The founder of the modern concept of preparing for childbirth is the British obstetrician Grantley Dick-Read, who published his famous book Childbirth Without Fear in 1933. At that time, the vast majority of childbirth took place using painkillers, which often led to various complications.

Dick-Read, on the basis of rich practical experience, came to the conclusion that it is in the power of most women to prepare for childbirth in such a way that they are not accompanied by unbearable torment, but would be a completely natural physiological process (then the need for pain relief would disappear by itself). The main thing that prevents this is the fear with which childbirth is traditionally associated. If a woman in labor experiences fear (and hence tension), childbirth becomes unnatural, pathological and is accompanied by unbearable pain.

Based on the theory of the great Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov about conditioned reflex activity, Dick-Read concluded that if fear causes tension and pain, then the opposite is also true: muscle relaxation contributes to the suppression of all emotions, including fear. In addition, by relaxing the muscles, a woman eliminates the influence on the process of childbirth of those muscle groups that prevented the exit of the fetus throughout the pregnancy, which means that it facilitates the expulsion of the fetus and prevents pain. Therefore, the primary task in preparing for childbirth is to learn how to consciously induce a state of relaxation (reducing muscle tone to a minimum). To do this, you need to exercise throughout the entire period of pregnancy.

It should be noted that, despite all efforts, significant pain during delivery still occurs, and supporters of natural childbearing only welcome the use of painkillers.

Learning to relax

Bright light interferes with relaxation, so the best time for relaxation is twilight (during the day you need to draw the curtains, in the evening turn on only one table lamp). It is important that nothing constrains the body: you need to unbutton the collar, remove tight shoes, watches, bracelets, glasses, contact lenses, dentures (if any). In addition, it is desirable to empty the bladder and rectum to effectively relax the pelvic muscles.

Stand up, stretch, taking a deep breath through the nose, exhale all the air from the lungs, lowering the shoulders and head. If you start training early in your pregnancy, the best relaxation you can get is in the supine position. Lie on a hard, flat surface with a pillow under your head and shoulders, and under your knees (the joints of your legs and pelvis should be slightly bent). Spread your legs about 20 cm apart, at the same distance from the body, place your hands palms down, slightly bending your elbows and knuckles.

After 18-20 weeks of pregnancy, relaxation on the back is not suitable for many women, in this case, sessions can be carried out, leaning back in a comfortable chair. In late pregnancy, as well as during childbirth, the optimal position is lying on the left side (blood circulation is not difficult, the uterus does not press on the diaphragm and does not interfere with breathing).

The left hand should be thrown behind the back and placed along the body, the right hand should be bent and placed near the pillow, which should support the right shoulder (without such support, it is very tense). The head should be put on the pillow and turned to the right shoulder, slightly raising the chin - in this position it is easier to breathe. Bend the left leg just a little, pull the right leg close to the stomach. For the best relaxation of the muscles of the abdomen, lower back, legs and small pelvis, a pillow should be placed under the right knee. For this position, abdominal breathing is best suited (with each breath, the abdominal cavity is filled with air). Having taken the correct posture and started to relax, a pregnant woman immediately feels confident and comfortable: there is no pressure from the uterus, the back and abs are relaxed, breathing is free.

Relaxation technique

Inhale and exhale deeply several times, try to relax the muscles as best as possible. Imagine that your legs and arms become heavy, your shoulders lean back. You should have the feeling that you are falling through the bed, drowning in it. It is important to completely relax the neck muscles, so the head and shoulders should be in a comfortable position. Feel your eyelids getting heavy, let them close under their own gravity.

Concentrate for a while in turn on each arm, leg, on the muscles of the back, make sure that they are not tense, do not move. If you have managed to completely relax your back muscles, you should feel the pressure of your body on the surface below you. Focusing on the muscles of the forehead, cheeks, around the mouth, achieve their complete relaxation. The eyes and eyelids must be motionless. Feel your head bulging through the pillow, your facial muscles sagging, your mouth opening slightly, your lower jaw dropping.

Completely relax the muscles of the abdomen and small pelvis: take a few deep breaths through your mouth, as you exhale, the chest and stomach should “fall off” under their own weight, after exhaling, hold your breath for 2 seconds. With each exhalation, you relax more and more, tension in the abdominals and pelvic muscles disappears (make sure that the jaws are open, tension in the muscles of the mouth causes tension in the muscles of the small pelvis). You feel like you are “opening up” from below, your breathing slows down, becomes inaudible, deep and even, as in a dream. Such breathing adequately provides the body with oxygen during contractions if relaxation is achieved.

Continue to relax all parts of the body in turn until the feeling of heaviness is replaced by a feeling of lightness, flight. At this stage of relaxation, warmth spreads over the limbs, a slight tingling is felt in them.

There is a state of half-sleep, the sense of time disappears, thoughts do not linger on something specific. For effective rest, it is recommended to stay in this state for about 30 minutes.

You need to get out of the state of relaxation gradually. To avoid dizziness or fainting, rise slowly, after taking 2-3 deep breaths, bending your arms and legs several times. After you have taken a sitting position, take 2-3 more deep breaths and stretch. This completes the procedure.

Women who have mastered the Dick-Read technique usually do not experience fear, despair, severe pain during childbirth, therefore they “do not miss” the moment of the birth of their baby and feel the most complete happiness that only happens in this world.

Recently, more and more women have a responsible approach to the issues of pregnancy and childbirth, and obstetrician-gynecologists are also turning their attention to physiological childbirth, to the birth of a child with minimal medical influence.

The situation that is developing around childbirth is a reflection of a misunderstanding of what natural childbirth (EP) is. In my article, I will not dot all the "i", but will just give the views of the famous English obstetrician - gynecologist Grantley Dick - Reid, author of the book "Childbirth without fear", which was first published in 1959. I would like to pay special attention to the views of this doctor, because it is to him that many supporters of the EP refer.

“The birth of a child is a short but important episode in a person's life. None of us can escape the consequences of the intrauterine period of our lives, the consequences of the way we were born and spent the first months of life.
With amazing accuracy, it was confirmed that a person remembers the moment of his birth. Frédéric Leboyer stressed the importance of a gentle birth, as the child at the moment of his birth feels any violence and recognizes the emotions of all participants in the event.

Childbirth in a dignified environment is a concept that means that a newborn falls into an atmosphere where he and his mother are treated humanely and caringly. All necessary medical assistance is provided unobtrusively. The presence of a father is considered an undeniable advantage. The child comes into the world, where he immediately receives affection and support. In fact, giving birth in such an environment is the safest way to have a baby, it is EP at its best.

EP is a normal physiological birth. When childbirth is associated with fear, and, consequently, with tension, they immediately become non-physiological, pathological in one way or another. EP does not mean a completely painless course for every woman, although, as a rule, the resulting discomfort does not exceed the level that the woman herself wants to experience and which can be controlled. EPs also do not mean that analgesics and anesthesia should never be used. Anesthetics should always be at hand - a woman should not be allowed to suffer needlessly from pain.
EPs do not guarantee the absence of pain. But contraction of the uterus should not cause any pain, if it is not complicated by fear and tension. The problem is that it is far from always possible to bring a woman to childbirth completely calm, relaxed and competent.

The main principle of EP is maximum relaxation during contractions. In preparation for the EP, a woman must learn ways to relax. A woman in labor should not experience any other stress, except from the very fact of the upcoming event. Her environment, procedures, waiting for these procedures should be organized in such a way as to reduce stress to a minimum. When stressed, blood flows from the uterus to the arms and legs as fear and tension prepare the body to flee or fight. It is not surprising that it hurts, because the uterus itself becomes painful!

The absence of stress and muscle relaxation does not mean that a woman in labor should lie down all the time during labor. On the contrary, it is better for her to spend as much time as possible out of bed .... She can walk as long as it is convenient, go, for example, to the bathroom, take a walk along the corridor. While in bed until the waters have poured out, she can relax either lying on her left side (to facilitate the flow of oxygen to the uterus and the child), or sitting in a half-sitting position. It is not necessary for a woman in labor to be in bed. It has been found that a combination of moderate activity and an upright posture is an excellent labor stimulant.

If husbands plan to be present at childbirth, then they should first be explained that they will not just be observers. Each of them is present at childbirth with the sole purpose of helping his wife, and then sharing with her the joy of the birth of a child.

The simultaneous observance of two conditions: the calmness of the woman and the spontaneous onset of active labor is a guarantee of their rapid completion. If a woman walks during contractions, then she can rest, leaning on her husband. If she is on her knees and hands, then the upper body should be placed across the bed. If the woman in labor prefers to lie down, then she should take the most comfortable position - reclining with her back raised, or simply lie on her left side.

Relaxation during the first stage of labor can have a huge effect. For example, some women seem to be drowsy from the start to the end of labor. Complete relaxation helped them overcome the first period without any discomfort. Then such a woman automatically brought the abdominal muscles to work, the second stage of childbirth began, but between attempts she continued to lie in complete relaxation.

The idea of ​​pain relief, even the fact that there is pain for such relaxed women, is rather ridiculous. However, this does not mean that they are "passed out" - they understand everything that they are told, and fully follow the instructions.
Full dilatation of the cervix in 50% of births causes increased back pain above the sacrum or in the sacral region. The pain is caused by distension of the uterus and is transmitted down the back, it can be relieved by strong pressure and stroking in the area of ​​the lower back and sacrum by the husband or other helper. The temporary inconvenience caused by back pain is accompanied by the anxiety of the woman in labor. When the baby is in the normal position, the back pain usually only lasts for 9-12 contractions. The woman in labor should be told about this, because. temporary discomfort is much easier to bear than difficulties that do not know when they will end.

