40's Pain Solutions (i.e., Rectal Ether)

I'm not a "warrior" as some women like to think of themselves.  I am more of a total wuss and am scare do death of childbirth causing irreparable damage to some pretty crucial parts of my body.  So I guess I am a warrior of being terrified.  I have no intention of having a natural birth.  I will not have my baby in a bath.  I will not have my baby without pain medication.  I do not like green eggs and ham.

 

But I also am glad that my options, as least as far as I know it, just include an epidural. 

 

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Check out this list of pain options in the chapter titled "PAINLESS CHILDBIRTH" from this book from the 1940's.

 

"There are a group of drugs which can be administered either by hypodermic needle or by mouth, some of which alleviate pain and others of which, either alone or in combination, abolish the memory of pain.  Let us consider both the usefulness and the drawbacks of these drugs."

 

- Morphine: That just can't be safe for a baby.

 

- Twilight Sleep: "A woman under Twilight Sleep may shriek, make grimaces and show other evidences of pain, but upon awakening from the drug will remember nothing about her labor and will vow that she experienced no pain whatsoever."  This sounds like the unfathomably unattractive version of getting drunk and blacking out and having someone film you.

 

- Rectal Ether: Just no thanks.

 

- Barbiturates: See morphine. 

 

- Paraldehyde: Like they say about food ingredients, if you can't pronounce it, don't put it in your body.  Negative ghost rider.

 

- Spinal and Continuous Causal Anesthesia: This sounds like what they use today.  And after hearing from my friend about what the administering of that drug is like, I'm wishing I didn't have friends at all.  I thought it was just a shot.

 

 

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When it comes to child birth, I think ignorance is bliss.  So I'll try to learn as little more as I can about an epidural.  I also think having something shoved up your butt or putting yourself in a temporary comma sounds pretty rough too.  So I'm glad those options are in the past.  And if I'm wrong about all this,

 

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