Travel Sick
Unfortunately the second leg of my flight was not very enjoyable. My blood pressure dropped on several occasions and I spent a lot of time feeling quite nauseous. It’s never happened to me before, so I’m hoping the trip back to Australia will not be a repeat. Urgh.
After forcing a sleep to help me feel better a book review seemed a good idea. Actually, the brevity means I can’t call this a proper book review (I’ll have to save that for a later date), but I wanted to re-examine “The fear of childbirth” to see if its critics had something to criticise or were just wailing because they didn’t agree. In particular I was looking for the sexist, racist misogynistic references that my previous adventures in this book missed.
Now I have a 5th edition copy which was printed in 1968 The first edition was printed in 1933. It is written in a formal style, which I think this is a product of the time of publication mixed with a Dr attempting to give professional weight to his theory.
He starts with how he came to the realisation of childbirth being a normal, natural process after being called to a home birth where the woman had no preconceived idea of labour so thought it as neither bad nor frightening.
The book’s only outdated attitude in that Dick-Read believes the revelation of natural childbirth belongs to him, with little credit being given to a woman’s own ability to birth. In the antenatal chapter he thinks that antenatal eduction is about training the pregnant woman.
I picked out this to quote as the humour never leaves me.
Patience – hard put to it – must be heard; it carries safety and health to both mother and child; it is the immutable law of nature, and rarely, if ever, betrays those who have faith in its ultimate beneficence. How many matrons of maternity homes have watched that struggle in the minds of obstetricians, they have judged on their reaction to those impulses and have seen tragedy or joy reward the choice that has been made.
One grand old man of Obstetrics whose name is known throughout schools and universities of England would frequently turn to the matron of his nursing home when labour has reached the stage described and say: “Sister put my bag outside the door, lock it and keep the key in your pocket. If I asked for my forceps says No quick and take it away. I am sorely tempted.”
It’s still an insightful read into childbirth and when compared to current popular material like “What to expect when your expecting” or “Up the Duff”, both of which should be set on fire, it is a work of midwifery excellence.
Exploring London
I have now had a day of recovery and spent a day wandering around London. I did hope to once again visit the old operating theatre at St Thomas’ which is a very interesting museum, but my timing is off. It is closed between 19th May and 4th June. I suppose the London Dungeon is not so different. You may have thought that I would be in no mood for returning to the skies via a giant ferris wheel, but the London Eye was pre-booked. Actually I loved it and hooray the weather has perked up so we had a beautiful view!
The Journey North
Next is the long drive to Scotland, which we start on Friday. The last time I was in the UK was 5 years ago and I have become used to the comparatively relaxed traffic of South Australia. So 500 miles squeezed onto extremely busy and narrow roads, where we’re outnumbered by trucks throwing up the summer rain on to our windscreen is going to be… memorable. But it seems we are not alone in suffering for the cause as Midwives flock to Scotland according to the local news. The travel mad Aussies and Kiwis getting a special mention. Well you can’t come from much further away can you.
Once we reach Glasgow we are staying with some local midwives who are very kindly looking after us. We’ll all being chewing the cud and putting the world to right I’m sure. The big question is will this group of Welsh, Scots and Australians be able to understand one another?
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I look forward to hearing what you think of it. And I am curious. What do you know of folks eating their placenta? Is there a religious group that needs their palacenta? I am a little angry that my hospital is denying folks their placenta on the grounds that Osha calls it a biohazard. Just curious what different groups may do with the placenta.