Psychological Methods for Managing Labor Pain (Part One)

Childbirth has always been associated with pain, and in every era and culture, guidance has been offered to try to ease it: from movements to make during labor (belly dancing, for instance, appears to have been the oldest form of childbirth preparation) to positions to take during the pushing stage, from diets meant to encourage delivery to the use of herbal remedy mixtures (including cannabis or opioids, whose effects were poorly understood) to relieve the pain.

From the end of the 19th century and for roughly half of the 20th, hypnosis was used in France, Germany, and the USSR, allowing some doctors to achieve complete analgesia during labor by dissociating the contractile function of the uterus from pain. However, the absence of pain achieved this way went hand in hand with the woman's lack of emotional participation in the birth.

In Great Britain, in 1933, Dr. G. Dick Read devised a method for helping women give birth, based on the premise that labor pain was not physiological but caused by prejudice and fear. It was therefore essential to inform the woman about what would happen during labor and to help her build confidence in herself, using relaxation techniques based on breathing as well. The criticism leveled at this method concerned the strong suggestive influence the doctor exerted over the laboring women, due to the intense relationship that formed between them, one he was probably not entirely aware of.