Six Practical Lessons for an Easier Childbirth: The Classic Book on the Lamaze Method

by Elisabeth Bing

Overview

THE BIBLE FOR EVERY COUPLE PREPARING FOR THE BIRTH OF A BABY
 
When it was first introduced more than thirty years ago, the Lamaze method was a revolutionary childbirth technique. Since that time, it has made pregnancy and childbirth easier for millions of women, lessening their dependence on pain medications before and after birth. Elisabeth Bing’s classic book on the Lamaze method guides women through the physical and psychological challenges of pregnancy. Six Practical Lessons for an Easier Childbirth details the changes a woman can expect in her body during pregnancy, labor, and delivery and provides a complete program of exercises for increased muscular control and relaxation during childbirth. This guidebook also emphasizes the partner’s supportive role in the Lamaze method, both in preparation and in the delivery room.
 
This newly revised edition includes an expanded program with new photographs of exercises for every pregnant woman. Elisabeth Bing also provides more information on what to expect in the hospital, including updated information on cesarean births and the medications commonly prescribed during delivery.
 
Filled with vital information and reassurance, Six Practical Lessons for an Easier Childbirth will make expectant couples better prepared than ever for this joyous, rewarding experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307874146
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/14/2010
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Elisabeth Bing (1914–2015) was born in Berlin, Germany, of a distinguished scientific family. She was trained as a physical therapist in London, England, and came to New York in 1949. She worked under Dr. Alan Guttmacher in the Childbirth Education Program at the Mt. Sinai Hospital from 1952 until 1960. Elisabeth Bing became one of the co-founders of the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics, Inc. in 1960 and served as a member of the department of obstetrics and gynecology of the N.Y. Medical College. She trained thousands of expectant parents in her own private classes and traveled widely all over the U.S. and Europe, giving workshops, lecturing and holding seminars in many colleges, hospitals and communities. She was the author of six books on childbirth education.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION
 
I wrote the first edition of this book twenty-five years ago, and not in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that years later, this little textbook could still be in demand and be of practical help to thousands of young parents. Of course, I personally was convinced of the value of the Lamaze method but had simply hoped that “Prepared Childbirth” was here to stay and that its obvious appeal to parents would establish it as a “way of birth,” not as some kind of fad of the sixties.
 
The Lamaze method has now become an accepted modality of obstetric procedure in our time. Today, hardly anyone will argue that it is detrimental to a woman’s health or could endanger the newborn. And just because it has proved to be of lasting value, it has also proved to be a living tool. Changes have occurred, changes in technique to some extent, changes in approach, changes in obstetric knowledge; it is as if the infant Lamaze method has grown into early adulthood and that its existence is now taken for granted.
 
This third revision has been brought up to date to reflect current obstetrical thinking, as well as my continuing day-to-day experience with prospective parents in my childbirth education classes. I would like not only to thank my very first editor at Bantam Books, Grace Bechtold, but also Toni Burbank and Maria Mack, for helping me to describe changes and to convince Bantam to publish this “growing child” so that it can be of as much help today to as many or more young parents as it has been for the last twenty-five years.
 
OUR CLASS CONVENES
 
Women all over the world are preparing themselves for childbirth in a new and constructive way. They’re learning about the changes that occur in the body during the nine months of gestation; they are doing exercises to prepare their bodies for giving birth; they are practicing new techniques of breathing and relaxation, which will help them ease pain and discomfort during labor and delivery.
 
This method of preparation is an intelligent woman’s approach to the difficult emotional and physical task of giving birth. Many such women and their partners are now taking classes similar to those presented here, but this book will also allow prospective parents to prepare for childbirth at home without any formal curriculum.
 
To make things as simple and useful as possible, let us begin together as if you were all attending the classes I have given thousands of parents-to-be. If you follow the course closely, practicing the exercises and using the techniques prescribed, I am sure you will have an active, happy and rewarding experience together.
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LESSONS
 
You are one of a group of five young couples arriving at my studio for your first lesson. The young women have various occupations: One is a dancer, on leave from a Broadway show; another is a lawyer; the third is a banker; and there are two housewives, one of whom already has a little boy. The men’s professions are varied: a teacher, a book salesman, a stockbroker, a mechanic, and a graduate student. All that these people have in common is the fact that each of them will be the parent of a new baby within the next two months.
 
We have found that the best time to start our course is toward the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth month, when a woman is psychologically ready to train herself for labor and delivery. She is beginning to feel the weight of her baby; she may have backaches; her abdominal muscles may feel weak. At this point she is more likely to accept and welcome the idea of training herself for the task ahead. If she had started too early in her pregnancy, the will to work hard at her exercises would very likely have diminished as the months wore on. Intensive training during the last phases of pregnancy not only provides the best physical preparation, but keeps methods and techniques fresh in the mind as actual labor and delivery arrive.
 
