Conditioning for childbirth.

In this era of overnight successes and fast fading fads the philosophy of childbirth conditioning (or natural childbirth), as it is more commonly known, has taken almost thirty years to get to its present point of recognition. It was an over-powering zealist, Grantly Dick Read of England, who developed the idea and by his persistence and enthusiasm against a great deal of opposition, has made this philosophy available to women in practically every country in the world. Unfortunately, his method was hailed as a method of painless labour the impression was held that there was something inherent in the relaxing exercises that relieved pain. Although Read did explain that it was relief from fear and tension that produced the real benefit, the idea got abroad that natural childbirth meant painless childbirth. While completely painless childbirth does occur in a small minority of cases (10%) the vast majority of women undertaking it do feel pain with the contractions and a fair percentage of them will require one or more analgesics to help them relax. Nevertheless, of those who really prepare themselves, well over 90 % are enthusiastic about it and request the same method with the next baby.