Blessed epidurals: Or, Biting the hand that delivers us?

Just wanted to update anyone curious on my posting frequency that I am doing some writing for other sites at the moment, but that I will be hoping to return to some of these longer ones.

I am going to work on the anti-artificial post--it is too long, I know. But I actually think that these are important ideas to counter the ubiquitous flipside. Everywhere I look there is someone arguing the opposite of what I am saying, of course without addressing any of the essential arguments.

As to the actual benefit to society angle, anyone curious about the origin of my interest in this topic should be aware of its origins within my ethical system, which believes that whether through human advances or the gift of God we can expect relief from our struggles and pains through modern medicine. Modern medicine is better than its naturopathic competition in my opinion because it uses dispationate science rather than the psychologically powerful pull of placebo and anecdotal evidence that have had customers swearing by every snake oil salesman through town for thousands of years. With medicine, rather than word of mouth and superstition, there is the chance of one generation's knowledge to improve apon another's.

I think that the subject of epidurals is an interesting example of what I am talking about. Individual women who choose to have one or not come to those individual decisions in a very emotionally-invested way, so I am not knocking any one personal decision past or future. And as I have come to learn, surprisingly, most of us come to think what we did in life was the right thing no matter what it resulted in, so that would pretty much not be possible anyway.

But there are other elements in this discussion with motives that I am less thrilled by, however, than just women trying to do the best thing by themselves and their babies (many of them scared by the various propaganda). Having no better name to call them than the 'detractor factor,' this element detracts from anything in the formal medical community but particularly they have success here where they can claim (bravely) that it was better when women birthed their babies on their own. They portray modern obstetrics as some Victorian Patiarical imposition on a better alternative--not the result of the long-time attempt of the whole human race to eliminate suffering of women and the death of unborn children during birth.

It is certainly right to question the actual consequences of encouraging women back from these hard-fought advances, but any reasons offered ought to be good ones, and not just some vague ideology such as the suspicion of anything 'not natural,' like un-natural pain-free childbirth. In my view, though, it sure as heck beats REAL natural child birth a hundred years ago when a half of children and a third of women died afterward. I would sure love it if the obstetrical community, rather than defending itself for the amazing feat of the amount human agony that they have already ended, could be encouraged to do more of the same.

This kind of attack on their usefulness or even safety is making epidurals being tossed out like the baby in the bathwater in Europe, where in managing their health care systems they seem to be forgetting one of the things that they were meant to achieve--elimination of human suffering. This thinking can prevent useful advances in medicine. The doctors that we sent to solve the problem finally return and say hey lookie here, we have reversed the curse of Eve for you with a modern-day miracle! And that miracle is no worse than a flu shot which can look as scary and risky if it is sold as such.

Sometimes I wonder about who gains when women loose--I picture a marketing meeting in some HMO board room where they think up the idea that rather than being forced to cover this wonderful procedure (because it is obviously so wonderful), the better option would be to convince women it would be better if they just writhe in agony for free. Those who welcome national health care can expect this to come to the US. No pain relief for you!

I am all for natural childbirth, or for doing whatever my ancestors did if anyone tells me what it is they did and how it will help me in some way that I don't know. I have a suspicion if they discover that their ancestors lived of of killing one elk and eating it all winter they aren't going to be so excited, but who knows, the writing in agony thing has gone over. But just because the practice was older, has been around a long time, or somehow more 'natural', doesn't make it better, and those that argue these types of alternatives to medical advances should not be allowed to stop at that justification. Most of the actual evidence of archaeological remains of past civilizations, especially Egypt which actually ate very much like the USDA pyramid, the mummies show that they suffered from the same degenerative diseases that we do, along with the chronic ones that we are now getting under control from intervention in 'nature.'

Life of our ancestors was hard and short. So nothing is convincing me that it needs returning to, there, but I will think on it.