None of us in our class has met the others before, so there is a certain feeling of nervous anticipation in the air. I see that perhaps some of the men are a bit self-conscious—understandably. Without further delay I face the class and begin.
 
I introduce myself and present the couples to each other.
 
“Now,” I continue, “I would like to ask each of you why you are here tonight and what you expect from these classes. Would each of you, both husband and wife, tell me your reasons for enrolling?”
 
The women respond first:
 
“I want to know exactly what will happen to me and to my baby during labor and delivery.”
 
“I would like to have as little medication as possible. My physician suggested that if I want to help during labor and delivery, if I want to be awake and participate in the birth of my child, then I should attend this course.”
 
“My husband and I want to participate in the birth of our child. A friend of ours attended your classes and told us what wonderful preparation they are.”
 
“I was totally unprepared for the birth of my first child. It was a dreadful experience. This time I want to know what’s going on and help myself as well as I can.”
 
And from the men:
 
“I want to help my wife prepare for childbirth and be with her during labor and delivery.”
 
“My wife’s first childbirth was a harrowing experience for both of us. This time I want her to be prepared to help the doctor during labor and have a more pleasant and positive experience. We’ve heard that this course can do just that.”
 
“Our doctor has said that the exercises, information and respiratory techniques we can learn here are the best possible training and preparation for childbirth.”
 
“Susan asked me to come along tonight. I really don’t know what I am supposed to do here. If it were I who had to have the baby, I’d certainly ask the doctor to take care of me and put me to sleep for it. …”
 
“This is an experience we want to share together.”
 
Now we are no longer strangers to each other. We are all here together for the same purpose: to learn about the fabulous engineering feat of giving birth; to gain confidence, a sense of joyous anticipation, a thorough knowledge of how to handle the emotional and physical difficulties—not passively, helpless and unconscious or pacing the hall outside, but as active participants.
 
WHAT IS THE “LAMAZE METHOD”?
 
Expectant mothers all over the world are preparing in exactly the same way for a conscious, healthy and happy experience. Our technique of preparation is called the Lamaze technique. I think you should all know a little about how this technique began and how it spread so rapidly throughout the world.
 
The late Grantly Dick-Read originated the idea that pain during labor was caused primarily by fear. He wrote in his famous book, Childbirth Without Fear, that pain in childbirth could be greatly reduced or even totally eliminated through understanding the process of labor and delivery and through learning to relax properly. Dick-Read felt childbirth is essentially a “normal and physiologic process,” and that any pain felt is present because of poor conditioning, the influence of biblical stories, popular misconceptions, rumors and old wives’ tales. Much of this concept has been generally accepted as valid, but we know now that all the education and “cultural conditioning” in the world cannot always provide a childbirth without any pain or discomfort whatsoever.
 
Dr. Dick-Read called his method “natural childbirth.” Unfortunately, over the years the truth in this term has been almost totally obscured by layer upon layer of mysticism. It is thought to be a primitive childbirth, a childbirth completely without help or medication, a kind of endurance test. Dr. Dick-Read’s pioneering work was—to a great extent—distorted, and the medical profession, as a result, has become wary of the term and concept of “natural childbirth.”
 
This book presents a series of practical lessons in what we term the Lamaze method of childbirth. This method is not a technique of so-called “natural childbirth.” On the contrary, it is a technique which is not at all natural, but acquired through concentrated effort and hard work on the part of the expectant mother and her husband. It is a method which provides an analgesic (or lessening of pain) achieved by physical means instead of by drugs or chemical means.
 
The technique originated in Russia, where it was first observed by the late Dr. Fernand Lamaze in 1951. Dr. Lamaze introduced the method to France and other European countries as well as China, Australia, Cuba and South America. In 1959 Marjorie Karmel published her book Thank You, Dr. Lamaze here in the United States. It was enormously influential in interesting American physicians and their patients in this new technique. I recommend that each of you read it if you have not already done so. A revised and updated edition was published in 1981 by Harper & Row.
 
In 1959 the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics, Inc. (ASPO/Lamaze), was established. Numerous chapters and affiliates have been formed all over the United States. Now more and more American women and their husbands are preparing for an educated childbirth. American doctors are urging many of their expectant mothers to prepare with this method, and American hospitals have adapted their procedures to allow the active participation of husband and wife in labor and delivery.
 
What is the theory of the Lamaze method? What does the term psychoprophylaxis mean? It simply means a psychological and physical preparation for childbirth, but you will come to understand it more completely as we work through each lesson together.