At the time of the onset of symptoms of the second stage of labor, even a well-prepared woman can be confused. The woman in labor needs to be supported and guided by her actions. The most comfortable position for the patient is reclining, when the back is raised and the legs are on supports. The head and shoulders lie calmly on the pillow, the neck is relaxed, the head is turned slightly to the side.
When childbirth enters the second period, a woman feels great relief. Now she can take a more active part in childbirth. The pain in the back disappears, everything inside the abdomen moves forward. With the beginning of the second period, active labor begins.
The patient should not be allowed to push hard, she only needs to maintain her breath, with each contraction, bending forward to increase the pressure on the top of the uterus. During the second period, attempts and contractions that require physical effort become very frequent, relaxation during contractions is only possible for a short time, therefore, as soon as the contraction ends, the mother should use the support, close her eyes, inhale and exhale deeply once or twice and try to you can relax more. Contractions can come every 5-6 minutes at the beginning of the second period and 2-3 minutes at the end.

When the head is shown and the intervals between contractions disappear, then at this moment the woman needs to completely relax and breathe through her mouth. Particular attention should be paid to the relaxation of the jaws - this will help to relax the muscles of the perineum. As soon as the head appears, all efforts of the woman in labor should be stopped. Now the uterus itself slowly guides the child forward, while the woman should completely relax, open her mouth and begin to quickly inhale and exhale.
After the birth of the child, it is necessary to put it on the mother's stomach, so that she presses him to her. The umbilical cord is long enough to allow the baby to be brought to the breast for the first feeding. The child remains in the arms of the mother until the end of the third stage of labor - the birth of the placenta. The only hygienic procedure he requires is the careful wiping of traces of blood and meconium. Primordial lubrication - a whitish cheese-like coating that covers the skin of a child, is not removed at birth, because. it can protect the baby from skin infections. Plaque is gradually absorbed by the skin itself.

With EP, when the baby is born, there is no need to relax. Here, if there is tension, it is nothing but a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. If the baby at this time begins to suck on the mother's breast, this causes strong reflex contractions of the uterus, leading to an acceleration of the separation of the placenta and the closure of blood vessels at the site of attachment of the placenta to the uterus. Another great benefit of the physical contact of the newborn with the mother is the rapid separation of the placenta and the avoidance of excessive blood loss. If a woman has minor injuries in the vagina and obstetricians believe that they need to be sewn up, then sutures should be applied immediately, while the perineum is still numb - this delivers a minimum of inconvenience to the woman and can be performed without anesthesia.

While the parents are holding the baby in their arms, Apgar scores can be easily calculated. Then the child must be measured, weighed and returned to the parents. The baby stays with the parents all the time until discharge from the hospital, which usually happens a few hours after the baby is born.

EP oriented maternity hospital. Ideally, the maternity hospital should have a waiting room equipped with a TV, tape recorder, magazines, and books. This room is not for husbands, but for a married couple at the beginning of the first stage of childbirth.
If it turns out that the patient is actually in labor, then she is transferred to the delivery room, which should have an appropriate homely atmosphere and furnishings, which, of course, does not mean a lack of asepsis.

EP training

The entire period of time from conception to the first nine months of a child's life should be taught in the classroom as a chain of continuous interconnected events. Parents should understand that childbirth is, although an important milestone in the path of optimal development of the child, but still not the only one. It is necessary to emphasize this concept already in the first lesson. At the same time, a tour of the hospital is held and ways of relaxation are studied. When we talk about normal, natural, uncomplicated childbirth, we mean that the baby has a normal body weight, is in the correct position - such that, when passing through the birth canal, it does not create excessive stress and does not damage the surrounding tissues.

The essence of EP is that a woman experiences discomfort that does not exceed that which she is able to endure. If a woman was trained during the prenatal period, she is preparing for what will happen to her in childbirth, she begins to perceive childbirth as a normal physiological function. As Harlap Ellis notes, G. Dick - Reed's book "Childbirth without fear" is not an instruction for women in matters that are exclusively within the competence of physicians.

Once again, I would like to note that this article allows you to briefly get acquainted with the views of the famous English obstetrician - gynecologist Grantley Dick - Reed and find out his opinion about the ER. Many of the doctor's approaches to preparing for EP remain relevant to this day. EP is not synonymous with birth outside the maternity hospital. It is absolutely certain that for the successful course of childbirth, in order for them to be natural and require minimal medication, the participation of two parties is necessary - the pregnant woman herself, who knows well what will happen to her in childbirth and how to behave, and a team of professionals in maternity a home that can provide a woman with the necessary attention, emotional comfort, and, if necessary, timely medical intervention.
Dick - Reid G. Childbirth without fear. / Per. L. Tsakur. -M., 2005. -304 p.

10.09.2007
,
clinical psychologist,
candidate of psychological sciences
psychologist of the Novosibirsk city
perinatal center

Grantley Dick-Read - Childbirth without fear

G. Dick-Read "Childbirth without FEAR" Series: Your child's health. Ed. 1st Topic: Healthy lifestyle. ISBN: 5-88782-005-5
Format: 13x20 cm Volume: 384 pages Binding: paperback

Granty Dick Read
Chidbirth Without Fear
The Origina Approach to Natura Chidbirth
1984
G. Dick-Read
Childbirth without fear
An original approach to natural childbirth
1996

This book is not a medical textbook. All recommendations must be agreed with the attending physician.

Introduction
Preface to the first edition
Preface to the Fifth Edition

PART I. PROSPECTS FOR NATURAL BIRTH
Chapter 1
brain development
Prenatal bond and husband

Chapter 2
What is natural childbirth?
Natural childbirth and pain
Relieve stress
Helpers
Birthing Team
Natural environment of a natural event
Presence of children at birth
Natural childbirth training

Chapter 3
Nutrition
Proper breathing
Rest and movement
Breast Care
Strengthening the muscles of the small pelvis

Chapter 4
uterus during pregnancy
Musculature of the uterus
Fear - tension - pain
Preparing for relaxation
How to recognize voltage
Relaxation practice
Poses for relaxation
Residual stress

Chapter 5
Nausea
Frequent urination
Constipation
Fatigue
Sexual intimacy during pregnancy
Sexuality
Fetal position
Checking Methods
Anxiety, fear and fatigue

Chapter 6
Start of labor
Beginning of the first stage of labor
End of the first stage of labor
Transition period
Beginning of the second stage of labor
The established second stage of labor
Completion of the second stage of labor
Birth
third stage of labor

Chapter 7
Ties with a newborn
This amazing newborn
Complete nutrition for the child
Homecoming

PART II. PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL BIRTH
Chapter 8

Chapter 9
Negative Influences
Natural law and civilization
Historical and religious influence
last century

Chapter 10
Structure of the uterus and birth canal
Automatic uterine contractions
Influence of the sympathetic system
The influence of emotions on childbirth

Chapter 11

Chapter 12
Start of labor (good mood)
First stage of labor (relaxation)
Second stage of labor (detachment)
Third stage of labor (feeling of elation)

Chapter 13

PART III. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GRANTLEY DICK RID
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Editor addition
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Conclusion
Epilogue. The Dick Reed case continues
Introduction

