Labor Memes

 Effect of Human Brain Size on Labor and Bipedalism

The real obstetrical dilemma came long after Lucy and her colleagues became extinct, when there was a sudden upsurge in brain expansion. About 1.5 million years ago, die adult hominid brain went from the Australopithecine size of 400 cubic centimeters to 750 cubic centimeters in a species called Homo habilis, the first member of our genus. In other words, the brain just about doubled in size. A mere million years later. the hominid brain doubled once again until it reached its present average...

 Animal Instinct and Child Birth

What, then, is the difference between human and other animals? Are their bodies made differently? As a matter of fact they are remarkably similar. Cat and dog bodies are used in premedical anatomy studies due to the similarity of structures with identical name and function. Is it that they just can't experience pain? Following a natural-childbirth newspaper article, an indignant letter to the editor asserted cats can have kittens without pain because they cannot feel pain as human beings do...

 Drugging Pregnant Mother Drugs Their Unborn Children

The historians of the future will undoubtedly look back upon our recent past era and refer to it as the "drug" era. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association estimates that ten thousand types of drugs are being manufactured in this country. We are the pill-takingest people the earth has ever known. Sir William Osier once stated: "The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals." Our fervent plea as advocates of natural childbirth is to imit...

 Remember Happy Times During Labor

Now we come to a facet of human relaxation that is inescapable. The relationship of mind to body, or the psychosomatic nature of humans. The mind and body are interacting, one helping or hindering the other. It is probably impossible to relax the body completely if the mind is under tension. Vice versa, it is impossible to relax the mind completely if the body is under tension. This is observed also in animals in their need to concentrate during labor and the temporary viciousness of laboring...

 The First Moments After Birth

After the baby is born, most doctors, including myself, hold it in our lap momentarily, to allow baby blood in the placenta to pass by gravity through the umbilical cord back into the baby, and to wipe the baby as clean as possible with gauze squares. We feel this is a substitute for the animal mother's licking her baby. This probably has nothing to do with cleanliness but serves as a dermal reflex. It is amazing how many babies void or empty their bladders upon this stimulation. It has been ...

 Looking to Animal Instincts for What's Needed for Women i...

Now, back to the family cat or dog in labor. By quietly, even sneakily, approaching we observe additional factors involved. 1. The need for darkness and solitude. Bright lights are indeed disturbing. My attempts to take photographs of dogs and cats have been foiled by the indignant laboring mothers retreating to dark secluded place usually physically out of reach of annoying human beings—such as far under the house or barn. 2. The need for quiet becomes obvious. Any loud or unexpected noi...

 Step-by-Step Relaxation

Your wife can be shown the principles of relaxation and she can be taught the consciousness of her muscles' state of tension in prenatal classes under the supervision of experienced teachers. Being a human animal, however, she needs to practice these principles at home daily in order to perfect them. This you can help her do. A suggested time is just before retiring for the night, as a prelude to sleep. This serves a double purpose: It establishes her self-confidence in her physical relaxatio...