Many mums contacting AIMS Ireland have found this an effective way to stay at home as long as possible and avoid routine intervention
including medical pain relief!
In midwife - led care, women will not receive medical interventions such
as medical pain relief, augmentation, or continuous fetal monitoring.
Published by Birth (sponsored by Lamaze International), the Hutton study shows lower rates of interventions such as cesarean section, episiotomy, and
medical pain relief for the home birth group.
But after seeing how some women run to the O.R. in my same situation — and minus
the medical pain relief — and I choose to do as much of it alone as I could... well I felt like a superhero.
All the research points to the potential healthcare savings if doulas become more widely available, due to the lower rates of cesareans, pitocin induction,
medical pain relief and more.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but women who used epidural pain relief have less positive feelings about their birth experience than women who use
no medical pain relief.7, 8 No matter what methods of pain relief a woman used, low levels of pain have not been found to be associated with high levels of enjoyment during labor.9 So what matters for a good birth experience?
That being said, there are inherent risks with
any medical pain relief options, and corresponding reasons to avoid them if possible.
That being said, there are inherent risks with
any medical pain relief options, and corresponding reasons to avoid them if possible.