It is high time to speak of the invaluable help which Grantley Dick-Read has received from his dear wife, Jessica. After all, it was she who saved the manuscript from the fire when he, having met resistance in medical circles, decided to destroy everything he had written. It was she who accompanied her husband on a trip to South Africa, when, unable to withstand the pressure of British doctors, he left England in despair. It was she who introduced Grantley Dick-Reid to Marymount Maternity Hospital, where his success in painless childbirth became a role model throughout the world.
None other than Jessica set up prenatal classes where mothers-to-be in small groups could prepare for natural childbirth.
She developed manuals, trained staff, and supervised classes. Up to that time Dr. Dick-Read had taught his patients individually, but at Marymount Maternity Hospital his practice had become so extensive that individual training was impossible. Currently, every maternity hospital in the United States, and in other countries, is engaged in prenatal preparation, but few people know that we owe the fact of its existence to the creative search of Jessica Dick-Reed.
Jessica had the courage to go for a vaginal delivery after a caesarean section, trusting completely in Dr. Dick-Read's early years of practice. Only very recently, medicine has questioned the postulate: "After cesarean - only cesarean" and in some cases began to practice natural childbirth after cesarean section.
It is for these reasons that this edition of Childbirth Without Fear is dedicated to the widow of Dr. Dick-Read.
Nearly seventy years have passed since Dr. Grantley Dick-Read (1890-1959)
published his first carefully prepared monograph on the philosophy of childbearing. In those days, the very idea that childbirth can take place without suffering seemed seditious and revolutionary, unacceptable to many, so almost all women gave birth under deep anesthesia.
However, Dr. Dick-Read did not back down from his discovery, and time proved the correctness of his teaching. In the twenties, he broke with tradition not only by teaching women the practice of natural childbirth, but also by organizing classes for husbands. Today, the training of wives and husbands is no longer disputed - moreover, it is widely promoted and practiced.
Grantley Dick-Read was way ahead of his time in his approach to the process of childbirth, and indeed in many other areas of medicine. He paved the way for future generations. Unfortunately, only after his death did the significant social changes that took place in the world draw public attention to the ideas that he preached.
One of his "heretical" ideas was to protest against environmental pollution, as well as against the "pollution" of people's minds - false fears, and bodies - drugs. His approach to obstetrics was impeccably scientific, but at the same time he worked at the intersection of sciences, involving psychology, sociology and anthropology in research in the field of physiology and natural sciences. He repeatedly emphasized that a woman must be perceived as a whole person, and not only concentrate on certain processes occurring in her body.
Focusing his efforts on midwifery, Dick-Reed moved to group teaching just when this concept was met with great opposition. He shocked public opinion by saying that already in school, teenagers should learn such important things as sexual hygiene, the process of childbirth, and the basics of family life.
He was an anti-establishment man - not an outsider, but an active observer with a creative, truthful approach to reality.
Based on the knowledge of human relations, he spoke out against the unproductiveness and cold detachment from the life of academic science, against the categorical nature of materialism, against the pursuit of social prestige.
Dick-Read loudly declared the equality of all the inhabitants of the country and in his articles he repeatedly said that he admired the wisdom of blacks and recommended everyone to get acquainted with their life, with their history.
None of these articles made him popular among his contemporaries!
At the pinnacle of success in the practical application of his teachings, in 1930, at the age of forty, Grantley Dick-Read wrote a book that radically changed the course of obstetrics. Based on his own medical experience, he proved that childbirth is a natural physiological process that should not be painful at all. Since his research was based on the "laws of nature", he called his book "Natural Birth". But he did not expect that the title of the book would give a "name" to a whole trend in the practice of obstetrics, that this term, although sometimes misunderstood, would actually become a common expression throughout the world. It also played a significant role in the fact that by 1933, when the book was finally published, Grantley Dick-Read had risen from the relative obscurity of a practicing country doctor to the top, where he was an easy target for the anger of some and the slander of others. Like many great pioneers of medicine - Simpson, Semmelweis, Lister, Pasteur - he was not recognized by his contemporaries, but later his teaching became one of the cornerstones of medicine.
Grantley Dick-Read considered his teaching not as the final one, which put an end to the development of science, not as the ultimate truth, but rather as the foundation on which future discoveries would be based. He was never afraid to shake established traditions, boldly asking an uncomfortable question:
"Why?". If he lived now, he would no doubt encourage young people to ask uncomfortable questions, to tirelessly test the correctness of medical methods in practice, including his own developments. We believe that all those who share his belief in the consistency and orderliness of the laws of nature, which we so often neglect to our misfortune, will continue the search for truth.
The fifth edition of Childbirth Without Fear contains descriptions of some of the latest discoveries that confirm the truth of the principles of the teachings of Grantley Dick-Read.
New material is included in the first part, the second part outlines the philosophy and physiological foundations of natural childbirth; in the third, Grantley Dick-Read's autobiography. This edition includes the best, timeless provisions of the author's works.

Preface to the first edition

The compilers have included in this edition the author's preface, published by him in the first edition of the book "Natural Childbirth" [London: Heineman, 1933] - however, in a somewhat abridged form. The accuracy and modernity of the views expressed 50 years ago cannot but amaze and seem especially remarkable.
Recently, no subject has attracted so much attention as midwifery. Scientific societies everywhere invite lecturers and carry discussions on theory and practice, government commissions are established to study the causes of infant and maternal mortality during childbirth. Many articles are published in medical journals on birth defects and complications, and the "worldly" press, in turn, does not miss the opportunity to present to the public any information that can be obtained on this subject from scientific societies and associations. And although it cannot be denied that significant progress has been made in terms of awareness and technique of childbirth, unfortunately, this has not affected the statistics in any way, at least over the past 10-15 years.
On the following pages, an attempt will be made to consider the process of childbirth from a slightly different angle than the usual one. Many dangers and complications can be avoided through careful prenatal preparation and careful monitoring of the expectant mother. Accurate knowledge of the size of the pelvis, the position of the fetus and the degree of its development allow during childbirth to act correctly and in a timely manner, which prevents the occurrence of various complications.
As a rule, no one disputes the fact that one of the causes of complications during childbirth and, as a result, maternal and child mortality, is the inability of obstetricians to calmly observe the course of childbirth and not interfere in the natural course of events. The reason for this may be both excessive zeal and unreasonable anxiety based on ignorance, but be that as it may, the fact remains that it is precisely such interference that poses the greatest danger to the mother and child.
However, there is a contradiction in this issue: on the one hand, women often suffer because of misdirected human sympathy; on the other hand, it is obvious: if there is suffering, they need to be alleviated. The problem arises: how to alleviate prolonged suffering without harming the mother or child? Which is more immoral: to allow a painful birth to continue, or to put mother and child at risk?
Obviously, when solving this problem, one cannot avoid studying and revising many medical concepts - for example, such as assessment and pain threshold.
A new approach to the birth process has been developed, in which conclusions about the means used are based only on practical experience. The results, by the way, are very, very encouraging.
It is a mistake to believe that the ability to perceive the principles of natural childbirth depends on the degree of awareness in the field of obstetrics, on the level of medical education. Rather, on the contrary, in this case, more tolerance will be required from a medical scientist or simply an academically thinking doctor than from those whose perception is not clouded by fear of deviation from the norm.
Were it not for the enthusiasm of those who accepted the teaching, the pages of this book would never have seen the light of day. We are very far from declaring a 100% guarantee of success and always emphasize that when pathological changes are detected, it is necessary to resort to surgical methods of modern obstetric science. But, on the other hand, no one will object that the excited state of the mother leads to increased sensitivity and susceptibility.
The first and most obvious advantages, when not only the physical, but also the psychological state of the mother is taken care of, is that childbirth begins to appear to her as a more natural process and that in such cases there are almost no complications in the subsequent ones, which we have designated as the second and third, childbirth periods.
But the most important result is the achievement of the happiness of motherhood, when mother and child literally bloom after childbirth.
If, despite everything, the pain still appears, it must be overcome immediately. Painless childbirth is the most valuable gift that people of our profession can give to humanity. However, if painlessness can only be achieved by disrupting the natural course of events, then one must deliberately choose the lesser of two evils.
The birth of a child is the highest destiny of a woman. Awareness and feeling of the beauty, uniqueness of this event is the highest award not only for the mother herself, but also for the whole family, for society, for the nation. Yes, I know that in our time, thousands of women will choose to give birth to children in conditions that are called "modern and humane." These women will be the first to indignantly condemn any talk about the beauty of natural childbirth, saying that, of course, it is easy for a man to be the initiator of such a method. But those who understand will even sympathize with men who cannot know the great joy that is the reward for the natural birth of a child.
Grantley Dick-Read, M.D. 1933

