Methods of a Natural Childbirth

Childbirth is a beautiful thing. After the hours of labor, there is nothing more special than having the newly mother able to hold her child the minute after it’s born. It makes the pain that you had just experienced go away because all that matters in the world is that newborn child in your arms. During labor, every woman has her own experience but one common experience is the pain. According to Kitzinger (1978) “Labor pain can have negative or positive meaning, depending on whether the child is wanted, the interaction of the laboring woman with those attending her, her sense of ease or dis-ease in the environment provided for birth, her relationship with the father of her child and her attitude to her body throughout the reproductive process” (p.119). Although I have not given birth yet and with me being a young female adult, it is something that I think about often. In the U.S., giving birth naturally has become more common to many mothers and once that decision is made, the next is to decide what type of childbirth method they want to experience, the Lamaze method or the Bradley method.

Why a natural childbirth? The kind of pregnancy, labor, and birth our children experience has a profound and lifelong effect on their health, including their mental, emotional, and physical health. It also usually means that no drugs are used during the actual childbirth. According to Mardorossian (2003) “Medical institutions across the country are now sponsoring childbirth classes that draw on alternative models of childbirth, the Lamaze and Bradley methods” (p.113). The Lamaze method was developed by Ferdinand Lamaze in France in 1958. This method of childbirth is when the expectant mother is prepared psychologically and physically to give birth without the use of drugs. With this method, the mothers want to be aware during the birth of their child without the fear of pain experienced. Accordng to Grad and Woodside (1977) “The discomfort of labor and delivery is caused by