PREPARATIONS FOR CHILDBIRTH

Long before your baby is due to arrive, you will undoubtedly have made arrangements for your confinement. The tentative date your doctor gave you at the first interview has been confirmed or corrected on the basis of later indications, and, after discussing your preferences on the type of hospital accommodation available, your doctor has made the necessary bookings for you. You have talked over the actual childbirth with your doctor and fully discussed the question of preventing or controlling pain.

Pain during childbirth

Whether or not a woman admits it, she can hardly fail to give some thought to the question of the pain connected with having a child. How bad will it be? Talk this over with your doctor. There is no doubt that fear and tension aggravate pain, especially labour pains, and that they are far less intense if the mother can relax.

Natural childbirth

An English doctor named Grantly Dick Read has worked out a method, about which you may have heard, called natural childbirth, or childbirth without fear. In order to make this possible, the prospective mother is helped from early pregnancy, emotionally as well as physically.

Emotional preparation consists of ridding the mother of all her fears. She learns exactly what happens during her pregnancy and at each stage of the delivery. She knows just what to do to keep the pain at a minimum. Physical preparation consists in doing exercises to limber up the muscles she will use when she delivers her baby.

Women who have had their babies by this method are usually very enthusiastic. They find it deeply satisfying to be conscious throughout the delivery, and thrilling to know the exact moment they have given birth and to see and touch the baby the instant he is born.

However, the use of this technique does require a great deal of time from the doctors and the nursing staff, who must be well trained and convinced of its advantages.

Anaesthesia

Most doctors use some form of anaesthetic or analgesic or both, during childbirth. An analgesic lessens pain.

What to take to the hospital

After your arrangements with the hospital are made, get together the things you will need. Pack the following:

A sanitary belt. The hospital will furnish the pads.

Toilet articles: toothbrush and toothpaste, comb, brush, hand mirror,

toilet water, cosmetics, and so on. Nightgowns. The hospital will furnish gowns, but after the first day

or two, you will want your own. Bed jacket, bathrobe, and bedroom slippers. Brassieres that you can wear while nursing. These fasten in front. Articles for your spare time: books, pen, writing paper, and stamps