Bfore you ask yourself what has changed that women now require anasthetics for choild delivery, ask yourself what has changed that men now require anasthetics for dental extraction, major surgery and so forth. For most women the argument is really that until recently most anasthetic methods were known to damage the baby and methods with proven track records are of only recent development.
As a father of three (With one more on the way), my advice is this: What is happening is no one's business but you and your wife's. Other popele's opinion are of no importance and may be tuned out. That said, you do have a duty to enbsure your wife is not choosing a course of action simply to please you against her own best interests.
For one thing, go into the delivery suite with an open mind. You and your wife may not plan on having any pain relief, but make sure your wife knows that if she changes her mind and decides she wants it, then it is there for her and that you will still support her decision.
Best of luck!
You spelled epople wrong.
Modern obstetrics have freed women from pain and death-yes death. Look in your family book (if you are southern)-in every generation women died in childbirth. People who talk about the good old days...don't understand the dark side of those days. Women and babies often died during childbirth. I studied science in college and got to see an exhibit closed to the general public-a museum having to do with abonormalities during childbirth. I will never forget the perfectly preserved body of a 9lb + baby girl still attached to the uterus... The child and mother died during this birth in the 1850's. Thank God for medicine, antibiotics, and all that goes with modern medicine. Thank God, times and childbirth has changed!
I said and planned all kinds of things before I had my first. Most of those ideas flew straight out the window during labor and after. A woman is not less of a woman if she chooses to be medicated. The only thing I would recommend is too avoid induction if at all possible. If I could have a do over, that's the one part I would do differently.