Preface to the Fifth Edition

I want every medical student, every doctor, and every obstetrician who is unfamiliar with the principles of natural childbirth, to be sure to familiarize themselves with the basic teachings of Dr. Grantley Dick-Read. The very fact that they have withstood the test of almost fifty years of experience and have not been refuted speaks volumes. Of course, one should not take each of his statements as a postulate, but at the same time, his ubiquitous criticisms of fellow specialists should not turn us away from a comprehensive study of physiological processes - the most important during pregnancy and childbirth.
If someone believes that the birth of a child must inherently be accompanied by pain and suffering, then we dare to remind him of the following:
1) in no species of animals is childbirth associated with suffering and pain, with the exception of pathological cases or childbirth in unnatural conditions, for example, in captivity;
2) there are cultures and nations, dubiously called uncivilized, where a woman expects the birth of a child with joy, with anticipation of a significant event; it is difficult to detect any signs of suffering there during childbirth, except, again, in pathological cases;
3) not a single physiological process in our body is accompanied by pain, with the exception of complications caused by illness, fear and tension;
4) experience shows that when a woman is prepared so that there is no fear and tension during childbirth, she does not experience suffering and pain, except to a small extent;
5) in the absence of pathological changes, the strength of pain is directly dependent on the strength of fear and tension;
6) prenatal preparation of women is now almost universally practiced in America and more and more words are heard about the natural process of childbirth, stories of positive results are passed from mouth to mouth; A growing number of women are realizing that natural childbirth is the most delightful and rewarding way to give birth to a child.
In the mid-fifties, I had just finished my studies and started giving my first professional lectures at medical congresses. Oh, it was a wonderful time when you know everything! Personally, I had no doubt that I knew the answers to all questions. The plot of the slides I showed at one of the congresses was the anesthesia of childbirth and the practice of applying forceps. I was very proud of the slides and the results of my practical work. During the year, 87 of my patients received complete anesthesia during childbirth. Forceps were applied in 82 cases.
Looking back, I realize what an idiot I was. How little I knew about childbirth "delivery", how scientifically we then spoke. The principles of natural childbirth, their importance have already been outlined in the literature, but I did not even bother to study the articles that were quite accessible to me.
Between the 1950s and the 1980s, I attended about 7,000 births in total and witnessed an evolution in obstetrics. I believe that obstetricians who have not experienced evolution in their experience are unlikely to be able to fully experience progress.
Looking back at the fifties, we can safely say that since that time we have moved from the process of "delivery" to childbirth. In the 1950s, we constantly led women, today they do a lot of things themselves. In the fifties, we talked about rooms for "delivery" - a woman was gradually transferred from ward to ward, and all this was done at the most critical moments of childbirth! There is only one delivery room these days, and the woman is in the same bed before and after the baby is born.
In the fifties, we tried to give every woman complete pain relief, except for those happy times when there was a rapid delivery, and we simply did not have time to do it. Nowadays, full anesthesia is used extremely rarely. In the fifties we tried to use forceps at every birth and then proudly reported on their use, these days we rarely see the reason for using such instruments. In the fifties, we completely unphysiologically compensated for the loss of moisture with the help of intravenous infusions, these days they just give us more to drink. In the fifties, women were shaved off the perineal area and given an enema. I remember with a shudder how women were literally stretched by the arms and legs and their faces were covered. This practice ceased only in the early sixties, when we began to implement our program.
In the fifties, in the first days after childbirth, mother and child were separated, and no one disputed this. Nowadays, we talk about the inalienable, inseparable bonds of a child not only with his father and mother, but also with his brothers and sisters, considering this not even desirable, but a necessary condition. In those days it seemed completely unimportant whether a woman breastfeeds a child. Even if she aspired to this, she was allowed the first feeding not earlier than a day later.
During childbirth, she only had time to throw a fleeting glance at the child, and this was the only contact for the first twenty-four hours of his life. Now we encourage every woman to breastfeed in the first moments after the birth of a child, even before the umbilical cord is cut.
In the fifties, women breastfed for two or three months at best, and this was already considered an outstanding achievement. Today, we advise a woman to feed her baby for nine months only with breast milk, without water and complementary foods, of course, if there are no pathological changes or processes.
In the 1950s, the only suitable place for a father to have a caesarean section was in the waiting room, because it was a surgical procedure. In maternity hospitals of our time, the father has a responsible, extremely important role. If a vaginal birth occurs, then the husband must support his wife directly, but if a caesarean section is performed, then while the doctors are attending to his wife, he must be inextricably linked with the child.
In the fifties we started practicing hypnosis. In those days, it turned into something like a mass insanity. Without a doubt, hypnosis expands the scope of non-medical intervention, which is extremely useful, but it should be noted that such an influence is laborious. The doctor must be in contact with every woman, be present at the birth, and if there are many patients, this becomes simply impossible. Therefore, for most patients, they began to use tape recordings, which talked about how to overcome pain with the help of relaxation. Indeed, to some extent, the tape recording was hypnotizing, and once I even performed a caesarean section on a patient under hypnosis. But think about it: in this case, the woman on the delivery table is supported only by a soulless electronic device! In such cases, everything goes well only for the time being. Then there is always someone who accidentally pulls the cord from the outlet, and everything goes down the drain. And at this time, the husband of the woman in labor is sitting calmly in the corner and reading the newspaper!
In the late fifties, I began teaching husbands how to use hypnosis to assist their wives in childbirth, which was a remarkable achievement for me and for them. During this period I also taught at the University of California, Irvine and at the Los Angeles Hospital. I delivered births to the wives of students, graduate students, and professors, allowing the husbands to be present at the birth (which was usually not allowed in those days). To my surprise, I found that the further along the path of education my students progressed, the less they supported their wives in childbirth. Future doctors were overly interested in the clinical aspects of childbirth, while they were only required to help their wives. And they didn't know how! And so it went until now, until I started telling everyone: "Listen, buddy, you should go to prenatal classes" - and the picture immediately changed.
In the mid-fifties, Dr. Charles Mount III introduced me to the works of Grantley Dick-Read (by the way, it was from Dr. Mount that I first heard the saying: "Doctor's stress \u003d woman's stress \u003d uterus stress \u003d
pain"). Later, Dr. Robert Bradley encouraged me to involve fathers in childbirth. only to observe, nowadays they come to work, then they were allowed to be present at the birth, today their presence is considered necessary.In the fifties we thought that a woman in childbirth should act in concert only with an obstetrician, nowadays we we know that at such a moment her harmony with her husband is even more important.
In California, it is still practiced to keep all newborns in one large ward. Babies lie swaddled in sheets, which is believed to provide warmth and security. In our maternity hospitals, there are not even separate children's wards. The baby should receive warmth and protection from bodily contact with the mother, and not from rags! Our mother and child go home without ever being separated.
At first we kept the mother and child just in the same room, but this was not enough. They must be in the same bed! The baby should fall asleep near the mother. During the first days of life, the child needs continuous bodily contact with the mother. We believe that the experience of the first day of life is especially important in laying the foundation for the future relationship between mother and child.
The study and application of the philosophy of natural childbirth proved to be very satisfactory and fertile. At the moment, we have a large obstetric practice, with three obstetricians in our clinic accounting for about twenty-six teachers. They receive every married couple who comes to us and conduct a 45-minute conversation, finding out the attitude of the spouses to pregnancy, childbirth, the unborn child and so on - in short, they try to learn as much as possible about the patients. Such a survey helps to establish mutual understanding from the very beginning and find out what should be paid special attention to in the future.
Natural childbirth, of course, cannot solve all the problems of obstetrics;
there are still many problems. They simply increase the percentage of normal vaginal births, births without medical intervention. The essence of what we do was laid out by Grantley Dick-Read almost fifty years ago. But since then, something important has happened - life itself has proved the correctness of the principles of Grantley Dick-Read, their importance for mother, father, child, family and, ultimately, for society as a whole. And we are all indebted to him for the invaluable contribution that the concept of natural childbirth has made to the happy birth of a new person.

Harlap Ellis, MD.
This book is not an instruction for women in matters that are exclusively within the competence of physicians. Proper diagnosis and treatment of all symptoms associated with pregnancy and the postpartum period can only be established by qualified specialists.

* PART I. NATURAL BIRTH PERSPECTIVE *

In his writings, Grantley Dick-Read did not write about the method of childbirth, but about a certain philosophy of life, an essential part of which is natural childbirth. He believed that the experience gained during childbirth affects (in a good or bad way) not only the child, but the whole family into which this child was born. He believed that the distinctive features of the clans and the attitude towards them, characteristic of a particular nation, directly reflect its views on the value of each individual life, which, in turn, affects (for good or bad) the whole nation and, ultimately, on humanity as a whole.
Grantley Dick-Read believed that not only the method of childbirth and the period following them affect the child, he believed that the fetus already in the womb is subject to the influences of the circumstances of life and the mood of the mother. He wrote:
We have come to understand that the baby in the womb is nourished by the mother's blood and that changes in the mother's emotional state can affect the nutrition and metabolism of the unborn child. I do not believe in biochemical constants, moreover, I do not consider genes to be constants either. I believe there is something in the mother's blood that changes according to her mood. When the psychological and emotional state of the mother changes, the endocrine glands produce substances that enter the blood, which nourishes not only the mother, but also the child. Thus, the condition of the child cannot remain the same. Today we know that when the emotional state of the mother changes, it is possible to register an increase or decrease in the fetal heartbeat, that is, it can be definitely stated that the development of the child also depends on the mood of the mother during pregnancy.
The research that was carried out after the death of Dick-Read led to the emergence of a new scientific discipline - prenatal and postnatal psychology, moreover, his assumptions and assumptions were confirmed in the most remarkable way. In the following chapters, the birth of a child will be considered as one of the links in a continuous process: from conception to the expiration of several months after birth - from a psychological and physiological point of view for both mother and child.

Chapter 1

The birth of a child is a short but important episode of a single whole - a person's life from conception to death. At this moment, more than ever, the connection between generations is clearly manifested. None of us can escape the consequences of the intrauterine period of our lives, the consequences of the way we were born and spent the first months of life. The conditions in which we spend our first eighteen months - from the moment of conception to the nine months of independent existence - have a huge impact on our entire subsequent life. In this chapter, we will look at how environmental conditions affect the emotional, mental, and psychic development of the fetus.

