“A large number of women want to avoid pain. Some just don’t fancy the pain [of childbirth]. More women should be prepared to withstand pain,” he told the Observer. “Pain in labour is a purposeful, useful thing, which has quite a number of benefits, such as preparing a mother for the responsibility of nurturing a newborn baby.”
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Oh, good heavens. There seems little point in responding to this kind of preposterous claim, but the credence given to it by the Observer (and, indeed, the journal that the views of this ‘senior midwife’ were published in) means I feel compelled to regard it with due rage and disgust.
