lottery."

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