development of the human fetus

Almost all animals, as well as man, practice approximately the same mode of reproduction. The female produces an egg, the male produces sperm. In order for an egg to develop into a fetus, it must be fertilized. Since each species must reproduce in order not to die out, nature arranged it so that the process of fertilization became pleasant.
The female reproductive organs are located in the lower abdomen, at the level of the pelvic bones. In the very center is the uterus or, as it is also called, the womb, the size of which in a non-pregnant state is about five by four centimeters. The uterus is a small muscular organ, the mass of which is approximately fifty grams, has a pear-shaped shape and is directed with a narrow part down, where it connects to the beginning of the vagina. The lower end of the uterus ends with an internal opening of the cervical canal, surrounded by muscle tissue.
From the upper part of the uterus come two tubes directed to the sides. Each tube has a length of about seventy centimeters and ends at the far end from the uterus with a cavity in the form of a bell. At the base of each bell is a small oval organ - the ovary. Each of the two ovaries contains egg-forming tissue.
Each month, the egg matures and travels through the tube from the ovary to the uterus about ten days after your period. At the same time, a special lining is created in the uterus - a convenient "nest" for a fertilized egg. If the egg is not fertilized, then it passes through the uterus and is thrown out. After about two weeks, the lining of the uterus is also discarded and a new one is prepared for the next egg. The discharge of unused material is called menstruation.
A boy is born with testicles that, shortly before birth, descend from the level of the lumbar vertebrae into the scrotum. This organ produces spermatozoa. It is estimated that each testicle contains sperm-producing fibers with a total length of about a mile, and a healthy man can release more than two hundred million spermatozoa in one ejaculation.
At the climax of copulation, the male sperm is ejected from the urethra into the woman's vagina. A mature spermatozoon has a long, thin tail that allows it to move towards the opening in the cervix. The speed of movement is approximately twenty-five millimeters in ten minutes. A significant number of spermatozoa successfully pass through the uterus into the tubes and take part in the competition, the main prize of which is the fertilization of the egg. As soon as fertilization occurs, the egg immediately changes and becomes inaccessible to other spermatozoa.
The fertilized egg moves through the tube to the uterus, settles on its wall and begins to grow. The lining of the uterus undergoes changes - a child's place, or placenta, is formed, through which the mother feeds the fetus. The placental platform expands rapidly, blood vessels and nerve fibers develop intensively - the development of the child begins.
Shortly after fertilization, cells of various shapes are formed in the egg, from which the organs and parts of the body of the child subsequently develop. At this early stage of development, the sex of the unborn child is already laid.
During intrauterine life, the fetus is protected by a bubble of water in which it lives. The waters protect the fetus from damage (when the mother falls or hits something, for example), maintains a constant temperature, and provides enough space for free quarters, until the last days of pregnancy.
The fruit grows very quickly. After four weeks, it is already about four millimeters long and lies in a bubble, about the size of a pigeon's egg, filled with liquid. At the end of the second month, it reaches thirty millimeters in length. You can already clearly distinguish the arms, legs and head. By this time, the fetus develops its own nervous system and its own circulatory system.
The fetus is fed through the umbilical cord, which is attached to the placenta. This amazing organ - the placenta - is located on the inside of the uterus and serves as a filter for the mother's blood. The placenta not only releases from the blood what the baby needs, but also has the ability to retain substances that can have a harmful effect. By the time the baby is born, the length of the umbilical cord can be from thirty centimeters to one meter.
By the end of the third month, the fetus is up to nine centimeters long and weighs about thirty grams; by the end of the fourth - the length reaches eighteen centimeters, weight - one hundred and twenty grams. By this time, the child's heart is already beating intensely, you can even recognize his gender. The mother begins to feel the movements of the fetus. Often referred to as wiggling, these movements usually occur about eighteen to nineteen weeks after conception for the first time.
In the fifth month of pregnancy, the child is about twenty-five centimeters long and weighs about seven hundred grams. In the medical literature, cases are described when children born at this time survived. By the end of the seventh month, after twenty-eight weeks, the child is already a fully formed being. Despite the lack of development and mass, the survival of seven-month-old children is no longer considered something out of the ordinary.
At eight months, the child reaches forty-four centimeters in length and already has a very good chance of survival. In the ninth month, thirty-six weeks after conception, the weight of the child is from 2270 to 2500 grams.
Its organs are well developed and functioning, and although a child born at this time requires more careful care than a full-term forty-week-old, his chances of survival are very high.
At nine months, or forty weeks (this is the average period required for full development), the weight of the child should reach from 3200 to 3400 grams, and the length should be about 48 centimeters. It is during this period that natural childbirth occurs.
This brief description of the characteristic normal development of the human fetus does not take into account the various genetic, environmental, emotional and nutritional factors that can significantly affect the development of the fetus during pregnancy. Some influences are beyond our control, but conscientious parents should nevertheless try to create optimal conditions for the development of their child. Optimal conditions include, first, taking care of your health and nutrition both before conception and during pregnancy; secondly, care for the calmness of the mother. Strong excitement, deep anxiety often lead to miscarriage, to premature birth. It is not without reason that it is believed that for the normal development of a child in the womb, not only the physiological environment, but also the psychological one is important.

brain development

The development of the child's brain is by no means proportional to the development of the skeleton. From the earliest weeks, the medulla is already present in the fetus. At three and a half weeks, the three constituent parts of the brain can already be distinguished, and in the period of three to five months, the main cerebral functions develop. A month before birth, the baby's brain is already fully developed.
It is our brain that distinguishes us from other animals and elevates us above them.
The most important thing for any pregnant woman is to prevent head injuries and ensure adequate development of her brain.
The principle of natural childbirth is one of the main factors in reducing birth traumatism of the brain. The continuous development of the brain spans the period from conception to the first nine months after birth. The size of the brain tissue four months after conception is approximately 60 cubic centimeters, at the time of birth - 360, and at the age of nine months - already 850.
By the age of nine months, the brain is approximately ninety percent formed.
Neuroanatomists - experts in the nervous system - believe that the developed brain tissue is given to a person for the rest of his life. Brain cells, as well as the ability to produce neurotransmitters, i.e. the full potential of brain development is formed by nine months. If the growth and development of the brain is consistent with genetic and instinctive programs, then a good foundation is laid for further development. If the foundation is either initially not very good (intellectual level below optimal), or damaged (for example, as a result of an injury), or insufficiently developed in the process of growth, then in the future we cannot expect good results. This does not mean that it is impossible to help a child whose brain tissue has not fully formed by nine months. But nevertheless, the better the foundation is laid, the more potential the child has.
If the brain is injured, then, most likely, the consequences of this injury will affect the whole life. Therefore, knowledge about the development of the brain from conception to the first nine months of life is especially important for pregnant women and their husbands. This should be taught to all pregnant women, not just those attending prenatal classes. From a social point of view, this information is even more significant than information about the pressure of the composition of blood and urine. The comfort of the fetus in the womb is undoubtedly important, but taking care of the brain is even more important. Although it is appropriate to note that high and low blood pressure can indirectly adversely affect the development of the brain.
And although various factors influence the growth and development of the brain, it is most important to protect the head of the child from injuries during pregnancy and during childbirth.
Natural childbirth is the surest way to ensure a simple, independent, without medical intervention, the birth of a child.
This does not mean that childbirth without medical intervention should occur at any cost. There are situations where anesthesia, forceps or caesarean section is necessary to prevent head injury. But what a tragedy occurs when the development of the brain is disturbed due to ignorance or indifference - as a result of the inability to apply the methods known today!
What factors influence the development and growth of the brain? Here are some of them.
genetic programming. After conception, it is already out of control.
These factors must be taken into account before conception, especially if there is evidence of hereditary disorders.
Infections. For example, in early pregnancy, brain development is at great risk from infections such as rubella, whose viruses infect brain tissue.
Drugs. It is known that many drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, can cause brain damage. The use of these substances, even before conception, can cause irreparable damage - for example, tobacco damages sperm. If one of the parents uses drugs, then defective genes can occur. An element of risk is also present when a woman takes any medication during pregnancy. It is best for pregnant women to avoid any over-the-counter medications, including aspirin, cold remedies, sedatives, sleeping pills, etc. Physicians should prescribe drugs with extreme caution and only when the benefit of the drug far outweighs the risk. The same goes for Benedictine, a commonly used anti-nausea drug often recommended for early pregnancy. Benedictine products were banned on June 9, 1983
years after numerous lawsuits were filed alleging that its use was detrimental to the development of the child.
Nutrition. A low-protein diet, as well as other malnutrition, has a detrimental effect on brain development. Both parents should receive all the necessary components with food, at least a month before conception, and even better - all their lives. For the future mother and fetus, proper nutrition is not even desirable, but mandatory (nutrition issues are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3).
Anxiety and fear. Negative emotions have a strong effect on the body of a pregnant woman. Anxieties and fears cause biochemical)
changes in the body, preparing it for a response of confrontation or flight. If fight and flight are not possible, then these changes negatively affect the body and cause painful effects in the development of the fetal brain.
One such biochemical change involves the production of catecholamines, which cause narrowing of the arteries and reduce blood flow to the internal organs.
I think everyone knows that oxygen is vital for brain development.
Although the fetus is quite capable of enduring short-term oxygen starvation caused by a response to fear, months of anxious and restless life can have a very, very negative effect. In addition, catecholamines can inhibit the development of brain hormones - endorphins.
oxygenation during childbirth. The more naturally and physiologically childbirth proceeds, the better the conditions for oxygenation. Prolonged obstruction of oxygen access to the fetal brain can cause damage to the brain tissue. A delay in the supply of oxygen to the fetus is caused, for example, by dysfunction of the placenta or clamping of the umbilical cord. Natural childbirth, in which the physiology of the entire process is normalized, guarantees a stable supply of oxygen to the fetus.
On the other hand, the overly anxious woman in labor herself involuntarily restricts the flow of oxygen to her child. The more anxiety, the more a woman needs medical intervention, which makes it even more difficult for oxygen to enter. Excessive anxiety can lead to the use of potentially dangerous painkillers and instruments during childbirth, the use of which threatens to injure the brain if used by inappropriately qualified doctors. Very often, injuries occur during difficult childbirth with the use of forceps, with an incorrect position of the fetus. In such cases, only specialists with very good training can take delivery.
Natural childbirth is not a game. It's not fun for parents to experience emotional pleasure. This is a very important measure to prevent damage to the child's brain.
Indissoluble bond. Immediately after the birth of a child, a special relationship is established between him and his parents. These relationships are formed on the basis of five senses: hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell. And although this period, when the child especially needs special closeness with his parents, actually stretches for nine months, it is especially important immediately after the birth of the child.
This issue will be considered in more detail later, but here it makes sense to dwell on it in the context of the development of the child's brain. Ashley Montague has been saying and writing for years that the less an animal is touched, the worse its brain develops, especially if the lack of physical contact occurs during the imprinting period - immediately after birth. Observations of animals have shown that the lack of physical contact leads to various disturbances in their behavior. If young monkeys do not have sufficient communication during the first two weeks, then they remain handicapped for life. Harry Horlow proved that a young Rhesus female subjected to complete isolation during the first two weeks of life, in adulthood, has difficulty conceiving. If in the future, she still manages to get pregnant, then she will most likely have a miscarriage. The reason for this is the defective development of the brain.
In humans, the imprinting period stretches for nine months, but postpartum contact is still the most important. Lack of contact with loved ones can cause not only unwanted emotions, but also disruption of the normal development of the brain.

