“To some, anesthesiologists are heroes; to others, we are viewed as money-driven villains interfering with natural birth”
I’d like to commend Yonah Chatzinoff and Bashie Lisker on presenting the issue of epidurals, and I also appreciate the peek behind the curtains revealing the background of Bashie Lisker’s first feature article.
Any conversation on the topic of pain during childbirth is incomplete without referencing Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski ztz”l’s foundational points elucidated in the foreword to Rochel Broncher’s must-read book, A Labor of Love. To paraphrase, he explains that Hashem created physical pain to alert us that something is amiss, and the accompanying emotion is fear, which motivates us to try to solve the problem and alleviate the pain. However, the sensations that occur during natural childbirth are unlike other types of pain, as nothing is wrong at all — it is just a result of a normal bodily process. With this knowledge, a laboring woman can eschew the fear normally associated with pain.
I’d therefore push back on the article’s emphasis on pain in childbirth, and suggest switching the language to pressure or sensations because the pangs of childbirth are in a completely different category from problematic pain. Comparing pain management in a root canal to that of labor is apples and oranges.
That being said, I totally echo the nonjudgmental takeaway from the article that each woman should be given autonomy to choose a birth plan without shame. We say mazel tov for a healthy mommy and baby, regardless of how the birth unfolded.
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