WOMEN should embrace the full pain of childbirth to bond with their babies instead of resorting to anaesthetic drugs, a leading male midwife has said.
UK professor Dr Denis Walsh said the pain of labour should be considered a "rite of passage" and a "purposeful, useful thing".
The pain prepares women for the responsibilities of motherhood, he wrote in an international journal published yesterday.
Australian obstetricians responded by saying women need to be free to make their own decisions.
"It is a woman's choice and I don't think we have any good evidence to show that you have to have pain to be a good mother," Melbourne obstetrician Dr Louise Kornman said.
While more women are relying on pain relief instead of opting for a natural birth, "there is a time and place" for epidurals, Associate Professor Hannah Dahlen of the Australian College of Midwives said.
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