Indissoluble bond before birth

The influence of parents on the level of development of the child's brain is indisputable.
However, it is determined not only by heredity, but also by the characteristics of the emotional state of the mother during pregnancy. The anxieties that affect her own nervous system cannot but affect the child.
Many women instinctively feel that this is the truth. In some countries of other cultures, from ancient times there was a practice of influencing the fetus by the mother. For example, in Japan, pregnant women tried to look only at beautiful objects so that the child would become artistic, receptive to beauty. Later, the concepts of prenatal exposure were discarded as "grandmother's tales." However, recent scientific studies have confirmed this theory. Nowadays, interest in prenatal and perinatal psychology is constantly growing.
With amazing accuracy, it was confirmed that a person remembers the moment of his birth. Otto Rank was one of the first in psychiatry to notice that doctors making a diagnosis, examining patients, very often return to the memories of patients associated with birth injuries. In 1954, a British psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Lake, discovered that his patients were troubled by memories of primary pain and tried to relieve them of it. Somewhat later, the attention of specialists was attracted by the work of Artur Dzheynov. Patients, following his technique, descended the "ladder" of painful memories, and very often it turned out that the source of acute pain was a memory of trauma at birth: about squeezing, strangulation, sharp pulling, or about a feeling of abandonment immediately after birth, caused by separation from mother.
As interest in birth memories has grown, a growing number of clinics and research centers have begun to uncover credible evidence of psychological trauma experienced at or before birth, including damage caused by conventional medical intervention.
Unexpected flashes of memories of childbirth happen much more often than previously thought, they are just not always recognized. Sometimes hypnosis is used to release memories. One such recent study interviewed ten pairs of mothers with children, with mother and child tested independently. As a result of the survey, a striking interweaving of memories of the moment of childbirth was discovered.
The memory of birth can also be evoked without hypnosis, simply by relaxing. The most astonishing information about birth was obtained from children between the ages of twelve months and three to three and a half years, when they were asked to answer a direct question: to remember how they were born. Ellen Vossel points to some absolutely wonderful testimonies from very young children that prove that they remember their birth. Spontaneous flashback of childhood memories is easier if the birth was normal, without trauma, because painful memories are repressed and much more difficult to evoke.
This is another reason why you should want childbirth to be natural, comfortable. What can disturb the world of the mother and the harmony of birth should be kept to a minimum. Frédéric Lebuyer stressed the importance of gentle childbirth, as the child at the moment of his birth feels any violence and recognizes the emotions of all participants in the event. Here is what Frank Lake writes:
"There was and still is an obstetric myth that the child does not feel pain ...
However, the results of our unsuccessful efforts to help people release repressed memories leave no doubt that people at birth very often experience fear and anguish, but the memories of this are erased from memory. The "emergency" is filtered out and cut off by various processes that prevent this memory from developing into full contextual knowledge. However, people who are able to recall in memory the events that took place before, at the moment and after birth, very clearly, with a liveliness that has ingrained in their consciousness forever, recall their sensations, accompanying emotions and details about squeezing or some other difficulties.
Psychiatrists and psychologists, convinced that it is possible to evoke memories of childbirth, have made another amazing discovery: you can also evoke memories of life in the womb. Here is what Thomas Verneuil wrote in his latest book:
"Recent discoveries paint a picture of intrauterine inextricable multi-level bonds, no less complex than those that connect mother and child after birth. In fact, these are all parts of an indivisible whole: what happens after birth is a continuation and undoubtedly depends on what happened before and during birth.
Understanding this fact explains to a large extent why a newborn baby is surprisingly so perfectly functioning. His ability to respond to maternal caresses, hugs, eyes and voice is based on a long intrauterine acquaintance with her.
From the moment of conception, mother and child are in constant interaction. The child is not a passive consumer of nutrients. He begins to worry, to push in the womb, if his mother is upset about something. Any stress triggers the sympathetic nervous system and releases

It is high time to speak of the invaluable help which Grantley Dick-Read has received from his dear wife, Jessica. After all, it was she who saved the manuscript from the fire when he, having met resistance in medical circles, decided to destroy everything he had written. It was she who accompanied her husband on a trip to South Africa, when, unable to withstand the pressure of British doctors, he left England in despair. It was she who introduced Grantley Dick-Reid to Marymount Maternity Hospital, where his success in painless childbirth became a role model throughout the world.
None other than Jessica set up prenatal classes where mothers-to-be in small groups could prepare for natural childbirth. She developed manuals, trained staff, and supervised classes. Up to that time Dr. Dick-Read had taught his patients individually, but at Marymount Maternity Hospital his practice had become so extensive that individual training was impossible. Currently, every maternity hospital in the United States, and in other countries, is engaged in prenatal preparation, but few people know that we owe the fact of its existence to the creative search of Jessica Dick-Reed.
Jessica had the courage to go for a vaginal delivery after a caesarean section, trusting completely in Dr. Dick-Read's early years of practice. Only very recently, medicine has questioned the postulate: "After cesarean - only cesarean" and in some cases began to practice natural childbirth after cesarean section.
It is for these reasons that this edition of Childbirth Without Fear is dedicated to the widow of Dr. Dick-Read.
Almost seventy years have passed since Dr. Grantley Dick-Read (1890-1959) published his first carefully prepared monograph on the philosophy of childbearing. In those days, the very idea that childbirth can take place without suffering seemed seditious and revolutionary, unacceptable to many, so almost all women gave birth under deep anesthesia.
However, Dr. Dick-Read did not back down from his discovery, and time proved the correctness of his teaching. In the twenties, he broke with tradition not only by teaching women the practice of natural childbirth, but also by organizing classes for husbands. Today, training for wives and husbands is no longer disputed - in fact, it is widely promoted and practiced.
Grantley Dick-Read was way ahead of his time in his approach to the process of childbirth, and indeed in many other areas of medicine. He paved the way for future generations. Unfortunately, only after his death did the significant social changes that took place in the world draw public attention to the ideas that he preached.
One of his "heretical" ideas was to protest against environmental pollution, as well as against the "pollution" of people's minds - false fears, and bodies - drugs. His approach to obstetrics was impeccably scientific, but at the same time he worked at the intersection of sciences, involving psychology, sociology and anthropology in research in the field of physiology and natural sciences. He repeatedly emphasized that a woman must be perceived as a whole person, and not only concentrate on certain processes occurring in her body.
Focusing his efforts on midwifery, Dick-Reed moved to group teaching just when this concept was met with great opposition. He shocked public opinion by saying that already in school, teenagers should learn such important things as sexual hygiene, the process of childbirth, and the basics of family life.
He was an anti-establishment man - not an outsider, but an active observer with a creative, truthful approach to reality. Based on the knowledge of human relations, he spoke out against the unproductiveness and cold detachment from the life of academic science, against the categorical nature of materialism, against the pursuit of social prestige.
Dick-Read loudly declared the equality of all the inhabitants of the country and in his articles he repeatedly said that he admired the wisdom of blacks and recommended everyone to get acquainted with their life, with their history.
None of these articles made him popular among his contemporaries!
At the pinnacle of success in the practical application of his teachings, in 1930, at the age of forty, Grantley Dick-Read wrote a book that radically changed the course of obstetrics. Based on his own medical experience, he proved that childbirth is a natural physiological process that should not be painful at all. Since his research was based on the "laws of nature", he called his book "Natural Birth". But he did not expect that the title of the book would give a "name" to a whole trend in the practice of obstetrics, that this term, although sometimes misunderstood, would actually become a common expression throughout the world. It also played a significant role in the fact that by 1933, when the book was finally published, Grantley Dick-Read had risen from the relative obscurity of a practicing country doctor to the top, where he was an easy target for the anger of some and the slander of others. Like many great pioneers of medicine - Simpson, Semmelweis, Lister, Pasteur - he was not recognized by his contemporaries, but later his teaching became one of the cornerstones of medicine.
Grantley Dick-Read considered his teaching not as the final one, which put an end to the development of science, not as the ultimate truth, but rather as the foundation on which future discoveries would be based. He was never afraid to shake established traditions, boldly asking the uncomfortable question: "Why?". If he lived now, he would no doubt encourage young people to ask uncomfortable questions, to tirelessly test the correctness of medical methods in practice, including his own developments. We believe that all those who share his belief in the consistency and orderliness of the laws of nature, which we so often neglect to our misfortune, will continue the search for truth.
The fifth edition of Childbirth Without Fear contains descriptions of some of the latest discoveries that confirm the truth of the principles of the teachings of Grantley Dick-Read. New material is included in the first part, the second part outlines the philosophy and physiological foundations of natural childbirth; in the third, Grantley Dick-Read's autobiography. This edition includes the best, timeless provisions of the author's works.

