Good Hurt: Suffer the Agonies of Pregancy, Ladies

Hmm. Why does it sound like such bullshit coming from a guy?
Assuming that women who choose epidurals are simply sissies who "don't fancy the pain" — and that they will be lesser mothers as a result — is simply insulting. The only thing this attitude "prepares" moms for is a lifetime of being judged.

The Guardian:

"More women should endure the agony of labour because pain-relieving drugs, including epidural injections, carry serious medical risks, diminish childbirth as a rite of passage and undermine the mother's bond with her child.

These claims from Dr Denis Walsh, one of the country's most influential midwives, have prompted a furious reaction, with other experts saying he has exaggerated the risks of having an epidural. Official figures show that the number of mothers-to-be who receive an epidural, general or spinal anaesthetic has soared in recent years to 36.5%.

Walsh, a senior midwife and associate professor in midwifery at Nottingham University, argues that many women avoid experiencing the discomfort of childbirth because hospital maternity staff are too quick to offer an epidural or agree to a woman in labour's request for a pain-killing injection in her back to ease her suffering.

"A large number of women want to avoid pain. Some just don't fancy the pain [of childbirth]. More women should be prepared to withstand pain," he told the Observer. "Pain in labour is a purposeful, useful thing, which has quite a number of benefits, such as preparing a mother for the responsibility of nurturing a newborn baby." .....

The number of women having an epidural has jumped from 17% in 1989-90 to 33% in 2007-08, said Walsh, despite medical risks such as a prolonged first and second stage of labour, a heightened chance of the baby's head being in the wrong place and lower rates of breastfeeding. He claims that:

• 20% of epidurals are given to women who do not need them

• "Emerging evidence [shows] that normal labour and birth primes the bonding areas of a mother's brain better than caesarean or pain-free birth"

• Pain prepares women for the demands of motherhood

• An epidural makes a mother more likely to need help in getting her baby out, such as by using forceps, which can be traumatic for both mother and child.

Sally Russell, co-founder of the Netmums website, said Walsh was talking "absolute rubbish". His comments were unhelpful to women who needed pain relief, she said. "What he is promoting suggests to me that women who can't go through normal birth for whatever reason find they are stigmatised and made to feel they have let themselves down because there's such pressure to have a normal birth, and that's very damaging."