For years there has been an ongoing debate how a baby should be delivered-naturally or using drugs like Epidural and Pitocin. Over the decades researchers have made several breakthroughs in improving the labor process, but in the recent years new problems have been discovered in well-known and commonly used methods that has soon to be mothers questioning what is best for their unborn child. This essay looks into the history of childbirth and the changes in the labor process with the development of anesthesia and laboring inducing drugs. The pros and cons of a few more common methods will be analyzed, and by the end we will see if natural birth is still as safe, if not safer, as birth using drugs. In ancient times, death during a pregnancy
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Science started taking over the labor process in the Victorian era. “Doctors claimed that women were too fragile for traditional childbirth and needed to labor and give birth lying down.” (Pregnant Women - Childbirth Historical Changes, n.d.). Also during this time they started using ether and chloroform as an anesthetic for labor pains. Even with the new discovery of women being too fragile, they were not allowed a resting period after birth if they lived among the working class. Where once pregnancy was respected, in the 1800s is was ashamed and looked down upon, causing most women to disappear during their pregnancy. Again, in the 20th and 21st society’s attitude towards pregnancy changed. Before, anything in regards to pregnancy and its symptoms was only discussed among women, but now it is an open topic between both sexes. The “baby belly” is no longer ashamed, and with the advances in technology women have more ways documenting their …show more content…
Sadly though, the results were not as he wanted. The smell was deeply unpleasant and large amounts were needed, this caused lung irritation, but the substance itself was highly flammable which made using it dangerous in a room lit by candlelight. Later in same year, Dr. James Young Simpson, the Scottish obstetrician, was introduced to chloroform by a chemist from Liverpool. “Simpson and his two friends experimented with it…Impressed with the drug’s potency, Simpson began using chloroform as an anaesthetic, and indeed, the first baby born to a mother under the drug’s influence was named Anaesthesia.” (Apprentice,
Science started taking over the labor process in the Victorian era. “Doctors claimed that women were too fragile for traditional childbirth and needed to labor and give birth lying down.” (Pregnant Women - Childbirth Historical Changes, n.d.). Also during this time they started using ether and chloroform as an anesthetic for labor pains. Even with the new discovery of women being too fragile, they were not allowed a resting period after birth if they lived among the working class. Where once pregnancy was respected, in the 1800s is was ashamed and looked down upon, causing most women to disappear during their pregnancy. Again, in the 20th and 21st society’s attitude towards pregnancy changed. Before, anything in regards to pregnancy and its symptoms was only discussed among women, but now it is an open topic between both sexes. The “baby belly” is no longer ashamed, and with the advances in technology women have more ways documenting their …show more content…
Sadly though, the results were not as he wanted. The smell was deeply unpleasant and large amounts were needed, this caused lung irritation, but the substance itself was highly flammable which made using it dangerous in a room lit by candlelight. Later in same year, Dr. James Young Simpson, the Scottish obstetrician, was introduced to chloroform by a chemist from Liverpool. “Simpson and his two friends experimented with it…Impressed with the drug’s potency, Simpson began using chloroform as an anaesthetic, and indeed, the first baby born to a mother under the drug’s influence was named Anaesthesia.” (Apprentice,