Preface to the first edition

The compilers have included in this edition the author's preface, published by him in the first edition of the book "Natural Childbirth" - however, in a somewhat abridged form. The accuracy and modernity of the views expressed 50 years ago cannot but amaze and seem especially remarkable.
Recently, no subject has attracted so much attention as midwifery. Scientific societies everywhere invite lecturers and carry discussions on theory and practice, government commissions are established to study the causes of infant and maternal mortality during childbirth. The medical journals publish many articles on birth defects and complications, and the "secular" press, in turn, does not miss the opportunity to present to the public any information that can be obtained on this subject from scientific societies and associations. And although it cannot be denied that significant progress has been made in terms of awareness and technique of childbirth, unfortunately, this has not affected the statistics in any way, at least over the past 10–15 years.
On the following pages, an attempt will be made to consider the process of childbirth from a slightly different angle than the usual one. Many dangers and complications can be avoided through careful prenatal preparation and careful monitoring of the expectant mother. Accurate knowledge of the size of the pelvis, the position of the fetus and the degree of its development allow during childbirth to act correctly and in a timely manner, which prevents the occurrence of various complications.
As a rule, no one disputes the fact that one of the causes of complications during childbirth and, as a result, maternal and child mortality, is the inability of obstetricians to calmly observe the course of childbirth and not interfere in the natural course of events. The reason for this may be both excessive zeal and unreasonable anxiety based on ignorance, but be that as it may, the fact remains that it is precisely such interference that poses the greatest danger to the mother and child.
However, there is a contradiction in this issue: on the one hand, women often suffer because of misdirected human sympathy; on the other hand, it is obvious: if there is suffering, they need to be alleviated. The problem arises: how to alleviate prolonged suffering without harming the mother or child? Which is more immoral: to allow a painful birth to continue, or to put mother and child at risk?
Obviously, when solving this problem, one cannot avoid studying and revising many medical concepts - for example, such as assessment and pain threshold.
A new approach to the birth process has been developed, in which conclusions about the means used are based only on practical experience. The results, by the way, are very, very encouraging.
It is a mistake to believe that the ability to perceive the principles of natural childbirth depends on the degree of awareness in the field of obstetrics, on the level of medical education. Rather, on the contrary, in this case, more tolerance will be required from a medical scientist or simply an academically thinking doctor than from those whose perception is not clouded by fear of deviation from the norm.
Were it not for the enthusiasm of those who accepted the teaching, the pages of this book would never have seen the light of day. We are very far from declaring a 100% guarantee of success and always emphasize that when pathological changes are detected, it is necessary to resort to surgical methods of modern obstetric science. But, on the other hand, no one will object that the excited state of the mother leads to increased sensitivity and susceptibility.
The first and most obvious advantages, when not only the physical, but also the psychological state of the mother is taken care of, is that childbirth begins to appear to her as a more natural process and that in such cases there are almost no complications in the subsequent ones, which we designated as the second and third, childbirth periods.
But the most important result is the achievement of the happiness of motherhood, when mother and child literally bloom after childbirth.
If, despite everything, the pain still appears, it must be overcome immediately. Painless childbirth is the most valuable gift that people of our profession can give to humanity. However, if painlessness can only be achieved by disrupting the natural course of events, then one must deliberately choose the lesser of two evils.
The birth of a child is the highest destiny of a woman. Awareness and feeling of the beauty, uniqueness of this event is the highest reward not only for the mother herself, but also for the whole family, for society, for the nation. Yes, I know that in our time, thousands of women will choose to give birth to children in conditions that are called "modern and humane." These women will be the first to indignantly condemn any talk about the beauty of natural childbirth, saying that, of course, it is easy for a man to be the initiator of such a method. But those who understand will even sympathize with men who cannot know the great joy that is the reward for the natural birth of a child.
Grantley Dick-Read, M.D. 1933

Preface to the Fifth Edition

I want every medical student, every doctor, and every obstetrician who is unfamiliar with the principles of natural childbirth, to be sure to familiarize themselves with the basic teachings of Dr. Grantley Dick-Read. The very fact that they have withstood the test of almost fifty years of experience and have not been refuted speaks volumes. Of course, one should not take each of his statements as a postulate, but at the same time, his ubiquitous criticisms of fellow specialists should not turn us away from a comprehensive study of physiological processes - the most important during pregnancy and childbirth.
If someone believes that the birth of a child must inherently be accompanied by pain and suffering, then we dare to remind him of the following:
1) in no species of animals is childbirth associated with suffering and pain, with the exception of pathological cases or childbirth in unnatural conditions, for example, in captivity;
2) there are cultures and nations, dubiously called uncivilized, where a woman expects the birth of a child with joy, with anticipation of a significant event; it is difficult to detect any signs of suffering there during childbirth, except, again, in pathological cases;
3) not a single physiological process in our body is accompanied by pain, with the exception of complications caused by illness, fear and tension;
4) experience shows that when a woman is prepared so that there is no fear and tension during childbirth, she does not experience suffering and pain, except to a small extent;
5) in the absence of pathological changes, the strength of pain is directly dependent on the strength of fear and tension;
6) prenatal preparation of women is now almost universally practiced in America and more and more words are heard about the natural process of childbirth, stories of positive results are passed from mouth to mouth; A growing number of women are realizing that natural childbirth is the most delightful and rewarding way to give birth to a child.
In the mid-fifties, I had just finished my studies and started giving my first professional lectures at medical congresses. Oh, it was a wonderful time when you know everything! Personally, I had no doubt that I knew the answers to all questions. The plot of the slides I showed at one of the congresses was the anesthesia of childbirth and the practice of applying forceps. I was very proud of the slides and the results of my practical work. During the year, 87 of my patients received complete anesthesia during childbirth. Forceps were applied in 82 cases.
Looking back, I realize what an idiot I was. How little I knew about childbirth "delivery", how scientifically we then spoke. The principles of natural childbirth, their importance have already been outlined in the literature, but I did not even bother to study the articles that were quite accessible to me.
Between the 1950s and the 1980s, I attended about 7,000 births in total and witnessed an evolution in obstetrics. I believe that obstetricians who have not experienced evolution in their experience are unlikely to be able to fully experience progress.
If we look back at the fifties, we can safely say that since that time we have moved from the process of "delivery" to childbirth. In the 1950s, we constantly led women, today they do a lot of things themselves. In the 1950s, we talked about "delivery" rooms - a woman was gradually transferred from ward to ward, and all this was done at the most critical moments of childbirth! There is only one delivery room these days, and the woman is in the same bed before and after the baby is born.
In the fifties, we tried to give every woman complete pain relief, except for those happy times when there was a rapid delivery, and we simply did not have time to do it. Nowadays, full anesthesia is used extremely rarely. In the fifties we tried to use forceps at every birth and then proudly reported on their use, these days we rarely see the reason for using such instruments. In the fifties, we completely unphysiologically compensated for the loss of moisture with the help of intravenous infusions, these days they just give us more to drink. In the fifties, women were shaved off the perineal area and given an enema. I remember with a shudder how women were literally stretched by the arms and legs and their faces were covered. This practice ceased only in the early sixties, when we began to implement our program.
In the fifties, in the first days after childbirth, mother and child were separated, and no one disputed this. Nowadays, we talk about the inalienable, inseparable bonds of a child not only with his father and mother, but also with his brothers and sisters, considering this not even desirable, but a necessary condition. In those days it seemed completely unimportant whether a woman breastfeeds a child. Even if she aspired to this, she was allowed the first feeding not earlier than a day later. During childbirth, she only had time to throw a fleeting glance at the child, and this was the only contact for the first twenty-four hours of his life. Now we encourage every woman to breastfeed in the first moments after the birth of a child, even before the umbilical cord is cut.
In the fifties, women breastfed for two or three months at best, and this was already considered an outstanding achievement. Today, we advise a woman to feed her baby for nine months only with breast milk, without water and complementary foods, of course, if there are no pathological changes or processes.
In the 1950s, the only suitable place for a father to have a caesarean section was in the waiting room, because it was a surgical procedure. In maternity hospitals of our time, the father has a responsible, extremely important role. If a vaginal birth occurs, then the husband must support his wife directly, but if a caesarean section is performed, then while the doctors are attending to his wife, he must be inextricably linked with the child.
In the fifties we started practicing hypnosis. In those days, it turned into something like a mass insanity. Without a doubt, hypnosis expands the scope of non-medical intervention, which is extremely useful, but it should be noted that such an influence is laborious. The doctor must be in contact with every woman, be present at the birth, and if there are many patients, this becomes simply impossible. Therefore, for most patients, they began to use tape recordings, which talked about how to overcome pain with the help of relaxation. Indeed, to some extent, the tape recording was hypnotizing, and once I even performed a caesarean section on a patient under hypnosis. But think about it: in this case, the woman on the delivery table is supported only by a soulless electronic device! In such cases, everything goes well only for the time being. Then there is always someone who accidentally pulls the cord from the outlet, and everything goes down the drain. And at this time, the husband of the woman in labor is sitting calmly in the corner and reading the newspaper!
In the late fifties, I began teaching husbands how to use hypnosis to assist their wives in childbirth, which was a remarkable achievement for me and for them. During this period I also taught at the University of California, Irvine and at the Los Angeles Hospital. I delivered births to the wives of students, graduate students, and professors, allowing the husbands to be present at the birth (which was usually not allowed in those days). To my surprise, I found that the further along the path of education my students progressed, the less they supported their wives in childbirth. Future doctors were overly interested in the clinical aspects of childbirth, while they were only required to help their wives. And they didn't know how! And so it went until now, until I started telling everyone: "Listen, buddy, you should go to prenatal classes" - and the picture immediately changed.
In the mid-fifties, Dr. Charles Mount III introduced me to the writings of Grantley Dick-Read (by the way, it was from Dr. Mount that I first heard the saying: "Doctor's tension = woman's tension = uterine tension = pain"). Later, Dr. Robert Bradley encouraged me to involve fathers in childbirth. In 1959, we started training mothers-to-be, mainly for husbands. Since that time, much has changed: if in those years the husbands came only to observe, today they come to work; then they were allowed to be present at childbirth, in our day their presence is considered necessary. In the fifties, we thought that a woman in childbirth should act in concert only with an obstetrician, today we know that at such a moment her harmony with her husband is even more important.
In California, it is still practiced to keep all newborns in one large ward. Babies lie swaddled in sheets, which is believed to provide warmth and security. In our maternity hospitals, there are not even separate children's wards. The baby should receive warmth and protection from bodily contact with the mother, and not from rags! Our mother and child go home without ever being separated.
At first we kept the mother and child just in the same room, but this was not enough. They must be in the same bed! The baby should fall asleep near the mother. During the first days of life, the child needs continuous bodily contact with the mother. We believe that the experience of the first day of life is especially important in laying the foundation for the future relationship between mother and child.
The study and application of the philosophy of natural childbirth proved to be very satisfactory and fertile. At the moment, we have a large obstetric practice, with three obstetricians in our clinic accounting for about twenty-six teachers. They receive every married couple who contacted us and conduct a 45-minute conversation, finding out the attitude of the spouses to pregnancy, childbirth, the unborn child and other things - in short, they try to learn as much as possible about the patients. Such a survey helps to establish mutual understanding from the very beginning and find out what should be paid special attention to in the future.
Natural childbirth, of course, cannot solve all the problems of obstetrics; there are still many problems. They simply increase the percentage of normal vaginal births, births without medical intervention. The essence of what we do was laid out by Grantley Dick-Read almost fifty years ago. But since then, something important has happened - life itself has proved the correctness of the principles of Grantley Dick-Read, their importance for mother, father, child, family and, ultimately, for society as a whole. And we are all indebted to him for the invaluable contribution that the concept of natural childbirth has made to the happy birth of a new person.
Harlap Ellis, MD.
This book is not an instruction for women in matters that are exclusively within the competence of physicians. Proper diagnosis and treatment of all symptoms associated with pregnancy and the postpartum period can only be established by qualified specialists.

