Posted on 05/16/2015 11:16:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When Elisabeth Bing became interested in childbirth techniques in the 1950s, women were often heavily medicated, dads were generally nowhere near the delivery room and expectant parents had far less information than many do today.
Bing, the Lamaze International co-founder who popularized what was known as natural childbirth and helped change how women and doctors approached the delivery room, died Friday at 100 in her New York apartment, the organization said Saturday. The cause of her death wasn't immediately known.
Trained as a physical therapist, Bing taught breathing and relaxation techniques to generations of expectant mothers, wrote several books about birth and pregnancy and encouraged women _ and men _ to be more prepared, active and inquisitive participants in the arrival of their babies.
"I was certainly considered a radical," she wrote in Lamaze's magazine in 1990. By then, she noted, childbirth education had become common: "This so-called fad has been proven not to be a fad."
Born July 8, 1914, in Berlin, Bing fled Nazi Germany with her family for England, where she got her physical therapy training. Working with new mothers got her thinking about delivery practices, an interest she brought with her to the United States in 1949.
She learned about ideas advanced by some doctors, including French obstetrician Dr. Fernand Lamaze, for using breathing and mental preparation to manage labor pain without medication. She and the late Marjorie Karmel established what is now Lamaze International in 1960 to spread the strategies. (Bing gave birth herself at 40, going into a fast labor during which she was given spinal anesthesia and nitric oxide. She told The New York Times in 2004 that she'd gleaned that childbirth training wasn't about refusing drugs, but rather about teaching a woman "to help herself as far as she can go.")
Lamaze became a household word, woven into pop culture in places from a 1980s Bill Cosby comedy routine to the TV show "Friends" in the 1990s. Its signature classes involved both women and men, with the idea that fathers could provide emotional and mental support in the delivery room. Over the years, the idea of refusing all painkillers during labor fell out of favor with many women, and some couples sought shorter birth preparation classes than Bing's six-week program.
Still, "I feel we have changed the whole attitude toward obstetrics and pregnant women, not necessarily technical changes, but the psychological and practical approaches to pregnancy," she told The New York Sun in 2004.
However, I guess I'm a bit of a chauvinist pig about the whole "father being there for the childbirth" thing. I did do the "Lamaze" classes with my wife and was in the delivery room with her both times because that is what is expected of men these days. But I did not like it. I felt like I was in the way of things and did not like seeing my wife in so much pain. I could have done without witnessing the childbirth as well. Just not my cup of tea. And all that blood...I'm surprised I didn't faint on the floor. I guess I'm just not cut out to be a doctor.
My father told me when I was born, back in the "Mad Men" days of the early 1960s, he sat in the waiting room with other expectant fathers, passing whiskey bottles back and forth and playing cards. When I was finally born, a nurse came in to give him the news. He took a quick peek at me through the window of the maternity ward, passed out some cigars to the other fathers, and went home to get a good night sleep.
Those were the days!
Now when my father was born in the 1930s, his mother didn't even go to the hospital. She had all her children in the same Alabama farmhouse with midwives and a traveling doctor. The doctor's bill was under $10.
So this whole "three days in the hospital" thing is a modern invention.
Laz makes Lamaze happen!
Because of payment per occurrence instead per diem by providers.
Same here for Mrs GBC. She was hooked up to a contraction machine I called a seismograph. When I saw the lines going up, I stepped away from the bed. I know if she could have gotten her hands on me she would have choked me to death.
And the vast majority of mothers and babies don't need any such long stay.
RIP.
[...think we better ping him?]
Let me tell you, I was begging for medication. Breathing properly doesn't help when you've been in labor for a very long time and nothing is happening. I was exhausted. The first time it took 22 hours, most of that was hard labor.
The thing is, when they finally gave me the epidural, I could relax a bit and the process started moving forward. There is a place for medication. If you can do without, I'm very happy for you -- and jealous. But, I couldn't; and, I don't think women who need the help of medication should be made to feel like we have done something wrong.
I left the hospital one day after my baby was born, by choice. I couldn’t wait to get away from the clowns “caring” for us.
No, it just came to mind because in Lamaze classes it’s all about breathing techniques.
“I know if she could have gotten her hands on me she would have choked me to death.”
LOL. The scene at our hospital, with me the supportive husband making all the Lamaze classes.
“It’s okay honey - breathe.”
“AGGGGGHHH”
“Short little blows honey.”
Grabbing me “SHUT UP! YOU did this to me!!!”
I spent the duration sitting in a chair out of view!
LOL. Good move.
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