I've given up on OBEM after the first episode just freaked me out. Took a lot of reassurance from mum that this isn't how it has to be, and these women are just having a bad time coz they've essentially been deserted and left to labour alone.
I've been reading in mum's MW magazine about a really old book called "Childbirth Without Fear". You'll see it associated with the natural birth movement and usually alongside authors like Sheila Kitzinger. The review was saying how although the book was originally written quite some time ago (although fairly recently updated) it's really completely relevant. The principle is, the uterus muscle is the same type of muscle as others in the body which, when worked, don't hurt - so why should the uterus when in labour. It makes the connection between fear and adrenalin, where the fear of pain takes the mother into a vicious circle of fear=adrenaline=pain and furthermore adrenalin reduces the efficiency of the workings of the uterus.
The author of the article claimed that she'd had two painful births, and then two non-painful ones having read this book (and this is a midwife). I'll buy it and let you know what I think.
I don't honestly believe that it's possible, really, to have an actual pain-free labour, but I can say from personal experience that the pain is tolerable if you're in the right environment (most importantly, with the right support). Watching OBEM is really different to my experience, and as cunty has said, noone knows how things are going to go but being prepared gives one the best chance of being able to avoid the fear and pain that those women are going through.
lyra says that happy births make poor telly. I feel that happy births should be shown more given the Government's so-called commitment to normalising birth. Maybe this programme is positive in that it highlights the failures of the policy - but only to those who understand it. General viewers will surely simply take away the message that birth is a scary, painful event and that's Just How It Is.
I don't think it's being hippy to want to minimalise interventions, drugs (these two being directly linked), fear and pain. I think it's logical.
I do think ski that it's quite amusing that you're calling lotus births hippy when you're having a homebirth because many people would think of a HB as being hippy... when actually it's just logical as you have decided. My question yesterday was, is there a genuine physiological reason to keep the cord intact rather than cutting it (and clearly cutting it before it's stopped pulsating is at best stopping goodness passing to the baby, and at worst putting the baby at risk of bleeding, and if the placenta is still inside the mother, suffocation). Where should the line be drawn? I'm honestly not looking at it from the POV of "protecting the baby's aura", but protecting him physically. pony's background and the Maori traditions is really interesting. When not brought up in that culture it seems alien and perhaps odd. But, like Jews and Muslims not eating pork, there's maybe a historical and valid physiological reason for it and dismissing things out of hand as "yucky" seems wrong for the baby.
After all, having babies is yucky. Meconium - someone should collect it all for road tarring (intended as yuck emoticon!).