Part I

Perspectives of natural childbirth

In his writings, Grantley Dick-Read did not write about the method of childbirth, but about a certain philosophy of life, an essential part of which is natural childbirth. He believed that the experience gained during childbirth affects (in a good or bad way) not only the child, but the whole family into which this child was born. He believed that the distinctive features of the clans and the attitude towards them, characteristic of a particular nation, directly reflect its views on the value of each individual life, which, in turn, affects (for good or bad) the whole nation and, ultimately, on humanity as a whole.
Grantley Dick-Read believed that not only the method of childbirth and the period following them affect the child, he believed that the fetus already in the womb is subject to the influences of the circumstances of life and the mood of the mother. He wrote:
We have come to understand that the baby in the womb is nourished by the mother's blood and that changes in the mother's emotional state can affect the nutrition and metabolism of the unborn child. I do not believe in biochemical constants, moreover, I do not consider genes to be constants either. I believe there is something in the mother's blood that changes according to her mood. When the psychological and emotional state of the mother changes, the endocrine glands produce substances that enter the blood, which nourishes not only the mother, but also the child. Thus, the condition of the child cannot remain the same. Today we know that when the emotional state of the mother changes, it is possible to register an increase or decrease in the fetal heartbeat, that is, it can be definitely stated that the development of the child also depends on the mood of the mother during pregnancy.
The research that took place after the death of Dick-Read led to the emergence of a new scientific discipline - prenatal and postnatal psychology, and, moreover, his assumptions and assumptions were confirmed in the most remarkable way. In the following chapters, the birth of a child will be considered as one of the links in a continuous process: from conception to the expiration of several months after birth, from a psychological and physiological point of view for both mother and child.

Chapter 1

The birth of a child is a short but important episode of a single whole - a person's life from conception to death. At this moment, more than ever, the connection between generations is clearly manifested. None of us can escape the consequences of the intrauterine period of our lives, the consequences of the way we were born and spent the first months of life. The conditions in which we spend our first eighteen months - from the moment of conception to the nine months of independent existence - have a huge impact on our entire subsequent life. In this chapter, we will look at how environmental conditions affect the emotional, mental, and psychic development of the fetus.

Abstract

Fear of the upcoming birth has always worried expectant mothers. Often this was facilitated by medicine itself, which claimed that childbirth without pain is impossible. The eminent English physician Grantley Dick-Reid proved that this was not the case. His discovery became a real revolution in medicine, and the book “Natural Childbirth”, which was released soon, became a desktop book for hundreds of thousands of women. For painless childbirth, not only the physical preparation of the body is important, but also the correct psychological and emotional mood of expectant mothers. That is why Dick-Read's book is relevant today.

Give birth without pain and fear! Let the book of Dr. Dick-Reed help you with this!

Dick-Read Grantley

Introduction

Preface to the first edition

Preface to the Fifth Edition

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Conclusion

Epilogue. The Dick Reed case continues

Dick-Read Grantley

Childbirth without fear

Introduction

It is high time to speak of the invaluable help which Grantley Dick-Read has received from his dear wife, Jessica. After all, it was she who saved the manuscript from the fire when he, having met resistance in medical circles, decided to destroy everything he had written. It was she who accompanied her husband on a trip to South Africa, when, unable to withstand the pressure of British doctors, he left England in despair. It was she who introduced Grantley Dick-Reid to Marymount Maternity Hospital, where his success in painless childbirth became a role model throughout the world.

None other than Jessica set up prenatal classes where mothers-to-be in small groups could prepare for natural childbirth. She developed manuals, trained staff, and supervised classes. Up to that time Dr. Dick-Read had taught his patients individually, but at Marymount Maternity Hospital his practice had become so extensive that individual training was impossible. Currently, every maternity hospital in the United States, and in other countries, is engaged in prenatal preparation, but few people know that we owe the fact of its existence to the creative search of Jessica Dick-Reed.

Jessica had the courage to go for a vaginal delivery after a caesarean section, trusting completely in Dr. Dick-Read's early years of practice. Only very recently, medicine has questioned the postulate: "After cesarean - only cesarean" and in some cases began to practice natural childbirth after cesarean section.

It is for these reasons that this edition of Childbirth Without Fear is dedicated to the widow of Dr. Dick-Read.

Almost seventy years have passed since Dr. Grantley Dick-Read (1890-1959) published his first carefully prepared monograph on the philosophy of childbearing. In those days, the very idea that childbirth can take place without suffering seemed seditious and revolutionary, unacceptable to many, so almost all women gave birth under deep anesthesia.

However, Dr. Dick-Read did not back down from his discovery, and time proved the correctness of his teaching. In the twenties, he broke with tradition not only by teaching women the practice of natural childbirth, but also by organizing classes for husbands. Today, training for wives and husbands is no longer disputed - in fact, it is widely promoted and practiced.

Grantley Dick-Read was way ahead of his time in his approach to the process of childbirth, and indeed in many other areas of medicine. He paved the way for future generations. Unfortunately, only after his death did the significant social changes that took place in the world draw public attention to the ideas that he preached.

One of his "heretical" ideas was to protest against environmental pollution, as well as against the "pollution" of people's minds - false fears, and bodies - drugs. His approach to obstetrics was impeccably scientific, but at the same time he worked at the intersection of sciences, involving psychology, sociology and anthropology in research in the field of physiology and natural sciences. He repeatedly emphasized that a woman must be perceived as a whole person, and not only concentrate on certain processes occurring in her body.

Focusing his efforts on midwifery, Dick-Reed moved to group teaching just when this concept was met with great opposition. He shocked public opinion by saying that already in school, teenagers should learn such important things as sexual hygiene, the process of childbirth, and the basics of family life.

He was an anti-establishment man - not an outsider, but an active observer with a creative, truthful approach to reality. Based on the knowledge of human relations, he spoke out against the unproductiveness and cold detachment from the life of academic science, against the categorical nature of materialism, against the pursuit of social prestige.

None of these articles made him popular among his contemporaries!

At the pinnacle of success in the practical application of his teachings, in 1930, at the age of forty, Grantley Dick-Read wrote a book that radically changed the course of obstetrics. Based on his own medical experience, he proved that childbirth is a natural physiological process that should not be painful at all. Since his research was based on the "laws of nature", he called his book "Natural Birth". But he did not expect that the title of the book would give a "name" to a whole trend in the practice of obstetrics, that this term, although sometimes misunderstood, would actually become a common expression throughout the world. It also played a significant role in the fact that by 1933, when the book was finally published, Grantley Dick-Read had risen from the relative obscurity of a practicing country doctor to the top, where he was an easy target for the anger of some and the slander of others. Like many great pioneers of medicine - Simpson, Semmelweis, Lister, Pasteur - he was not recognized by his contemporaries, but later his teaching became one of the cornerstones of medicine.

Grantley Dick-Read considered his teaching not as the final one, which put an end to the development of science, not as the ultimate truth, but rather as the foundation on which future discoveries would be based. He was never afraid to shake established traditions, boldly asking the uncomfortable question: "Why?". If he lived now, he would no doubt encourage young people to ask uncomfortable questions, to tirelessly test the correctness of medical methods in practice, including his own developments. We believe that all those who share his belief in the consistency and orderliness of the laws of nature, which we so often neglect to our misfortune, will continue the search for truth.

The fifth edition of Childbirth Without Fear contains descriptions of some of the latest discoveries that confirm the truth of the principles of the teachings of Grantley Dick-Read. New material is included in the first part, the second part outlines the philosophy and physiological foundations of natural childbirth; in the third, Grantley Dick-Read's autobiography. This edition includes the best, timeless provisions of the author's works.

Preface to the first edition

The compilers have included in this edition the author's preface, published by him in the first edition of the book "Natural Childbirth" - however, in a somewhat abridged form. The accuracy and modernity of the views expressed 50 years ago cannot but amaze and seem especially remarkable.

Recently, no subject has attracted so much attention as midwifery. Scientific societies everywhere invite lecturers and carry discussions on theory and practice, government commissions are established to study the causes of infant and maternal mortality during childbirth. The medical journals publish many articles on birth defects and complications, and the "secular" press, in turn, does not miss the opportunity to present to the public any information that can be obtained on this subject from scientific societies and associations. And although it cannot be denied that significant progress has been made in terms of awareness and technique of childbirth, unfortunately, this has not affected the statistics in any way, at least over the past 10–15 years.

On the following pages, an attempt will be made to consider the process of childbirth from a slightly different angle than the usual one. Many dangers and complications can be avoided through careful prenatal preparation and careful monitoring of the expectant mother. Accurate knowledge of the size of the pelvis, the position of the fetus and the degree ...