Oh, Zoe, there is no point trying to ingratiate yourself

[RosaLuxMundi]

Unless you out yourself first. Here are some pretty words about us

I read that article completely differently - I thought that she had gone for a natural birth herself having been persuaded by the midwives, and the stuff about it being "unutterably stupid" was the conclusion she came to once the third stage pain kicked in. Hence the last line ("Tell you what, though. I am now officially a hard nut. And it was worth it.").

Having gone for gas and air myself for the same reasons, and been stunned by the unspeakable violence of the whole process, i remember expressing very much the same sentiments after dd was born. Luckily not in a national newspaper.

I'm not trying to say that women who want pain relief shouldn't have it - but there are some women (and I'm lucky enough to be one I guess) who can go through entire labours without any pain relief quite happily - I did for DS2, nothing apart from a few puffs of gas and air, and I really positively enjoyed the whole thing. What annoys me is her insistence that her experience must be applicable to everyone. And there is a reason why midwives try to persuade women against epidurals - those who have them are more likely to end up with gruesome interventions further down the line because they're not so able to respond to the contractions. But I'm sure you know that anyway.

Yes I know about the cascade of interventions too, and actually if I was having another one I'd probably try to do it all on gas and air again.

But I was full of this kind of stuff post-birth. Pre-birth I soaked up the advice from my NCT classes like a sponge, was utterly appalled at the idea of epidurals and firmly believed that nature would take its course in a benevolent way - which it sort of did - but I was still completely shocked by how bad it was, and felt the need to go off on one about natural vs medical in much the same way as she did in this article. But in a rather less articulate fashion. So I quite liked it.

I think it's just a tone interpretation thing - I saw it as a post-birth hormonal rant rather than a serious piece, but I know what you mean.

Is Polly Vernon the one who used to bang on about what a hard time she had when she was very slim?

I have no idea why The Grauniad continues to ask ZW to churn out this stuff. And don't start me on that terrible piece where she attempted to make out that all the foodstuff you aren't supposed to eat during pregnancy was actually ok. Dire.

kittock - you might find the second time to be very different - I did. Much more Sheila Kitzinger, I-am-a-woman-hear-me-roar (if you're lucky). I know what you mean about the uniformity of pre-birth opinion, and how it doesn't always marry up with people's experience.

I suppose, if I'm honest, I'd love a job that involved writing half the Guardian every day. It is possible that this is colouring my opinion somewhat.

beansprout - Polly Vernon is the one who wrote an article about how much she enjoys being thin (not natural-metabolism thin but regularly-missing-meals thin), it's an empowering life-choice, blah blah.

I roared like a walrus! But I'm a bit feeble about pain.

As far as columnists go, the sad truth is that I'm a sucker for anything half-funny that happens to concur with something I've already got opinions about, even if it's a pile of toss from a journalistic or literary point of view. When Julie Burchill used to write for the Saturday Guardian I didn't know whether I was coming or going - on alternate weeks I was overwhelmed with disgust for her utter stupidity and then hailing her as the greatest genius alive. It's a very bad habit.

Zoe Williams does seem to be writing rather a lot of the Guardian lately, you're right. I can see how that could get annoying if you were reading it every day.